Nearly 150 years ago, the Canadian brig Dei Gratia was sailing through difficult waters near the Azores (some 800 miles west of Portugal) under the command of Capt. David Reed Morehouse. The brig had been at sea for almost a month. Then, on December 5, 1872, Capt. Morehouse’s crew spotted something on the horizon. A ship, seemingly adrift, with no apparent course nor movement on its decks, was barely visible. The Dei Gratia sailed closer to get a better look. It was the Mary Celeste, a vessel that had left the same port around ten days before them.
Morehouse ordered a party to investigate the situation aboard the erratic ship. The deck showed no signs of struggle—everything seemed to be in order. Below there were a few tossed charts, but nothing major. The captain’s and crew’s personal belongings were perfectly packed in their corresponding quarters. The cargo of denatured alcohol was intact. However, one of the ship’s lifeboats was missing and a pump had been disassembled, leaving the Mary Celeste with a slight—though harmless—flood on its lower level. There were ample supplies still on board, enough food and water to last over six months. But not a single soul was found.
The story
There was absolutely no explanation nor clue as to what had happened. Capt. Morehouse took the ship back to port as salvage, where investigations looking into the disappearances began. Since then, there’s been plenty of speculation, conjectures, guesses and unproven theories trying to explain the mystery of the ghost ship, ranging from mutiny to supernatural intervention—but ultimately no one has been able to confirm anything. The mystery endured to our day, and it’s been a source of fascination for entire generations. Novels, plays, films and documentaries have all dramatized and recounted the story many times over. Humanity loves a good mystery, after all.
So, what could have happened? What we know is limited. The Mary Celeste left New York City for Genoa on November 7, 1872, under the command of Capt. Benjamin Spooner Briggs, who was accompanied by his wife, Sarah, their infant daughter, Sofia, and a crew of seven sailors. For two weeks they sailed, navigating around severe winds and perfidious seas, until Capt. Briggs wrote a last log, indicating their position, on November 25. Unfortunately, he didn’t annotate anything wrong with the ship, nor the crew, that could give any hints as to what happened next. At some point, the pump was disassembled as the Captain decided to abandon ship—or so it seems.
Theories
At first, people suspected the Dei Gratia and its crew had something to do with the disappearances. But Capt. Morehouse’s story added up, and the investigation soon ruled him out as a suspect. An early theory was that the Mary Celeste’s crew had gotten drunk and arranged a mutiny, but since there were no signs of violence anywhere on the ship, this theory was also abandoned. For the same reason, and adding the fact that nothing was missing, a pirate attack also seemed highly unlikely. When most other reasonable alternatives were discarded, wilder and wilder stories sprung up. Some said sea-monsters had attacked the ship and kidnapped its crew. Some argued the sailors ran away from a giant squid. Yet others believed something paranormal had taken place.
The situation was further muddled when literature came to the scene. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle—you know, the author of Sherlock Holmes—immortalized the mystery of the Mary Celeste when he wrote one of his earlier short stories, “J. Habakuk Jephson’s Statement,” where he depicted a vengeful ex-slave who commandeered the ship and crew. This account was explicitly fictional, but some publications took it as truth for a brief while.
One of the most credible theories was that vapors from the cargo had blown off the hatch cover, and the crew abandoned ship fearing an imminent fire. But that won’t do: the hatch cover was securely fastened when the vessel was found. So… there really was no good explanation at all, except the rather unsatisfactory possibility that the Captain had gone mad and irrationally ordered his crew and family into the lifeboat and away from the ship—without cause or justification.
The answer?
Many have attempted to come up with better theories since. Anne MacGregor, a documentary filmmaker, is one of the latest researchers who has taken a shot at doing so. And she has arguably conducted the most thorough investigation yet. With the help of oceanographer Phil Richardson and using historical weather data to plot the ship’s course and comparing all notes and logs from the official 19th-century investigation, McGregor has proposed that coal dust from a refitting may have clogged the pumps—hence the disassembly.
When the Captain realized the pump was inoperative, and without means to visually assess the water levels given the packed cargo, he had to make a decision. At this point, the Azores could have been visible on the horizon. It’s likely that the currents later dragged the Mary Celeste far away, to where the Dei Gratia found it. Maybe—just maybe—the captain thought it an option to reach land safely at this earlier point. Having passed through rough weather and fearing the ship could sink, he might well have given the order to evacuate.
A story untold
But what happened afterwards? The story—and the mystery—persists. More evidence is needed before MacGregor’s version is accepted, even though it’s perhaps the best explanation so far. For all its merits, it still leaves much to the imagination. The crew didn’t register such a decision—or any hint thereof—on the ship’s log, so we have no way of knowing for sure. There’s also the fate of the crew to worry about. Every sailor on the ship, including the captain, was an experienced seaman, so if they indeed abandoned ship with land in sight, what went wrong? Sure, it could have been a number of things, any of them as likely as the next one. All we know for sure is that none of them, including Sarah and Sofia, were ever seen or heard from again.
The last word hasn’t been spoken on the matter, and still plenty of research is needed, for there remains much to be clarified surrounding the mysterious case of the Mary Celeste.
***
Other articles for you:
How Edgar Allan Poe’s Mysterious Death Mirrored His Writings
Uncovering The Truth Behind The Myth Of King Tut’s Deadly Curse
5 Japanese Legends And Folk Tales That Are Scarier Than Ringu
***
