The End of the Mary Celeste

The demise of most sea-going vessels in the 1800s was gradual. The stench of rotting timbers and decay set in, and the continuous encrustment of barnacles, the need for new masts, new rigging and sails, caused ship-owners to dispose of the ships in the second-hand market. One would have expected the Mary Celeste to suffer such a fate until broken up in a dock for the benefit of certain timbers, but the old “Amazon” was determined to hog the limelight to the very end. The cargo was delivered to the importers at Genoa on the twenty-first of March, 1873, and the vessel left for Boston on the twenty-sixth of June under Captain Blatchford, arriving there on the first day of September, sailing on the thirteenth of September for New York. An adjustment in the ownership was required as the registration documents were out of order. Captain Briggs was still listed as owning an 8/24th share, and he was now presumed to be dead. Simpson Hart, who had loaned the money to Briggs for the purchase of his share claimed on the mortgage and hoth he and Captain Winchester became joint owners to the exclusion of Sylvester Goodwin and Daniel Sampson, who relinquished their interest very cheaply. But Simpson Hart was not a shipping man and disposed of his holding to a Mr. John Q. Pratt on the tenth of October, 1873.....the latter selling his share to Captain Winchester on the third of February, 1874, leaving Winchester as sole owner of the vessel. His purchase of Pratt’s shares was made for a specific reason, however, as it was his intention to sell the Mary Celeste to a consortium of five people, who refused to enter into any negotiation which inhibited sole ownership. Consequently, on the third of February, 1874, after he had become the sole owner, Captain Winchester transferred all the shares to the consortium with whom the ship remained, carrying cargoes until the twenty-fifth of February, 1880. On that date, the vessel was sold to a Mr. Wesley Gove and several others but no reason is known for the transfer.

The total number of registrations during the twelve years - from the time the ship became a derelict to the very end - was seventeen. In December, 1884, under the command of Captain Gilman C. Parker, she sailed from Boston to Haiti, supposedly with a valuable cargo comprised, inter alia, of expensive cutlery. In effect, an entry in the Maritime Register of the United States Government dated the twenty-eighth of January, 1885, lists the cargo as follows:

“Mary Celeste, Parker, from Boston for Hayti, went ashore on Rochelais Bank, Lon. 73 degrees; lat. 18 degrees 38’, Jan.3. and would probably be total loss. She had the following cargo: 475 bbls. alewives, 135 pkgs. ale, 64 cases boots & shoes, 10 bbls. bread, 4,000 lbs. butter, 10 bbls. beef, 87 boxes codfish, 66 drums do., 30 coils cordage , 34 cases canned fish, 30 pkgs domestic(s), 50 pkgs. furniture, 10 lbs drums fish, 150 bbls. flour, 75 kegs herrings, 472 boxes do., 500 bbls. do., 15 cases hardware, 460 bbls. mackerel, 209 tubs do., 37 kegs paint, 500 gals. petroleum, 3 bales twine, 5 nests trunks, 2 bbls. varnish, 20 kegs white lard, 21 pkgs. yeast powder, 25 bbls. pork. The master was at Miragoane.”

The back of the register identifies a brief which states:

“Date of surrender January 3, 1885. Where surrendered: Miragoane, Hayti: Cause of Surrender: Vessel lost by stranding on Jan 3, 1885, on the Reefs of Rochelais, near Miragoane, Hayti. Seven on board, none lost.”

It was obvious that the wrecking of the Mary Celeste was premeditated in order to claim insurance monies fraudulently, but the ensuing results turned into a bizarre situation. On the morning Captain Parker wrecked the ship it was a clear day and the sea was smooth. All obstructions and reefs were plainly market on the charts and clearly visible. Therefore, when the wheelman saw the reef he changed course to avoid it. The Captain, noting the action, however, immediately ordered the man to resume his original course. This was challenged but the order was firmly repeated and obeyed, with the result that the vessel went on to the centre of the reef to remain there as a wreck.

At the request of the underwriters, Mr. Kingman N. Putman, a New York surveyor, visited Haiti to investigate the claim. The reason for the underwriters to take such a step stemmed from the suspicions aroused after the Mary Celeste was claimed as lost, when divergencies in the cargo manifest were noticed. One fact in particular concerned the beer which had been stowed on board, in that more bottles had been billed to a barrel than a barrel could possible hold. When Putman arrived in Haiti, he hired a horse and rode from Port-au-Prince to Migroane to examine the vessel. The ship was still on the reef but the ship’s cargo, which had been salvaged, was sold to the United States Consul, a man named Mitchell, for a sum of $500. This was notwithstanding the insurance claim amounted to $25,000! An argument arose between Putman and the Consul, the latter claiming to have lost money on the deal, but the surveyor managed to obtain permission to open some of the cases to examine the goods. In one case, identified as cutlery, and insured for $1,000, there were dog-collars valued in total about $50, while in another container, insured as boots and shoes, were shoddy rubbers costing about 25 cents each. Even the bottles of beer were false, having been filled with nothing stronger than water. Both Captain Parker and the U.S. Consul were clearly in deep trouble!

Putman returned to New York armed with the evidence he had found which was reported to the authorities. He was asked to return to Haiti as a Deputy United States Marshal with powers to subpoena witnesses and to order Consul Mitchell and Captain Parker to return to New York for trial. Parker was soon arrested, but the Consul obtained advance warning of the danger and decided to escape to the woods. This caused a complex problem for Putman to solve who arrived at Haiti for the second occasion. He was well aware that any attempt to seek out and capture the U.S. Consul would cause Press comment and, subsequently, another international incident with the same vessel, the Mary Celeste. After a great deal of deliberation he decided to leave Mitchell to his own devices in the woods and returned to the United States with the Captain.

On the twenty-ninth of March, 1885, the American Press reported that Captain Gilman Parker of Winthrop, Massachusetts, had been arrested the day earlier by the U.S. Marshal on a charge of having purposely wrecked his brig, the Mary Celeste, on a coral reef off Hayti. The wilful wrecking of a vessel - defined as barratry - was an offence which was punishable with death under the laws of the United States. The Captain was arraigned in Court in Boston on the twentieth of April, and was committed to appear in the Circuit Court on the fifteenth of May to answer the charge. The testimony comprised statements given by the crew, including the wheelman, leaving little doubt that the ship was wrecked deliberately and that what was practically a dummy cargo of fish, rubber soles and other cheap goods were put on board and heavily insured. In evidence submitted by Mr. Putman, he told the Court:

“The shippers confessed the part they had played: they had consigned goods of little or no value, grossly over-insured, and had induced Captain Parker to run his ship aground so that she became a total loss and they were able to claim from insurance companies. One firm in particular had recovered no less a sum that $5,000 on a load of rotten fish.”

Despite all the evidence, the Jury disagreed, and a new trial was arranged. However, Captain Parker fell seriously ill and died before August, 1885. Oddly enough, the Mate who had given evidence against him, also succumbed to illness at that time and passed away three months later. One of the shippers committed suicide to avoid further dishonour, and all the firms concerned in the fraud failed shortly after the first trial. The demise of the Mary Celeste was complete. She rotted on the reef at Rochelais until all evidence of her existence had vanished. The finer points of this matter were not fully realised until the thirty-first of December, 1913, when Kingman Putman described his visit to Haiti in the Nautical Gazette. In his summing-up, when observing the death of the Captain, the Mate, the shipper, and of all the firms, he concluded:

“It was all part of the strange fate which appeared to pursue anyone who had anything to do with the business.”

It was definitely the end of the Mary Celeste, but only the start of the legend.