400-year-old liquor bottle — with telling inscription — found aboard German shipwreck

What caused a 17th century cargo ship to sink to the bottom of a German river?

We don’t know for sure, but the well-preserved artifacts inside — including a 400-year-old liquor bottle — do shed light on the lives of the crew and other ordinary people in early modern Europe, according to a July 3 news release from the Lübeck city government.

The finding of the remarkable vessel was a product of pure coincidence, city officials said.

During a 2020 routine measurement of Trave River, which snakes through northern Germany and spills into the Baltic Sea, an irregularity was detected on the riverbed. In 2021, divers explored the area, took photographs and determined that the mystery object was an old shipwreck.

After exposing the hull with an underwater vacuum, divers in June began salvaging cargo and pieces of the 65-foot vessel, which rests under about 36 feet of water.

Among the ship’s contents were cutlery, animal bones, a leather bag, a wine bottle and 20 barrels of quicklime, a chemical compound used for building.

Quicklime, which was regularly produced in German kilns using marble and limestone, needed to be kept dry in transit, according to a 2012 study published in the journal Environmental Earth Sciences. It was regularly used in the construction of castles, monasteries and other structures.

Also found was an intriguing liquor bottle, which bore a crown insignia and the word “LONDN,” indicating it was likely manufactured hundreds of miles away in England. The small, lopsided container probably once held liquor from a producer in London.

Constructed of oak, pine and beech wood, the merchant ship appears to have been a fluyt, a model of cargo vessel, that facilitated trade within the Hanseatic League.

The Hanseatic League was a commercial confederation centered in modern-day northern Germany, according to a 2022 University of Heidelberg publication. The group dominated trade in the region — and occasionally engaged in military conquest — from the Middle Ages until the league’s dissolution in 1669.

What caused the commercial vessel to go down is a mystery, but charred wood found among the wreckage suggests a fire might have caused some damage.

Over the next couple of months, divers will continue to salvage cargo and sections of hull from the centuries-old wreck, which might otherwise have been swept away by strong river currents and lost to history.

Google Translate was used to translate press releases from the Lübeck city government.

This story was originally published July 6, 2023 at 4:11 PM with the headline "400-year-old liquor bottle — with telling inscription — found aboard German shipwreck."