A Rare Discovery on the Beach: Unearthing Prohibition-Era Whiskey
Austin Contegiacomo, a 28-year-old Coast Guard helicopter rescue swimmer from Northfield, New Jersey, never imagined that a casual walk with his dog, Koda, would lead to an extraordinary historical discovery. While strolling along Margate Pier, south of Atlantic City, Contegiacomo found himself face-to-face with a piece of Prohibition-era history—a stash of rare, old whiskey, washed up on the beach after decades beneath the waves.
The discovery began innocently enough. Contegiacomo, fresh off a 24-hour duty shift, decided to take his energetic sheepadoodle, Koda, for a walk on the beach. As he threw a ball for Koda to chase, the dog darted toward a mysterious object protruding from the sand—a brown glass bottle. Initially dismissing it as something unpleasant, Contegiacomo jokingly thought it might be a bottle of urine. However, as Koda continued to obsess over the object, and more bottles appeared, it became clear that this was no ordinary find.
Over the next few minutes, Contegiacomo and his dog uncovered a total of 11 full glass bottles of whiskey, each bearing the name "Lincoln Inn" etched onto them. The bottles were remarkably well-preserved, with their original seals intact. The discovery was even more remarkable given the historical significance of the find. A quick internet search revealed that Lincoln Inn whiskey was produced by a distillery in Montreal during the 1930s, with the company ceasing operations in the 1970s. Contegiacomo’s find was not only rare but also a window into the past, offering a glimpse into the era of Prohibition, when bootlegging and rum-running were prevalent along the Jersey Shore.
Despite the allure of the discovery, Contegiacomo chose not to keep the bottles for himself. Instead, he decided to share them with friends and family. "A lot of the guys thought it was super cool," he said. "I ended up giving pretty much all the bottles away to guys I work with." He gifted one bottle to each of his friends and another to his father, keeping only one for himself—a bottle he deemed to be of the best quality. For Contegiacomo, the true value of the find lay not in its monetary worth but in its historical significance and the story it told.
According to Contegiacomo, the mystery of how the bottles came to rest on the beach remains unsolved. He speculated that they might have been part of a larger shipment of bootlegged liquor during the Prohibition era, possibly lost at sea or buried for safekeeping. The boards of the Jersey Shore were once a hotbed of illegal activities, with rum-running and bootlegging operations thriving in the shadows. Contegiacomo believes that the bottles might have been part of one such operation, perhaps abandoned or lost in the chaos of the times.
For Contegiacomo, the discovery of the Prohibition-era whiskey bottles is more than just a rare find—it’s a connection to the past, a story to be cherished and shared. While some might have been tempted to profit from the discovery or even to drink the aged whiskey, Contegiacomo has chosen to preserve the bottles as a piece of history. "If any of us intended to try it, I don’t think it’d be me that opens it," he remarked. "Even if it’s a great whiskey or something, I don’t think I’d appreciate the whiskey itself nearly as much as I appreciate the story and how it got here."
In the end, the discovery of the Lincoln Inn whiskey bottles serves as a reminder of the rich history that lies just beneath our feet—or, in this case, beneath the sand. For Contegiacomo, the real treasure was not the whiskey itself but the story it carried, a tale of Prohibition, bootlegging, and the enduring allure of the past.
