Hundreds of bottles of posh booze ‘for Russian Tsar’ worth £4.7MILLION salvaged from shipwreck
A HOARD of expensive bottles of liquor destined for Tzar Nicholas II’s Russia have been salvaged from a World War I shipwreck.
A Swedish team of experts managed to save hundreds of the bottles from a ship sunk by a German submarine in the Baltic Sea.
If auctioned the hoard could fetch up to £4.7million ($6million).
Ocean X is the group behind the liquor rescue mission.
It specialises in salvaging bottles from shipwrecks.
The team wrote on : "The last shipment of rare liquors for Tzar Nicholas II’s Russia, is now recovered! A search and salvage project that started 20 years ago is now completed."
They added: "It was on the 22nd October the salvage vessel “Deepsea Worker”, arrived in Sweden with a shipload of more than 100-year old cognac and liqueur, brought up from the Swedish steamer “s/s Kyros”!
"Ocean X Team and iXplorer cooperated with the special equipped salvage vessel “Deepsea Worker” to be able to salvage the bottles of “De Haartman & Co”-cognac and “Benedictine”-liqueur (now days owned by Bacardi) from 77 meters depth between Sweden and Finland at international waters."
The group managed to bring up 600 bottles of cognac and 300 bottles of herbal liqueur Benedictine from the depths of the ocean.
They took their bounty from the Kyros shipwreck in late October and are now testing the alcohol to see if it's fit to drink.
The ship sunk back in May 1917 after leaving Sweden with its alcoholic cargo.
It was sunk in the Sea of Aland with explosives.
According to Ocean X, the ship's crew survived and returned to Sweden on a different vessel.
The bottles of cognac on board were produced by an old distillers called De Haartman, which is now owned by Bacardi.
It took the team years to clear the ship of abandoned fishing nets before they were able to inspect it.
Ocean X eventually raised the bottles with remote underwater vehicles.
The researchers said: "The importance of this event cannot be overemphasised – it’s not only a find of rare cognac and liqueur but also a part of history of the former imperial Russia."
The value of the find is yet to be decided because the Cognac is from a brand which no longer exists.
They are likely to be extremely expensive though and may be sold at an international auction house.
The Ocean X team are confident that the bottles have not leaked and that there's a layer of air between the cork and the spirits inside protecting it.
Many of the Cognac bottles were sealed with a thin layer of tin.
TOP STORIES IN SCIENCE
In other archaeology news, the remains of an ancient 30-foot ‘sea monster’ that hunted crocodiles 150million years ago found in Poland.
The twisted remains of a US warship sunk by the Japanese during a brutal WWII skirmish have been found at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean.
And from a Mummy that "sank the Titanic" to a trumpet that "caused WW2" – here are the world's most "cursed" ancient artefacts.
Would you drink alcohol salvaged from a shipwreck? Let us know in the comments...
We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online Tech & Science team? Email us at [email protected]