Champagne Bubbles

by David Thornbrugh

This fine assertive champagne bottled in 1907 and sold in 2001 was being shipped by Swedish schooner across Baltic waters to the Czar's officers when sunk by German U-boat in 1916. Raised from wine-cellar temperature waters 80 years later, the wire had corroded from bottle neck but the cork held firm- when popped, it sounds like a torpedo the size of a cigar thumping a model ship's hull.