Bottles found on tropical beaches are today perceived as rubbish. However, in the past empty bottles with inscribed sheets of paper were uses as a form of communication. Letters in bottles were often placed by shipwrecked people, who were looking for some help from the crews of ships passing by. Whether a bottle reached someone in a suitable time depended largely on the conditions on the sea. It happened that the bottles with an entreaty for help were found... after a hundred or more years.
