A 170-year-old shipwreck overflowing with Europe’s finest champagne and mineral water has been found off the coast of Sweden.
Around 100 bottles of the bubbling booty were discovered earlier this month by the Baltictech diving group just 37 kilometers (20 nautical miles) south of the Swedish island of Öland in the Baltic Sea.
“The whole wreck is loaded to the brim with crates of champagne, mineral water, and porcelain,” Tomasz Stachura, diver and leader of the Baltictech Team, said in a statement sent to IFLScience.
“I have been diving for 40 years, and it often happens that there is one bottle or two… but to discover a wreck with so much cargo, it’s a first for me,” said Stachura.
While the champagne bottles might be the headline-snatcher, it’s the mineral water that holds the greatest historical significance. In the 19th century, mineral water was prized for its therapeutic benefits and became a fashionable drink for Europe’s rich and famous.
It was stored in sealed clayed bottles, providing a vital clue about the vessel’s history. The shape of the stamp indicates that the bottles were produced between 1850 to 1867 by the German company Selters, famed for its natural mineral water sourced from the Taunus mountains, north of Frankfurt.
Divers recently explored the bottle-laden shipwreck near Sweden.
Image courtesy of Tomasz Stachura/Baltictech
“We managed to take pictures of the brand name stamped on a clay bottle, which turned out to be from the German company Selters, produced to this day. The logo had this precise shape during that period,” explained Marek Cacaj, an underwater videographer at Baltictech.
Additionally, the porcelain onboard the wreck was made by a ceramic factory that still exists, so the team has made contact with the company to unearth more information.
The divers have notified Swedish regional authorities about the shipwreck and are working with marine archeologists at Södertörn University on a project to return to the site. However, they were keen to point out that recovering the alcoholic treasure will take time “due to administrative restrictions.”
“It had been lying there for 170 years, so let it lie there for one more year, and we will have time to better prepare for the operation,” explained Stachura.
Another view of the shipwreck loaded with bottles from the 19th century.
Image courtesy of Tomasz Stachura/Baltictech
Though always intriguing, champagne bottles have been found among several sunken ships from the 19th and early 20th centuries. In 2010, a group of divers discovered a shipwreck containing 168 bottles of champagne near Finland’s Åland archipelago. Researchers even tasted the 170-year-old beverage, describing it in terms of “animal notes,” “wet hair,” and “cheesy.” Fancy a tipple?
There are even champagne bottles on the wreck of the Titanic. Despite the immense pressure found 3,800 meters (12,500 feet) below the sea surface, the bottles didn’t implode and remained intact. How so? You can find out right here.
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