Mary Celeste
The Mary Celeste was an American brigantine discovered in the Atlantic Ocean unmanned and under full sail heading towards the Strait of Gibraltar in 1872. The crew was never found, and the reason for their disappearance remains unresolved. The story of the Mary Celeste is regarded as one of the greatest maritime mysteries in history and remains the subject of much speculation.
Contents
Origins
Originally christened the Amazon, the 103-foot (31 m), 282-ton brigantine was built in 1861 at Spencer's Island, Nova Scotia, the first large vessel built in this community. Even from the beginning, the ship was regarded as unlucky. Her first captain, Robert McLellan, died nine days into its maiden voyage; he was one of three captains to die in command of the ship.[1]
Within the next five years, the ship endured three collisions and a shipboard fire. In 1867, it ran aground off Glace Bay, Nova Scotia and her owners sold her to James H. Winchester of New York City, who renamed her Mary Celeste.[2]
Disappearance and discovery
On November 5, 1872, under the command of 37-year-old Captain Benjamin Spooner Briggs, the ship picked up a cargo of industrial alcohol and set sail from Staten Island, New York to Genoa, Italy. The ship carried seven crewmen, the captain and his family: 30-year-old Sarah E. Briggs, and their two-year-old daughter, Sofia Mathilda. Their eight-year-old son did not accompany them on the voyage.[3]
On December 4, 1872, the merchant ship Dei Gratia, under the command of Captain David Reed Morehouse, spotted the Mary Celeste some six hundred miles off the coast of Portugal. The ship was under full sail and showed no signs of distress, but close observation revealed that the vessel was drifting. Morehouse ordered his crewmen to board the ship and investigate.[4]
Oliver Deveau, the chief mate of the Dei Gratia, led a party in a small boat to board the Mary Celeste. He found the ship in generally good condition, though he reported that "the whole ship was a thoroughly wet mess". There was only one operational pump, with a lot of water between decks and three-and-a-half feet (1.1 m) of water in the hold. The forehatch and the lazarette were both open, the clock was not functioning and the compass was destroyed. The sextant and marine chronometer were missing, and the only lifeboat appeared to have been intentionally launched rather than torn away, suggesting the ship had been deliberately abandoned.
The cargo was intact, although when it was eventually unloaded in Genoa, nine barrels were found to be 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 (160 km) west of the Portuguese islands of the Azores. The last entry on the ship's slate showed her as having reached the island of Santa Maria in the Azores on November 25.
Popular myths exist that the boarding party discovered half-eaten meals, still warm, in the galley, or found the deck covered in blood. There is no proof of these stories.[3]
Aftermath
Crewmen from the Dei Gratia sailed the Mary Celeste to Gibraltar where a lengthy inquiry ensued. Admiralty court officer Frederick Solly Flood doggedly accused the Dei Gratia crew 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 suspected, but unproved, wrongdoing. Captain Morehouse was awarded one fifth of the ship and cargo.
The Mary Celeste itself changed hands 13 more times until it was deliberately wrecked on the coast of Haiti on January 3, 1885, in what proved to be an insurance scam by owner Tyrus Alexander.[5] A 2001 expedition led by author and adventurer Clive Cussler found the remains of the ship.[6]
Theories on the disappearance
Pirate attack
Some sources maintain the ship was attacked by pirates and the crew was murdered and thrown overboard. However, the cargo was found intact and many of the crew's valuables remained on board. There were also no signs of violence, save for a few small cuts in the stern railing.[3]
Drunken mutiny
The Mary Celeste carried a cargo of alcohol, of which nine barrels were found empty. This has led to theories that the crew broke into the barrels, got drunk and took over the ship, murdering the Briggs family. However, the alcohol on board was industrial-grade, used in manufacturing and was not fit for recreational consumption. Ingestion of the alcohol would likely have killed the crew, not led to drunkenness.[7]
Evacuation and accident
The theory that has gained the most credence among historians is that the crew evacuated the ship after several barrels of alcohol in the cargo hold sprung leaks. The potent fumes from the alcohol would have caused sickness among the crew and posed a threat of explosion. Since the Dei Gratia's boarding party found all the ship's hatches and portholes open, the argument continues that the crew likely left the ship to air it out by boarding the ship's lifeboat and floating some distance away, while remaining tied to the ship. The rope broke and the lifeboat drifted off, marooning the crew in the open sea, where they eventually died. There is much evidence to support this theory: the empty barrels of alcohol, the abundance of open hatches, the missing lifeboat and discovery of a frayed, broken rope hanging over the ship's edge, to which the lifeboat may have been tied.[8]
References
- ↑ http://museum.gov.ns.ca/mma/wrecks/wrecks/shipwrecks.asp?ID=256
- ↑ http://www.articlesbase.com/spirituality-articles/the-most-mysterious-maritime-mystery-the-marie-celeste-951410.html
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 http://www.deafwhale.com/maryceleste/
- ↑ http://www.maryceleste.net/part2.htm
- ↑ http://www.essortment.com/all/marycelestemys_rvyu.htm
- ↑ http://www.numa.net/press/080801.html
- ↑ Ghost Ship: The Mysterious True Story of the Mary Celeste and Her Missing Crew by Brian Hicks, p.266
- ↑ Ghost Ship: The Mysterious True Story of the Mary Celeste and Her Missing Crew by Brian Hicks, p.294
