To send messages to the mainland the St Kildans sometimes used a 'mailboat'. A mailboat is like a little model wooden boat that can carry a tin with a letter inside. A sheep's bladder attached to it acted as a float. Usually the boats were sent for fun but sometimes it was very serious. In the winter of 1876 the St Kildans were very short of food so they sent a message in a mailboat asking for help - the message was picked up in Orkney. Only three weeks later a boat from Orkney arrived in Village Bay with food.
Today people still make and send mailboats from St Kilda - just to see where they land up! Most travel north and can end up in Orkney, Shetland or Norway as that is the way the tide carries them.