Mystery of the Mary Celeste

[Joe]

The Mystery of the Mary Celeste

by: Anna Derks

One of the great maritime mysteries is that of the Mary Celeste. Over 125 years ago, the ship was found floating, crewless, in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, in apparent pristine condition. The fate of the crew and passengers has never been adequately explained.

The Mary Celeste was launched in 1861, from the shipyard at Spencer's Island near the head of the Bay of Fundy, under the name Amazon. Following an accidental grounding at Cow Bay in Cape Breton in 1868, she was repaired and renamed the Mary Celeste. She operated under an American flag out of New York.

On November 7, 1872, the Mary Celeste sailed under the command of Captain Benjamin Briggs bound for Europe with a cargo of wines and liquors. He was accompanied by his wife, his young daughter and a crew of seven.

On December 4, 1872, the Mary Celeste was found floating 600 miles off Gibraltar. The official reports stated that everything to be in good order, except that the ship's paper and its chronometer were missing. The last entry into the captain's logs, on November 24, gave no indication of anything untoward happening or about to happen.

This is where the story gets a little murky and the mystery deepens.

To be continued...

[Ginny]

Ohhh...I know this story...but I'm not saying anything!

[faerie]

Why did u just stop?? It was getting interesting

Tia

[Joe]

The Mystery of the Mary Celeste, part 2

The most likely result:

The captain of the Dei Gratia, the ship which found the Mary Celeste, hatched a plot to takeover the ship by placing three of his cut throats on the Mary Celeste as crewmen. Once at sea, the crewmen overtook the vessel and killed the captain and crew. The Dei Gratia then "discovered" the "abandoned" vessel and claimed salvage rights to the ship and the cargo.

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. However, the admiralty court officer Frederick Solly Flood turned the hearings from a simple salvage claim into almost a trial of the men of the Dei Gratia, whom Flood suspected of foul play. In the end, the court did award prize money to the crew, but the sum was much less than it should have been, as "punishment" for alleged wrongdoing which the court could not prove.

The recovered ship was used for 12 years by a variety of owners before being loaded up with 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 August 9, 2001, by an expedition headed by author Clive Cussler (representing the National Underwater and Marine Agency) and Canadian film producer John Davis (president of ECO-NOVA Productions of Canada).

Some other theories put forward over the years concerning the Mary Celeste have included:

• the condition of the Mary Celeste, at the time of her discovery at sea, vary according to the reporter. One report suggested that there were bloodied weapons on board and blood on some of the sail. If this is true it suggests a pirate attack, something that was common in that area around that period. But if it was a pirating, why was the money box and the ship's cargo of wine and liquor not taken? Another area of conflicting observation is whether or not the only lifeboat was still strapped to the ship.
  
  
• the entire crew may have been swept overboard (assuming that one of them must have been carrying the chronometer and ship's papers at the time) by a large wave while watching their delirious (or drunken), fully-dressed, captain swimming around the vessel in mid-ocean with his daughter on his back (You can be sure that Mrs. Captain had something to say about that!).
  
  
• the Mary Celeste came to the aid of a burning cargo ship filled with coal and explosives. The Mary Celeste got a little too close to the burning ship and the crew abandoned ship into a small lifeboat which also picked up the crew of the cargo ship. The lifeboat then capsized and all hands were lost. Unfortunately there isn't any record of a cargo ship being lost during that period and some have reported that the single lifeboat was still onboard the Mary Celeste.

[jason22]

Maybe they were captured by extraterrestrials, and taked abourd there spaceship.

[elizarose]

this story has always fascinated and frightened me. I don't know what really happened but I tend to like the more paranormal aspects of these kinds of stories, you know. This story for me is up there with the Atlantis myth.

Anam Cara

[Joe]

Hi all,

This was a fun post! Next maritime mystery...

[glow=blue,2,300]

The Treasure Pit of Oak Island, Nova Scotia

[/glow]

[Ginny]

The Oak Island Gold story!! Ohh I like this thread. I have lots of books here at home of Maritime legends and ghost stories...including the few you've mentioned here Joe. I may post a few

Cheers,
Ginny