Unidentified wooden sailing vessel 'of some size' (Government description)
Nobody knows the real name of the ship lying just off Harbour Road, opposite Cave House. The Government's Department of Environment and Natural Resources describes her only as a fairly large wooden vessel, probably of the early or middle 1800s, which seems to have caught fire and burned while she lay at anchor. Divers named the site after what she left behind: broken bottles are scattered across the whole area.
The name refers to a kind of bottle. A 'case gin' bottle is a square bottle that tapers in from the shoulder to the base and has a very short neck. The square shape let six to two dozen bottles pack tightly into a wooden case, which round bottles could not do, hence the name. Gin was the usual contents, though case bottles also held other spirits. The type was made in continental Europe from the mid-1600s until the early 20th century, and the Netherlands was a major source: Dutch gin (jenever, or 'Hollands') was traded around the Atlantic world in these cheap green-glass bottles. Neither the Government nor any other source we found says what was actually in the bottles on this wreck, or where the ship came from.
The site is well known to local divers. The Government notes that the British Sub-Aqua Club surveyed it some years ago as part of a Nautical Archaeology Society training programme, but no published report of that survey has been found.
This is a shallow, sheltered inshore site, suitable for snorkellers and novice divers in calm conditions. Near the shore, sections of the wooden hull and iron fastenings show through the sand; further out, at around 20 ft, parts of the rigging stick up from the bottom, and fragments of bottle glass are found all over the site. The small caves running under Harbour Road nearby feed a larger cave system and are worth a look for the marine life they shelter. Harbour Road is a busy road and the harbour carries boat traffic, so use a dive flag and plan entry and exit carefully.
The wreck is listed as open in the Custodian of Historic Wrecks' 2007 notice, but it is not on the Government's current open-wrecks table. As on every Bermuda wreck, look but do not take: removing anything, even a bottle fragment, without a licence is an offence under the Historic Wrecks Act 2001.
Approximate position, for interest only - never use for navigation.