A 19th-century shipwreck loaded with unopened crates of champagne has been discovered in the depths of the Baltic Sea by a team of Polish divers.
CNN said the vessel, found off the coast of Sweden, was packed with bubbly, according to Tomasz Stachura, leader of the Baltictech diving team.
“The whole wreck is loaded to the brim with crates of champagne, mineral water, and porcelain,” Stachura stated in a press release sent to CNN.
Despite its age, the shipwreck was remarkably well-preserved.
Stachura, who is described on Baltictech’s website as “one of the most active wreck divers in the Baltic Sea,” noted that he had never encountered such a significant find in his 40 years of diving. “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,” he said in the release.
The discovery was a stroke of luck, as the divers had been searching the seabed for years.
The wreck was found about 20 miles south of the Swedish island of Öland.
“We were just checking out new spots, which I had been collecting for years, out of pure curiosity, and that’s when we came across this wreck,” said Stachura. “We did not expect it to be anything significant and even hesitated for a moment whether to dive at all.”
Two team members decided to investigate on a “quick dive” but ended up spending almost two hours underwater.
The wreck’s cargo was abundant, making it difficult for the divers to estimate the quantities.
“There was so much of it that it was difficult for us to judge the quantities,” a post on the team’s website noted.
In addition to champagne, the wreck contained sealed clay bottles of water branded Selters, a prestigious 19th-century German brand often reserved for royalty.
“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,” said diver and underwater videographer Marek Cacaj in the press release.
Baltictech’s website indicates that the water’s value was so high that transports were police-escorted.
Historians helped date the shipment to between 1850-1867, based on the stamp’s shape. The pottery factory where the water was bottled still exists, and the team is in contact with them for further details.
The Swedish regional authorities have been notified about the wreck, but extracting the champagne may take some 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,” said Stachura.
The team is now working with Dutch marine data company MARIS, Södertörn University in Sweden, and Professor Johan Rönnby, who oversees Swedish underwater research, to develop guidelines for future exploration of the wreck.
