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The Mary Celeste was a 103 feet brigantine weighing 282 tons, under Captain Benjamin Briggs. Originally built as the Amazon, the ship seemingly had bad luck, and due to numerous negative occurrences, had changed hands several times.
On November 7 1872, the Mary Celeste picked up a cargo of American alcohol (for fortifying wine) shipped by Meissner Ackermann & Coin in New York City and was bound for Genoa, Italy.
On December 4 1872 (some reports give December 5th, due to a lack of standard time zones in the 1800s), the Mary Celeste was found abandoned, half way between Portugal and the Azores. The ship seemed to be in good condition, but no one was aboard.
Captain Briggs, all officers and crewA crew comprises a body or a class of people who work at a common activitiy, generally in a structured or hierarchical organisation. The word has particular nautical resonances: the tasks involved in operating a ship, particularly a sailing ship, providin (a total of 7) and passengers (Briggs's wife, Sarah E. Cobb and child Sophia Matilda) were never found. Their fate may never be known, and rumorsA rumor ( British English: rumour is a piece of purportedly true information that is circulated without substantiating evidence. Rumors can range from simple gossip to advanced propaganda techniques. The classic mode of rumor transmission is person-to-per abound. Some cite a connection with the Bermuda TriangleThe Bermuda Triangle is a famous example of a supposed paranormal site where the laws of physics are violated or altered. The area of supposed mystery is a triangle roughly defined by Bermuda, Puerto Rico, and the southern tip of Florida. It is said that, though the ship was far from it.
The Mary Celeste was found by the Dei Gratia, captained by Captain Morehouse, who knew Captain Briggs. The Dei Gratia had left New York harbor only seven days after the Mary Celeste. Coming across the ship, the crew observed her for two hours, and concluded that she was drifting. They noted that there were no distress signals flying on the ship. Oliver Deveau, the Chief Mate of the Dei Gratia led a party in a small boat to board her. He reported finding only one pump working, with a lot of water between decks and three and one-half feet of water in the hold. He reported that "the whole ship was a thoroughly wet mess".
The forehatch and the lazarett hatch were both open, the clock was not functioning and the compass was destroyed. The sextantA sextant is a measuring instrument used to measure the angle of elevation of a celestial object, traditionally the Sun above the horizon. Knowing the angle and time of day, traditionally mid-day for the sun, one can calculate the degree of latitude. and chronometerA chronometer is a clock designed to have sufficient long-term accuracy that it can be used as a portable time standard on a vehicle, usually in order to determine longitude by means of celestial navigation. Today only timepieces certified by the COSC may were missing, suggesting the ship had been deliberately abandoned. The only lifeboatFor the 1944 movie, see Lifeboat (movie). A lifeboat is a boat designed to save lives of people in trouble at sea. There are two quite different usages. One usage is the lifeboats carried by passenger ships, the other the boats designed to be launched as appeared to have been intentionally launched, rather than torn away. Other accounts claim the lifeboat was still on the ship.
The cargo of 1700 barrels of alcohol was intact, though when it was eventually unloaded in Genoa, nine barrels were noted as being 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 west of the Azores. The last entry on the ship’s slate showed her as having reached the island of St Mary in the Azores on November 25th.
The crew of the Dei Gratia split in two to sail the Mary Celeste to Gibraltar where, during a hearing, the judge praised the crew of the Dei Gratia for their courage and skill.
After being recovered in 1872, the ship was then used for 12 years by a variety of owners before being loaded up with rubber boots and cat food by her last captain who attempted to sink her, apparently to claim insurance money. The plan did not work as the ship refused to sink having been run up on the Rochelois Reef in Haiti. The remains of the ship were discovered on 9th August 2001 by an expedition headed by author Clive Cussler (representing the National Underwater & Marine Agency ) and Canadian film producer John Davis (president of ECO-NOVA Productions of Canada).
Mary Celeste is the proper spelling of the ship's name though it may sometimes be found as the Marie Celeste. This spelling is from an Arthur Conan Doyle story entitled J. Habakuk Jephson's Statement , published in 1884, part of The Captain of the Polestar . Doyle's story drew very heavily on the original incident, but included a considerable amount of fiction which has become mixed with fact in the public mind. Old sailors sometimes claimed that they had been aboard the Mary Celeste. Little credence is given to these stories.
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