True Life Tuesday: The Mary Celeste

 
This is just one of many maritime mysteries in human history.

The ship was built in 1861 in Nova Scotia, Canada and was originally named Amazon. The ship underwent a series of mishaps until is was sold in 1867 and renamed the Mary Celeste. On November 7, 1872 the ship set sail from New York City to Genoa, Italy. on board were the ship's captain, Benjamin S. Briggs, his wife, Sarah, their 2 year old daughter, Sophia, and 8 crew members. According to the log the ship faced harsh weather for two weeks of their journey. The last entry in the log was from November 25 and noted that the ship was 6 nautical miles from the Azore islands. 

On December 5th the British ship Dei Gratia noticed that the ship and climbed aboard where they found the ship to be deserted. The cargo and personal belongings of the passengers seemed undisturbed but there was a life boat missing. It was noticed that there was about 3 feet of water in the ships hold but they determined that it was still sea worthy. 

Some of the crewmen from the Dei Gratia sailed the Mary Celeste to the island of Gibraltar. British authorities conducted an investigation and found no evidence of foul play. The most likely theory of what happened is that Captain Briggs incorrectly though that the ship was taking on too much water and they abandoned the ship. Unfortunately the passengers were never found.

In 1884 Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote a short story called J. Habakuk Jephson's Statement that was based on the story of the Mary Celeste which brought the story more to the public attention. The ship remained in service and went through many owners with the last one being Captain G.C. Parker. In 1885 Captain Parker deliberately sailed the ship into a reef near Haiti in hopes of sinking it for the insurance money. His plan did not work and while the ship did not sink it was no longer sea worth and was left on the reef to deteriorate.