The Start of It All
On the morning of the nineteenth of October, 1872, Captain Benjamin Spooner Briggs, aged thirty-seven, wrapped himself warmly in a heavy overcoat before leaving his home at Marion, Massachusetts, where he lived with his wife Sarah, their seven year old son, Arthur, and their two year old daughter, Sophia Matilda. He was a proud family man in every sense of the word, being a highly-moral person, and his pride extended to the knowledge that he was to be master of a superb sea vessel due shortly to come directly under his command. The only thought clouding his mind was embodied in the fact that the one-third share he had purchased in the ship, as an investment for himself, might not be registered in his name until after leaving shore on her first voyage. However, that matter was purely academic relating solely to personal satisfaction in tying up all the loose ends. Over ten thousand dollars had been spent on work involving the design and restructure of the vessel and she was in excellent trim. Indeed, he was certain he had made a sound investment for himself and his family for the future. Therefore he felt entitled to be satisfied with the decision. But there were other factors which he might have considered carefully, which were temporarily over-ridden by euphoria eclipsing them from his mind. The ship, the Mary Celeste, formerly known as the “Amazon”, had been built only four years earlier. It had been ill-fated from the moment she left the slipway. Not only had her short career proved to be chequered, failing to produce material profit from many voyages undertaken, but within that very brief period of existence she had been wrecked and sold for a pittance. A ship with a record of that nature was one to avoid, as superstition reigned heavily with sailors. However, shortly after Briggs made his investment, in mid-October, 1872, she was a superb sailing vessel, looking very new and fully fitted-out, appearing to be both capable and seaworthy. What more could a Captain demand of a vessel? As he travelled eagerly to New York to take command of his ship, clutching a Bible in his hand, he would not have been quite as self-satisfied with his destiny had he the slightest inclination it was the last time he would set foot in his home.....the last time he would see his son or hold him in his arms.....the last time he would tread on American soil, or indeed on any other soil, again! For reasons or forces which influence and determine the lives of human-beings and yet have never been defined, he was a doomed man!
The Mary Celeste was built at Spencer’s Island in the Bay of Fundy, Nova Scotia. Joshua Dewis, the son of a farmer, born in Economy.....a small village by the Bay of Fundy.....was a carpenter who ran a very modest local business. Although he had been operating as a one-man business for some considerable time, he was dissatisfied with the slow progress he was making and decided to formulate plans on a far grander scale. Ultimately, having discussed his ideas at length with a number of people, he developed a ship-building enterprise with friends, neighbours and relatives in the tiny community. His views were warmly welcomed in that remote area, especially as unemployment was always rife and development of any kind practically non-existent. Dewis changed all that in a very short time. His ideas were considered with great interest and he would never be short of helping hands if, and when, the business began to flourish. The local merchants, Cox & Bigelow, saw merit in his plans and they decided to assist with the development costs for a share of the profits. As soon as this happened, Joshua Dewis was in business. Without delay, he bought an area of land at Spencer’s Island and laid the keel of the first ship ordered from the business, in 1860, which was the “Amazon”.....to be renamed later as the “Mary Celeste”. He had always been regarded as an excellent craftsmen and, with the assistance of kinfolk and friends, the vessel was successfully launched in the Spring of 1861. It was the first of a line of twenty-seven ships to be built by the business but this one was exceptional in that it would become the most ill-fated and the most renowned!
On the tenth of June, 1861, the vessel was registered at Parrsboro, in Nova Scotia, as a brigantine-rigged ship called the “Amazon”, with tht name painted on her bows. She was built of beech, spruce, maple and birch woods, and the cabins were lined with pinewood. There were two masts.....the foremost being square-rigged; the main mast ‘fore and aft’ (or schooner-rigged), which implies that the arrangement of sails were such that the leading edge of the fore and aft sails abutted the masts. The vessel was built with only one deck, a square stern, and carvel planking.....to produce a flush outward appearance. A carved scroll was sported under the bowsprit. The measurements were ninety-nine feet in length, twenty-five-and-a-half feet in breadth, and a depth of eleven-and-a-half feet. At that time, the gross tonnage was one hundred and ninety eight tons.
The first trip took place from Spencer’s Island shortly after registration, when it carried a load of plaster to Windsor.....a port further up the Minas Basin.....which was ultimately bound for New York. Ill-fortune was to strike quickly and without warning. Robert McLellan, her Captain and part-owner, was taken ill and died shortly afterwards. It was only the beginning of continued disaster for the vessel and those involved with her.....with two exceptions. Captain Jack Parker took command and sailed in her for two years making profits on every trip for the owners. At that time most of the commercial activities involved coastal trade off the New England States, occasional trips to the West Indies, and a single voyage to France. In 1863, Captain William Thompson was appointed its new Captain and continued with the same satisfactory progress as his predecessor for two full years. Sadly, however, the fortunes of the owners changed thereafter through a combined series of bad weather, poor crews, difficult cargoes, and unwise contracts which provided very low margins. Consequently, in the face of severe competition, unsatisfactory results ensued which meant that Captain Thompson had a limited budget to hire a good crew, food and victuals, and to make essential repairs. Nonetheless, following many heated discussions on these matters with the owners, he continued his duties for two further years, until October 1867, when the vessel was involved in a heavy storm and a large proportion of the cargo became badly damaged. The owners insisted the Captain was at fault for not ensuring the cargo was securely loaded and fastened and considered he should be held fully responsible for the cost of the damage. Thompson was furious at the allegation and refuted it entirely but the owners were entirely unmoved by his tirade. They had fought him many times before without conceding; it was not their intention to give in now. After a long and furious discussion, in which the owners firmly adhered to their decision, the Captain stormed out of the room and, in a fit of anger, sailed the ship to the shores of Cow Bay, Cape Breton Island, where he deliberately wrecked her on the strand shortly after the first of November, 1867.
When the owners learned of the fate of the vessel, they decided not to repair it in view of the cost involved. It was not known whether it had been insured but seemingly, in view of the decision to leave it, it is clear that no insurance had been arranged at that time. Within a few days of the information reaching them, ownership passed to an Alex McBean of Big Glace Bay who purchased the wreck for a pittance. He had no intention of becoming involved with the vessel except as a profiteer, or intermediary, for it was resold to John Howard Beatty on the ninth of November, 1867. Whatever Beatty’s intentions with regard to the wreck was never known. Indeed, there was some difficulty at the time concerning the transfer and registration of the vessel from McBean to Beatty which took some months to unscramble. The wreck lay dormant at Cow Bay for thirteen months with its timbers slowly rotting away as decay set in. In December, 1868, Beatty decided to divest himself of the problem and sold it to an American businessman named Richard W. Haines for the miserable sum of $1,750. Consequently, the ship was transferred to Haines on the thirty-first of December, 1868, and registered in New York. It was recorded that he sold a one-eighth interest to Sylvester Goodwin, a business colleague, at that time. The arrangement was fitting for both of them because Haines purchased the wreck with a view to building a new ship, using the original framework, which Sylvester Goodwin would sell to his connections. In this way, the cost of rebuilding the vessel would be low enabling both men to enjoy a high level of profit. Haines decided to change the name of the ship at the outset and, within a short period of time, the “Amazon” ceased to exist while the ‘Mary Celeste’ was born. As a businessman, he set to work to make capital from his venture and arranged for extensive and essential repairs to be carried out..... changing the entire structure of the vessel. He engaged local ship-repairers to build two decks in place of the old one, and to improve the length by five feet. The breadth remained the same, the depth increased from eleven-and-a-half feet to just over sixteen feet, and she was registered as two hundred and eighty two tons.....some forty-two per cent heavier than the original registration. The cost of these repairs amounted to $8,825 dollars, which was five times the cost of the wreck. A further $1,500 dollars was spent on the final fittings by her new owners.....James H. Winchester, Sylvester Goodwin and Daniel Sampson.
The ‘new’ vessel, now the Mary Celeste, was acquired by them on the thirteenth of October, 1869, and taken into their keeping. However, it was three months later, on the eleventh of January, 1870, when Captain Rufus Fowler, an experienced sea-farer, purchased a share in the ship to ensure his appoint-ment as her master. She was now credited to be a hermaphrodite brig, sometimes known as a brig schooner.....a two-masted sailing ship rigged on the foremast as a brig, with square sails set on yards, and as a schooner on the mainmast with a square topsail above a gaff mainsail. In those days, the term brig was the shortened version of ‘brigantine’ but later types of ships in their own right, after some modifications in the original rig, were widely used in the days of sail for short and coastal trading voyages. In this guise, the Mary Celeste was used again commercially but despite all the efforts of her owners, she failed to pay her way satisfactorily which led Captain Fowler to sell his share to Captain Briggs in October, 1872. Briggs could hardly believe his good luck on the investment for she was clearly in first-class condition and the timbers gave her the appearance of being a newly-built ship. In addition, he was more than delighted to be associated with the well-known and highly-respected shipping company of J.W. Winchester. However, the crux of his problem revolved round his lack of sufficient finance to purchase his captaincy. This was resolved eventually by the assistance of Simpson Hart, of New Bedford, Massachusetts, who loaned Captain Briggs the necessary amount on a mortgage.
On the fifth of September, 1872, the Mary Celeste docked at New York after arrangements had been made to bring her from Cow Bay at Cape Breton Island. She had previously completed a voyage from Porto Rico (now Puerto Rico) to test her seaworthiness and capability. At the time of the transfer of the shares to Captain Briggs, the vessel was berthed at Pier 44, at Hunter’s Point, along the East River. The Captain arrived in New York on his own, a week before his wife and daughter were due to set off to join him. He had a variety of matters to settle before their arrival relating to personal and business activities. Despite the fact that the shipping company controlled details concerning the arrangement of contracts, cargoes and finance, the responsibilities of the Captain were fairly extensive concerning the loading of the cargo, the condition of the vessel, the purchase and embalement of provisions and, last but not least, the hire of a hard-working, efficient, obedient crew. Subsequently, Captain Briggs became immersed in the many duties which required his attention for the voyage.
The contract was the first one received by the main owners of this particular vessel. It was agreed between J.W. Winchester & Company and Messrs. H. Mascarenhas & Co., of Genoa in Italy, for the former to carry 1,700 barrels of crude alcohol to be used in fortifying Italian wines. As a result of the mystery which eventually overtook the Mary Celeste, it was the last order ever negotiated between the two companies. After examining the pier and the dockside, Captain Briggs was not satisfied that the location was suitable for handling such a large number of barrels, so he took steps to arrange to move the ship to Pier 50 which he felt was more suitable for loading purposes. His experience and efficacy was such that, in a short while, he found himself with a lot of time on his hands and no one with whom to spend it. It gave him the opportunity to look round the city and to note the latest changes in development......for it was growing and changing year by year.
In 1872, New York was a varied city. On the one hand it had become a rich metropolis comprising the commercial and banking capital of America. On the other hand it was also a poor city with dirty streets and improper drainage. The air stank from the exhalations of abattoirs, gas works, decaying waste, and the festering bodies of dead animals. In fact, pollution in the city was so high, and levels of hygiene so low, that the death rate of human-beings was higher than in any other large city in the Western world. This fact was particularly ironic as forty-four per cent of the population were immigrants who had departed from their healthier native shores to make a new life for themselves in the city.
The political boundaries of New York in 1872 were fixed around Manhattan and the small islands in the East River, while Brooklyn was regarded as the third largest town in the United States with some four hundred thousand inhabitants. No one in New York had a good word for its thoroughfares. Vehicles of every description and function crowded together unable to escape the same line of movement. Attempts had been made to improve the situation. Only five years earlier a city ordinance had excluded swine from built-up sections in the city, when sows, hogs and piglets had roamed the streets aimlessly, devouring stale cabbage leaves and other garbage. The measure proved to be far too feeble to show any degree of success. Wooden planks split under the pressure of business traffic for which they were never intended, while cobblestones were torn loose faster than they could be replaced. The greatest concern, however, related to horses which were always in danger of slipping and hurting themselves seriously on many of the badly pock-marked roads. To complicate matters, life overflowed the houses and shops into the streets as merchants spread their wares across the pavements. At that time, horse-drawn street-cars were the main method of mass transportation. The cars of twelve separate transport companies wound their way through the city on twenty-one distinct routes at an average speed of four to six miles per hour. However, after heavy rainstorms, even a major avenue such as Broadway was turned into a sluggish stream of deep brown mud. Of particular annoyance was that parked horse-drawn vehicles and hand-trucks forced the rate of progress to slow to a crawl by reducing road space. Furthermore, pedlars roaming the city caused havoc with their carts by stalling the general movement of traffic. In fact public markets were so blocked as to become impenetrable. In addition, the Mayor of New York was constantly besieged by complaints that one street or another was closed because of filth.
At the time Captain Briggs arrived in New York, an animal virus had swept the city striking down most of its horses. This created a situation where horse-drawn cars were being run on a very limited basis, mainly on the far side of the city. As his location close to the East River was fairly distant from the place where his relatives and friends resided, and the hire of private carriages was costing at least ten dollars a trip, the Captain decided to remain on board, devoting himself to business matters on and about the dockside, and seeking daily comfort by reading his Bible. His problem of loneliness was resolved on Sunday the twenty-seventh of October, 1872, when Mrs. Briggs, accompanied by her daughter, Sophia Matilda, clutching her doll which was called Sarah-Jane, arrived at the Fall River Line’s destination point at North River Pier, where Captain Briggs met them and arranged conveyance across the town to the Mary Celeste. Mrs. Briggs was less impressed by her quarters on board than her husband. From her point of view, the cabin would be quite comfortable for one person on their own, especially a seafaring man who had experience in living in such a small area, but it was less than adequate for two adults with a child. Although the idea of discomfort on a long trip provoked complaints from her, there had been a number of other matters which required a degree of soul-searching. A great deal of serious discussion had taken place between her and the Captain in the past month for a number of reasons. Firstly, they had to decide whether it was advisable for Mrs. Briggs to make the trip. She had sailed with her husband on many occasions before but her dilemma was divided between her wish to stay with her loving husband or the need for her to remain with her children at the family residence, Rose Cottage, until Benjamin returned. They were a close-knit family and hardly relished being apart from each other for any period of time. It was most unfortunate that the Captain was a seafaring man and had to travel for long distances most of his life. Without her husband’s consent, Sarah Briggs realised they would be apart for the best part of four months.....perhaps even longer. Secondly, if they agreed to sail together, they had to decide whether it was advisable to take Sophia Matilda with them on the voyage. She was not yet two years old. Leaving her behind with her grandmother for all that time was less than a satisfactory solution. Thirdly, there was the problem of their son, Arthur. He had started his schooling and it was considered unreasonable to remove him from his studies for four months or more. The fact that Sarah Briggs was willing to go to sea with her husband was indicative of her devotion towards him and her need to be with him all the time. It was not an easy decision to make to leave her son behind. Ultimately, arrangements were made to leave Arthur with his grandmother in order to allow him to continue his studies without interruption. It was this slender thread of destiny which determined whether the boy was to live or die.
Captain Briggs warmed to the arrival of his wife and daughter, enjoying the spirit of family life once more. This was enhanced by a visit from the Reverend William H. Cobb, the brother of Mrs. Briggs, and his wife, on Thursday the thirty-first of October, 1872. They came during the morning and took Sarah and Sophia for a ride up to Central Park. The day was brightened considerably for the family and improved even more later on when news arrived that the Captain’s share in the Mary Celeste had been registered on the twenty-ninth of October. His investment of 8/24ths of the vessel was secure.....subject to the money borrowed for this purpose from Simpson Hart by mortgage. On the thirtieth of October events began to move more swiftly. The Mary Celeste was moved from Pier 44 to Pier 50 on the East River and the delivery and loading of cargo commenced. While this was going on, the Briggs family did not find themselves short of tasks. Much of the day involved supervising the loading of cargo from the quay to the ship by the Captain, while Mrs. Briggs prepared food and victuals and attempted to make the cabin as comfortable as possible. There was also the delivery of a sewing-machine and a harmonium (or melodeon) on the ship.....the latter being used regularly each evening to accompany their singing. In addition, general reading of chapters from the Bible was standard practice, while a review of the family photograph album provided the Captain and his wife with a great deal of nostalgia. The loading of the cargo was completed on the second of November, but not without incident. A poorly-loaded bundle of barrels fell from a low height as it was being lifted aboard and, although none of the barrels was affected, there was serious damage to one of the life-boats. Captain Briggs was furious at the accident to the boat and removed it with a request to the company to replace it immediately. Captain Winchester normally arrived at Pier 50 every other day from his office about a mile away and he promised to endeavour to obtain another boat to replace the one which had been damaged. There is no doubt that his intentions were strictly honourable and that he intended to carry out his promise. However, for whatever reason caused him to delay, there was no replacement. Consequently, when the Mary Celeste finally sailed with her cargo for Genoa, she sported only one life-boat aboard for the ten people who sailed in her.
One of the major duties to fall to Captain Briggs was the signing of a crew to man the ship during the voyage. In days when sailors were still press-ganged or shanghaied, it was important to select a crew which could be trusted.....a very difficult task indeed! For the Mary Celeste, only seven sailors were required which included a First-Mate, a Second-Mate, a Cook who substituted also as a Steward, and four others. The Captain had already selected his First-Mate who had worked for the company for the previous two years and had shown himself to be a sober young man, completely trustworthy. Coupled with that reference, the sailor was related to Captain James Winchester, the owner of the company. There could be no better comfort than having the man serve under him for the duration of the voyage. As soon as the crew had signed on, the Captain wrote his last letter to his mother.
New York Nov. 3rd, 1872
My Dear Mother,
It is a long time since I have written you a letter and I should like to give you a real interesting one but I hardly know what to say except that I am well and the rest of us ditto. It is such a long time since I composed other than business epistles. It seems to me to have been a great while since I left home but is only a little over two weeks but in that time my mind has been filled with business cares and I am again launched away into the busy whirl Of business life from which I have so long been laid aside. For a few days it was tedious, perplexing, and very tiresome, but now I have got fairly settled down to it and it sits lightly and seems to run more smoothly and my appetite keeps good and I hope I shan’t lose any flesh. It seems real home-like since Sarah and Sophia have got here and we enjoy our little quarters. On Thursday we have a call from Willie (REV. WILLIMAM H. COBB, BROTHER OF MRS. BRIGGS) and his wife. They took Sarah and Sophia with them on a ride up to Central Park. Sophia behaved splendidly and seemed to enjoy a ride as much as any of us. It is the only time they have been away from the vessel. On account of the Horse disease the horse-cars have not been running on this side of the city so we have not been able to go and make calls as we were so far away from anyone to go on foot, and to hire a private carriage would have cost us at least $10.00 a trip which we didn’t feel able to pay and we couldn’t walk and carry Sophia a mile or two which we should have had to (DO) to get to the ferry for Iva (WORD UNINTELLIGIBLE) or E-port (PROBABLY ELIZABETHPORT). It has been very confining for S. but I hope when we return we can make up for it. We seem to have a very good Mate and Steward and I hope shall have a pleas- ant voyage. We both have missed Arthur and I believe I should have sent for him if I could have thought of a good place to stow him away, Sophia calls for him occasionally and wants to see him in the Album which by the way is a favourite book of hers. She knows your picture in both Albums and points and says Gamma Bis. She seems real smart - has got over the bad cold she had when she came and has a first rate appetite for hash and bread and butter. I think the voyage will do her lots of good. We enjoy our melodeon and have some good sings, as I was in hope Oli (OLIVER E. BRIGGS, BENJAMIN’S BROTHER) might get in before I left but I’m afraid not now. We finished loading last nigh t and shall leave on Tuesday morning if we don’t get off tomorrow night, the Lord will- ing. Our vessel is in beautiful trim and I hope we shall have a fine passage, but as I have never been in her before I can’t say how she’ll sail. Shall want you to write us in about 20 days To Genoa, care of Am. Consul and about 20 days after to Messina care of Am. Consul who will forward to us if we don’t get there. I wrote James (JAMES C. BRIGGS, ANOTHER ER BROTHER OF BENJAMIN) to pay you for A’s board and rent: if he forgets, call on him also for any money that may be necessary for clothes. Please get Eben to see his skates are all right and the holes in his new thick boot heels. I hope he’ll keep well as I think if he does he’ll be some help as well as comp- any for you. Love to Hannah. Sophia calls Aunt Aunt Hannah often: I wish we had a picture so she could remember the countenance as well as name hoping to be with you again early in the spring.
With much love I am
Yrs. affly. BENJ.
(At the top of the fourth page the following words were scribbled: ‘Shall leave Tuesday morning.’)
On the fourth of November, 1872, Captain Briggs went to the office of the United States Shipping Commissioner in New York to sign the ‘Articles of Agreement’ and the ‘List of Persons Composing the Crew’ of the Mary Celeste. On the same day, insurance was arranged by J.W. Winchester and Company with an underwriter of Atlantic Mutual Insurance Company for $3,400 dollars on the freight on charter from New York to Genoa in Italy. The Captain finally made arrangements for communications to be sent to him in twenty days’ time to the American Consul at Genoa, and then to Messina......about twenty days after. Everything was set for a fair and successful voyage!
From that moment, for reasons known only to the parties involved, the normal run of events were changed. It was usual for Captain Briggs to spend the last evening before sailing with members of his family. He had never considered any other course of action in the past. On this occasion, however, his agenda altered significantly. The background to the event concerns Captain Morehouse, an old friend of Briggs, whose own command.....the Dei Gratia.....was located at Erie Basin in the East River complex being loaded with barrels of petroleum. Morehouse and Briggs had seen each other twice during the last few days of October so there was no need for them to renew old acquaintances. Nonetheless, on the night before sailing, Briggs did not spend the evening with his family but agreed to dine out with his friend. Coincidentally, the two ships were bound for Genoa although the contents of the cargoes differed and the departure dates spanned some eight days between them.....the Dei Gratia was to be loaded at Venango Yard with a cargo of 81,126 gallons of refined petroleum and sail on the fifteenth of November.
While Sarah put Sophia to bed in her tiny cabin bunk on board ship, her husband disembarked and met the Captain of the Dei Gratia at a pre-arranged point of the docks alongside the East River. After walking for some distance, they managed to hail a cab and gave the driver instructions to proceed into the city. They drove to Astor House, a place of good repute, where one could wine and dine in comfort.....but not without a little expense. There was clearly good friendship between the two men and no animosity whatsoever. They discussed their problems at length over the meal concerning cargoes, crews, the weather, and the capability of their vessels. After all, what else was there to discuss? There was no reason for one of them to be jealous of the other because they both had similar ships, cargoes of a like nature, and they were both Captains with a command. Apart from that, they had enjoyed a friendship for many years and sustained a deep-rooted respect for each other. As the evening wore on, they enjoyed the fare although Captain Briggs limited his liquid intake to a solitary alcoholic drink in deference to the many swallowed by his dining companion. Eventually, when the meal was over and the bill was settled, the two men made their way back to the East River docks to their respective places of rest for the night. Captain Morehead was to have time on his hands before his ship sailed, but Captain Briggs was set to depart on Tuesday the fifth of November.....the following morning!
It was a dull cloudy day with a strong headwind but the Mary Celeste moved away slowly from Pier 50 with her total cargo of 1,700 barrels of crude alcohol. However, Captain Briggs was not satisfied that the weather was calm enough to leave New York Harbour, especially as a heavy mist prevented a clear view. In due course, he decided not to continue the journey and anchored off Staten Island, only a mile away from their departure point. Sarah Briggs, with time on her hands, wrote to her mother-in-law.
November 7th, 1872
Dear Mother Briggs -
Probably you will be a little surprised to receive a letter with this date, but instead of proceeding to sea when we came out Tuesday morning, we anchored about a mile or so from the city, as it was a strong headwind, and B. said it looked so thick and nasty ahead we shouldn’t gain much if we were beating and banging about. Accordingly we took a fresh departure this morning with wind light but favorable, so we hope to get outside without being obliged to anchor. Have kept a sharp look-out for Oliver (CAPTAIN OLIVER EVERSON BRIGGS, BENJAMIN’S BROTHER) but so far have seen nothing of him. It was rather trying to lay in sight of the city for so long and think that most likely we had letters waiting for us there, and be unable to get them. However, we hope no great change has occurred since we did hear and shall look for a goodly supply when we reach G. (GENOA). Sophie thinks the figure 3 and the letter G. on her blocks is the same thing so I saw her whispering to herself yesterday with the 3 block in her hand - Gam-Gam-Gamma. Benj. thinks we have got a pretty peaceable set this time all around if they continue as they have begun. Can’t tell yet how smart they are. B. reports a good breeze now, says we are going along nicely. I should like to be present at Mr. Kingsbury’s ordination next week. Hope the people will be united with him, and wish we might hear of Mrs. K’s improved health on arrival. Tell Arthur I make great dependence on the letter I shall get from him, and will try to remember anything that happens on the voyage which he would be pleased to hear. We had some baked apples (sour) the other night about the size of a new-born infant’s head. They tasted extremely well. Please give our love to Mother and the girls, Aunt Hannah, Arthur and other friends, reserving a share for yourself. As I have nothing more to say I will follow A. Ward’s advice, and say it at once.
Farewell, Yours aff’ly, SARAH
With reference to “Mother” Briggs, it does not go without notice there are certain facets of life which seem without rhyme or reason. These include agonies of the soul, the pain of emotion, and personal tragedy. For the Briggs family there was a true mixture of all these.....none more searching than the suffering of mother Sophia Briggs, the true Christian God-fearing wife of Captain Nathan Briggs, and mother of four sons and one daughter. To her, the Mary Celeste was to become one of significant concern with the loss of a son, a daughter-in-law and a grand-daughter. But troubles come not single spies but in battalions. It was yet another of the many tragedies not uncommon among families whose kin travelled the high seas. For her there came a whole series of personal family disasters .....each one striking a blow from which she would never recover. It began with Captain Oliver Briggs, Benjamin’s brother, who was lost in his own ship, the Julia A. Hallock, in the Bay of Biscay. Oliver and Benjamin had arranged to meet in the Spring of 1873 at Barcelona to load fruit for the homeward voyage to New York. However, two days out from Vigo in Northern Spain, the Julia A. Hallock, which was carrying a cargo of fine coal, sprang a leak. The ship’s pumps became clogged and unworkable and the vessel filled with water and capsized. All on board were drowned except Second-Mate Perry who, after drifting for five days on a piece of wreckage, was rescued by a Spanish vessel. This disaster must have preceded, by only a short period of time, the one that befell his brother, Benjamin, on the Mary Celeste.
Then news arrived that her third son had succumbed to yellow fever at sea. The following year, her only daughter perished at sea when the vessel struck a rock. To end the series of tragedies, a communication arrived thereafter announcing the death of the last son from yellow fever during a voyage. Captain Nathan, on the other hand, was far too experienced a mariner to go to his maker through unworthy navigation, and he was too resilient to submit to a disease. His exit in life was destined to be much more spectacular than those of his offspring, with the exception of Benjamin who was expected by many to surface along some distant shore at a future date.
One evening, at Rose Cottage, the atmosphere became very humid and Captain Nathan left the house to get some air. A storm was brewing and he could feel the electricity in the air through the hairs on the back of his bare arms. He wandered to some trees close by and stared at the dark clouds above which covered the sky. As luck would have it, a flash of lightning shafted through the heavens to strike the Captain who fell senseless to the ground. It was a chance in a million to die from a bolt of lightning but it created a situation whereby Sophia Briggs, the devoted housewife and dedicated mother, deserted so often by an itinerant sea-going family, outlived them all!
On the morning of Thursday the seventh of November, 1872, the Mary Celeste left her anchorage at Staten Island with the wind light but favourable. She slipped out into the Atlantic Ocean to commence a voyage which would cause her to remain supreme in the annals of all mysteries of the sea. On the fifth of December, 1872, the vessel was seen drifting listlessly with no one aboard, with no apparent reason for dereliction. It was the beginning of a mystery, the start of rumours and suspicion, and the groundwork for a strange and unusual Court case.