Sean Bercaw has thought a lot about why one of the most archaic forms of communication, the message in the bottle, is considered romantic. He has sent more than 250 of them out to sea.
“Anyone launching a bottle is investing his or her hopes and desires in the bottle being found,” he says. “The cool thing about it, is it’s not simply black and white: succeed or fail. Even if no one finds it now, there is always that possibility. That hope always exists that some one may find it a hundred years later.”
It is that possibility, rather than the probability of reaching another human that is inspiring says Bercaw. Having tossed bottles into the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans, he has gotten 45 responses, about a 20 percent hit rate. But that means four out of every five bottles have not yet been found. “If you knew for sure it would get a response, it wouldn’t be as romantic,” he says.
