The time of the ship’s sinking has been estimated using clay water bottles. The discovery has been reported to the Swedish border authorities.
Polish diving group Baltitech said on Wednesday that he found the wreck of a ship that sunk in the Baltic Sea in the second half of the 19th century, with boxes of champagne, mineral water and porcelain inside.
The team found the wreck, which probably served as a merchant ship, very much by chance off the coast of Sweden, about 37 kilometers south of the island of Öland.
There are believed to be around a hundred champagne bottles in the wreckage. With the help of found clay water bottles, it has been possible to estimate the time of the ship’s sinking to the second half of the 19th century.
– We got pictures of the brand on the side of the clay bottles. It turned out to be made by the German company Selters. Bottles were sold with that logo for this particular price at that time [vuosina 1850–1867]dive team leader Tomasz Stachura told news agency AFP.
The discovery has been reported to the Swedish border authorities. However, it may still take a long time to raise the champagne bottles due to administrative restrictions.
– They have been lying there for 170 years, so let them lie down for another year while we prepare for the lifting operation, Stachura said.
The champagne bottles found in a wreck in Åland in Finland in 2010 attracted a lot of interest from the international media. The contents of the bottles sold at the auction are believed to have been the world’s oldest tasting champagne.
He was the first to report on the recent discovery in Finland Helsingin sanomat newspaper.
Source: AFP