About a bottle with a message!

Sometimes in movies and books, we have often seen a bottle with a message.
Did people ever actually use bottles in this way?
Surprisingly, they did!
Queen Elizabath I employed an official.
His job was to open bottles with messages.
The messages were sent from the British navy when they needed help.
Elizabeth was so serious about this job. She made it a crime for anyone else to open found bottles.
Famous American statesman and scientist, Benjamin Fraklin, also used massages in bottles.
His purpose was to draw a map of the ocean currents.
He did this by dropping bottles with messags into the Gulf Stream.
When people found and returned them, he was able to work out the exact local for his map.
Don't you think it was a clever method?