Over the centuries drift bottles have been used as a means of tracking ocean currents, sending messages requesting help or transmitting information, and as advertising.

    The first recorded case of someone throwing a drift bottle (or at least a sealed cask) was the Greek philosopher Theophrastus, in the year 310BC. He was trying to show that the Mediterranean was created by waters from the Atlantic. Apparently he received no responses, but that did not discourage later attempts by others.