Divers in Sweden sniff out 340-year-old shipwrecked cheese

Divers exploring a historic royal shipwreck off the south-east coast of Sweden have discovered what they believe is probably a chunk of exceedingly smelly, 340-year-old cheese.

“We’re pretty sure it’s some kind of dairy product, butter or cheese,” said Kalmar county museum’s Lars Einarsson, who is in charge of the dive on the wreck of the Kronan, a 126-gun warship that sank in 1676.

“It’s like a mixture of yeast and Roquefort, a sort of really ripe, unpasteurised cheese,” Einarsson told local media. He added that, while he was partial to cheeses “whose character lives on in their smell”, this one was “probably not for everyone”.

The tin in which the pungent mess was found has been sent for lab analysis, Einarsson told Kvällsposten. He said divers found it “pressed into the clay” of the seabed, and that the fall in pressure when it reached the surface had allowed some of the contents to leak out of the threaded lid.

“That’s when the smell hit us,” he said. “I certainly don’t recommend tasting it. It’s a mass of bacteria.”

The malodorous find was unveiled earlier this week along with a number of other discoveries from a two-week exploration of the wreck, including 14 gold coins, a diamond ring and a significant quantity of 17th-century pharmaceuticals.

The 53-metre (174ft) Kronan, one of the largest warships of its day, exploded and sank off the southern tip of the Baltic Sea island of Öland on 1 June 1676 while manoeuvring before a battle with an allied Danish-Dutch fleet.

Historians believe the vessel foundered while attempting a turn under too much sail and in rough weather, somehow igniting its gunpowder magazine, which blew off most of its bow. Only 42 of the ship’s 800-strong crew survived.

Discovered in 1980, the Kronan – currently Sweden’s largest underwater archaeology project – has yielded nearly 30,000 artefacts, including dozens of bronze cannon, coins, medical items, bottles and about 400kg of victims’ bones.

Now 90% complete, the exploration will continue for two or three more seasons, Einarsson said, and may eventually result in a museum dedicated to the wreck.

He did not say whether the cheese would be among the displays.