What Happened to the Mary Celeste?

I read the story of the Mary Celeste and it really intrigued me so I thought I’d pass this information on to some of you that are not aware of the Mary Celeste and some of you that know it all too well.

The Mary Celeste is a ship that was built in1860; she was 103 feet long and 280 tons. During Mary Celeste’s first ten years she encountered many accidents and was put up for auction. An American firm purchased her for $3000.00, this is when she was extensively refurbished and took and was christened the Mary Celeste.

The mystery began on November 7th, 1872 when she sailed from New York with Captain Briggs, his wife and child and a crew of eight. To our standards today this was not a very big crew but what happened to them is a big part of the mystery. Besides the people that were on board the Mary Celeste also carried barrels of alcohol that was intended for Genoa, Italy.

The English cargo ship Dei Gratia happened to be sailing west of Portugal on December 4, 1872 this ship was sailed by Captain Morehouse. He spotted a sail on the horizon but noticed the ship was sailing erratically and attempted to contact her. There was no communication so Captain Morehouse brought his ship alongside the Mary Celeste. For him it was very strange as he had dined with Captain Briggs the night before they left New York.

The mystery deepened as Captain Morehouse boarded the Mary Celeste and found there was no one on board. The ship had been abandoned in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean! There was no sign of Captain Briggs, his wife, his daughter or the eight man crew. Captain Morehouse noticed there were some lifeboats missing also but everything else was left behind. Captain Morehouse could plainly see it had been a hurried departure from the ship. The only thing that was found that deepened the mystery was a note with the words “Fannie, my dear wife” and there it stopped.

Captain Morehouse checked the log book and the last entry was entered on November 25th which meant the Mary Celeste had been sailing without a captain or crew for nine days and had sailed over nine hundred miles.

The only damage that Captain Morehouse could find was two hatches that had been torn off and one of the barrels that held the alcohol was damaged. The Mary Celeste was in perfect shape other than these two things which were considered minor. Captain Morehouse took the Mary Celeste to Gibraltar and claimed her for salvage. When authorities noticed the two ships together they became suspicious and thought that Captain Morehouse and Captain Briggs had been in cahoots and had taken the Mary Celeste at sea for the sole purpose of a salvage scam. It was later found out that Captain Briggs had been co-owner of the Mary Celeste and would not have gained money but would have lost it if he intended to run a salvage scam.

There were many theories over the years of what happened to the people on the Mary Celeste but the most sensible explanation was that one of the alcohol cask burst blowing the hatch off in its wake. Captain Briggs was a puritan and didn’t trust anything about alcohol and expected all of it to blow up taking them with it, so he could have abandoned his ship in fear of their lives. There was a sextant, chronometer and some charts that were missing; they also found the compass housing broken. It is thought that the Captain, his family and crew tied a line from the Mary Celeste while they took refuge in one of the lifeboats. A strong wind may have separated them from the ship and they were left to float away into the vast ocean. What is known is that everyone aboard the Mary Celeste was lost forever.

The Mary Celeste sailed the seas for another 11 years before she beached on a reef in Hawaii where she met her death by being allowed to rot and become a sort of habitat for the sea life that swims there. It will never be known for sure what happened to the people on the Mary Celeste which makes the mystery live on in the minds of anyone that comes across her story.