The $8,000 Beer
A blackened bottle of beer found in the wreck of the Hindenburg zeppelin is expected to fetch thousands of pounds at auction, according to the BBC.
The bottle was found by a fire-fighter cleaning up the American airfield where the German airship exploded in 1937. The bottle will be the most expensive ever bought if it meets its estimated price of $8,337.
The airship was engulfed by flames as it landed in New Jersey, killing 38 people and injuring 60. New Jersey firefighter Leroy Smith found six bottles of Lowenbrau beer and a pitcher intact on the scene of the crash.
He buried his secret find so he could collect them later, as the area had been sealed off by the authorities.
Mr Smith gave the other five bottles to his colleagues.
Most of the others are now lost, although one was given to the Lowenbrau company after the death of Mr Smith’s friend.
The silver-plated pitcher, which bears the logo of the Deutsche Zeppelin Reedrei, the zeppelin airline company, is expected to reach $20,000.
More than 70 years later the bottle won’t attract that sort of price for what’s inside.
“You wouldn’t want to drink it – it is probably quite putrid to taste,” auctioneer Andrew Aldridge said.
