Aboard The Famous Ghost Ship, The Mary Celeste
Public DomainTheories about what happened to the Mary Celeste range from drunken mutiny to alien abduction.
The America brigantine Mary Celeste was found inexplicably deserted near the Azores Islands in 1872.
Spotted by the British brig Dei Gratia on December 4, the abandoned ship had been sailing through the Atlantic about 1,000 miles west of Portugal. What happened aboard remains an utter mystery to this day. There have been theories involving sea monsters to fire. Only earlier this year was a new scenario put forth that makes the most sense thus far.
Science Source/Photo Researchers History/Getty ImagesAn 1890 colorized illustration of a giant squid attacking a ship.
According to the ship’s log, Captain Benjamin Briggs and his crew departed aboard the Mary Celeste from New York Harbor for Genoa, Italy on Nov. 7, 1872. The ship was carrying denatured alcohol, seven crew members, and Briggs’ wife and daughter.
For the next two weeks, everyone aboard endured treacherous seas and wailing winds until Briggs entered his last log on November 25.
According to The Smithsonian, when the confused British crew of the Dei Gratia boarded the abandoned vessel six months later, they found everything in order. Even the crew’s clothes had been packed away, but nobody was to be found. Only a disassembled pump in the hold, three and a half feet of water in the bilge, and a missing lifeboat suggested there had been trouble.
There was six months of food and water still aboard. The cargo was intact and the crew’s belongings neatly stowed away. A ship’s captain would only abandon ship in a matter of life or death, generally speaking. So what had happened here?
Keystone/Stringer/Getty ImagesAn illustration of the Mary Celeste.
Some posit the crew mutinied after drinking some of the alcohol, but no signs of violence were present. Others theorized pirates raided the ship though no valuables were missing. Finally, in 2002 — 130 years after she left New York — the Mary Celeste‘s fate was potentially explained.
Documentarian Anne MacGregor launched an investigation which included reconstructing the ship’s drift and found that the ship had been 120 miles off course due to a faulty chronometer. Since the captain expected seeing land three days earlier than he did, he changed course towards Santa Maria Island to find shelter.
MacGregor also found that the ship had been recently refitted and that debris from this process clogged the pumps which remove water during harsh weather. Thus, with no working pumps and being so utterly off course, the captain decided to abandon ship to try to save his men.
Of course, this is merely the latest in a slew of theories. Perhaps sea monsters were to blame in the case of this real ghost story, after all.
