The Mary Celeste

While Sara Clayburn is wandering alone through Whitegates, she compares her situation to the situation of the Mary Celeste:

“It’s like the Mary Celeste – a Mary Celeste on terra firma, she thought, recalling the unsolved sea-mystery of her childhood. No one ever knew what happened on board the Mary Celeste. And perhaps no one will ever know what has happened here.”[1]

The “Mary Celeste of New York” was an American merchant brigantine. On December 5, 1872 the ship was discovered sailing unmanned on the open sea by the British brigantine Dei Gratia, which had followed a roughly parallel course. Almost one month earlier, on November 7, 1872, the Mary Celeste had left from New York with her Captain Benjamin Spooner Briggs, his 30 years old wife, Sarah Elizabeth, their infant daughter, Sophia Matidla, and a crew of seven,[2] carrying a cargo of 1,701 barrels of industrial alcohol, worth $ 37,000.[3] The captain of the Dei Gratia, David Reed Morehouse, and his crew did not find anyone on board the Mary Celeste, though they noticed that the lifeboat of the Mary Celeste, a small yawl, was missing. Essential documents, the navigation book, the sextant and the chronometer were also absent. However, the valuable cargo was still there. In order to claim the salvage money, Captain Morehouse and his crew sailed the Mary Celeste to Gibraltar. Initially, Captain Morehouse and his crew were accused of piracy.[4] But eventually they received £ 1,700 from the Admiralty Court as salvage money.[5] Afterwards numerous theories about what happened including pirates, slave traders, whirlwinds, waterspouts or a conspiracy to get the salvage money, were postulated. The commonly most accepted explanation, however, is that Captain Briggs and his crew boarded the lifeboat because they were afraid that the cargo, the industrial alcohol, could explode because of extreme heat. Afterwards they were probably not able to return to the ship, perhaps because of inclement weather. The Mary Celeste was sent back to her owner in New York afterwards and another Captain, Gilman C. Parker, delivered its cargo safely later on. Subsequently, the Mary Celeste was resold numerous times. The career of the Mary Celeste came to an abrupt end when Captain Gilman C. Parker navigated her into a coral reef off the coast of Haiti. Before this “accident” occurred, the cargo of the ship had been heavily insured. Consequently, the underwriters became suspicious and sent an investigator. He found out that the cargo, which was supposed to valuable, consisted of cheap dog collars. Before it was possible to charge them, Captain Gilman C. Parker and his first mate died.[6] The wreck of the Mary Celeste is comparatively well preserved. Following the link in the footnote, interactive pictures of the wreck of google maps can be viewed.[7]

An 1861 painting of the Mary Celeste painting by an unknown author.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Celeste#/media/File:Mary_Celeste_as_Amazon_in_1861.jpg

[1] Edith Wharton, “All Souls’,” in: The Demanding Dead – More Stories of Terror and the Supernatural, ed. Peter Haining (London: Peter Owen Publishers, 2007), 196.

[2] Damon Wilson, The world’s greatest unsolved mysteries, (London: Magpie Books, 2004), 77 – 78.

[3] Otto Mielke, “Brigatine Mary Celeste,” SMS - Schiffe Menschen Schicksale,“ No. 94 2001, p.5.

[4] Wilson, The world’s greatest unsolved mysteries, 78 – 89.

[5] Brian Hicks, Ghost ship. The mysterious true story of the Mary Celeste and her missing crew (New York: Ballantine Books, 2004), 135.

[6] Wilson, The world’s greatest unsolved mysteries 78 – 89.

[7]https://www.google.com/maps/views/u/0/view/streetview/oceans/mary-celeste-wreck-bermuda/i1i4NPuJaqkAAAQJOJMqGw?gl=e&heading=205&pitch=96&fovy=75