Riddle solved of shipwreck bottle

Archaeologist Tomasz Bednarz with the stoneware bottle. Photo: National Maritime Museum/Facebook

Divers from the National Maritime Museum found a 30cm stoneware bottle in a shipwreck in the Gdansk Bay area earlier this year.

As the bottle is embossed with the name ‘Selters,’ a noted soda-producing village in Germany's Taunus mountains, it was originally thought to contain water.

Scientists later announced that the bottle contained a form of liquor.

The bottle was handed over to the J.S. Hamilton Poland laboratory in Gdynia, which announced its final conclusion this Monday.

Dr. Stanisław Kmieciak told the Polish Press Agency (PAP) that “on the basis of the conducted tests and calculations we have established that originally the bottle contained 43 percent alcohol, which became diluted by sea water from the Gdansk bay.”

Dr. Kmieciak added that they found traces of compounds derived from juniper berries, which helped them conclude that the bottle contained Jenever, a variation of gin which is drunk by Belgians and the Dutch among others.

According to Dr. Kmieciak the gin was often used for medical reasons, and was traditionally sold and kept in stone bottles.

Dendrochronological tests of the wreck suggest that the ship sank in the 1830s. Due to a large number of stones found inside it is thought to have been used to transport building materials, most likely to build fortifications by the entrance of Gdansk port. (sl)