FTLOP SUMMER CONTEST

[Roy Hersh]

CONTEST


This is going to be the most difficult Port trivia question I have ever put before you. It is open to anybody who is a participant in the FTLOP Forum. I wanted something that will require your skills not only as a researcher, but someone with a curious Port nature. This is one of a bazillion emails I get to provide assistance in authenticating old bottles.

I must change the names to protect the company and individual, but otherwise all information is EXACTLY as it appeared to me.

The riddle begins:

Dear Roy,

I'm contacting you for a rather unusual subject which I think might be of your interest and certainly of mine. I am the Marine archaeologist and Operations Director of the company XXXXXXXX, specialized in marine archaeology.

During last year excavation season in what we think might be a British trader of 1840-1860 sunk in the waters off Mozambique, we found a large cargo of wine bottles, many of them with the inscription “ VINHO PORTO” and an emblem engraved in lead seal over the corks of the bottles. I'm sending you some photos for better explanation.

As we still don't know the identity of the ship (we are still in the research process) it will be a tremendous help if we can get an idea of the owner of that emblem to be able to track down shipments in the mid XIX century. As an expert of Port wine you may have information that is not easily found in normal archives.

Thanking you in advance for any information you can provide on that subject, and in total disponibility from my side to exchange any information that could be of your interest.
I remain with kind regards,

Lic. XXXXXXXXXX
Offices in XXXXXXXXXX (Europe) and XXXXXXXXXX (Africa)
Marine Operations and Archaeology

Here are the photos this gentlemen sent me.




The challenge is to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt, what the bottle's origin is, in terms of the actual shipper. In addition to just a name, you must provide the methods employed and sources ... of how you found out the answer (if anybody actually can ).

Send them to me by email (you don't want to give away your sources and be beat on a technicality) to: [email protected] ONLY and put CONTEST RESPONSE in the Subject Line.

Contest Rules:

a. besides requests from above, the Contest will end on August 5th. All submissions must be in by noon Pacific Standard Time on that day.
b. Wild guesses without a full string documenting their research will be excluded from winning.
c. The winner (only 1) will be announced no later than August 10th 2007
d. Only currently registered guests of the Forum may participate regardless of their location or affiliation.


PRIZES:

The winner of this contest will be awarded:

* A voucher for up to two people, 25% off discount passes for ANY future week long FTLOP Port and/or Madeira trip with Roy & Mario to Portugal. The value of this discount exceeds $2,000 per couple.

* IF a bottle of this is made available to me, I will personally share it with the winner and one guest whenever we can arrange a time to be together. There is no guarantee that ANY bottle will be made available to me, but I have asked the question.

* FTLOP hat & golf shirt

* A write up in the FTLOP newsletter

Best of luck to everyone!

[Mario Ferreira]

Wow !!! - I just find AMAZING this story of bottles of Port Wine found in a ship that was sunk in the middle of XIX Century in the coast off Mozambique !!!

... cool. cool, cool ....

[...] in what we think might be a British trader of 1840-1860 sunk in the waters off Mozambique [...]

It can also be a Portuguese trader carrying goods on its way to India or maybe other eastern Asia country !!!

MF

[Stewart T.]

Hey, they found my bottle of Port! I've been looking for that thing everywhere!

[Roy Hersh]

Follow up email:

Dear Roy,

Million thanks for getting back to me!
Regarding the bottles we have recovered so far approximately 200, unfortunately very few of them still conserve the referred stamp. There is still an unknown amount of bottles remaining in the wreck (the area is deeply buried in sand) but most probably less amount that the ones already recovered. It worth noticing that some of these bottles still have the original content inside, although it looks quite opaque through the glass.
As to obtaining one or some of the bottles I need to inform you that will only be possible after completion of research and split with the government of Mozambique. That might take 12 to 24 months here in Africa...
Very much looking forward to your information and thanking you in advance,
Best regards

[Roy Hersh]

Sadly, I have only received one participant for the contest. I knew this would be hard, but didn't think it was THIS tough.

[Frederick Blais]

Sadly, I have only received one participant for the contest. I knew this would be hard, but didn't think it was THIS tough.

Come on Roy :?

Anyway having one too many contest here, I decided to let others wine

[Frederick Blais]

I guess there is no winner, but can we have the answer to that easy trivia question? Oh and especially how should have we solve it!

[Steven Kooij]

Somehow I've missed this post - a great story! It does look like a S superimposed on a W, but somehow the picture looks more "natural" turned 180 degrees - S over a M. From that viewpoint it could also be two letters mirrored: J (f.i. Jorge Jose da Silva; just making up a name here), A or even a V. Don't have a list of old shippers handy, so not sure whether this would make sense.
Then again, who would guess Taylor would use the odd X4-something: a woolmark?
I'd be very interested to see what it might be - guesses or facts.

[Steven Kooij]

Come to think of it: the bottles might be older than the wreck itself, or indeed the wreck might be older - the SM letters *could* stand for Sebastian Martinez. The Gassiot family only became partners sometime around 1830 I think. Let's have the answer Roy, if indeed you have one!
(I would have send the image to all producers to see whether they know it, but then again, that's probably me)

[Frederick Blais]

Or if you take the letters as W S, it could be William Shakespear wreck

[Lars F]

Did we ever get the result of the Summer contest?

-Lars

[Frederick Blais]

Silence

[Alan C.]

It has got similarities to this...



Maybe the corks come out like bullets!

I presume its Smith Woodhouse, that started in 1784?

Alan

[Roy Hersh]

Although it was never confirmed by the Symington's who obviously did not own Smith Woodhouse back then, that was the conclusion drawn. There were two of us (a gal who works for another Port house in Oporto) that did our best to initially solve this riddle. To the best of our knowledge that is the correct answer.