December 4 – The Mystery of the Mary Celeste

nPostednon December 4, 2014

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nWasnshe the victim of storms?

nProbably not; the weather was fine!

nThe victim of pirates?

nAlmost surely not…after all, the ship was in good repair, and the stores and cargo—even thenbelongings of ship and passengers, including the valuables!—werenstill on board. It was not typical pirate behavior to leave all thenspoils behind!

nThennwhat happened? Why was the British ship Mary Celeste discoverednon this date in 1872, sailing toward Gibraltar at full sail with sixnmonths’ worth of food and water on board but no trace of the eightncrew members and two passengers?

nAnnabandoned ship that has nobody on board, usually found damaged andndrifting, is called a derelict. The Mary Celeste was the mostnmysterious derelict in the history of sea travel, because nobodynknows why the crew and passengers abandoned her. Her crew werencapable and experienced mariners…but none of the people on boardnthe ship that long-ago time were ever seen again!

nHerenare some facts of the case:

nThen ship’s cargo, 1,701 barrels of commercial alcohol, was worth aboutn $35,000, and the ship and her cargo were insured for $46,000.

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nThen ship was flying no distress signal. A ship in distress, especially back then,n often flew its flag upside down.

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nTheren was no sign of violence, piracy, mutiny, struggle, nothing! Then possessions of crew and passengers were just where they were theyn were expected to be—not hidden, not strewn about.

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n Then one lifeboat aboard the ship was, along with crew and passengers,n missing. So they most likely abandoned ship – but, again, why?

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nIn keep saying “two passengers,” but lest you think that mayben these passengers are culprits of some sort, you should know thatn they were the wife and toddler of the ship’s captain, and they oftenn traveled with him. The captain and all the crew members had highn reputations. It seemed to everyone who knew them very unlikely thatn they were up to any unsavory shenanigans.

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nAlthoughn the ship was not sinking and was still seaworthy (and, indeed, latern continued on to its destination in Italy, and sailed for more than an decade after this abandonment), there were signs of some sort ofn problem:

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1. nthen ship was a “wet mess,” with water between decks and in the hold;
  
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2. ntwon of the pumps had been disassembled (one was still operational);
  
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3. nthen ship’s clock wasn’t working;
  
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  nthen ship’s compass had been destroyed;
  
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5. nnavigationaln tools (the sextant and marine chronometer) were missing;
  
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6. nan peak halyard was missing, and a rope (maybe the peak halyard) wasn found tied to the ship, with the other end trailing in the water andn badly frayed;
  
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7. nthen captain’s logbook was still there but gave no hint as to whatn disaster befell the ship and crew; however, all the other ship’sn papers were missing.
  
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nOncen the ship finally made it to its original destination, and the cargon was unloaded, it was discovered that nine of the 1,701 barrels of alcohol were empty.

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Allnof these details would seem to give people a very good idea of whatnhappened to the people aboard the Mary Celeste. It seems to menthat the charts (maps) and navigation tools were missing because thencaptain intended to navigate to safety in the lifeboat. And maybe thenneed to get off the ship was something to do with all the water andnthe broken pump, or maybe the missing alcohol. Some people havenspeculated that there was a water spout (a tornado whipped up fromnsea water), or that the crew was in danger of being overwhelmed bynalcohol fumes. Another hypothesis is that there was a seaquake.

nBut apparently no hypothesis (educated guess) takesninto consideration all the facts known, so the dereliction of thenMary Celeste remains the biggest maritime mystery of all time!

nAlsonon this date: