Wreck laden with precious cognac located in the Baltic
The 220-tonne Swedish steamship Kyros which was carrying hundreds of bottles of cognac and liqueurs when it was torpedoed by a German u-boat on May 19, 1917 has been located by Finnish divers.
The vessel rest at a depth of 80 meters and appears to be free of mud. According to some reports, it was carrying a mixed cargo including steel products and as many as 1,000 bottles of cognac and 300 bottles of liqueur.
A German U-boat sank SS Kyros in 1917 while she was transporting a precious cargo of cognac
Raumanmeren Hylky-Team is a group of divers and wreck hunters who primarily search for shipwrecks in the Baltic sunk by German submarines during First World War of which they have located around 20.
The divers say the vessel has remained quite intact. They will decide whether to try to raise the contents after closer examination.
According to information on the Finnish Wikipedia, the wreck was already located in 1996 by a team led by the divers Pasi Rytkönen but the find was not publicised until February 2012. So far the wreck has only been examined by a Remote Controlled Vehicle (ROV)
"The conditions down there are extremely difficult," mr Rytkönen is quote be the Norwegian dive magazine Dykking. "The ship is quite intact, but has slowly begun to collapse and there is also much silt. In other words it is not a simple matter retrieving any artefacts."