Sunk between 1850 and 1876 Divers discover wreck full of sparkling wine and German mineral water

The Polish adventurers actually found the sunken sailing vessel deep underwater uninteresting. But at second glance, they found real treasures on board.

According to Polish divers, they have discovered the wreck of a sunken sailing ship with a cargo of champagne and mineral water in the Baltic Sea. The ship probably sank sometime between 1850 and 1876, said Tomasz Stachura from the Baltictech diving group in the coastal town of Gdynia near Gdansk. The 16-meter-long sailing ship lies about 20 nautical miles (37 kilometers) south of the Swedish island of Öland, he told the Polish news agency PAP.

The expedition leader reported that his team initially thought the wreck at a depth of 58 meters was a fishing trawler and therefore of no interest. Then, in mid-July, it turned into an exciting dive lasting several hours. "We saw more than 100 bottles of champagne and baskets of mineral water in clay bottles," said Stachura. "We must have found a real treasure," he later wrote on Facebook.

Bottles help with historical classification

Underwater photos clearly show the bottles covered in mud and algae. An initial analysis of the images revealed that the mineral water probably came from the German company Selters. "Thanks to the shape of the stamp and the help of historians, we know that the water was bottled between 1850 and 1876, which points to the probable period of the ship's sinking," said Stachura. In the case of the champagne, the remains of the writing on the corks pointed to the well-known French company Louis Roederer, he told the German Press Agency.

The sailing ship was actually too small for the valuable and heavy cargo, said the dive leader. He suspects that the sailing ship was on its way from Copenhagen to Stockholm. One possible version is that the ship sank in a storm. However, a collision with another ship cannot be ruled out either, especially as the bow of the wreck was damaged.

The diving team specializing in wreck searches has informed the Swedish University of Södertörn near Stockholm, which deals with underwater archaeology. The Swedish province of Kalmar will also be informed.

dpa