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WHERE DID EVERYBODY GO?

(GHOST SHIP)

The Mary Celeste, a one hundred and fifty-three foot cargo ship; was found adrift in the middle of the Atlantic by the crew of the Dei Gratia, on December 4, 1872. The cutter’s jib and two small sails were unfurled and tattered. The Mary Celeste would speed up and then slow. It took two hours for the Dei Gratia to close on what seemed to be a ghost ship.

No distress signals flew from the Mary Celeste’s mast. Hails for the ship’s crew were answered with eerie silence. The Mary Celeste was boarded; the transport’s compliment had vanished. Nothing made sense; there was no evidence of mutiny or attack. An auxiliary crew from the Dei Gratia commandeered the eleven-year-old, Canadian built vessel. The mystery ship was sailed to Gibraltar.

Upon reaching Gibraltar, the Dei Gratia crew claimed salvage rights to the Mary Celeste. A naval court of inquiry was convened to find out what happened to the sailors of the merchantman? Records were impounded on both sides of the Atlantic.

The Mary Celeste left New York on November 7, 1872; its destination was Genoa Italy. The ship’s Captain was Bostonian sea dog, Benjamin Spooner Briggs. Sailing with Briggs was his wife, Sarah, and two year old daughter, Sophia. First Mate Albert Richardson, who commanded a crew of seven, headed the ship’s compliment. The ships’ cargo consisted of one thousand, seven hundred barrels of industrial alcohol.

When the windjammer was searched, it was noted that one of the Mary Celeste’s cargo holds was slightly opened. All the barrels were secured inside the compartment, but nine barrels were empty. No lifeboat was found topside. It was not determined if the cargo carrier had a fifteen or twenty foot yawl, if any?

A three-inch rope was found severed and dragging in the water from the ship’s side. In the kitchen, the stove had been knocked out of place along with a lot of the scullery. The derelict’s hallways and rooms were thoroughly wet, personal belongings in the crew compartments were in place. The Captain’s quarters had baby toys strewn about; the ship’s strongbox was intact. Missing was the cutter’s sextant, chronometer, and registry papers.

Oddly, the ship’s compass was smashed and the vessel’s clock face was turned upside down and not working. Perhaps these were clues as to what had befallen the crew? The schooner’s log was found; it was well kept but it offered few clues.

The Mary Celeste had been in rough weather, the log’s last entry indicated the ship was ten miles from the island of Santa Maria. This meant the Mary Celeste had sailed three hundred and seventy five miles since Captain Brigg’s last recording.

Through the centuries many theories have been put forth about the maritime puzzle, some more plausible than others.

During the naval inquiry it was speculated that sailors from the Dei Gratia boarded the Mary Celeste and killed its crewmen. The pirates hatched the story of finding the Mary Celeste, in order to sell the ship and its cargo by way of salvage laws. After heated questioning of the Die Gratia’s crew and inspection of the Mary Celeste, the Gibraltar authorities found the Dei Gratia mariners innocent of piracy.

Other ideas of the ship being taken by buccaneers and then abandoned were also dismissed. There was no evidence of any combat on the ship. The theory of mutiny or of the ship’s crew getting drunk and killing themselves was also discarded.

With no clues of what befell the Mary Celeste, imaginative explanations sighting Occam’s Razor came forward. William Occam, a Medieval Franciscan Padre stated, ”The explanations of any phenomena should make as few assumptions as possible.” In other words, accept the phenomena as is, do not assume a phenomena can be explained by logic, when the event has no logic.

One supposition had the Mary Celeste’s crew being attacked by a biped sea creature. The sailors were thrown into the ocean, this yarn explained the wet condition of the ship. Yet there were no bullet holes in the ship’s bulkheads and no signs of a struggle. This wild hypothesis sounds like something out of the old Johnny Quest adventure cartoon!

Another similar supposition, had the Mary Celeste being caught in a waterspout. The crew was sucked or thrown from the ship. The wetness found in the Mary Celeste was the result of this water tornado.

An imaginative conjecture had the Mary Celeste entering into a dimensional tunnel while in a storm. The crew was forced by the scientific laws of the new dimension to remain behind. Only inanimate objects could reenter into the present dimension. The crew managed to hang onto the ship’s missing chronometer and sextant. These devices and a few other items stayed in the alternate dimension. The storm and dimensional displacement left the ship wet and three hundred and seventy five miles from the logbook’s last entry.

The strangest postulation has aliens from outer space abducting the crew. Helpless against the space invaders, the crew was taken very fast. There was no time to leave a message of what had happened. Risking death, somebody tried to alert future rescuers by breaking the compass and turning the ship’s clock upside down. What these hints meant is up to conjecture? Some crewmen hid in the cargo barrels, but they were found out.

One fanciful idea with merit and absurdity has the Mary Celeste being abandoned momentarily when one of its container holds became filled with alcohol fumes. This is why a freight hold was found slightly opened. The crew got into the lifeboat or lifeboats that were attached by a rope to the ship. A gust of wind came up, the rope snapped. The Mary Celeste sailed away from the lifeboat or lifeboats.

Would Captain Briggs and his First Mate, who were experienced mariners make such tragic mistakes? The holds would have been opened slightly all through the voyage to avoid a build-up of fumes. When the ship was in rough weather the crew would pump out the splashed chambers. Thousands of ships with barreled alcohol sailed the Atlantic, none of them were abandoned due to fumes.

If the ship was momentarily and illogically abandoned, an experienced Captain or First Mate would have tied the steering wheel down. With the rudder turned, the windjammer would sail in a circle in case something should happen to the rope. The lifeboat powered by sail or oars would then be able to catch and reclaim the circling Mary Celeste.

Some authors think two small boats found off the coast of Spain in 1873, with six decomposing corpses, was all that was left of the of the Mary Celeste’s crew. One of the boats was flying an American flag. Rumor has it the Mary Celeste was flagless when she was boarded. Case solved? Maybe not?

The last entry in the ship’s logbook indicated the Mary Celeste was ten miles from Santa Maria Island, the western most isle of the Azores chain. Logic indicates that if the sailors abandoned the cargo carrier, they would have done it on the day of the last log entry.

If the crew was in a lifeboat and the rope attached to the Mary Celeste was severed, would the mariners risk their lives out in the big empty trying to catch up to their fast-sailing Mothership? Or would the seamen have headed for safety on the nearby, populated island?

Even if the sailors spent days trying to reel in the Mary Celeste and then decided the ship was beyond their reach, the cutter’s lifeboat or lifeboats would have enough emergency water and rations to get the sailors to Santa Maria. On the island, Captain Briggs and crew could hire another ship to pursue the Mary Celeste. Then again did the ghost ship even carry lifeboats or a lifeboat?

Some speculate the Mary Celeste was abandoned during a storm, its lifeboat and crew went under the waves, never to be seen again. In a storm, the last thing any seasoned mariner would do is jump into a lifeboat when the Mothership is still afloat. You ride out a tempest with the largest craft available. The odds are in your favor in a bigger ship.

When the Mary Celeste was found its sails were set to catch the wind off the starboard side. The rescue ship Dei Gratia was tacked to port due to wind conditions. Some nautical experts thought the Mary Celeste could not have traveled the three hundred and seventy five miles from its last log entry with its sails tacked to starboard. Had somebody been on board working the canvas, days after the logbook’s last entry?

Suitable to the mystery of the sails is the fanciful speculation, that a homicidal maniac hid on the Mary Celeste. At sea, the fiend murdered the ship’s compliment, one at a time, and threw the corpses overboard. After dispatching the sailors, the murderer committed suicide by jumping into the ocean – A dubious theory. There was no sign of bloody mayhem or fire on the ghost ship.

After arrival in Gibraltar, the Mary Celeste was considered a jinxed cuter. The schooner was resold many times. Sadly the windjammer was holed at Rochelois Bank and sank off the coast of Haiti in 1885.

Through the centuries the Mary Celeste’s story had been embellished. The most modern version has the ghost ship being boarded by the rescue crew in the Devil’s Triangle. The Mary Celeste is found to be in pristine shape. In the galley, on the mess tables, are mugs of hot coffee. A cigar stub smolders in an ashtray. The rescuers conclude the Mary Celeste’s crew had vanished minutes ago. The sole survivor is a frightened dog. The animal can only give mute testimony to what transpired.

A nice late night tale, but the real story of the Mary Celeste needs no puffery or lies. If only the vessel could have talked! Any idea of what became of the lost crew? Let me, and the rest of the world, know. (8)