The ancient ship was found loaded “to the brim” with luxury goods including porcelain items and about 100 bottles of Champagne and mineral water.
ADVERTISEMENTThey say Champagne gets better with age, but would you dare taste a bottle from the 19th-century?
On a recent dive expedition, Polish technical divers stumbled upon a wreck that could easily have been mistaken for an old fishing boat. The sonar didn’t reveal much, suggesting there was little of interest beneath the surface.
Nonetheless, divers Marek Cacaj and Pawel Truszynski decided to investigate further. Their curiosity paid off when they spent two hours exploring a well-preserved 19th-century sailing ship 190 feet deep in the Baltic Sea, uncovering a stash of vintage Champagne bottles still nestled within the wreck.
They believe the precious goods, including bottles of Champagne, bottles of mineral water and porcelain items could have been on the way to the royal table in Stockholm or the Russian tsar's residence in St. Petersburg when the ship sank sometime in the second half of the 19th-century, according to the leader of the team, Tomasz Stachura.
“I have been diving for 40 years, and it often happens that we find a bottle or two in a wreck, but to discover so much cargo, it’s a first for me,” Stachura told The Associated Press this week.
The brand of mineral water, Selters, believed at the time to have medical properties, was imprinted on the stoneware bottles. The Champagne brand is still to be determined., but the letter R could be seen on one cork, Stachura said.
He said he believes the contents are still in good condition.
“At this depth the wreckage is perfectly preserved, the temperature is constant, there are no currents and it’s dark," Stachura said. "That preserves the wreckage in a wonderful way.”
He said Champagne and Selters experts have already contacted Baltictech and are interested in doing laboratory tests on the contents of the bottles.
But it is Swedish authorities who will decide the next steps in exploring the wreck, Stachura said.
Check out the video above for footage of the wreckage and the discovery.
