A sailing ship that sank in the Baltic Sea off the Swedish island of Öland in the late nineteenth century was packed with specialty beverages. Divers from the Baltictech diving group, led by Tomasz Stachura, explored the 52.5-foot-long wreck, which lies 190 feet underwater, and found that it contains around 100 sealed clay bottles. A stamp on these bottles revealed that they contain mineral water produced by a German company called Selters—from which the word “seltzer” is derived—between 1852 and 1876, providing a clue to when the ship sank. The divers also documented multiple crates of glass bottles of champagne made by the French house Louis Roederer, which crafted an exceptional vintage for the Russian czar Alexander II (reigned 1855–1881), marketed today as the ultra-pricey Cristal.
Stachura suspects the wreck may be one of two ships bound for St. Petersburg known to have sunk in the area. These ships may have been carrying a special delivery destined for the czar. He believes the wreck’s libations are likely to be extremely well preserved due to the cool, dark conditions at the bottom of the Baltic Sea. “I’m convinced that both the champagne and mineral water are drinkable,” Stachura says. “The Selters water was protected by very good corks, and the champagne bottles have an inch or so of gas at the top, so they have not been infiltrated by salt water.”
