Divers Locate Stash Of Spirits From 1916

This bubbly’s been chilling for 81 years.

Swedish divers have located a sailing ship with a huge treasure of cognac, champagne and red wine that was sunk off the southern tip of Finland in 1916 by a German submarine.

The Joenkoeping, an 82-foot schooner, was found 210 feet down earlier this month, the Swedish news agency TT said Friday. It originally was loaded with 9,500 gallons of cognac, 5,000 bottles of champagne and nearly 1,585 gallons of French red wine, but the number of intact bottles is unknown.

Claes Bergvall, of the C Star diving exploration group, predicted the find could fetch huge sums at an auction, adding that financial backing was needed to recover the cargo.

The cognac and champagne were for Russia’s army, and the wine was for the Finnish national bank.