The
Mary Celeste (sometimes incorrectly
referred to as Marie Celeste) was a brigantine merchant
ship famously discovered in December 1872 in the Atlantic Ocean
unmanned and apparently abandoned, despite the fact
that the weather was fine and her crew had been experienced and
able seamen. The Mary
Celeste was in seaworthy condition and still under sail
heading towards the Straits of Gibraltar
. She had been at sea for a month and had
over six months of food and water on board. Her cargo was virtually
untouched and the personal belongings of passengers and crew were
still in place, including valuables. The crew was never seen or
heard from again; their disappearance is often cited as the
greatest
maritime mystery of all time. The fate of her crew has been
the subject of much speculation.
Theories range from alcoholic fumes to underwater earthquakes and waterspouts, along with paranormal accounts such
as aliens, sea monsters and the Bermuda Triangle
. The
Mary Celeste is often
described as the archetypal ghost ship, since she was discovered
derelict without any apparent
explanation.
Origins
The
Mary Celeste was a 282-
ton
brigantine.
She was built by
Joshua Dewis in 1861 as the Amazon at the village of
Spencer's
Island
, Nova
Scotia
, Canada
, and was the
first of many large vessels built in the small community.
The
Amazon was owned by a group of eight investors from
Cumberland County and
Kings County, Nova Scotia, led by builder Joshua Dewis and William Henry
Bigalow, a local merchant. She was registered at the nearby town of
Parrsboro, Nova
Scotia
, the closest local port of registry.
Her first captain, Robert McLellan, son of one of the owners,
contracted
pneumonia nine days after
taking command and died at the very beginning of her maiden voyage.
He was the first of three captains to die aboard. John Nutting
Parker, the next captain of the
Amazon, struck a fishing
boat and had to return to the shipyard for repairs. At the shipyard
a fire broke out in the middle of the ship. Because of this, Parker
lost command of the
Amazon.
The first trans-Atlantic crossing was also disastrous
for her next captain, after she collided with another vessel in the
English
Channel
near Dover
. This
resulted in the dismissal of the new captain.
After this awkward beginning, the brigantine had several profitable
and uneventful years under her Nova Scotian owners, captained by
Flinders Croston, .
She travelled to the West Indies
, Central America and
South America, and transported a wide
range of cargoes. In 1867, the ship ran aground during a storm
in Glace Bay,
Nova Scotia
. After she was salvaged, she was sold for
$1750 to Richard Haines of New York, and was repaired at a cost of
$8,825.03. In 1868 she was transferred to the American registry,
and the following year was renamed the
Mary Celeste.
The new
owners intention was to take her across the Atlantic and make a
profit trading with the Adriatic
ports.
Ownership was divided into 24 shares, owned by four partners:
Benjamin Briggs's letter
While
waiting in New York
City
for a cargo of raw alcohol to be delivered to the
Mary Celeste, Captain Briggs wrote a letter to his mother
in Marion,
Massachusetts
, who was caring for Briggs's seven-year-old son
Arthur. Briggs' wife and their daughter Sophia would
accompany him on the voyage. The letter, dated November 3, 1872,
reveals his optimism:
On
November 5, 1872, under command of Captain Briggs, the Mary
Celeste docked on New York City's East
River
and took on board a cargo of 1,701 barrels of
commercial alcohol intended for fortifying Italian wines on behalf of Meissner Ackermann
& Co. It was worth about $35,000 and heavily insured it
in Europe.
The Mary Celeste then set sail from
Staten
Island
for Genoa
, Italy
.
In addition to her captain and a crew of seven, she carried the
captain's wife, who had sailed with her husband many times, and
their two-year-old daughter. Thus ten people were aboard. Briggs
had spent most of his life at sea, and had captained at least five
ships and owned many more. The crew for this voyage included a Dane
and four Germans, but all spoke fluent
English, had exemplary records, and were
considered experienced, trustworthy and able seamen. The
first mate and
cook were Americans.
Before
the Mary Celeste left New York, Captain Briggs spoke with
an old friend, David Reed Morehouse, from Nova Scotia, who was captain of the Canadian merchant ship
Dei Gratia, also a
brigantine. Briggs, Morehouse, and
their wives, had dinner together on the evening of 4 November.
Briggs and Morehouse had served together as sailors when they were
young.
During the conversation, they discovered
they had a similar course across the Atlantic Ocean, through the Straits of Gibraltar and into the Mediterranean
.
However, Morehouse was still waiting for his cargo to arrive when
the
Mary Celeste left port on November 5. Morehouse's
cargo eventually arrived and on November 15, the
Dei
Gratia finally set off with 1,735 barrels of
petroleum in her hold. The
Dei Gratia
left New York harbor seven days after the
Mary Celeste
(some sources eight days later).
Discovery of the Mary Celeste
An engraving of the
Mary
Celeste as she was found abandoned.
Sporadic
bad weather had been reported in the Atlantic
throughout October, although the Dei Gratia encountered none and
her journey across the ocean in November was uneventful.
Just short of a month later after leaving port, on December 4, 1872
(some reports give December 5, owing to a lack of standard
time zones in the 19th century), at approximately
13:00, the
helmsman of the
Dei
Gratia, John Johnson, sighted a ship about five miles off
their port bow through his
spyglass.
The
position of the Dei Gratia was approximately , some 600
miles west of Portugal
. Johnson's keen, experienced eyes detected
almost at once that there was something strangely wrong with the
other vessel. She was yawing slightly, and her sails did not look
right, being slightly torn. Johnson alerted his
second officer, John Wright, who looked and
had the same feelings about her. They informed the captain. As they
moved closer, they saw the ship was the
Mary Celeste.
Captain Morehouse wonder why the
Mary Celeste had not
already reached Italy, as she had a head start on his own ship.
According to the account given by the crew of the
Dei
Gratia, they aproached to 400 yards from the
Mary
Celeste and cautiously observed her for two hours.
She was
under sail, yet sailing erratically on a starboard tack, and slowly
heading toward the Strait of Gibraltar
. They concluded she was drifting after
seeing no one at the wheel or even on deck, though the ship was
flying no distress signal.
Oliver Deveau,
chief mate of the
Dei
Gratia, boarded the
Mary Celeste. He reported he did
not find anyone board, and said that "the whole ship was a
thoroughly wet mess". There was only one operational pump, two
apparently having been disassembled, with a lot of water between
decks and three and a half feet (1.1 m) of water in the hold.
However. the ship was not sinking and was still seaworthy.
All of the ship's papers were missing, except for the captain's
logbook. The forehatch and the
lazarette were both open, athough the main hatch
was sealed. The ship's
clock was not
functioning, and the
compass was destroyed;
the
sextant and
marine chronometer were missing. The only
lifeboat on the
Mary
Celeste, a
yawl located above the main
hatch, was also missing. The peak halyard, used to hoist the main
sail, had disappeared. A rope, perhaps the peak halyard, was found
tied to the ship very strongly and the other end, very frayed, was
trailing in the water behind the ship.
Popular stories of untouched breakfasts with still-warm cups of tea
on the cabin table are untrue and most likely originated with
fictionalized accounts of the incident, especially one by
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. At the
inquiry, Oliver Deveau stated that he saw no preparations for
eating and there was nothing to eat or drink in the cabin.
Deveau returned to his ship and reported to the captain. Two men
Charles Augustus Anderson and Charles Lund then boarded the
Mary Celeste.
The cargo of 1,701
barrels of
alcohol Devreau reported, was in good order.
However,
when it was eventually unloaded in Genoa, nine
barrels were found to be empty.
A six-month supply of uncontaminated food and fresh water was still
aboard, and the crew's personal possessions and artifacts were left
untouched, making a
piracy raid seem extremely unlikely. It appeared the vessel
had been abandoned in a hurry. There was no sign of a struggle, or
any sort of violence.
The Admiralty Inquiry
As
Dei Gratia was a
British Empire vessel.
Captain Morehouse
sailed the Dei Gratia to Gibraltar
; his first mate Oliver Deveau sailed the Mary
Celeste to the same destination, arriving a week and a half
later. An investigation was held in the
Vice Admiralty Court in Gibraltar to
determine the circumstances of the
Mary Celeste and
apportion
marine salvage
rights.
During the sitting of the
Vice
Admiralty Court, the judge praised the crew of the
Dei
Gratia for their courage and skill. The
Attorney General of Gibraltar, Frederick
Solly-Flood
QC, in his role as
Queen's Proctor to the court, deemed it necessary to appoint a
commission of inquiry to investigate the vessel and determine the
causes of its abandonment in the middle of the ocean. Copies of the
several log entries were made. The inquiry lasted three months and
attracted media attention worldwide. Some sources claim that
Solly-Flood suspected the crew of the
Dei Gratia of
foul play and wanted to establish
culpability on their part.
The
Mary Celeste was visited by John Austin, surveyor of
shipping in Gibraltar, assisted by an English inspector, John
McCabe. A local diver and marine expert named Ricardo Portunato was
sent to examine in detail the exterior of the hull on the behalf of
the Vice Admiralty Court. Austin discovered what he believed to be
a few spots of blood in the captain's cabin, an "uncleaned"
ornamental cutlass in Brigg's cabin, a knife (without blood), and a
deep gash on a railing that he equated with a blunt object or an
axe, but he did not find such a weapon on board. Portunato believed
the damage was recent. Part of his testimony reads:
Affidavit of Ricardo Portunato,
Diver
In the Vice-Admiralty Court of Gibraltar. In the Vice Admiralty
Court of Gibraltar. The Queen in Her Office of Admiralty Ag't. The
Queen in Her Office of Admiralty Ag't. - The Ship or Vessel name
unknown supposed to be called the Mary Celeste and her Cargo found
derelict. - The Ship or Vessel name unknown supposed to be called
the Mary Celeste and her Cargo found derelict.
I, Ricardo Portunato of the City of Gibraltar, Diver make oath and
say as follows:
1. I did on Monday the 23rd day of Decbr. last by direction of
Thomas Joseph Vecchio Esqr. Marshal of their Honble. Marshal of
their Honble. Court and of Mr. John Austin Surveyor of Shipping for
the port of Gibraltar proceed to a ship or vessel rigged as a
Brigantine and supposed to be the Mary Celeste then moored in the
port of Gibraltar and under arrest in pursuance of a warrant out of
their Honble. Court as having been found derelict on the high Seas
for the purpose of examining the State and condition of the hull of
the said vessel below her water line and of ascertaining if
possible whether she had sustained any damage or injury from a
collision or from having struck upon any rock or shoal or otherwise
howsoever.
2. I accordingly minutely and carefully examined the whole of the
hull of the said vessel and the stern keel, stern post and rudder
thereof.
3. They did not nor did any or either of them exhibit any trace of
damage or injury or any other appearances whatsoever indicating
that the said vessel had had any collision or had struck upon any
rock or shoal or had met with any accident or casualty. The hull
Stern, [sic] keel Sternpost and rudder of the said vessel were
thoroughly in good order and condition.
4. The said vessel was coppered the copper was in good condition
and order and I am of opinion that if she had met with any such
accident or casualty I shld. have been able to discover and shld.
have discovered some marks or traces thereof but I was not able to
discover and did not discover any.
Horatio J. Sprague, Consul of the United States in Gibraltar, also
wanted an investigation because American citizens were involved in
the
Mary Celeste incident, and Americans had possibly been
murdered. He asked immediately for a visit the ship by his personal
representative,
United States
Navy Captain R. W. Shufeldt of the
frigate USS
Plymouth. Shufeldt's brief
visit aboard the Mary Celeste led him to challenge the report of
his British colleagues. For him, the cuts were mere scratches that
could have been caused by anything, and the "traces of blood" did
not appear to be so to him, but instead were
rust. "Blood" seen on an "uncleaned" sword was also
rust according to Sprague and Shufeldt, who conducted scientific
tests on it to prove it was rust.
There was no evidence of piracy or foul play, nor of mutiny,
struggle or violence. Eventually, the salvagers received payment,
but only one-sixth of the $46,000 ($ in current money) for which
the ship and its cargo had been insured, suggesting the authorities
were not entirely convinced of the
Dei Gratia crew's
innocence.
The commercial alcohol aboard the Mary
Celeste, being heavily insured, was sailed to Genoa by George
W. Blatchford, as originally intended; as previously stated
nine barrels were found to be empty on being unloaded.
The
results of the commission of inquiry encouraged the authorities in
Washington,
D.C.
to send instructions to all consuls and officers in
their ports to report anybody matching the description of Briggs or
other crew members of the Mary Celeste, or any group that
could have landed sailors belonging to the Mary
Celeste. Also, word was sent to look for any of the
items missing from the
Mary Celeste, such as the two pumps
or her navigation equipment. No information was reported. Locals at
ports in the
Azores were questioned, but none
were unable to provide assistance.
Later history of the ship and her end
James Winchester considered selling the
Mary Celeste after
the mysterious events she was now famous for.
His mind was made up
when the vessel claimed the life of his father, Henry
Winchester-Vinters, who drowned in an accident in Boston,
Massachusetts
when she was brought back to America.
Winchester sold the
Mary Celeste at an enormous loss. Over
the next 13 years, the vessel changed hands 17 times. By now, the
Mary Celeste was in very poor condition.
Her last captain and owner, identified as G. C.
Parker, made no
profit whatsoever and deliberately wrecked the Mary
Celeste in an insurance fraud
in the Caribbean
Sea
on January 3, 1885. She was loaded with an
overinsured cargo of scrap, including boots and cat food.
The plan
did not work, as the ship failed to sink after having been run on
Rochelais reef off the western coast of Port-au-Prince
, Haiti
and south of
Gonâve
Island
,. Parker then tried to burn the wreck, but
even after the fire the vessel remained intact, although the ship's
log was destroyed along with Benjamin Briggs's prior entries in
it.
Parker then filed an exorbitant insurance claim for a cargo that
never existed; a subsequent insurance investigation revealed the
fraud. Captain Parker was arrested, but died under unknown
circumstances before his trial. The partially burnt hulk of the
Mary Celeste was deemed beyond repair and she was left to
eventually slip off the shoal and sink.
On August 9, 2001, an expedition headed by author
Clive Cussler (representing the
National Underwater and
Marine Agency) and Canadian film producer
John Davis along with divers
from the Nova Scotian company
EcoNova announced that they
had found the remains of the brigantine where Parker had wrecked
her. Maritime archaeologist
James
P. Delgado identified the wreck
as
Mary Celeste based on a survey of the large bay and by
analyzing vessel fastenings, ballast, timber, and evidence of the
fire. This matched the wreck with historical accounts of
Mary
Celeste. It is said that the 120 inhabitants of the reef, who
now live there after building an island of conch shells, use the
old
Mary Celeste-nade groove as a channel to launch their
boats.
Other researchers have disputed Cussler's claim. The Caribbean is
littered with thousands of wrecks, many similar to the
Mary
Celeste.
Scott St. George of the Geological Survey of Canada and
the Laboratory of
Tree-Ring Research at the University of Arizona
analyzed samples from wood fragments recovered from
the site in an effort to reconstruct sufficient tree ring data for dating. Based on
this, St. George believes the wood was cut from trees still living
at least a decade after the ship sank.
Speculation and theories
Over the past century and a half, many theories have been proposed
to explain the mystery.
Piracy
Was the
Mary Celeste victim of an act of
piracy and was the crew murdered and thrown
overboard? One reporter thought so.
North African pirates had been known to
operate in the area.
However, this is extremely unlikely.
There had been no
reports of piracy in the waters around the Azores or the Straits of Gibraltar for decades. Britain's Royal
Navy stationed at Gibraltar had seen to that. No piracy attacks were
reported in the area at the time. Moreover, there were no signs of
violence on the
Mary Celeste, and only common navigation
equipment was missing.
The crew of the Dei Gratia as suspects
Some writers suggest that the crew of the
Dei Gratia murdered those on
board and then fabricated the story of the ghost ship to secure the
salvage rights. However, once again there was no sign of struggle
and nothing of value had been taken. When the
Dei Gratia
presented the
Mary Celeste to the British authorities in
Gibraltar, the ship was intact and her manifests and inventories
full and accounted for.
Furthermore, the captain of the
Dei Gratia was an old
friend of Captain Briggs, which makes his murdering Briggs, his
wife and their two-year-old daughter extremely unlikely. The
Mary Celeste sailed one week before the
Dei
Gratia and Moorehead would not have been able to overtake the
Mary Celeste.
The Court Inquiry praised the crew of the
Dei Gratia for
their courage and seamanship in effecting the salvage.
An insurance scam
Insurance fraud has been cited as a
possible explanation . This requires that Briggs and Morehouse
collused and that Captain Briggs assumed a new identity. However,
the insurance premium to be paid was not a great amount of money.
Moreover, the ship belonged to James Winchester, not Benjamin
Briggs. A staged incident would have required much risk for a very
modest profit.
Storm
The
Mary Celeste may have entered a
storm. Perhaps water began to flood the ship, and the
crew left in the lifeboat, thinking the
Mary Celeste was
sinking. When she was discovered two of her three water pumps had
been disassembled. She was sailing with a much larger quantity of
water in the bilge than usual, but it was hardly enough to make
Briggs order evacuation, although it could be argued that the
presence of his wife and daughter made him unusually
cautious.
Unfortunately for this theory, no storms were reported in the area
at the time , only mildly choppy weather. The waters were calm
where the
Mary Celeste was discovered. A storm did hit
later, when the
Dei Gratia was sailing to Gibraltar, and
there is a possibility that the
Mary Celeste was hit by
freak weather conditions.
Earthquake
An explanation offered by a modern sailor, Captain David Williams,
who encountered
earthquakes at sea, is
that a seaquake erupted below the ship and jarred open nine barrels
of alcohol (~450 gallons), which leaked into the bilge. The
earthquake also dislodged the fuel for the hot stove on deck and
caused embers from the fire to drift into the rigging. This caused
the crew to panic and abandon the ship. The
Mary Celeste
than sailed on without the crew. The crew then decided to try to
catch her in the small sailing dingy, but did not succeed and died
at sea.
Seismic activity is indeed
common in the area and this theory has been cited frequently.
However, the log made no mention of underwater rumblings, nor did
the crew of the
Dei Gratia feel any tremors or
aftershocks, nor did any other vessel in the area.
Most importantly the
inhabitants of the nearby Portuguese islands of the Azores did not
report any rumblings.
Tsunami
Another
common theory was that a tidal wave was
caused by an earthquake or perhaps a landslide in the Canary Islands
or the Azores. The
crew were either washed overboard, or a giant oncoming wave scared
them into evacuation. This would have explained why the
Mary
Celeste had taken on so much water. Again, no
tsunami, earthquake or landslide was reported either
on land or at sea. Tsunamis are more or less unnoticeable in deep
water and do not present a threat to shipping (the only ships lost
in the 2004 Asian tsunami were in port). Tsunamis only become
dangerous as they approach the shoreline. This theory would also
require passengers and crew to have been on deck at the time.
Waterspout
An similar scenario is that the ship encountering a
waterspout, a
tornado-like
storm with a funnel cloud that occurs at sea. The water surrounding
the ship may, in being sucked upwards, have given the impression
that the
Mary Celeste was
sinking.
This would explain why the
Mary Celeste was soaking wet
when discovered by the crew of the
Dei Gratia. A mass
panic among the crew would probably explain the scratched railing
and the broken compass, as well as the missing lifeboat.
Lower air pressure resulting from a waterspout might have thrown
off measurements of how deep the water level was in the ship's
hull. A dipstick-like device was used to monitor water levels in
the bilge. Low pressure could pull water up the tube around the
stick, creating the impression of a sinking vessel. This
explanation was first put forth by Dr. James H. Kimble and author
Gersholm Bradford. Although unlikely, it is still one of the most
logical theories put forward.
The risk of explosion
The most plausible explanations are all based on the barrels of
alcohol. Captain Briggs had never hauled such a dangerous cargo
before, and did not trust it. The idea was put forth by the ship's
owner, James Winchester, and is the most widely accepted
explanation for the crew's disappearance.
Nine of the 1,701 barrels of alcohol in the hold were later
discovered to be empty. They had been made of red oak, not white
oak as the others. Red oak is more porous and thus more likely to
leak. The leaking barrels would have caused a buildup of vapor in
the hold. Poorly-secured barrels could rub against each other, and
friction between the barrels' steel bands could cause sparks. The
possibility of explosion, however remote, might have panicked the
crew.
Historian Conrad Byers believed Captain Briggs ordered the hold to
be opened, resulting in a violent rush of fumes and steam.
Believing his ship was about to explode, he ordered everyone into
the lifeboat, failing to properly secure it to the ship with a
strong towline. The wind picked up and blew the ship away from
them. Those the lifeboat either drowned or died of hunger, thirst
and exposure.
A refinement of this theory was proposed in 2005 by German
historian Eigel Wiese.
At his suggestion, scientists at University
College London
created a crude reconstruction of the ship's hold
to test the theory of the alcohol vapor's ignition. Using
butane as the fuel and paper cubes as the barrels, the hold was
sealed and the vapor ignited. The force of the explosion blew the
hold doors open and shook the scale model, which was about the size
of a coffin.
Ethanol burns at a relatively
low temperature with a
flash point of
13°C or 55.4°F. A minimal spark is needed, for example from two
metal objects rubbing together. None of the paper cubes were
damaged, nor even left with scorch marks. This theory may explain
the remaining cargo being found intact and the fracture on the
ship's rail, possibly by one of the hold doors. This burning in the
hold would have been violent and perhaps enough to scare the crew
into lowering the boat, but the flames would not have been hot
enough to leave burn marks. A frayed rope trailing in the water
behind the ship is suggested as evidence that the crew remained
attached to the ship hoping the emergency would pass. The ship was
abandoned while under full sail and a storm was recorded shortly
thereafter. It is possible that the rope to the lifeboat parted
because of the force from the ship under full sail. A small boat in
a storm would not have fared as well as the
Mary Celeste.
This is perhaps the simplest and most convincing explanation
expounded in a recent investigation and television documentary that
both featured and satisfied one of the descendants of the original
Ship's Captain.
Brian Hicks and Stanley Spicer in recent books revived the theory
that Captain Briggs opened the hold to ventilate it while becalmed.
The release of noxious alcoholic fumes from the hold might have
panicked the captain and crew into abandoning ship for the
yawl tied to the
halyard by an
inadequate rope. If this broke with a weather change and consequent
wind, then it could easily have explained the sudden and mysterious
exit from the ship. Hicks claims that the cargo was a different
material,
methanol, which is toxic. The
records do not support this.
This theory is discredited somewhat however by the fact that the
boarding party found the main hatch secured and upon going into the
hold did not report smelling any fumes or vapour, which would have
still smelt very powerful by that point if this theory were
correct. Nor did people who came aboard in Gibraltar and Genoa
smell any vapors. There was no evidence of alcohol outside the
barrels in the hold. What happened to this missing alcohol from the
nine empty barrels is just as much a mystery as what happened to
the crew themselves, although it could have gone missing at any
stage of the journey, from before being put on the ship in New York
to after Gibraltar. Hundreds of people could have been responsible
for it.
Even if the barrels had leaked in the hold, there is no explanation
as to how exactly the barrels were able to leak, except the fact
they were a different kind of oak which
could, in theory,
leak. One logical explanation for this is expansion and contraction
in the wood caused by heat differences as the ship traveled between
colder then warmer climates.
Ergotamine
Yet another theory claims that
ergotamine
sometimes found in
ergot fungus from possibly contaminated
flour aboard the ship and had serious effects of
ergotism on the crew. Ergotamine in large
quantities can have similar
hallucinogenic effects to
LSD, and can also cause immense pain in instances of
both
convulsive symptoms and
gangrenous symptoms, ultimately resulting in them
perhaps losing their sanity and murder, or them throwing themselves
overboard.
Mania,
delusions,
psychosis and
suicidal tendencies can be caused by eating
such fungus. However, this theory seems very unlikely since high
doses are usually needed and usually over some time. Most
importantly, the flour aboard the
Mary Celeste was not
stated as being contaminated; in fact, quite the opposite, it was
said to be fine, and the sailors from the
Dei Gratia were
not affected after eating this same flour.
Mutiny
Another theory has suggested there was a
mutiny among the crew who murdered a tyrannical
Briggs and his family, then escaped in the lifeboat. However, this
is strongly discredited by the fact Briggs had no "tyrannical"
history to suggest he was the type of captain to provoke his crew
to mutiny. By all accounts, he was well respected, fair and able.
First Mate Albert Richardson and the rest
of the crew also had excellent reputations and were experienced,
loyal seamen.
Drunkenness amongst the crew
After the admiralty court proceeding, Solly-Flood
QC proposed that the crew, after consuming
the alcohol from the kegs that were recovered empty, murdered the
Briggs family in a drunken stupor. The mutinous crew are then
presumed to have deliberately damaged the vessel to give the
illusion of having been forced to abandon it, then they would have
left in lifeboats. However, the captain was a
believer in abstinence and unlikely to tolerate
drinking on board or a crew inclined to drink alcohol.
Again, there was no trace of struggle or violence aboard the
vessel, and the crew had good records.
Cultural impact
A fictional depiction by
Sir
Arthur Conan Doyle is credited as popularizing the
Mary
Celeste mystery. In "
J. Habakuk Jephson's Statement",
a story in his 1884 book
The Captain of the Polestar, Connan Dole
presented his theory on what had happened.
Doyle drew very heavily on fact, but included a considerable amount
of
fiction, calling 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, and were even published as fact by several
newspapers.
Doyle may have made reference to the mystery in one of his Sherlock
Holmes stories. In "
The Adventure of the Sussex
Vampire" (in
The
Casebook of Sherlock Holmes),
Watson notes that
Holmes's reference files mention a "Mathilda
Briggs".
Holmes explained it was the name of a ship
involved in the case of "the Giant Rat of
Sumatra
", which Holmes felt the world was not ready to know
about. The name of Captain Briggs's infant daughter was
"Sophia Matilda Briggs". In the 1889 poisoning trial of
Florence Maybrick in Liverpool, England,
one of the witnesses against her was also named "Mathilda
Briggs".
Abel Fosdyk published an account of the mystery in what are now
known as the
Abel Fosdyk papers.
They appeared in
Strand
Magazine, a monthly publication of works of fiction.
Fosdyk claimed to be aboard the
Mary Celeste, but his
account does not match the known facts.
Commemoration
At
Spencer's
Island, Nova Scotia
, the Mary Celeste and her lost crew are
commemorated by a monument at the site of the brigantine's
construction and by a memorial outdoor theatre built in the shape
of the vessel's hull The ship's origins and fate are explored in an
exhibit at the nearby Age of Sail Heritage Centre
. At the hometown of Benjamin Briggs in
Marion,
Massachusetts, the Sippican Historical Society maintains a
permanent Mary Celeste exhibit with artifacts from the
brigantine's final voyage. The Mariners'
Museum in Newport
News
has a detailed waterline model of Mary
Celeste, depicting the brigantine exactly as she was found in
1872.
Timeline
- 1861 – Amazon built in Nova Scotia, Canada
- 1867 – Driven ashore in a storm in Glace Bay, Nova Scotia
- 1869 – Salvaged, repaired, and sold to an American owner.
Renamed Mary Celeste
- 1872 – Set sail from New York City to Genoa, Italy on November
7
- 1872 – Last entry in captain's logbook dated November 24
- 1872 – Last entry on ship's slate dated November 25
- 1872 – Ship found abandoned on December 4
- 1885 – Ship wrecked on reef captained by Parker on January
3
- 2001 – Remains of wreck re-discovered off coast of Haiti
(disputed)
Ship's manifest
The crew and passengers of the vessel who inexplicably disappeared
were listed in the ship's log as:
Crew
| Name |
Status |
Nationality |
Age |
| Benjamin S. Briggs |
Captain |
American |
37 |
| Albert C. Richardson |
Mate |
American |
28 |
| Andrew Gilling |
2nd Mate |
Danish |
25 |
| Edward W. Head |
Steward & Cook |
American |
23 |
| Volkert Lorenson |
Seaman |
German |
29 |
| Arian Martens |
Seaman |
German |
35 |
| Boy Lorenson |
Seaman |
German |
23 |
| Gottlieb Gondeschall |
Seaman |
German |
23 |
Passengers
| Name |
Status |
Age |
| Sarah Elizabeth Briggs |
Captain's wife |
31 |
| Sophia Matilda Briggs |
Captain's daughter |
2 |
Image:Benjamin_Briggs_captain_of_Mary_Celeste.jpg|Captain Benjamin
BriggsImage:Sarah_Briggs_wife_of_Benjamin.JPG|Sarah
BriggsImage:Sophia_Briggs_daughter_of_Benjamin.JPG|Sophia
BriggsImage:Albert_Richardson_first_mate_Mary_Celeste.JPG|First
mate Albert Richardson
References
- Thomas H. Raddall, "Mary Celeste",
Footsteps on Old Floors, New York: Double Day, 1968, p.
167
- Charles Edey Fay The Story of the Mary Celeste (1942), Appendix
G
- The World's Greatest Unsolved
Mysteries
- http://www.deafwhale.com/maryceleste/
- http://www.maryceleste.net/part2.htm
- http://www.deafwhale.com/maryceleste/
- http://www.deafwhale.com/maryceleste/
- Macdonald Hastings, Mary
Celeste, (1971) ISBN 0718110242
- http://www.deafwhale.com/maryceleste/
- 300 Years of British Gibraltar 1704-2004 by Peter Bond
(publ. by Peter-Tan Publishing Co.)
- http://www.deafwhale.com/maryceleste/
- . Marilyn Smulders, “ 'Thinking with your hands' Dal
students create outdoor cinema in Spencer's Island”,
DalNews August 30, 2007
- "History of Marion", Sippigan Harbour,
Southcoast Navigator.com
Further reading
- The Saga of the Mary Celeste: Ill-Fated Mystery Ship,
Stanley T. Spicer - ISBN 088999546X
- The Bermuda Triangle Mystery Solved, Lawrence David
Kusche - ISBN 0-87975-971-2
- Ghost Ship: The Mysterious True Story of the Mary
Celeste and her Missing Crew, Brian Hicks - ISBN
0-345-46391-9
- The "Mary Celeste", John Maxwell - ISBN
87-15-01118-6
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