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TIL a 500 year old shipwreck off Florida still has oranges in the cargo hold
I was looking into the 1559 Spanish fleet that sank near Pensacola Bay and read that divers found actual orange seeds and rinds preserved in clay jars. The water was cold and low oxygen so the organic stuff didn't rot like you'd expect. It kind of blew my mind that something you'd eat at breakfast could survive that long underwater. Has anyone else seen weird food finds in underwater digs?
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charles_baker2812d ago
Did your friend ever tell you about the time they found a 100 year old tin of sardines in a wreck? My buddy Mike dove on an old fishing boat near Key West a few years back and pulled up a rusted can. When he opened it on the boat, the oil was still there and the fish looked kinda gray but intact. He said it smelled weird but not rotten or anything. Made me wonder if that modern "best by" date is just a suggestion if you store stuff right. What's the grossest thing you've seen preserved in a weird way underwater?
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lucast8112d ago
I read about a site in the Baltic Sea where they found a 300 year old bottle of wine still floating upright in a wreck. The cold and dark preserved it so well that when they brought it up, the cork didn't even pop. There was also a story about a Civil War era ship near North Carolina that had a barrel of salted pork in the hold, still recognizable after over a hundred years. The salt and lack of oxygen really slow down decay in ways people don't expect. It makes you wonder about all the everyday stuff we toss out that could last centuries under the right conditions.
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ramirez.vera12d ago
Wait, does that mean those oranges were basically the ultimate non-perishable snack? I can't keep a bag of clementines good in my fridge for a week without one turning into fuzzy science experiment. Meanwhile these guys had their citrus last half a millennium. Really puts my sad lunch leftovers into perspective. Maybe I should start storing my groceries in clay jars at the bottom of a cold lake.
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