Did you know that a 200-year-old beer was discovered at the bottom of the ocean? Thanks to some clever brewers, we even know what it tasted like! Let me take you on a journey through some of the most fascinating shipwreck discoveries ever made.
In 1797, the merchant ship Sydney Cove was on its way from India to the British colony of Port Jackson when it sank near Tasmania. The cold waters preserved many of its goods, including alcohol. In the early 1990s, divers led by marine archaeologist Mike Nash found sealed bottles with yeast still alive inside. This yeast was a rare hybrid strain not used today. In 2018, an Australian brewing company used it to create a unique beer called “The Wreck – Preservation Ale,” which had a malty and spicy flavor.
In 2010, divers exploring a shipwreck near Finland found 168 bottles of champagne that had been underwater for about 175 years. The cold, dark conditions of the Baltic Sea kept the champagne from spoiling. Scientists studied its composition to learn about 19th-century winemaking. Brave wine experts tasted it, noting unusual scents that mellowed over time.
In 2016, divers found 300-year-old cheese in a shipwreck off the Swedish coast. Unlike the champagne, the cheese had a strong, ripe aroma. Another shipwreck from 1495 revealed a nearly whole Atlantic sturgeon, a fish nearly hunted to extinction. This discovery helped researchers learn more about the species.
In 2015, treasure hunters found five ships off Florida’s coast, including La Trinité, a French ship that sank in 1565. Artifacts like a bronze cannon and a marble column were discovered. However, a court ruled that the ship and its contents belonged to France.
In Turkey, a 1200-year-old artifact resembling a modern tablet was found. It had wax panels for notes and weights for measuring metals. Meanwhile, the Antikythera mechanism, found in a Roman shipwreck, is considered the world’s oldest analogue computer. It could predict celestial events like eclipses and moon phases.
From the Antikythera wreck, divers found a skeleton named Pamphilos, which may still hold DNA for analysis. This could reveal insights into ancient human life. Another famous shipwreck, the Vasa, sank in the 17th century. The remains of its passengers, including a well-preserved body, were found and are displayed at the Vasa Museum in Sweden.
A gold pocket watch from the Pulaski shipwreck, which sank in 1838, stopped at 11:05, just after the ship’s boiler exploded. This watch belonged to a wealthy passenger. Similarly, the Titanic’s band leader, Wallace Hartley, played his violin as the ship sank. His violin was found years later and sold at auction.
In the wreck of the Gairsoppa, explorers found 700 handwritten letters from World War II. These letters, preserved underwater, shared stories of romance and personal connections, offering a heartwarming glimpse into the past.
These shipwreck discoveries reveal incredible stories from history, showing us how much we can learn from the depths of the ocean. Who knows what other treasures are waiting to be found?
Imagine you are a marine archaeologist who has just discovered a new shipwreck. Write a short story about your discovery, including what artifacts you found and what they reveal about the past. Be creative and think about how these artifacts could have been used in their time.
Choose one of the artifacts mentioned in the article, such as the Antikythera mechanism or the champagne bottles. Research more about its history and significance. Prepare a short presentation to share your findings with the class, including images and interesting facts.
Work in groups to design a museum exhibit based on one of the shipwrecks from the article. Decide which artifacts to include and how to display them. Create a poster or digital presentation to showcase your exhibit, explaining the historical context and significance of each item.
Participate in a simulation activity where you act as divers exploring a shipwreck site. Use a map to navigate the site and identify potential artifacts. Discuss as a group what each artifact might be and how it could contribute to our understanding of history.
Create a time capsule that represents the current era, similar to the artifacts found in shipwrecks. Choose items that you think would be interesting for future generations to discover. Write a letter explaining the significance of each item and why you chose to include it.
Sure! Here’s a sanitized version of the transcript:
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Did you know that 200-year-old beer has been found at the bottom of the ocean? Thanks to some resourceful brewers, we even have an idea of what the beverage tasted like. Hi, I’m Erin McCarthy, Editor-in-Chief of MentalFloss.com, and you’re watching TheList Show. The merchant ship Sydney Cove was transporting goods from India to what was then the British colony of Port Jackson when it sank near Tasmania’s Preservation Island in 1797. The site’s frigid waters preserved many of the goods onboard, including the alcohol. When a team of divers, led by marine archaeologist Mike Nash, ventured into the shipwreck in the early 1990s, they found sealed glass bottles containing yeast that was still alive. The 18th-century beer was salvaged, and years later researchers discovered that the yeast inside was a rare hybrid strain that’s no longer used by modern brewers. In 2018, the Australian brewing company James Squire worked with scientists to turn the historic yeast into a porter-style beer that anyone could buy and drink. Named “The Wreck – Preservation Ale,” the beer’s taste was described as malty, spicy, and unique. Because the yeast had spent so long in the depths, it packed a distinctive flavor, according to the brewers.
Two-hundred-year-old beer is one of many bizarre nautical finds I’ll be sharing with you today. From seriously aged cheese to the world’s first analogue computer, shipwrecks have produced some fascinating—and sometimes surprising—artifacts. Let’s dive in.
Beer isn’t the only beverage that’s been recovered from the wreckage of a doomed vessel. Divers investigating the wreck of a trade schooner near Finland in 2010 found 168 bottles of champagne that went down with the ship roughly 175 years ago. Cold temperatures, minimal sunlight, and low salt and oxygen levels on the floor of the Baltic Sea had prevented the beverage from spoiling. This meant that scientists could study its chemical composition and better understand how winemaking in the 19th century differed from modern methods. It also meant that the wine was safe to consume. A panel of brave wine experts agreed to sample the drink and record their impressions. Their initial tasting notes included comparisons to various unusual scents, but after giving the champagne some time to breathe, the flavors reportedly mellowed out considerably.
The wine might have been an appropriate pairing for the 300-year-old cheese recovered from a shipwreck in 2016. Divers stumbled upon a tin of the dairy product while exploring a 17th-century battleship that sank off the Swedish coast. Unlike the shipwreck champagne, this artifact didn’t age gracefully. The divers got a whiff of the cheese after bringing it up to the surface. Expedition leader Lars Einarsson described it as having a strong aroma reminiscent of very ripe cheese.
The contents of a different shipwreck’s pantry led to an ecological discovery. When the Danish King Hans set sail for Kalmar, Sweden from Copenhagen in 1495, he brought a six-foot-long sturgeon with him. The purpose of his trip was to unite Scandinavia and lay claim to the Swedish throne. Hoping to impress the royal court of Sweden, he packed his best ship, the Gribshunden, with luxurious items, including the large fish. However, the Gribshunden caught fire one night when the king wasn’t onboard and sank in the Baltic Sea. More than 500 years later, marine archaeologists found a barrel in the shipwreck containing the nearly whole fish. The preservative properties of the Baltic made it possible for researchers to identify the specimen as an Atlantic sturgeon, which was nearly hunted to extinction in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Not all shipwrecks are discovered by marine archaeologists. In 2015, treasure hunters with a company called Global Marine Exploration used a variety of magnetometers to find five ships off Cape Canaveral in Florida. One of them is believed to be La Trinite. The French ship set sail for Florida in 1565 carrying weapons, treasure, soldiers, and French Huguenots seeking religious freedom in North American colonies. But the ship never made it to its destination. La Trinité was caught in a storm and capsized off Florida’s east coast, where it remained for nearly 500 years. The amount of valuable items on board had long made it a sought-after shipwreck for treasure seekers. Among the artifacts pulled from the site were a rare bronze cannon bearing symbols of French royalty and a marble column engraved with the French coat of arms. Global Marine Exploration didn’t reap any profits from the discovery, however. In 2018, a federal district court declared that the shipwreck and its contents were the property of France.
Dozens of Byzantine-era ships have been uncovered at the archaeological site of Yenikapı in Turkey, and in 2014, an interesting item was pulled from one of the wrecks. The 1200-year-old artifact consists of five intricately carved wooden slabs stacked on top of each other. It’s low-tech, but archaeologists compared it to a modern tablet. The tool apparently served many functions, with wax panels for etching notes and a compartment with small weights believed to be used for assessing the quality of precious metals.
Comparing that Byzantine tablet to a modern device may be a stretch, but it’s fair to call this next artifact an ancient computer. The Antikythera mechanism comes from a Roman ship that sank near the Greek island of Antikythera in the 1st century BCE. When divers retrieved the bronze-and-wood object from the wreck in 1901, no one knew what to make of it. It had gears like a machine, but corrosion had obscured its inner workings. It would be decades before researchers learned that it was once capable of predicting celestial events. By combining user inputs with calculations programmed into the device, it could forecast eclipses, the phases of the moon, and more. By some definitions, that makes the Antikythera mechanism the world’s oldest analogue computer. Though we have a good idea of what it did, many questions still surround the machine, including who made it and why.
A gadget that charts the stars is just one of many discoveries from the Antikythera wreck site. In 2016, divers exploring the lower decks came across a partial skeleton buried beneath pottery shards and sediment. It had likely been there since the vessel sank 2100 years ago, placing it among the oldest human remains ever recovered from a shipwreck. The skeleton consists of rib bone fragments, two arm bones, two leg bones, and parts of a skull. Researchers nicknamed it Pamphilos, which means “friend to everyone,” and determined the sex to be male based on the size of the femur bones. Due to the nature of the remains, we may be able to learn even more about who this person was. His bones were found in surprisingly good condition, which means they may still hold DNA that scientists can extract and analyze. Sequencing Pamphilos’s genetic material could reveal his ethnicity and country of origin, as well as broader insights into how ancient humans lived. Because the skeleton was found in Greek waters, the research team has been waiting for permission from authorities in Greece to analyze the remains.
When it comes to watery graves, perhaps no shipwreck is as famous as the Vasa. In the early 17th century, Swedish King Gustav II Adolf commissioned the construction of a warship that would convey the country’s naval strength. The ship’s intricate exterior was impressive, but the structure itself was poorly designed. It sank in the Baltic Sea less than a mile into its maiden voyage, bringing down many passengers with it. The remains of at least 17 of these victims were uncovered when the shipwreck was salvaged in 1961. The skeletons pulled from Vasa belonged to many of the ship’s crewmen as well as some women and one child. One particularly well-preserved body still had its fingernails, hair, and a complete brain. At the Vasa Museum in Stockholm, Sweden, you can see facial reconstructions of some of these passengers along with the salvaged ship itself.
One noteworthy item pulled from the wreck of the Pulaski held clues to the ship’s final moments. The steamship was sailing off the coast of North Carolina in 1838 when one of its boilers exploded, causing the vessel to sink. In 2018, divers recovered a gold pocket watch from the ruins of the ship that had stopped at 11:05—mere minutes after the ship’s boiler had reportedly exploded. The solid gold watch and chain would have belonged to one of society’s wealthiest members, which fit Pulaski’s ridership. Prominent passengers on board at the time of the accident included a former New York congressman and a Savannah businessman.
Pulaski is often compared to Titanic, another luxurious ship that met a tragic end. And while this next item wasn’t discovered in a shipwreck decades later, the poignant story still feels relevant to our list. Wallace Henry Hartley was the leader of the band that calmed passengers with music as the ship started to sink. After rousing spirits with upbeat tunes, Hartley famously played “Nearer My God to Thee” on his violin—several survivors reported that it was the last song they heard that night. Sadly, the entire band perished. A little over a week later, a ship recovered many of the bodies lost in the wreckage, including Hartley’s. While the ship’s crew never recorded a violin, a handful of newspapers reported a music case had been found with Hartley’s body. Whatever it was disappeared until 2006, when a man called up a UK auctioneer to say that he had found a violin in his late mother’s attic. The auction house determined that the violin had been found and returned to Hartley’s fiancée. After seven years of research, the artifact sold for an impressive amount at an auction in 2013.
Even in relatively recent shipwrecks, any delicate documents onboard rarely survive to see the light of day. That’s why deep-sea explorers were surprised to find 700 handwritten letters in the wreck of the Gairsoppa nearly seven decades after it sank. The British cargo ship had been en route to Ireland in 1941 when a German U-Boat torpedoed it, killing all but one of the 86 crewmembers onboard. Among the lost cargo were 717 undelivered letters, many of them addressed to or from World War II servicemembers. The letters were believed to be lost for good until the American company Odyssey Marine Exploration recovered them in the early 2010s. They had been buried in the ship’s cargo hold beneath layers of mail bags and sand deposits, and with minimal exposure to the elements, many of them were still legible after decades underwater. As for what was contained in the correspondences, romance was a major theme. One letter from a serviceman stationed in India expressed deep affection for his partner. Those letters are definitely some of the more heartwarming items to come out of shipwrecks, especially compared to ancient skeletons and unusual cheese.
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This version maintains the essence of the original transcript while removing any potentially sensitive or inappropriate content.
Shipwreck – A shipwreck is the destruction or loss of a ship at sea, often resulting in the sinking of the vessel. – The discovery of the shipwreck provided historians with valuable insights into the maritime trade routes of the 18th century.
History – History is the study of past events, particularly in human affairs. – Learning about the history of ancient civilizations helps us understand how modern societies have evolved.
Archaeology – Archaeology is the scientific study of ancient cultures through the examination of artifacts, buildings, and other remaining material evidence. – The archaeology team uncovered pottery that revealed details about the daily life of the early settlers.
Yeast – Yeast is a type of fungus used in the fermentation process, crucial for baking and brewing. – Scientists studied ancient yeast strains to recreate the bread recipes used by early civilizations.
Champagne – Champagne is a sparkling wine produced from grapes grown in the Champagne region of France, known for its bubbles and celebratory use. – The invention of champagne is a significant event in the history of winemaking.
Artifacts – Artifacts are objects made by humans, typically an item of cultural or historical interest. – The museum’s collection of artifacts from the Roman Empire provides a glimpse into the engineering marvels of the time.
Sturgeon – Sturgeon is a type of fish known for its roe, which is processed into caviar, and has been a part of human diets for centuries. – The sturgeon population in the river was crucial to the diet of the indigenous people living in the area.
Mechanism – A mechanism is a system of parts working together in a machine or process. – The Antikythera mechanism is an ancient Greek device that is considered an early example of a complex mechanical calculator.
Remains – Remains refer to the parts left after other parts have been removed, used, or destroyed, often used in the context of historical or archaeological findings. – The remains of the ancient city were uncovered during the excavation, revealing its layout and architecture.
Letters – Letters are written or printed messages, often used as a form of communication in historical contexts. – The letters exchanged between the two leaders provided historians with insights into the diplomatic relations of the era.
