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Mary Celeste

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The Mary Celeste was a ship found abandoned off the coast of Portugal in 1872. Why it had been abandoned remains unknown to this day.

The ship and its desertion

The Mary Celeste was a 103-foot, 282-ton brigantine. Originally built as the Amazon in Spencer's Island, Nova Scotia in 1861, the ship seemingly had bad luck and, due to numerous negative occurrences, had changed hands several times. It became the Mary Celeste in 1869.

On November 7 1872, under the command of Captain Benjamin Briggs, the ship picked up a cargo of American alcohol (for fortifying wine) shipped by Meissner Ackermann & Coin in New York City and set sail for Genoa, Italy. In addition to the crew of seven, it carried two passengers: the Captain's wife, Sarah E. Briggs (née Cobb), and daughter, Sophia Matilda.

On December 4 1872 (some reports give December 5, due to a lack of standard time zones in the 1800s), the Mary Celeste was sighted by the Dei Gratia, captained by a Captain Morehouse, who knew Captain Briggs. The Dei Gratia had left New York harbor only seven days after the Mary Celeste. Dei Gratia's crew observed her for two hours and concluded that it was drifting, though it was flying no distress signals. Oliver Deveau, the Chief Mate of the Dei Gratia, led a party in a small boat to board it. He reported finding only one pump working, with a lot of water between decks and three and one-half feet of water in the hold. He reported that "the whole ship was a thoroughly wet mess". The ship seemed to be in good condition, but no one was aboard.

The forehatch and the lazarette were both open, the clock was not functioning and the compass was destroyed. The sextant and chronometer were missing, suggesting the ship had been deliberately abandoned. The only lifeboat appeared to have been intentionally launched rather than torn away. Other accounts claim the lifeboat was still on the ship.

The cargo of 1700 barrels of alcohol was intact, though when it was eventually unloaded in Genoa, nine barrels were noted as being empty. A six-month supply of food and water was aboard. All of the ship's papers except the captain's logbook were missing. The last log entry was dated November 24 and placed her 100 miles west of the Azores. The last entry on the ship's slate showed her as having reached the island of St Mary in the Azores on November 25th.

The crew of the Dei Gratia split in two to sail the Mary Celeste to Gibraltar where, during a hearing, the judge praised the crew of the Dei Gratia for their courage and skill. However, the admiralty court officer Frederick Solly Flood turned the hearings from a simple salvage claim into almost a trial of the men of the Dei Gratia, whom Flood suspected of foul play. In the end, the court did award prize money to the crew, but the sum was much less than it should have been, as "punishment" for wrongdoing which the court could not prove.

The recovered ship was used for 12 years by a variety of owners before being loaded up with boots and cat food by her last captain who attempted to sink her, apparently to claim insurance money. The plan did not work as the ship refused to sink having been run up on the Rochelois Reef in Haiti. The remains of the ship were discovered on August 9, 2001, by an expedition headed by author Clive Cussler (representing the National Underwater and Marine Agency) and Canadian film producer John Davis (president of ECO-NOVA Productions of Canada).

The fate of the crew and passengers

None of the Mary Celeste's crew or passengers was ever found. Their fate may never be known, and rumors abound.

In early 1873 it was reported that two lifeboats landed off the shores of Spain, one containing a body and an American flag, the other containing five bodies. It was never investigated whether or not it could be the remains of the crew of the Mary Celeste.

Speculation and fiction on the Mary Celeste

Dozens of theories have been proposed to explain the mystery of the vanished crew and passengers, ranging from the mundane to the fantastic. Some suggested there was a mutiny among the crew who murdered Briggs and his family then escaped in the lifeboat. However, Briggs was known as a very religious, just and fair man. He was not the kind of Captain to provoke his crew to mutiny. First Mate Albert Richardson had served in the American civil War before going away to sea, and the rest of the crew also had excellent reputations. When all theories have been tabled, the answer to the mystery most probably lies with the barrels of raw alcohol. Alcohol fumes were known to be volatile, even explosive. A strict New England Puritan, Briggs had never hauled such a dangerous cargo and did not trust it. Nine barrels leaking would build up a lethal mixture of fumes in the hold. Historian Conrad Byer believes that after a few calm days at sea, Captain Briggs ordered the hold to be opened. There was a violent rush of fumes and then steam. Captain Briggs believed the ship was about to explode and ordered everyone into the lifeboat. In his haste, he failed to properly secure the lifeboat to the ship with a strong towline. The wind picked up and blew the ship away from them. The occupants of the lifeboat either drowned or drifted out to sea to die of hunger, thirst and exposure.

Other, more extreme, speculation is common. Some authors cite a connection with the Bermuda Triangle, though the ship was far from it. Others posit the involvement of paranormal activity or UFOs.

In 1884 Arthur Conan Doyle published a story entitled J. Habakuk Jephson's Statement, part of The Captain of the Polestar. Doyle's story drew very heavily on the original incident but included a considerable amount of fiction and called the ship the Marie Céleste. Much of this story's fictional content, and the incorrect name, have come to dominate popular accounts of the incident.

A Doctor Who serial suggested that a Dalek invasion caused the crew of the ship to jump overboard.

Old sailors sometimes claimed that they had been aboard the Mary Celeste. Little credence is given to these stories.

Ship's manifest

The crew and passengers are listed in the ships log as:

Crew

Name Status Nationality Age
Benj. S. Briggs Captain American 37
Albert C Richardson Mate American 28
Andrew Gilling 2nd Mate Danish 25
Edward W Head Stewd & Cook American 23
Volkert Lorenson Seaman Dutch 29
Arian Martens Seaman Dutch 35
Boy Lorenson Seaman Dutch 23
Gotlieb Gondeschall Seaman German 23

Passengers

Name Status Age
Sarah Elizabeth Briggs Captain's Wife 30
Sophia Matilda Briggs Daughter 2

References

  • The Bermuda Triangle Mystery Solved, Lawrence David Kusche - ISBN 0879759712
  • Ghost Ship: The Mysterious True Story of the Mary Celeste and her Missing Crew, Brian Hicks - ISBN 0345463919
  • The "Mary Celeste", John Maxwell - ISBN 8715011186
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