The Mary Celeste

On December 5th, 1872 a British brig named Dei Gratia was 400 miles east of the Adores when the crew spotted another ship adrift. When the crew boarded the ship they found it to be is good condition with the ships cargo intact and 6 months worth of food and supplies on board but no one there to consume it. What happened to the crew of the Mary Celeste?

The Mary Celeste had left port in New York eight days before the Dei Gratia. The captain of the Dei Gratia recognized the Mary Celeste and was surprised to have caught up with it since it left so much earlier. He was also concerned by the ships erratic movements and strange was in which the sails were set. He diverted from his course and boarded the Mary Celeste with his crew in an attempt to find out what was going on and see if they needed help.

When the Dei Gratia crew boarded the Mary Celeste they found a disturbing and unexpected scene. None of the Mary Celeste’s 10 crew members were anywhere to be found. Their personal belongings were still in their rooms. The ships lifeboat and some navigational equipment was missing. There was 3.5 feet of water in the bottom of the ship but this is not a concerning amount of water for such a large ship. It appeared that an orderly evacuation had taken place but the reason why was not clear. There were no signs of a struggle or violence and no valuable items were missing.

Theories

Foul Play

A salvage hearing took place in Gibraltar shortly after the ships discovery to determine who would receive the ship’s valuable cargo. It was suggested at this hearing that maybe the crew of the Dei Gratia killed the crew of the Mary Celeste so that they could claim its value as salvage. This was deemed unlikely as the Dei Gratia was so far behind the Mary Celeste they could not have caught up in order to carry out an attack. Another theory is that the two ships captains were working together to commit insurance fraud. This theory is unlikely because it would mean that the captain of the Mary Celeste threw his life away and would lose all connection with his family for a rather small share of the money.

Fleeing Explosion

Due to the potentially explosive nature of the ship’s cargo of industrial alcohol some have proposed that the crew suspected the cargo may be about to explode and fled the ship. While this is possible it is hard to say what made the crew think this seeing that the alcohol shipment was intact.

Natural Phenomenon

A severe waterspout could have caused the ship to take on water. The ships instruments that measure how much water is onboard would have been affected by the low barometric pressure of the event which ay have made the crew think the ship was in danger of sinking when it wasn’t.

Another natural theory is that the ship became stuck after a sudden lack of wind. After a number of days the crew may have taken to the lifeboat and attempted to find land nearby. This theory is unlikely as some of the ships sails were found to be furled. If they were truly stuck with no wind they would have all sails out in the hope of catching any breeze.

Paranormal

Some speculate that a giant squid or other sea monster plucked the crew from the ship. While unlikely we cannot rule it out as impossible.

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