Baltic Sea shipwreck from 19th century found with 'more than 100 bottles of Champagne'

Off the coast of Sweden, divers discovered a 19th-century shipwreck well-stocked with booze, including about 100 bottles of Champagne.

The Polish diving group Baltictech, which routinely scours the Baltic Sea for shipwrecks, found a 19th-century sailing ship just south of Sweden, outside Polish territorial waters, diving team leader Tomasz Stachura said in a report on the Baltictech site .

They almost sailed by, he said. "One of the wrecks on the sonar was barely scratching and looked like a fishing boat," Stachura said.

Despite having already done one dive that day, divers Marek Cacaj and Pawel Truszynski "showed a lot of determination and said they would do a quick dive," Stachura said. When the two remained under for almost two hours, "we already knew that there was something very interesting on the bottom," he said.

Divers found the ship to be "in very good condition, loaded to the sides with Champagne, wine, mineral water and porcelain," Stachura said. "We certainly saw more than 100 bottles of Champagne and baskets of mineral water in clay bottles."

With crates of bottles, he said it appeared as if the ship’s cargo had a party as a destination. “We realized that this was a kind of treasure,” Stachura told The New York Times .

He saw bubbles coming from what appeared to be Champagne bottles. “It came to me that, perhaps, they are drinkable.”

Subsequently, the divers have learned that the boat could have been destined for Tsar Alexander II, who ruled as Tsar of Russia from 1855 to 1881. "The Champagne could then come from the renowned Louis Roederer label, which since 1876 has been producing a special, twice as sweet Champagne destined for the imperial court," Baltictech posted Friday on its Instagram account .

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Mineral water was also discovered

Beyond the Champagne, the roughly 100 sealed bottles of mineral water also got the divers' attention. "In those days, mineral water, was treated almost like medicine and only found its way to royal tables," Stachura said in the report. "Its value was so precious that transports were escorted by the police."

The German company that produced the water, Selters , is still in business. "Thanks to the shape of the stamp and with historians help, we know that our shipment was produced between 1850-1867," Stachura said. "Interestingly, the pottery factory into which the water was bottled also exists, and we are in contact with them to find out more details."

More shipwreck explorations in the works

Future explorations of the shipwreck are planned. Baltictech is working with Södertörn University in Sweden, and Professor Johan Rönnby , a maritime archaeologist at the university, who is the head of MARIS (Maritime Archaeology Research Institute) and in charge of all underwater research in Sweden.

"We have guidelines on how to proceed now and be able to explore the wreck together in the future," Stachura said.

Wine was also found in an even older find, a 3,300-year-old shipwreck in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Israel, the Israel Antiquities Authority reported in June.

Contributing: Claire Thornton

Follow Mike Snider on X and Threads: @mikesnider & mikegsnider .

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Baltic Sea shipwreck from 19th century found with 'more than 100 bottles of Champagne'