Ghost Ship: The Mary Celeste

The Mary Celeste is a ship that many have heard of. I first heard of it in the movie Ghost Ship (good movie, would not recommend for younger viewers). But, how much do we know about the Mary Celeste?  

Amazon AKA Mary Celeste

The Mary Celeste was originally named the Amazon and was built in 1861 at Spencers Island, Nova Scotia and subsequently registered in Nova Scotia. It did not have an easy beginning. On the first commercial voyage, the Captain, Robert McLellan of Economy, NS, became ill with pneumonia. The Amazon had to return to port and Captain McLellan died a few days later.

By 1867, the Amazon encountered several mishaps. One of the worst was in October 1867 when it ran aground around Cow Bay, Cape Breton Island. In 1867, it was sold in New York as a wrecked vessel to Richard W. Haines. The new owner undertook the (expensive) repairs and registered the ship in the United States as the Mary Celeste. 

Cumberland County Museum and Archives, Amherst, Nova Scotia Canada (Smithsonian Magazine)

Mary Celeste

This owner did not hold onto the Mary Celeste for long. It was sold to Captain James Winchester in 1869.

Captain Winchester did additional changes to the ship then sold a third of the shares to Captain Benjamin Spooner Briggs.

The Final Voyage

On November 7, 1872, Captain Briggs set sail on the Mary Celeste bound for Genoa, Italy. He was accompanied by seven crew members, his wife Sarah, their two-year-old daughter Sophia, and a cat. A Captain taking his family and pets on voyages such as this was a common practice. Their cargo consisted of 1,700 barrels of alcohol.

Ghost Ship

A Ghost Ship is any ship found empty from any time period. Another common term is derelict. And that is how the Mary Celeste was found on December 4, 1872 by the Dei Gratia ,which was sailing from New York to Gibraltar, about 400 miles east of the Azores island, Santa Maria. Captain David Reed Morehouse recognized the ship and upon boarding, he and his crew found an abandoned ship, the lone lifeboat missing, and ragged sails. While there was about 3 feet of water in the hull, this was not an amount that would have concerned Captain Briggs. The Mary Celeste was still seaworthy and there was still plenty of food and water aboard. The cargo, 1,700 barrels of alcohol and personal belongings were largely intact.

While it is known the Mary Celeste encountered harsh weather two weeks after it set sail, after that it is a mystery. The last log entry was dated November 25, a mere 10 days before the Dei Gratia found it. This log indicated that at the time, the ship was only about 11 kilometres/6 nautical miles from Azores, Portugal. But no indication of issues or indication of why the ship was abandoned was recorded.

Captain Morehouse assigned some of his crew to sail the Mary Celeste to Gibraltar. There, British authorities conducted an investigation, but in the end, they found no evidence of foul play.

While it may be hard to imagine a ship just drifting almost 400 miles in just over a week, this too has been studied. The conclusion, based on data recorded by the International Comprehensive Ocean-Atmosphere Data Set, was that even without a crew to sail the ship, it could have drifted that far.

Theories

So what happened? A common belief is that Captain Briggs believed the ship was taking on too much water and ordered everyone to abandon ship, believing it was about to sink. There is some physical evidence to support this theory. The sounding rod, a tool used to determine how much water was in the hold, was found on deck. One of the ship's pumps was also found disassembled. It is possible Captain Briggs was getting a faulty reading from the sounding rod and a damaged/ineffective pump led him to believe there was more water in the hold then there actually was and they had no way to pump the water out. Therefore, he gave the order to abandon ship believing they did not have much time. Once in the longboat (AKA the lifeboat), a mishap, for lack of a better term, occurred and the Captain, his family, the crew, and the cat perished.

A damaged pump! Maybe it was sabotage? Nope. Turns out on a previous voyage, the Mary Celeste carried coal. The ship had also recently had work done. The combination of construction and coal dust likely damaged the pump.

But what about a mutiny or piracy? Well, neither of those explain why the ship was completely abandoned and the cargo/personal belongings being intact.

Becoming Famous

While the mystery of the Mary Celeste did get attention at the time, it became famous in 1884. In 1884, Arthur Conan Doyle published "J. Habakuk Jephson's Statement." This was a short story about a survivor of the Mary Celeste who claimed a former slave killed the passengers as revenge. This is solely a fictional account.

The End of the Mary Celeste 

The Mary Celeste was actually sold numerous times over the following years. Then, in 1885, Captain G.C Parker deliberately sailed the ship into a reef near Haiti. His plan had been to collect the insurance money, but he was caught when the ship did not sink. It was, however, damaged beyond repair and left there to deteriorate.

Sources

Blumbery, Jess. "Abandoned Ship: The Mary Celeste." Smithsonian Magazine. November 2007. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/abandoned-ship-the-mary-celeste-174488104/ 

Ramesar, Vernon. "A N.S. ghost ship is fading from memory - 150 years after its crew disappeared." CBC News. May 6, 2023. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/mary-celeste-ghost-ship-nova-scotia-history-1.6830855

Tikkanen, Amy. "Mary Celeste." Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Mary-Celeste