Swedish authorities have acted quickly to protect the “Champagne Wreck” found off Öland on its Baltic coast by Polish divers in late July.
The Swedish Maritime Administration now says that it had been aware of the 58m-deep wreck for the past eight years – but admits that it had no idea about its rare and possibly still-drinkable contents.
And although the wreck is thought to date to the second half of the 19th century and would not normally qualify, it has now been designated an Ancient Monument by the County Administrative Board of Blekinge.
The rapid move makes it illegal to dive near, interfere with or damage the wreck, or to remove any artefact, with the Swedish Coast Guard responsible for enforcing the diving ban.
As reported on Divernet on 27 July, the wreck was discovered by chance by divers of Poland’s Baltictech group. A dive revealed it to contain not only at least 100 sealed champagne and wine bottles but similar numbers of porcelain bottles of German Selters mineral water.
After examining the contents the dive group continued to research the history of the vessel and its cargo. “That knowledge is to the credit of the Poles who helped evaluate the wreck’s cultural and historical value,” said Blekinge board historian Magnus Johansson.
The shipwreck lies off the counties of both Blekinge and Kalmar. Daniel Tedenlind, Johansson’s counterpart on the Kalmar board, explained that had the vessel sunk before 1850 it would automatically have been considered old enough for protection “but we have found that the wreck’s cultural-historical values are so high that it should still be declared as an Ancient Monument”.
Baltictech has advanced the theory that the ship was heading to Russia laden with goods destined for the court of Tsar Alexander II, and that the champagne could have originated from the house of Louis Roederer which, like Selters, remains in business.
Roederer has told the divers that in 1876 it had started producing champagne “twice as sweet as standard” at the specific request of the Russian imperial court.
Because carbonisation was a relatively new technique in the mid-1800s, mineral water was also a rare and costly commodity, and therefore most likely to be found on royal tables. The Selters bottles had appeared from their style to have originated between 1850 and 1867.
The group’s initial research had suggested that the ship could date to the time of Tsar Nicholas 1 (1825-1855), who was reported to have lost a ship in the area in 1852, though a date during the reign of his son Alexander II (1855-1881) is now considered more likely.
The Baltictech divers will be hoping they might be able to return to explore the wreck further under licence next year.
The next biennial Baltictech Conference for technical and recreational divers takes place in Gdynia, Poland on 23-24 November this year and will include a presentation about the Champagne Wreck.
Also on Divernet: DIVERS FIND DINNER BELL ON DEEP WRECK, AMBER ROOM STILL MISSING, SAY DIVERS, BALTIC DIVERS FIND FRANKFURT BELL AT 82M
