If you don’t put in the effort, you get nothing.
A team of Polish divers has discovered the wreckage of a 19th century sailing ship containing hundreds of unopened champagne bottles that may be among the oldest in the world.
Divers from Baltic Tech, a private organization that searches shipwrecks on the floor of the Baltic Sea, almost missed a treasure trove of sparkling wine.
They were returning from another dive on July 11 when they nearly missed what appeared to be a sunk fishing boat 190 feet below the surface off the coast of Sweden. they said in a statement.
Two determined divers decided to take a quick look at the wreck but disappeared for nearly two hours, leading the team to believe they had discovered “something very interesting on the ocean floor.”
The wreck was found to be “chock-full” of luxury items, including 100 bottles of champagne, porcelain and mineral water, which was once believed to have medicinal properties and was only available to royalty.
The mineral water brand “Celters” was stamped on the stoneware bottle, and amazingly, it still exists today.
The brand of champagne has yet to be identified, but the letter R was visible on one of the corks.
“I’ve been diving for 40 years and I often find one or two bottles on sunken ships, but this is the first time I’ve found such a large cargo,” said team leader Tomasz Stachura. He told The Associated Press this week.
Stachura, the search team leader, said they believe the treasures could have been on their way to the royal table in Stockholm or the Russian czar’s residence in St. Petersburg when the ship sank in the late 19th century.
Based on the shape of the stamps on the shipping box, historians believe the champagne was produced between 1850 and 1867.
This makes it just a few years younger than the 1825 vintage of Perrier-Jouet, the oldest bottle of champagne still in existence.
Whether the newly discovered champagne is worthy of a toast remains to be seen, but Stachura is confident the treasure is 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.
“The remains have been preserved in excellent condition.”
