Dog Finds Bottles of Prohibition-Era Whiskey on Margate Beach

A guy walking his dog on the Margate beach last month uncovered 11 unopened bottles of prohibition-era whiskey buried in the sand.

How about that? I've been walking on the beach in Margate for 25 years and I've never found squat except sand-filled cans of Miller Lite.

Austin Contegiacomo says after he discovered the bottles in February, he asked for help online to learn more about their origins.

The bottles, etched with an illustration of a man on horseback, had the brand name Lincoln Inn on them, a discontinued brand from a distillery in Montreal.

Lincoln Inn produced whiskey from the 1930s until the company went out of business in the 1970s.

The whiskey was sold in bottles made by Dominion Glass, one of Canada's largest glass producers.

Dogwalker Uncovers Old Bottles of Illegal Booze on Margate Beach

Austin Contegiacomo, a Coast Guard rescue swimmer, was walking his sheepadoodle, Koda, near the Margate fishing pier when the dog began to paw at something in the sand.

When Contegiacomo took a closer look, he realized Koda had found eleven sealed bottles of whiskey.

Contegiacomo told Men's Journal he went on Reddit to see if he could find out anything about the origin of the booze.

Why the Whiskey was in Margate

Canadian whiskey expert Davin de Kergommeaux told Men's Journal the bottles found in Margate likely contain whiskey that was produced at Distillers Corporation Limited, a large company that also included Seagram Distillers.

The New Jersey coast was commonly used to smuggle bootleg liquor during Prohibition and Atlantic City was a well-known hub for smuggled liquor.

Contegiacomo said he wonders whether the bottles he found could have been abandoned by smugglers.

"They were dredging offshore when the bottles washed up, so I think that's the most likely scenario," Contegiacomo said in messages exchanged on Reddit.

Contegiacomo, who doesn't drink alcohol, said he gave away 10 of the bottles to his friends.

"I think right now, nobody is willing to open it," he said. "The history behind it, the mystique of how far it's traveled, ed and the fact it is still full and intact makes it so much cooler. Once it's empty, it becomes just an old glass bottle."

Contegiacomo kept one bottle that he displayed on a shelf in his kitchen.