How Far Can a Message in a Bottle Go?

In movies and fiction we often find the protagonist sending a message in a glass bottle out to sea. The bottle usually makes it to a person who then connects with the protagonist and takes the story forward. The chance of the message being delivered and that too to an appropriate person, causes all kinds of romanticism.

In the real world, do things like that occur? If you put a message in a bottle and sent it out to sea, what are the chances of it being lost? What are the chances of it traveling across the world and reaching another human being? It is the mystery of the matter that keeps the message in a bottle an interesting action and symbol of hope.

In the recorded history of messages traveling in a bottle the longest known single journey was taken by a Doctor Who postcard. The bottle with the postcard was thrown in the sea at Tyne and Wear in the United Kingdom in 2011. About 17 months late the bottle was found in Perth, Western Australia. This made a record distance of 14,500 km for the bottle’s journey. It may make an interesting science project to predict how a bottle would travel in various ocean currents around the world.