Mary Celeste – the Ship Without a Crew

When

4 December 1872 date from records made at the time

Where

Atlantic Ocean between the Azores and Portugal

Verdict

Unexplained

The crew of the brigantine Dei Gratia found a seaworthy ship in the Atlantic, full of supplies and cargo – but without a living soul aboard.

What happened

On 7 November 1872 the American brigantine Mary Celeste sailed from New York for Genoa with a cargo of 1,701 barrels of alcohol. On board were Captain Benjamin Briggs, his wife, their two-year-old daughter and seven crew members. On 4 December the crew of the Canadian brigantine Dei Gratia spotted, between the Azores and Portugal, a ship sailing erratically under partial sail. There was nobody aboard. The vessel was seaworthy, with some water in the hold, plenty of food and water, and the crew's personal belongings untouched. Only the lifeboat, some papers and navigation instruments were missing. The last log entry was dated 25 November. None of the ten people was ever found.

Witnesses

Captain David Morehouse and the crew of the Dei Gratia, including mate Oliver Deveau, who was first to board; their testimony was given before the vice admiralty court in Gibraltar.

Explanations and hypotheses

The Gibraltar court investigated suspicions of mutiny, piracy and insurance fraud, but found no evidence. The most widely accepted hypothesis is that the captain, fearing an explosion of alcohol fumes, a leak or a false sounding of water in the hold, ordered the ship abandoned for the boat, which then drifted away or sank. A waterspout and a seaquake have also been considered. Arthur Conan Doyle fed the myth with an 1884 short story that popularized the corrupted name “Marie Celeste.” The ship herself was deliberately wrecked off Haiti in 1885 in an insurance fraud.

Unexplained There is no convincing explanation.

Sources

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