Mary Celeste

1872

The ghost ship of the Atlantic Location: North Atlantic, ~600 nmi W of Portugal (abandonment site) · Coordinates: 38.20°N 17.25°W · Casualties: ~10 (vanished) · Survivors: 0 · Depth: never wrecked on this voyage · Cause: abandoned at sea — Discovered sailing under reduced canvas with nobody aboard by the Canadian brigantine Dei Gratia on 4 December 1872. The ship's lifeboat was gone, along with her chronometer, sextant, and ship's papers. The captain, his family, and seven crew had left in good order; no trace of them was ever found. · Fate: recovered · sailed until 1885 · Type: merchant brigantine · Tonnage: 282 tons · Crew: 7 · Flag: United States · Launched: 1861 American brigantine, Staten Island to Genoa with 1,701 barrels of denatured alcohol. Discovered 600 miles west of Portugal on 4 December 1872, sailing under reduced canvas with nobody aboard. The captain, his wife, their two-year-old daughter, and seven crew had vanished from the ship with her boat; no trace of them was ever found. The most durable theory is a feared alcohol-vapour explosion that drove them into the lifeboat, which was then lost in tow. The Vessel The Mary Celeste was a hermaphrodite brig (brigantine) built at Spencer's Island, Nova Scotia, in 1861, originally named Amazon. She was 30 metres long, 282 gross tons, with a pine-planked hull on oak frames and a small deckhouse forward of the mizzen mast. She was a middling vessel of the type and size that characterised the Maritime Canadian trade of the 1860s and 1870s: one principal cargo hold, a crew of eight, a master's cabin aft, a deckhouse forward for the mate and crew. Her early career was unlucky. Her first master died on her maiden voyage. She ran aground twice, was salvaged, was sold through five successive owners between 1867 and 1869, and was bought at a U.S. admiralty auction in October 1872 by a consortium of New York merchants who had her renamed and registered as an American-flag vessel. Her new master was Captain Benjamin Spooner Briggs, 37 years old, a fifth-generation New England mariner from Marion, Massachusetts, with a reputation for a careful approach to weather and a teetotal ship. Briggs held a partial ownership stake in her. In November 1872 he loaded her at the Hunter's Point terminal in Brooklyn with 1,701 barrels of denatured industrial alcohol consigned to H. Mascaranhas and Sons of Genoa. The alcohol was for the fortification of vermouth and for the Italian perfume industry; it was a commercial cargo of moderate value but was highly volatile. She sailed on 7 November 1872 with Captain Briggs; his wife Sarah; their two-year-old daughter Sophia The Disaster Mary Celeste was sighted by the Canadian brigantine Dei Gratia, commanded by Captain David Reed Morehouse and first mate Oliver Deveau, at 13:00 on 4 December 1872. Her position was 38°20′N 17°15′W, approximately 600 kilometres west of Portugal. She was moving under reduced sail, with her main staysail and forestaysail set, in a fresh breeze. She appeared to be abandoned. Morehouse took the Dei Gratia in a cautious approach; after an hour of signalling, Oliver Deveau and two sailors went aboard. What they found was a ship in largely ordered condition. Her sails were partly set and partly furled. Her chronometer, sextant, and navigation books were missing. Her ship's boat was missing from its davits. Her forward hatch and lazarette were both open, which was unusual at sea. Approximately 0.9 metres of water stood in her hold, which was within the normal bilge range for a ship of her size. Nine of the 1,701 barrels of alcohol in her hold were empty, later determined to have been made of a different wood (red oak) which was more porous than the other 1,692 barrels (white oak); the nine had leaked in the passage. Her last galley meal showed signs of having been in the process of preparation. There was no sign of violence aboard. There was no sign of any voluntary flight preparation. There were no bodies. There was no captain's daughter. Deveau spent the afternoon of 4 December and the following three days sailing the Mary Celeste to Gibraltar, arriving on 13 December 1872 with Mor