Mary Celeste

The Mary Celeste was a 103 foot 282 ton brigantine. Originally built as the Amazon in Nova Scotia in 1861, the ship seemingly had bad luck, and due to numerous negative occurrences had changed hands several times. It became the Mary Celeste in 1869.

No picture of Mary Celeste is currently available. This line drawing is of a half-brig of the same period.

On November 7, 1872, under the command of Captain Benjamin Briggs, the ship picked up a cargo of American alcohol (for fortifying wine) shipped by Meissner Ackermann & Coin in New York City and set sail for Genoa, Italy. In addition to the crew of seven, it carried two passengers: the Captain's wife, Sarah E. Briggs (née Cobb), and daughter, Sophia Matilda.

On December 4, 1872 (some reports give December 5, due to a lack of standard time zones in the 1800s), the Mary Celeste was sighted by the Dei Gratia, captained by a Captain Morehouse, who knew Captain Briggs. The Dei Gratia had left New York harbor only seven days after the Mary Celeste. Dei Gratia's crew observed her for two hours, and concluded that it was drifting, though it was flying no distress signals. Oliver Deveau, the Chief Mate of the Dei Gratia, led a party in a small boat to board it. He reported finding only one pump working, with a lot of water between decks and three and one-half feet of water in the hold. He reported that "the whole ship was a thoroughly wet mess". The ship seemed to be in good condition, but no one was aboard.

The forehatch and the lazarette were both open, the clock was not functioning and the compass was destroyed. The sextant and chronometer were missing, suggesting the ship had been deliberately abandoned. The only lifeboat appeared to have been intentionally launched, rather than torn away. Other accounts claim the lifeboat was still on the ship.

The cargo of 1700 barrels of alcohol was intact, though when it was eventually unloaded in Genoa, nine barrels were noted as being empty. A six-month supply of food and water was aboard. All of the ship's papers except the captain's logbook were missing. The last log entry was dated November 24 and placed her 100 miles west of the Azores. The last entry on the ship’s slate showed her as having reached the island of St Mary in the Azores on November 25th.

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 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).

Mary Celeste External Links

The Mystery of the Mary Celeste by Anna Derks
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.

Mary Celeste Mystery
Over the next 10 years she was involved in several accidents at sea and passed through a number of owners...

Mary Celeste : Fact not fiction
Being the strange story of the brigantine the Mary Celeste aka Marie Celeste which was found mid ocean abandoned - a great mystery begins.

The Unsolved Mystery of the Mary Celeste
On December 4, 1872, the Dei Gratia, also out of New York, sighted her between the Azores and Portugal. Although she did not display a distress signal, the Mary Celeste was listing badly and sailing erratically.

The Ship: Mary Celeste
When it was found, the Mary Celeste was sailing itself alone across the wide Atlantic. The ship was in first-class condition. Hull, masts, and sails were all sound...