MARY CELESTE MYSTERY

(1872)

On November 7, 1872, the Mary Celeste—a two-masted brigantine ship—set sail

from New York City to Genoa, Italy with a cargo hold full of industrial-strength alcohol, seven
crew, Captain Benjamin Spooner Briggs, his wife, Sarah, and their two-year-old daughter,
Sophia.

On December 5, 1872, The British brigantine ship Dei Gratia was about 400 miles
east of the Azores when crew members spotted a ship adrift in the choppy seas. Capt.
David Morehouse was taken aback to discover that the unguided vessel was the Mary
Celeste, which had left New York City eight days before him and should have already
arrived in Genoa, Italy.

Capt. Morehouse sent a boarding party to the ship out of concern. According to the
report, on the Below decks, the ship's charts had been tossed about, and the crew men's
belongings were still in their quarters. The ship's only lifeboat was missing, and one of its
two pumps had been disassembled. Three and a half feet of water was sloshing in the
ship's bottom, though the cargo of 1,701 barrels of industrial alcohol was largely intact.
There was a six-month supply of food and water—but not a soul to consume it.

The attorney general leading the salvage inquiry, Frederick Solly-Flood suspected
something about this case wasn’t right because the Mary Celeste’s crew and passengers
were missing, but they didn’t take their personal things or even food and water. And
according to Captain Morehouse, the crew of Dei Gratia just found the Mary Celeste in solid
condition, sailing itself.

During the investigation, they also suspected that the crew of the Dei Gratia had
murdered everyone aboard the Mary Celeste, dumped their bodies at sea, and sailed the
stolen ship and its cargo to Gibraltar in order to claim salvage payment.

But according to Mr. Solly-Flood and the salvage inquiry, the dei gratia crew found
not guilty. Sure, the fact that the crew of the Dei Gratia stood to gain financially from the
disappearance of everyone aboard the Mary Celeste raised some alarm bells. But after over
three months of stern, bewigged, British inquiry, the court found no evidence of foul play.

However many people are still not convinced that the dei gratias crew were totally
innocent due to the fact that they received only one-sixth of the Mary Celeste’s $46,000
insurance policy.

The story of the Mary Celeste might have drifted into history if Conan Doyle hadn't
published "J. Habakuk Jephson's Statement" in 1884; his sensationalistic account, printed
in Cornhill Magazine, set off waves of theorizing about the ship's fate. Even Attorney
General Solly-Flood revisited the case, writing summaries of his interviews and notes. But
the mystery remained unsolved.

These bits of information are helpful for analyzing some of the more popular theories
that have developed over the years.

Mary Celeste Theory No. 1: Treachery

Treachery gets number one because it was essentially the prevailing theory during the
actual salvage inquiry in 1872. Naturally, Solly-Flood and his court suspected foul play by
the crew of the Dei Gratia. But, as I mentioned earlier, they could find no evidence.

On top of that, the captains of both ships had been friends. Briggs was a seasoned seaman
and well-respected in shipping circles.

It’s not impossible that Morehouse and the Dei Gratia were guilty—after all, they did stand
to gain from the salvage. But, between his friendship with Briggs and the fact that no
evidence of violence was found, it doesn’t feel right.

Mary Celeste Theory No. 2: An Alcohol Explosion

Another theory focuses on the ship’s cargo: those 1,701 barrels of industrial strength
alcohol. The story goes that some of the barrels may have leaked noxious fumes—a theory
supported by the nine empty barrels found aboard. These fumes may have built up causing
a small explosion, or at least causing the ship’s crew and captain to fear an explosion.

It is then possible that Briggs ordered a temporary evacuation so that all souls aboard could
sail in the lifeboat behind the Mary Celeste while the vapors cleared. At some point, their
tow line may have detached, leaving the lifeboat behind while everyone in it watched the
Mary Celeste drift away, leaving them alone and helpless in the vast Atlantic.

However, there was no visible evidence of a cabin fire, though this still leaves open the
possibility of alcohol fumes that never combusted. Even a cool-headed, experienced
captain might opt for a temporary evacuation in such a case, especially when his own family
was aboard.

Mary Celeste Theory No. 3: A Bad Pump

This theory may have the most going for it. When comparing Solly-Flood’s notes on the
case to oceanography data, researchers found that the Mary Celeste was 120 miles west of
where Briggs had thought he was, possibly due to a faulty chronometer, so he had clearly
become disoriented. The day before the ship was abandoned, it also changed course,
perhaps seeking some relief from rough seas. But bad weather and busted chronometers
would not have caused an experienced captain like Briggs to abandon ship. There had to
be something else.

This is where the pumps come in. On its previous voyage, the Mary Celeste had carried
coal in her cargo and had also recently been extensively repaired and renovated. The result
may well have been a pump that became clogged with coal and sawdust. This would
explain why one of the ship’s two pumps was found disassembled.

Without the pump, and with a cargo hold packed Tetris-style with barrels of industrial
strength alcohol, Briggs wouldn’t have been able to tell how much seawater had leaked into
the hull. We know from the three and a half feet of water observed by the boarding crew
that there had been some flooding, but Briggs would have been unsure of its extent.

At this point, Briggs had been battling storms, was disoriented, and wasn’t able to determine
if his ship was going to stay afloat. With Santa Maria in sight on the date of the last entry in
the log book, Briggs may have ordered the ship abandoned, while he still had the chance to
reach land with the lifeboat.

Was the case of Mary Celeste solved?

There’s a lot to the story of Mary Celeste that we’ll never know. Too much time has passed,
too many records lost, and everyone involved is totally dead by now.

And yet the story persists, not unlike our collective fascination and curiosity surrounding
stories about the Bermuda Triangle, or missing jet liners. Death may be final, but the idea of
vanishing from time and space captures the imagination, just as the vast unknown of the
open ocean does—it’s a place where things like that can happen.

As for Mary Celeste, her end was far less mysterious. In November of 1884, she sailed right
into a reef just off the coast of Haiti; wrecked by a crooked captain who was trying to scam
his insurance company. He was charged with fraud and died soon after.