The Mary Celeste (often incorrectly referred to as Marie Celeste following an intervention by Conan Doyle – see below) was a brigantine merchant ship famous for having been discovered on 4 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 Strait of Gibraltar. She had been at sea for a month and had over six months’ worth 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, to waterspouts, to paranormal explanations involving extraterrestrial life, unidentified flying objects (UFOs), sea monsters, and the phenomena of the Bermuda Triangle, although the Mary Celeste is not known to have sailed through the Bermuda Triangle area. The Mary Celeste is often described as the archetypal ghost ship, since she was discovered derelict without any apparent explanation, and her name has become a synonym for similar occurrences.
Origins
The Mary Celeste was a 282-gross ton brigantine. She was built by the shipbuilders of Joshua Dewis in 1861 as the ship Amazon at the village of Spencer’s Island, Nova Scotia. She was the first of many large ships that were built in that small community. The Amazon was owned by a group of eight investors from Cumberland County and Kings County, Nova Scotia, led by the shipbuilder Joshua Dewis, and William Henry Bigalow, a local merchant. The Amazon was registered at the nearby Nova Scotia town of Parrsboro, the closest local port of registry.
The Amazon’s first captain, Robert McLellan, son of one of the owners, contracted pneumonia nine days after taking command, and he died at the very beginning of her maiden voyage. He was the first of three captains to die aboard her. John Nutting Parker, the next captain of the Amazon, struck a fishing boat, and had to steer her back to the shipyard for repairs. At the shipyard, a fire broke out in the middle of the ship. Her first trans-Atlantic crossing was also disastrous for her next captain, after she collided with another vessel in the English Channel near Dover, England. 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. She traveled 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 off Glace Bay, Nova Scotia. After she was salvaged, she was sold for $1,750 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.
The ownership of this sailing ship was divided into 24 shares, owned by four partners:
* James H. Winchester (12)
* Captain Benjamin Spooner Briggs (8)
* Sylvester Goodwin (2)
* Daniel T. Sampson (2)
Discovery
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,[clarification needed] 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 38°20′N 17°15′W / 38.333°N 17.25°W / 38.333; -17.25Coordinates: 38°20′N 17°15′W / 38.333°N 17.25°W / 38.333; -17.25, 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 wondered 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 approached 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 helm 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 on 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, although 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.
Speculation and theories
Since her discovery in 1872, many theories have been proposed to explain the mystery of the Mary Celeste.
Piracy
One reporter suggested that the Mary Celeste may have fallen victim to an act of piracy, the crew murdered and thrown overboard, as Ottoman pirates had been known to operate in the area.
This is extremely unlikely. There had been no reports of piracy in the waters around the Azores or the Straits of Gibraltar for decades, most likely due to Britain’s Royal Navy station at Gibraltar. No piracy attacks were reported in the area at the time. Moreover, there were no signs of violence on the Mary Celeste.Only common navigation equipment was missing; it is unlikely that pirates would fail to remove the cargo or the crew’s valuables after killing the crew.
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.
Further, 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 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.
Insurance fraud
Insurance fraud has been cited as a possible explanation.This requires that Briggs and Morehouse colluded 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 mainly 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 encountered 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.
There was some storm activity on the Atlantic during October 1872; but this particular voyage was made entirely during November of that year — a storm-free month for the Mary Celeste.
In short — for this theory, no storms were reported in the area at the time, only mildly choppy weather. The waters were calm when the Mary Celeste was discovered. A storm did hit later, when the Dei Gratia was sailing to Gibraltar; and so there is that possibility that the Mary Celeste may have been hit by freak weather conditions.
Seaquake
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. Williams suggests this caused the crew to panic and abandon the ship and the Mary Celeste 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. Notwithstanding, the log made no mention of underwater rumblings, nor did the crew of the Dei Gratia report 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 theory is that an earthquake or perhaps a landslide in the Canary Islands or the Azores caused a tsunami. The crew may have been washed overboard or a giant oncoming wave may have scared them into evacuation, though likely they would have been aware that the Mary Celeste was a far safer place to be than a small yawl. 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 relatively unnoticeable in deep water and do not present a threat to shipping, and only become dangerous as they approach the shoreline. This theory would also require passengers and crew to have been on deck at the time. However, a rogue wave might be a plausible explanation.
Waterspout
A similar scenario is that the ship encountered 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.
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 major shareholder, 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 emit vapor. This 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 into abandoning ship.
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 in the lifeboat would either have 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. But none of the paper cubes were damaged, or even scorched. 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. Perhaps this fire in the hold would have been violent 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 that was expounded in a 2008 investigation and television documentary that both featured and satisfied one of the descendants of the original ship’s captain.
In recent books, Brian Hicks and Stanley Spicer 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’s main flaw is that the boarding party found the main hatch secured.Upon going into the hold they did not report smelling any fumes or vapor, which would have still smelled very powerful by that point if this theory were correct. Nor did people who came aboard at Gibraltar and Genoa report smelling 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 as much a mystery as what happened to the crew, 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.One explanation of how the barrels might have leaked is that they were made from a different kind of oak which could, in theory, leak.
Ergotism
Another theory claims that the ergotamine from contaminated flour caused ergotism in the crew. In this theory ergotamine is purported to have similar hallucinogenic effects to LSD. The theory was that they lost their sanity and killed each other, or threw themselves overboard. However, the flour aboard the Mary Celeste was not contaminated and was eaten by the sailors from the Dei Gratia.
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. This theory 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
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 teetotaller and unlikely to tolerate drinking on board or a crew inclined to drink alcohol. Once again, there was no trace of struggle or violence aboard the vessel, and the crew had good records.
Moreover, the alcohol in these kegs was for industrial and manufacturing purposes; it was not the kind of alcohol that was meant for human consumption.
Premature abandonment
A 2007 Smithsonian television documentary proposed the theory that Briggs became convinced the ship could not proceed safely to Italy, perhaps due to problems with the chronometer, the presence of only one functioning bilge pump, an inability to correctly assess the amount of water in the bilge, and the possible thickening of the bilge water by coal dust left from the previous cargo. This theory proposes that Briggs, his family and the crew all departed the ship in the lifeboat heading for Santa Maria Island; enroute to Santa Maria the lifeboat sank and never made it to shore.
All or part of the article above was taken from the Wikipedia article Mary Celeste, licensed under CC-BY-SA.