Mary Celeste was an American-registered merchant brigantine discovered adrift and deserted in the Atlantic Ocean off the Azores Islands on December 4,1872.
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33 Facts About Mary Celeste
2.
Mary Celeste was built in Spencer's Island, Nova Scotia, and launched under British registration as Amazon in 1861.
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3.
Mary Celeste was transferred to American ownership and registration in 1868, when she acquired her new name.
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4.
Keel of the future Mary Celeste was laid in late 1860 at the shipyard of Joshua Dewis in the village of Spencer's Island, on the shores of the Bay of Fundy in Nova Scotia.
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5.
Mary Celeste was launched on May 18,1861, given the name Amazon, and registered at nearby Parrsboro on June 10,1861.
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6.
Mary Celeste was owned by a local consortium of nine people, headed by Dewis; among the co-owners was Robert McLellan, the ship's first captain.
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7.
Mary Celeste collided with fishing equipment in the narrows off Eastport, Maine, and after leaving London ran into and sank a brig in the English Channel.
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9.
Mary Celeste made himself her captain, and, in December 1868, registered her with the Collector of Customs in New York as an American vessel, under a new name, Mary Celeste.
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10.
Mary Celeste's length was increased to 103 feet, her breadth to 25.
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11.
Mary Celeste arranged for his wife and infant daughter to accompany him, while his school-aged son was left at home with his grandmother.
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12.
Mary Celeste anchored the ship just off Staten Island, where Sarah used the delay to send a final letter to her mother-in-law.
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13.
Mary Celeste found personal items scattered about Briggs' cabin, including a sheathed sword under the bed, but most of the ship's papers were missing along with the captain's navigational instruments.
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14.
Mary Celeste was immediately impounded by the vice admiralty court to prepare for salvage hearings.
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15.
Mary Celeste's report emphasized that the ship did not appear to have been struck by heavy weather, citing a vial of sewing machine oil found upright in its place.
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16.
Flood thought that Morehouse and his men were hiding something, specifically that Mary Celeste had been abandoned in a more easterly location, and that the log had been doctored.
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17.
In 1931, an article in the Quarterly Review suggested that Morehouse could have lain in wait for Mary Celeste, then lured Briggs and his crew aboard Dei Gratia and killed them there.
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18.
Mary Celeste asks why Briggs left his son Arthur behind if he intended to disappear permanently.
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19.
However, Mary Celeste would have sailed away empty if the line had parted, leaving the yawl adrift with its occupants.
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20.
Mary Celeste discovered that the rope of the boat was cut, not untied, which indicated when the Mary Celeste was abandoned it was done quickly.
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21.
Mary Celeste supposes that one day there was a more intense explosion and a sailor ventured below deck with a light or lit cigar which set off the accumulated fumes causing an explosion violent enough to blow off the top covering on the hatch, which had been found in an unusual position.
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22.
Mary Celeste suggested that Briggs abandoned ship after a false sounding, because of a malfunction of the pumps or other mishap, which gave a false impression that the vessel was taking on water rapidly.
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23.
Begg gives more consideration to a theory that Mary Celeste began drifting towards the Dollabarat reef off Santa Maria Island when she was becalmed.
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24.
Chambers's Journal of September 17,1904, suggests that the entire complement of Mary Celeste was plucked off one by one by a giant octopus or squid.
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27.
Under this new ownership, Mary Celeste sailed mainly in the West Indian and Indian Ocean routes, regularly losing money.
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28.
On January 3,1885, Mary Celeste approached the port via the channel between Gonave Island and the mainland, in which lay a large and well-charted coral reef, the Rochelois Bank.
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29.
Mary Celeste was not the first reported case of a ship being found strangely deserted on the high seas.
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30.
Whatever the truth of these stories, it is the Mary Celeste that is remembered; the ship's name, or the misspelled Marie Celeste, has become fixed in people's minds as synonymous with inexplicable desertion.
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31.
Mary Celeste story inspired two well-received radio plays in the 1930s, by L Du Garde Peach and Tim Healey respectively, and a stage version of Peach's play in 1949.
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32.
In November 2007, the Smithsonian Channel screened a documentary, The True Story of the Mary Celeste, which investigated many aspects of the case without offering any definite solution.
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33.
The Mary Celeste had been used for transporting coal, which is known for its dust, before it was loaded with alcohol.
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