She sailed alone across the ocean, her crew missing, never to be heard from again. What could have happened to the crew of the Mary Celeste? An obvious theory was that she had been abandoned suddenly. But what could have caused a experienced captain to abandon a seaworthy ship?
On December 4, 1872, the monotony of sea life was broken up for the sailors on board by an event that they would never forget. A short time after checking his ship’s position in the early afternoon, Captain More house sighted another ship several miles ahead. What sails she carried were trimmed the wrong way for the prevailing northerly wind and she seemed to be in trouble. As the mysterious ship grew closer, the captain hailed her through a speaking trumpet but his warnings were ignored. When this couldn’t work out, he sent his first mate and two seamen over in a boat to investigate. As they sailed closer, they saw her name, Mary Celeste. As they climbed aboard, they heard only the wind in the rigging and the sound of the ocean slapping against the hull. There was not even a single human that could be seen on board.
The Sailors, then, checked the hold for water. Although they found three and half feet off water, this was not a dangerous amount and could be easily expelled out by the pumps, which were in sound working condition.
As they explored the ship, the mystery intensified further. They looked everywhere but it seemed as if the men had just walked away and expected to be back in a few minutes. Their clothing, boots, money, razors, pipes and other personal possessions were still aboard. Except for the laundry that had been hung, everything was meticulously placed. The ship seemed to have a six-month supply of food and plenty of fresh water. In the captain’s cabin, the berth had been slept and there was evidence that a woman and small child had been on board.
Now the sailors were relieved that there was no one on board, hence they returned to the Dei Gratia (name of their own ship). There wasn’t any convincing reason but they presumed that the Mary Celeste had been abandoned. Her boat was gone, as were the ship’s papers and navigational instruments. From her logbook, it seemed that she had been abandoned ten days earlier and had travelled some 500 to 750 miles on her own before being discovered. Then, Captain Morehouse and the first mate tried to sail the Mary Celeste into port and enter a salvage claim for the ship and her cargo. With only two seamen to assist him, the first mate successfully sailed the Mary Celeste into Gibraltar on the morning of December 13, arriving twelve hours after the Dei Gratia.
Although it was strange that a seaworthy ship with no apparent serious damage would be abandoned, everyone was certain that they must have been rescued by a passing ship and would eventually show up and explain everything. However, this never happened.
Obviously, this didn’t stop investigators from devising various theories, each as vague as the previous ones. The chief investigator pointed the finger at the men of the Dei Gratia, accusing them of murdering the crew in order to claim the salvage money. This was hard to prove. Besides the fact that Captain Morehouse had a good reputation and the money to be gained was not that big, the two ships had been hundreds of Miles apart in late November.
Then he decided that maybe it was a mutiny and murder. For evidence, he pointed to some brownish red spots on the deck and rail apart from small cut in the rail that could have been made by an axe. He also felt that an old rusty sword that had been found in the captain’s cabin might have had blood on it. The ship carried a cargo of alcohol and one barrel was damaged. He felt that this damaged barrel of alcohol might have led to the theoretical mutiny. Yet there was no sign of any fight or drunkenness by the crew. On the contrary, everything was neatly arranged. The sword was then tested and it proved that there were no signs of blood on it. The spots on the deck and rail weren’t blood either.
Some felt that the ship might have been driven towards a rocky shore and the men, after losing hope of drawing away, abandoned ship. After this, the wind changed and the ship saved itself, while the lifeboat was driven onto the rocks.
A later investigator felt that the key was the 1,700 barrels of alcohol in the hold and the open cargo hatch. Perhaps the alcohol gave off gas, which someone smelled. Maybe there was even a small explosion and the captain and crew that the ship was about to blow. Abandoning the ship in panic, they must have been lost while the ship sailed off on its own. Hence, the story of the Mary Celeste remains one o the great mysteries of the sea.
