Drift bottles were once important scientific tools
Drift bottles have become poetic symbols of loneliness: A desperate person writes an open letter to the world, closes it up into a bottle, and tosses it into the sea in the hopes of making a connection or being found and rescued from their shipwreck on a distant island.
But before the 1970s, many important scientific studies were conducted via bottle.
![This is a clear bottle with a US Coast and Geodetic Survey flag. There is a pink drift card inside. This is a clear bottle with a US Coast and Geodetic Survey flag. There is a pink drift card inside.](/sites/default/files/styles/landscape_width_1275/public/2023-07/PHOTO_USCGS_drift_bottle_circa1959_HeritageProgram.jpg?h=12a2c489&itok=nb0XD6Tf)
Bottles like this one were used by scientists up until the middle of the twentieth century for studying ocean currents. This one was left unused during a 1959 study conducted by the Coast and Geodetic Survey, a bureau which was later incorporated into NOAA.