The Baltictech diving team found the shipwreck, estimated to be around 175 years old, about 58 meters (190 feet) deep off the Swedish coast. Among the relics, divers discovered over 100 bottles of champagne, astonishingly well-preserved in the cold, dark waters of the Baltic.

While the ship was found around 20 nautical miles (37km) south of the Swedish island of Öland, however, it’s not clear where it was heading to. The team believes the ship was en route to Russia, where the aristocracy prized champagne.  

Crates of champagne

The team leader, Tomasz Stachura, who, as divers in the know will be aware, is also the CEO of Santi, the Polish manufacturer of dry suits and other equipment and organiser of the BaticTech conference, told The Associated Press,  “The whole wreck is loaded to the brim with crates of champagne, mineral water, and porcelain. “I have been diving for 40 years, and it often happens that we find a bottle or two in a wreck, but discovering so much cargo is a first for me,” said Stachura.

Clay bottles containing mineral water had the ‘Selters’ name, a high-end German brand still around and in business today, and the Baltictech group said it believed the vessel capsized at some point in the second half of the 19th century. 

Historians determined that the stamp on the mineral water was produced between 1850 and 1867, according to Stachura, who has been in contact with the brand. They said mineral water ‘was treated almost like medicine’ in this era, suggesting the bottles may have been destined for a royal dining table.

Champagne and Selters experts have already contacted Baltictech and are interested in conducting laboratory tests on the contents of the bottles. But it is Swedish authorities who will decide the next steps in exploring the wreck, Stachura said.