The Mary Celeste was first built on the 18th May 1861 with the original name, Amazon. The first captain to sail aboard the Amazon was called Robert McLellan. For her maiden voyage in June 1861 Amazon went to Five islands to collect cargo that was going to London. On the way the Captain got sick, as he got worse Amazon had to sail back home to get the captain to a doctor. Sadly they were to late and McLellan died on the 19th June. Due to the death of the previous captain John Nutting Parker became the new captain and took Amazon to London like she was supposed to have the first time. You may think that this trip was successful but sadly it wasn't. There were two incidents number one on the way there and number two on the way back, Number one was that She collided with fishing equipment and number two was that she ran into and sank a brig. Parker remained captain for two years working mostly with west indies trade until 1863 when William Thompson took over as captain. Thompson continued as captain for four years with no unusual events until October 1867 when she was driven ashore in a storm left badly damaged and named a wreck. On October 15th Amazon was bought as a wreck by Alexander McBean. Within a month McBean sold the wreck to a local businessman who by November 1868 had sold it to Richard W. Haines who fixed her up, gave her a new name of Mary Celeste, made himself her captain and registered her as an American Vessel all by December 1868. In October 1869 The Mary Celeste was taken away from Haines by his creditors (people who Haines owed money to). It was then sold to a New York Consortium bay that was owned by James H. Winchester. Over the next three years the Mary Celeste's trading activities are anonymous. Early in 1872 Winchester gave her a large extension and rebuild. During this rebuild the Mary Celeste was made deeper, longer, wider and had a second deck added meaning much more space for cargo and slightly larger living quarters. *1
In October 29th 1872 there was a new captain for the consortium bay, Benjamin Spooner Briggs. Captain Briggs was born on the 24th April 1835 And was one of the five sons of captain Nathan Briggs. Briggs was a observant christian who in 1862 married his cousin Sarah Elizabeth Cobb. Over the course of their marriage Benjamin and Sarah had two children, son Arthur who was born in September 1865 and daughter Sophia Matilda who was born in October 1870. By Sophia's birth Briggs was a high standing man in his profession and was considering retiring and working will his brother Olive who had got bored off drifting about the sea. Unluckily he did not retire but invested money on shares of ships, Oliver invested on the Julia A. Hallock while Benjamin invested on the Mary Celeste. *1
In October 1872 as her first voyage with a new captain Briggs was supposed to take the Mary Celeste to New York to collect cargo and take the cargo to Genoa, Italy. Briggs invited his wife, daughter and small crew on the voyage leaving their school aged son with his grandma. The ship arrived at pier 50 East river on the 20th October 1872. On the third of November Briggs wrote a letter to his mother saying that they intended to leave on Tuesday adding "our vessel is in beautiful trim and I hope we shall have a fine passage" on Tuesday the 5th November Briggs moved the Mary Celeste to New York harbour but couldn't stay there so anchored the ship by Staten island. but didn't leave due to the weather During this stop Sarah took advantage of being able to post letters and wrote one to her mother-in-law that said "Tell Arthur I make great dependence on the letters I get from him, And will try to remember anything that happens on the voyage which he would be pleased to hear." While the Mary celeste got ready to set sail nearby was another ship called Dei Gratia awaiting cargo that was also headed to Genoa Italy. The captain of Dei Gratia was called David Morehouse and was at the same level as Briggs meaning that they could have been friends. On the 7th November the weather cleared up and the Mary Celeste finaly set sail. *1
It was December the 5th when Morehouse spotted a large ship about six miles away in the choppy seas. It was not until they got closer that Morehouse realised that the ship was the Mary Celeste and that it was swaying about with no-one aboard to steer. Once they got close enough More house sent a search party to the ship to see if anyone was aboard. Sadly there was nobody on the ship and only a few malfunctions with it. These malfunctions were, no lifeboat, a small amount of water at the bottom deck but all the crews belongings were safe and exactly as they should be. The last entry to the ships daily log was made at 8.00 AM on the 25th December nine days before the Dei Gratia would find them. *1 and *2
There are several theory's to what happened but here are five:
- Crazed Mutiny, Initial checks showed strange scrape marks on the walls that looked like they were made by axes with blood like liquid on them. The head of the search party believed that The crew had got dangerously drunk on the cargo of alcohol, killed the crew and left the boat. This was not true as the marks were natural tears and the alcohol was poisonous and not fit for drinking.
- Criminal Conspiracy, Could the ship have been invaded by pirates? of course not, the ship was't looted. Could it have been the Dei Gratia robbing the ship and killing the crew to get the salvage money? Even Briggs and the crew faking their death to collect the money through the Dei Gratia?
- Alien Abduction, Many people think that aliens are the case. Reports said that the last entry in the log was shortly before it was found and that there was half eaten food on the table. This is a myth of course! The last entry in the log was nine days before it was found, there was no food on the table, water at the bottom and no lifeboat.
- Natural Disaster, Some people think that it could have been a waterspout or seaquake damaging the ship letting water in making the captain think the ship was sinking and abandon ship.
- Alcohol Explosion, The most realistic theory to most people is linked to the cargo of alcohol. whether alcohol fumes leaked out causing an explosion or making it seem like there was going to be an explosion maybe made the captain put everyone on the lifeboat tied to the ship until it was safe again in the ship but have the rope come undone leaving everyone on the lifeboat in the sea in bad weather. *3
Here are the links I used.
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Celeste
- http://www.history.com/news/ask-history/what-happened-to-the-mary-celeste
- https://yesterday.uktv.co.uk/blogs/article/5-theories-what-happened-mary-celeste/
