The Mary Celeste

A haunting odyssey of an abandoned ship…

In November 1872, during the worst weather event since records began, hundreds of vessels were lost and abandoned in the Atlantic. One of these, a small schooner named Mary Celeste would become a haunting legend. The Captain, Benjamin Briggs, had been a full-time sailor for over 18 years and was highly respected. Before the journey from New York to Italy, to deliver 1,700 tons of industrial alcohol, he wrote,

“Our vessel is in beautiful trim and I hope we shall have a fine passage but I have never been in her before and can’t say how she’ll sail.... We seem to have a very good mate and steward and I hope I shall have a pleasant voyage.”

The Mary Celeste

Atlantic Mutual Insurance Company’s Vessel Record of the Mary Celeste

On December 4, 1872, a British merchant vessel, Dei Gratia, spotted Mary Celeste 400 miles East of the Azores. They found the ship totally abandoned. There were no signs of a struggle, the cargo was intact and there was up to 6 months supply of food. There was no structural damage, and although the sails were slightly damaged, it was not enough for a veteran crew of sailors to abandon the ship. The ten people on board, including Captain Briggs, his family, and crew had all vanished. An experienced captain would never do the unthinkable and leave his precious ship and would only leave the vessel if he knew it was going down.

Captain Benjamin Spooner Briggs, his wife and son.

There have been many outlandish theories that have been uncovered over the years. One theory believes that Briggs purposely abandoned the ship because of pirates without a struggle, although unlikely because he was an investor. Another theory suggests foul play from the crew of Dei Gratia. Finding an abandoned ship with its cargo fully intact was so rare, some believed that the crew could have pirated the ship and slaughtered everyone on board. However, there was no evidence this was what happened.

One article in the New York Sun on March 12, 1873, published the headliner, “The Abandoned Ship. Not Mutiny but a Scheme to Defraud the Insurance Company.” A Sun reporter was informed that Mary Celeste had been improperly cleared and sailed under false colours after going out of this port. The insurance company only paid one-sixth of the policy amount, suggesting the insurers were not convinced.

Possible Course of Mary Celeste After Abandonment

Furthermore, the ship could have been prey to seaquakes. The area around the Azores is one of the most seismically active in the world and is evidence of an 8.5 seaquake a month following the finding of the abandoned ship. The seaquake could have shaken the alcohol stored below deck, filling the bilges with alcohol and fumes. When one of the crew opened the hatch, the uprush of the fumes may have been so strong as to alarm the crew, it would have been sufficient to convince all hands that the ship was about to blow up and that their safety lay in immediate abandonment of the vessel. This is also unlikely because the ship was not found in any disarray, with the majority of personal belongings left behind. On Wednesday December 18, 1872, the Vice Admiralty Court held its first session for the purpose of hearing testimony. Oliver Deveau was the first witness called. After being duly sworn, he deposed that “everything in the cabin seemed to have been left in a hurry but everything was in its place.”

Perhaps, the most ludicrous theory is that the ship was attacked by a sea monster, possibly an octopus with giant limbs.

Works Cited

Fay, Charles. Mary Celeste : the Odyssey of an Abandoned Ship. Mary Celeste : the Odyssey of an Abandoned Ship. Massachusetts: Peabody Museum.

• All images found in Charles Fay’s book

Hicks, Brian. Ghost Ship: The Mysterious True Story of the Mary Celeste and Her Missing Crew. Ballantine Books, 2004.