The Mary Celeste was an American merchant ship that was found deserted and stranded in the Azores Islands, in the Atlantic Ocean, in 1872. Although the ship had some damages, it was in good condition to sail and the sails were unfurled, although all the lifeboats. At the time it was found, the last entry in the logbook had been written ten days earlier.
The Mary Celeste was supposedly making a crossing between New York and Genoa, and had departed just a month earlier. At the time the ship was found, it still had many provisions on board, and both the merchandise and the personal belongings of the sailors and the captain remained intact. However, none of the crew members were ever seen again.
A George McCord painting of New York Harbor in the 19th century.
It is not known what really happened to the crew of the Mary Celeste, but researchers at the time developed several theories that could explain what happened. Some of the most popular were that of a mutiny by the crew, or an assault by the ship that found it. Later, the details became artificially complicated and the explanations became increasingly outlandish.
Thus, many people today think that the ship was abandoned due to events such as a great underwater earthquake, an attack by a giant squid, or even a paranormal phenomenon. However, we will probably never find out for sure what happened on the Mary Celeste's 1872 voyage.
Background
The ship that would come to be called Mary Celeste was built in the shipyards of a town in Nova Scotia known as Spencer's Island. Her first voyage began on May 18, 1861, but at that time the ship bore the Amazon name. It was 30.3 meters long, 7.8 wide, and 3.6 meters deep. In addition, it weighed approximately 198 tons.
The builder, Joshua Dewis, was the leader of the nine-person consortium who owned the ship. Under the command of Captain Robert McLellan, the Amazon made several voyages across the Atlantic. However, bad luck was present in the first of them: the captain became ill, and when the ship returned to its home port, the man died shortly after.
Over the next two years, the new captain, John Nutting Parker, took the Amazon on many trips for the West India Company. In 1863 Parker was replaced by William Thompson, who remained in command until 1867. Until that time, the ship sailed without any unusual problems, beyond those expected in the voyages it carried out.
However, in October 1876, on the island of Cape Breton, a storm ran aground the Amazon and damaged it in such a way that its owners decided to abandon the ship, thinking that it was impossible to recover it. However, a few days later a merchant named Alexander McBean decided to buy the remains at auction.
Name change
In less than a month, Alexander McBean had found a buyer for the Amazon wreck: Richard Haines, a New York sailor who decided to restore the ship. After being able to repair it to the point where it could sail again, and to name herself its captain, she decided to register it under American laws under the name of Mary Celeste.
However, Haines's adventures with the Mary Celeste were short-lived, as his creditors decided to seize the ship as payment for his debts. Thus, during the following three years the ship was passed from hand to hand, although no records of its activities have been found in this period.
At the beginning of 1872, a major refurbishment was carried out on the ship, which led to its dimensions being considerably increased. Thus, after these modifications, the Mary Celeste came to measure 31 meters long, 7.8 wide and 4.9 deep. In addition, a new cover was added.
A new captain
In October 1872, the consortium that legally owned the ship handed over command of the Mary Celeste to Benjamin Spooner Briggs, who officially became its captain.
This man of American origin had spent his entire life at sea, as did most of his children. However, by the time he assumed command of the ship, he was thinking of abandoning that profession and going into business.
Even so, his plans changed when he decided to invest part of his savings in the Mary Celeste, of which he came to own a significant part. In this way, in October 1872, Benjamin prepared for the maiden voyage of the ship after its modification. On this journey, which would go from New York to Genoa, he was accompanied by his wife and newborn daughter.
The crew was hand-picked by Brigss, including several members of his distant family and trusted friends. All reports indicate that the relations between the captain and the sailors were very good. However, peace was not to last long aboard the Mary Celeste.
Events
Engraving of the Mary Celeste. Source: RedCoat10 at en.wikipedia (Original text: No illustrator given.) On October 20, 1872, Briggs was in New York supervising the loading of goods to be transported from the United States to Italy. A few weeks later, on November 5, the Mary Celeste left the port and began her journey; although due to bad weather conditions, the ship stopped in Staten Island to wait for the waters to calm down.
Finally, on November 7, the Mary Celeste prepared to sail. Two days earlier, the captain's wife had sent a letter to her mother, which became the last known communication from any of the passengers on board the ship.
At the same time that this was happening, a Canadian ship, the Dei Gratia, was in New Jersey waiting for merchandise that it had to transport from there to Gibraltar. Both its captain and first mate were well known in the sailing world, and both were highly respected.
Thus, eight days after the Mary Celeste had set sail, the Dei Gratia began its route to Spain. The direction of both ships was practically the same, although if nothing unusual had happened, the most normal thing would have been that both ships would not have met.
Finding of
On December 4, 1872, halfway between the Azores Islands and the coast of Portugal, the lookout told Captain Morehouse (who was in command of the Dei Gratia) that he had seen a ship approximately ten kilometers away, approaching towards them slowly and irregularly. The way the unknown ship was moving and the position of its sails told the sailor that something was wrong.
When the two ships were close enough, Morehouse realized that the second ship was the Mary Celeste. The records of the time indicate that both captains knew each other, so the Dei Gratia sent several of his officers to investigate when he received no response from the other ship.
The ship was completely deserted and in poor condition, although not to the point where it could not have continued sailing. Both the sails (which were deployed) and part of the hull were damaged. In addition, there was a small amount of seawater inside the ship, although not enough to sink it.
Some details made the abandonment of the Mary Celeste aroused all kinds of suspicions. For example, most of the crew and captain's personal belongings were still on the ship, except for the navigational instruments. Furthermore, there were plenty of supplies left, the goods had not been touched, and the lifeboat was missing.
Theories
A waterspout, photographed in Florida (1969). Possible solution to the mystery of Mary Celeste.
Upon discovering the Mary Celeste adrift, the captain of the Dei Gratia decided to take her with him to Gibraltar, where he hoped to get a reward for her rescue. However, the unusual circumstances surrounding the abandonment of the ship led to a thorough investigation of what happened.
Although a definitive conclusion was never reached, many theories have been created regarding what might have happened to the ship's crew. Some of the most popular are the following:
- For a long time, it was believed that the abandonment of the ship was an attempt by its captain to collect insurance for the ship, with the collaboration of Morehouse and the crew of the Dei Gratia.
- Other researchers believed that the ship would have suffered some kind of attack, either by Dei Gratia himself or at the hands of pirates, of which there were many in the area at that time. However, no signs of fighting were found on the Mary Celeste.
- Due to the amount of water found on the ship, some researchers believe that Captain Briggs could have believed that the Mary Celeste was sinking at high speed. This would have led her to put the entire crew in the lifeboat and flee before checking if her theory was true.
In addition to these, in the following years many other stories appeared based on invented details, ranging from those involving supernatural events to those that spoke of the supposed madness of the captain, who would have killed all the crew in a psychotic attack.
However, a definitive conclusion could never be reached about what happened aboard the Mary Celeste; and we may never know what really happened.
References
- "The mystery of Mary Celeste" in: Maritime History and Archeology. Retrieved on: September 19, 2019 from Maritime History and Archeology: histarmar.com.ar.
- "The eternal enigma of the Mary Celeste, a ghost ship adrift and without traces of its crew" in: Infobae. Retrieved on: September 19, 2019 from Infobae: infobae.com.
- "What happened aboard the ghost ship" Mary Celeste "?" in: La Razon. Retrieved on: September 19, 2019 from La Razón: larazon.com.
- "The strange story of Mary Celeste" in: Caos Magazine. Retrieved on: September 19, 2019 from Caos Magazine: revistacaos.es.
- "Mary Celeste" in: Wikipedia. Retrieved on: September 19, 2019 from Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org.