Champagne found on 19th-century shipwreck off Sweden is declared off limits

World News@lemmy.world – 121 points – 1 months ago

Champagne found on 19th-century shipwreck off Sweden is declared off limits

No one will be allowed to fish out any of the nearly 100 bottles of 19th-century Champagne and mineral water nestled in a shipwreck off southern Sweden without proper authorization, officials said Wednesday.

Though the wreck's location has been known since 2016 and is registered in Sweden's National Antiquities Office's cultural environment, it was only on July 11 that Polish scuba divers found the precious cargo.

The wreck, which sits at about 190 feet deep off the coast of the southern Sweden county of Blekinge, was found by the divers while they were checking spots of interest about 20 nautical miles south of the Swedish Baltic Sea island of Oeland.

Champagne isn't supposed to be aged for very long... I suppose it can be valuable to people who just want to say they drank it, but it's probably not going to be very good.

I think only fortified wines can survive longer term like that.

Someone already tasted 19th century champagne from the Baltic Sea (from a different wreck).

Anyone wanna go Nathan Drake on that shit?

Under 7 atm of pressure they will probably explode like claymore mines if brought to sea level pressure and temperature.

That's the terror of knowing
What hydrostatic pressure is about
Watching some good wine screaming
"Let me out!"

Since ship wracks have an issue with looters. Either they allow someone to recover it or pirates will.

I think it's more like, the ship wreck will be recovered by someone. It is up to them to label these people as "illegal looters/pirates" or legitimate recovery which they will do business with.

If they go the "it's illegal" route then they won't see the loot for some time, while it gets sold on the black market.