The Mary Celeste

The ship, a brigantine was originally named the Amazon and first took to the water in 1861. She served until 1867 when she was damaged during a storm and eventually sold to new owner, Richard Haines. He renamed her the Mary Celeste until his debts meant the ship was taken as collateral and sold to James H. Winchester who gave the ship extensive repairs and upgrades and Captained by

Benjamin Briggs who had married a woman named Sarah, who was his cousin, and had a son in 1865 and a daughter in 1870. He even owned some shares in the Mary Celeste.

The date was November 1872 and the Mary Celeste set sail leaving behind New York and heading to Italy, her first journey after the upgrades. The journey was expected to be a few months and had a smaller crew of 7 people, as well as the Captains wife Sarah and their daughter Sophia. They were carrying barrels of alcohol and they had even brought some luxuries along with them: a sewing machine and a piano.

Now there was a second ship the Dei Gratia, that was sailing on a similar path days after the Mary Celeste. The captains were even friends. This ship was the one who discovered the abandoned Mary Celeste on December 4, 1872. Upon inspection of the ship, they discovered that the last entry log was dated November 25th, 9 days earlier and everything was completely normal.

The odd part about this whole thing is the ship was in working order. Some of the crew from the other ship were able to sail it to Spain. There should have been no reason that the crew would need to leave. The only thing out of place or missing was the one lifeboat and some of the captain’s items.

So, what became of the captain, his family, and the crew? No one knows. The major theories include:

Mutiny. The idea would be that the crew revolted against the captain and took control of the ship putting everyone to sea on the missing lifeboat. While this would normally be a possibility it seems unlikely. The ship seemed to be completely normal when they discovered it. Nothing was broken there was no blood, and none of the crew ever showed up. I know the whole point of mutiny is taking them by surprise, but I feel like if your wife and 2-year-old was with you, you would at least try to fight back if you thought that you would most likely end up dead. Although maybe this was just to make sure they stayed safe too,

Pirates. Obviously, they were an impressive ship. They were carrying alcohol and money and had the luxuries like the sewing machine. It wouldn’t be a stretch that pirates or some other criminal might want to steal all the items and what better way than just get rid of everyone.

However, again, nothing was missing but the lifeboat, some of the captain’s papers and his navigation equipment. So, unless the pirates were like get into the lifeboat and we won’t kill you, set them adrift and then went, you know what? Let’s not take anything today that doesn’t really seem likely either.

A giant sea monster. I’m sorry, I had to include that. I mean, obviously there are many things that we don’t know, but that seems like a bit of a stretch. I highly doubt a giant mythical squid swooped up and plucked all the crew individually for a snack. Especially since mythical beasts tend to destroy the ships they attack.

The last is I guess a suggestion that modern historians/scientists suspect. Which is that there was a weird explosion with the alcohol that caused no damage to the ship but made the captain fear for the safety of everyone and order them into the lifeboat.

Other suggestions have been weird weather such as a water cyclone, an accident, and a debunked claim of the whole crew swimming and diving and somehow never made it back on board.

What do you think happened?