The group of divers says that it was a very special feeling to discover that what they assumed was an ordinary merchant ship turned out to contain a completely unexpected cargo.
– The whole wreck was full of boxes of champagne, mineral water and porcelain. There were at least a hundred bottles of precious drops, says Tomasz Stachura to AFP. He heads the diving company Baltictech.
He says that he has been diving for over 40 years and that a bottle or two often appears on the seabed. It is far from there to find a complete wreck with such a load, says Stachura.
The discovery was made around 20 nautical miles south of Öland, and it was all a pure coincidence, say the divers who have long scoured the seabed in search of shipwrecks.
The divers were checking out a new area, when the shipwreck appeared. Based on some sealed water bottles, they concluded that it must have capsized sometime in the second half of the 19th century.
– We managed to get some photos taken of a name scratched into a bottle, and found out that it was from the German company Selters. The logo matched the one the company used at the time, says Stachura.
The discovery was reported to the Swedish authorities, but due to various administrative rules and procedures it will probably be a while before the champagne bottles see the light of day.
– They have been lying for 170 years, so one year from or until plays little role. We get all the better time to prepare this delicate operation, says the Polish diver.
#Polish #divers #shipwrecks #champagne #porcelain #Baltic #Sea
2024-07-25 11:05:17
