Mary Celeste is one of the world’s well-known enigmas in maritime history. This cursed American brigantine was found unmanned and adrift off the Azores, Portugal while on her maiden voyage from New York to Genoa, Italy on December 5, 1872. The disappearances of the 10 people onboard have remained an unsolved puzzle that has fascinated many for over a century.

Before she was being well known as Mary Celeste, it was originally named the Amazon. The ship was built in the late 1860 at the shipyard in the village of Spencer’s Island, in Nova Scotia, Canada. She was launched on May 18 of 1861 and was owned by a local consortium of nine people; among the co-owners was Robert McLellan, the ship’s first master. Unfortunately, he did not stay as the ship’s captain for long.

After supervising the cargo loading during Amazon’s maiden voyage, Captain McLelland strangely and suddenly became ill. As his condition worsened, Amazon was made to return to Spencer’s Island, where he succumbed to his illness and died on June 19, 1861. He had been her captain for just merely nine days. This was the beginning of a series of misadventures that plague the brigantine.

After McLellan’s death, John Nutting Parker became its new captain. He resumed their voyage to London, during which Amazon was met with more misfortunes. Not long after they set sail, the ship collided with a fishing dam, off Eastport, Maine. She suffered damages to her hull and required major repairs. Once they reached London and unloaded their cargo, Amazon was set to return home, but shortly after their departure, Amazon sank a brig in the English Channel. For the next two years, the Amazon worked in the West Indies trade, and during that time, everything was quiet. Captain Parker retired and Amazon was succeeded by William Thompson.

In October 1867, after six years of peaceful normalcy, disaster strikes again. While she was out at sea making her usual round trip, a storm caught her and ran her aground. The damages she incurred were beyond repair, and the owners decided to abandon her. Later that month, Alexander McBean from Glace Bay, Nova Scotia bought and then sold her to another local businessman, who in turn sold it to Richard W. Haines, an American mariner from New York. Haines paid $1,750 for the wreck and spent another $8,825 restoring it. He declared himself as captain of the ship and registered it as an American vessel under a new name — Mary Celeste. However, a new name did not bring good luck to the ship and misfortunes continue to follow those around her. Less than a year later, Haines was unable to retain the ship and his creditors seized and sold her to a New York consortium headed by James H. Winchester.

The consortium’s composition changed several times over the period of 1869 to 1872, however, Winchester continued to be the major shareholder of the ship. During the same period, Mary Celeste also went through a major overhaul, which cost a whopping $10,000. Major improvements were made to its length, width and depth of the vessel that allowed an addition of a second deck. On October 29, 1872, Benjamin Spooner Briggs, one of the investors, became the new captain of the Mary Celeste.

Captain Benjamin Spooner Briggs, his wife Sarah Briggs and daughter Sophia Briggs

Thirty-six year old Benjamin Briggs came from a long family of mariners, and a son of a sea captain. He was a devout Christian who married his cousin, Sarah Elizabeth Cobb in 1862. They had two children: Arthur and Sophia Matilda. He was a respectable man with a good reputation. It was under his captaincy that the ship was prepped for her first trip under the new name Mary Celeste. Briggs arranged for his son Arthur to stay with his grandmother so as not to disrupt his schooling. Sarah and two-year-old Sophia, however, would accompany him on the voyage. His crew, which he had carefully chosen himself, was small and consisted of capable and experienced sailors; an American by the name of Albert G Richardson as the first mate; Andrew Gilling, from Denmark as second mate; Edward William Head was the steward and cook, and four Germans — Volkert Lorenzen and his brother Boz, Arian Martens and Gottlieb Goodschaad were the general seamen.

On October 20, Briggs and his crew arrived at New York’s East River to load the ship’s cargo — 1,701 barrels of poisonous denatured alcohol. On the morning of November 5th, Mary Celeste was all ready to sail with everything loaded and everyone onboard but due to unsavory weather, it was unable to do so. The vessel was then moved from East River pier to New York Harbor, anchoring just off Staten Island while waiting for the weather to clear. Anchored nearby in Hoboken, New Jersey was the Canadian vessel Dei Grati, awaiting a cargo of petroleum, which was destined for Gibraltar. It sailed eight days after Mary Celeste left port. David Morehouse, who was good friends with Briggs, captained it. On November 7th, after two days of wait, the good weather finally set in and Mary Celeste sailed out and headed into the cool, blue Atlantic. It was the last time anyone on that ship would ever be heard from or seen alive again.

On the afternoon of Wednesday, December 4th, 1872, at approximately 1pm, Dei Grati was sailing between the Azores and the coast of Portugal when Morehouse’s first mate noticed a ship on the horizon, moving erratically toward them. As the ship drifted closer, Morehouse could not see anyone on deck. He sent signals but was only greeted by an eerie silence. Sensing that something was amiss, he decided to send two of his crew, first mate Oliver Deveau and second mate John Wright to investigate.

When they stepped on deck, they found that the ship was totally deserted. The rigging was damaged and the sails were in bad condition. Strangely, only the main hatch cover was secure while the other hatches were open with their covers placed neatly beside them on deck. As they walked through the empty vessel, they also noticed the ship’s compass had fallen from its place, the glass broken, and the floor of the hold was submerged with about 3.5 feet of water. The ship’s single lifeboat was also missing. But the most concerning was the absence of everyone onboard.

In the mate’s cabin, they found the ship’s log, which has been filled up daily. The last entry was dated nine days earlier, on 25th November. It recorded Mary Celeste’s position to be just off Santa Maria Island in the Azores, 400 nautical miles away from where she was found. Deveau also found Briggs' cabin perfectly in order and there were plenty of provisions to make the whole journey. Most importantly, there was no evidence of a struggle or any indication. At that moment, the only reasonable explanation was that the crew had departed using the missing lifeboat. So what actually happened during that nine days?

The two men returned to Dei Grati and reported their findings to Morehouse, who decided to bring the derelict into Gibraltar in hopes to receive a salvage award. Morehouse divided his crew, sending some to navigate Mary Celeste home. The journey was slow despite the good weather due to the short of manpower on both vessels. Dei Grati finally reached Gibraltar on December 12, but Mary Celeste got stuck in the fog and only arrived on the following morning.

Captain David Reed Morehouse of the Dei Gratia — Captain David Reed Morehouse of the *Dei Gratia*

Under maritime law, those who brought a derelict ship in could receive a share of the ships and its cargo’s value. Due to the potential monetary gain, it cast suspicions on the actions of the Dei Grati’s crew. On December 17, a salvage court hearing was carried out by the chief justice of Gibraltar, Sir James Cochrane, and conducted by the island’s Attorney General, Frederick Solly-Flood. His initial assumption as to what happened to the ship was the result of a crime. Yet, there were no signs of violence on board, no evidence of a natural disaster. There were plenty of provisions and everything was neatly in its place - pointing to the possibility that those on board the Mary Celeste had left the ship in an orderly manner via the missing lifeboat.

During the court hearings, investigations were started and many questions raised, but nobody was able to figure out where all of the passengers and crew had gone. Those on board had just vanished, inexplicably, without a trace.

There were some plausible theories raised throughout the court proceedings and investigations with the most common possibilities include mutiny, insurance fraud and natural phenomena.

Mutiny was raised when strange markings on the deck and some traces of what they thought might be blood were found during the inspection of the wreck. The crew might have got himself drunk and then went on a killing spree of everyone on board before escaping using the missing lifeboat. This theory was later debunked when a test concluded that the stains were not blood at all and the marks on the ship were actually caused by natural weathering. Furthermore, the alcohol the ship was carrying was not safe for consumption.

Insurance fraud could also be a possibility because abandoned ships came with a reward for whomever managed to salvage them. With money as a motivation, Briggs and his family could be in cahoots with his friend, Morehouse, and faked their deaths in order to collect on a portion of salvage money. Perhaps the crew was in on it, too. Unfortunately, there was no tangible evidence to support this and was simply treated as hearsay.

The last plausible theory was natural phenomena. Some have suggested that Mary Celeste had run into some trouble at sea. This is based on the makeshift sounding rod and the damage done to the ship. Perhaps she encountered a violent seaquake or a terrible storm. It’s highly probable that the crew misread the sounding rod and thought the problem was worse than it really. This might have caused massive panic and fear among themselves and thus decided to escape from the vessel.

Whatever happened on board Mary Celeste has continued to remain a mystery till today. What do you think happened? What other possibilities might there be in order to explain the disappearance of everyone on board? Will anyone ever solve the mystery of the Mary Celeste?

thefirstbornsΛn

The Cursed Ghost Ship Mary Celeste