Very interesting article:
http://grandpappy.info/hshelff.htm
Food for thought…
Nice! Thanks for the link. I used to do shelf-life studies on non-edible, safety-critical stuff, so I look forward to reading some of the articles on that link.
Ba-dump Ching. 
I had to!
In KCMO there is a museum that is built around the recovery of a sunken steamship that went down in the Missouri River, was pre-Civil War, 1858 IIRC.
In a video in the museum they show some of the guys popping the cork on a recovered champagne bottle and it still had fizz and was drinkable.
100 years ago they used Lead to seal cans, so while the food on the Bertrand may have exhibited honorable nutrieant values, and no microbial growth, I doubt it was free from heavy metal contamination. Modern canned goods would likely keep even better, due to the mqdern processing methods. Interesting article. Thanks for sharing.