The Mary Celeste
The Mary Celeste was a wooden-hulled tall sailing ship. She was a brigantine or as the board of enquiry called her - a half brig. The Mary Celeste had an overall length of 103 meters, with a displacement of 282 tons. She was built at Spencer Island Shipyard in Nova Scotia, Canada. In 1861, she started work as a Canadian vessel called the "Amazon". Seven years later she ran aground off Cape Breton, was sold for $3000, repaired, renamed and registered in New York. 37 year old Captain Benjamin Briggs was in charge, an experienced sailor, previously commanding Boston brigs and three masted schooners.
In the late summer of 1872, the Mary Celeste was loaded with 1701 barrels of whiskey to be shifted to Genoa in Italy. The Mary Celeste sailed from New York on November 7th, 1872 with Captain Briggs' wife and daughter, first mate Albert Richardson and a crew of six sailors.
The Mary Celeste was found drifting by the Dei Gratia on December 5th, 1872 halfway between the Azores and Portugal. The captain of the Dei Gratia sent a boat over to the Mary Celeste to discover that she was deserted without a single soul on board. The following Board of Inquiry held at Gibraltar found that the Mary Celeste was in a seaworthy condition, the lower hull was somewhat filled with sea water, most probably because of a leak. The Mary Celeste had seemed to have been abandoned in a hurry with missing papers, chronometer and sextant. The last entry in the ship's log was November 25th.
The cargo was intact, and all the ships boats were missing. A small crew from the Dei Gratia sailed the Mary Celeste to Gibraltar. Later theories were:
1. The crew mutinied against the captain and escaped in the boats.
2. The crew of the Mary Celeste was killed by the crew of the Dei Gratia, who fabricated their story to claim salvage rights.
3. It may have been precipitated by the rough weather and the Mary Celeste was taking water in through the hatches.
4. The captain intended to tow the Mary Celeste using the ships boats and the towing line snapped and they were cast adrift in foul weather and perished.
After this episode the Mary Celeste was seen as a cursed ship and few sailors would sail with her. In 1884 she was wrecked off the coast of Haiti. There were rumours that the owners had wrecked her deliberately in order to recoup their losses through an insurance claim on the Mary Celeste.
Source: Ghost Ships by Angus Konstam.
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