# will a message in a bottle go far? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 13, 2010, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-a-message-in-a-bottle-go-far/543065 "2010-06-13T23:12:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![doubled](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/51bf81/32.png) [@doubled](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doubled)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2010, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-a-message-in-a-bottle-go-far/543065/1 "2010-06-13T23:12:22Z")
suppose i put a message in a bottle and throw it in the ocean. assume i’m on land, not a boat, but you can pick any land mass in the world. is there any realistic chance of that bottle actually crossing to another continent? Or will the waves almost certainly toss it right back on to the same beach it came from? ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2010, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-a-message-in-a-bottle-go-far/543065/2 "2010-06-13T23:17:26Z")
How about [UK to Australia](http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2006/s1552248.htm)? ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2010, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-a-message-in-a-bottle-go-far/543065/3 "2010-06-13T23:26:04Z")
Not quite ‘a bottle from shore’, but rubber ducks from a container ship: [Thousands of rubber ducks to land on British shores after 15 year journey](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-464768/Thousands-rubber-ducks-land-British-shores-15-year-journey.html) > [@](#): > > They were toys destined only to bob up and down in nothing bigger than a child’s bath - but so far they have floated halfway around the world. > > The armada of 29,000 plastic yellow ducks, blue turtles and green frogs broke free from a cargo ship 15 years ago. > > Since then they have travelled 17,000 miles, floating over the site where the Titanic sank, landing in Hawaii and even spending years frozen in an Arctic ice pack. > > And now they are heading straight for Britain. At some point this summer they are expected to be spotted on beaches in South-West England. > > While the ducks are undoubtedly a loss to the bath-time fun of thousands of children, their adventures at sea have proved an innvaluable aid to science. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2010, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-a-message-in-a-bottle-go-far/543065/4 "2010-06-13T23:45:39Z")
A friend of mine tossed a plastic bottle with a message into Lake Michigan. Many years later, it was retrieved by someone in Venice, California. One theory is it made it over Niagara Falls then thru the Panama Canal or around South America. ---
**Author:** ![Drew\_Kit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7cd45c/32.png) [@Drew\_Kit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drew_Kit)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2010, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-a-message-in-a-bottle-go-far/543065/5 "2010-06-13T23:53:06Z")
> [@doubled](#): > > suppose i put a message in a bottle and throw it in the ocean. assume i’m on land, not a boat, but you can pick any land mass in the world. is there any realistic chance of that bottle actually crossing to another continent? Or will the waves almost certainly toss it right back on to the same beach it came from? What are you losing by trrying that except for time? If your random, lonely message was to reach another person anywhere in the world, wouldn’t it be better if the sympathetic recipient was also a neighbour? ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2010, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-a-message-in-a-bottle-go-far/543065/6 "2010-06-14T00:36:59Z")
[Here you go!](http://www.cbhannegans.com/dubcich.html) I know this guy! ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2010, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-a-message-in-a-bottle-go-far/543065/7 "2010-06-14T00:46:25Z")
I actually tried this, I threw a bunch of bottles in the Atlantic with notes, asking the person who found it to write back to me. I was living in West Palm Beach. Two people wrote me back. One was in Jacksonville, FL and the other was in Hollywood, FL. If I recall, I threw about ten bottles in the Atlantic and two were actually found. Or the others were found and no one wrote me back. But anyway, they came back to the same side of the Atlantic. Jacksonville is like 250 miles from West Palm and from West Palm to Hollywood is about like 50 miles if I recall ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2010, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-a-message-in-a-bottle-go-far/543065/8 "2010-06-14T01:39:20Z")
It will go at least as far as your local movie theater: [Message in a Bottle (film) - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Message_in_a_Bottle_%28film%29) ---
**Author:** ![Chief\_Pedant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a6a055/32.png) [@Chief\_Pedant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chief_Pedant)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2010, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-a-message-in-a-bottle-go-far/543065/9 "2010-06-14T02:06:46Z")
I think the odds are small if you heave it from the shore. Most of those message-in-a-bottle stories seem to involve dropping the sucker offshore from a boat where currents can take it somewhere. Near the shoreline the waves tend to bring most floating things back in and deposit them at high tide. Maybe a lucky toss into a big river, but off the regular shore…I’m skeptical of your chances (although they are not zero). If you can pick any land, maybe teeny atoll somewhere? The trick is to get it out past the breakers.