Divers Discover Lost Ship Full of Champagne and Porcelain

Polish divers have unearthed ship wreckage chock-full of porcelain, champagne and other rare wares possibly dating back to the mid-19th century. “There was so much of it that it was hard to estimate the amounts,” said Tomasz Stachura, the diver who led the Baltictech diving team that made the discovery. Stachura told The Sun that the team “saw more than 100 bottles of champagne and baskets of mineral water in clay bottles.” The clay mineral water bottles were confirmed to have been produced by Selters, a German mineral water company that still operates today. The champagne bottles were marked with the letter R, which was stamped on the top of one of the corks, but researchers have yet to confirm what company produced them. The dive team made the discovery 20 nautical miles off the Swedish Island of Öland, toward the opening of the Baltic Sea. Researchers believe the ship was destined for Tsar Nicholas I, who lost a ship in the area in 1852. “That would explain why the ship had this cargo—which was all very exclusive. In those days, mineral water was treated almost like a medicine and only went on royal tables,” Stachura explained.

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