A team of Polish divers has discovered the wreckage of an old sailing ship loaded “to the brim” with luxury goods including porcelain items and about 100 bottles of Champagne and mineral water about 58 meters (190 feet) deep off the Swedish coast.
8 Comments on 1800s Shipwreck Laden With Champagne Found by Divers off Swedish Coast
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Hmmm..be interesting to sample a bottle.
Has it aged well?
Or just become aged sparkling vinegar?
(even as vinegar I’ll bet it would sell)
…the Swedes have a long, rich history of not being able to keep their ships above water…
https://www.vasamuseet.se/en
I hope they identify the vessel quickly and the Swedes let them recover the cargo.
Wouldn’t the champagne have turned to vinegar long before now?
“At this depth the wreckage is perfectly preserved, the temperature is constant, there are no currents and it´s dark,” Stachura said. “That preserves the wreckage in a wonderful way.”
Seems to me the condition of the champagne depends entirely on two things. The quality/purity of the champagne itself, and whether there’s any seepage through the cork. We don’t have any info on the first item, but there’s good news about the second one. The ship’s reportedly been sitting at a depth of about 190 feet, and that corresponds to roughly to six atmospheres of pressure on those corks. I just looked it up, and the pressure inside a sealed champagne bottle is typically about six atmospheres, meaning there’s very little pressure differential to force sea water past the cork. The stuff may well be drinkable.
The reaction that produces acetic acid (vinegar) requires oxygen. No O2, no CH₃COOH.
It’s pronounced Champ(like Ali)-Pag-Nee
Good for barter in the new economy.