StreamCorruptedException: does not contain a serialized object?

Question

Can someone tell me why am I getting this exception:
C:\javapr>java FetchObject
Couldn't retrieve binary data: java.io.StreamCorruptedException: InputStream
does not contain a serialized object
java.io.StreamCorruptedException: InputStream does
not contain a serialized object
at java.io.ObjectInputStream.readStreamHeader
(ObjectInputStream.java:849)
at java.io.ObjectInputStream.<init>
(ObjectInputStream.java:168)
at FetchObject.main(FetchObject.java:23)
import java.sql.*;
import java.util.*;
import java.io.*;
class FetchObject implements Serializable {
    public static void main (String[] args) {
        try {
            String driver = "oracle.jdbc.driver.OracleDriver";
            Class.forName(driver);
            String url = "jdbc:oracle:thin:@mymachine:1521:homedeva";
            Connection conn = DriverManager.getConnection(url,"cnn","cnn");
            FetchObject i = new FetchObject();
                // Select related
                try
                     byte[] recdBlob = i.selectBlob( 1 , conn ); 
                     ByteArrayInputStream bytes = new ByteArrayInputStream(recdBlob);
                     ObjectInputStream deserialize = new ObjectInputStream( bytes );
          Employee x = (Employee)deserialize.readObject();
                catch( Exception ex )
              System.err.println("Couldn't retrieve binary data: " + ex);
              ex.printStackTrace();
     catch( Exception ex )
          ex.printStackTrace();
    public byte[] selectBlob( int id, Connection conn )
     byte[] returndata = null;
     try
          Statement stmt = conn.createStatement();
          String sql = "SELECT id, rowdata FROM blobs WHERE id = " + id;
          ResultSet rs = stmt.executeQuery(sql);
          if ( rs.next() )
                       try
                           ByteArrayOutputStream baos = new ByteArrayOutputStream(1024);
                           BufferedInputStream bis = new BufferedInputStream( rs.getBinaryStream("rowdata") );
                         byte[] bindata = new byte[4096];
                           int bytesread = 0;
                           if ( !rs.wasNull() )
                                   if ( (bytesread = bis.read(bindata,0,bindata.length)) != -1 )
                                      baos.write(bindata,0,bytesread);
                            returndata = baos.toByteArray();
                         baos.flush();
                            bis.close();
                   catch ( Exception ex )
                        System.err.println("Problem retrieving binary data: " + ex);
                    rs.close();
                     stmt.close();  
           catch ( Exception ex )
                System.err.println("Couldn't retrieve binary data: " + ex);
        return returndata;
import java.io.*;
class Employee implements Serializable
     private String lastName;
     private String firstName;
     public Employee(String lastName, String firstName)
          this.lastName = lastName; 
          this.firstName = firstName;
}

Answer 1

To clarify I have stored an Employee Object as a Blob in the Oracle database and am attempting to retreive the
Employee Object from this Blob.
Thanks