Sunken 19th century ship found with Champagne cargo off Swedish coast

Bottles of Champagne in a 19th century sailing ship wreckage (Tomasz Stachura/Baltictech via AP)

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 190ft deep off the Swedish coast.

They believe the precious goods could have been on the way to the royal table in Stockholm or the Russian tsar’s residence in St Petersburg when the ship sank some time in the second half of the 19th century, according to the leader of the team, Tomasz Stachura.