On November 7, 1872, the brigantine (a two-masted sailing ship) left New York harbor on a trip to Genoa, Italy. On board were Captain Benjamin Briggs, his wife and their two-year-old daughter. And a crew of eight. On Dec. 5, 1872, a British ship spotted the Mary Celeste about 400 miles east of the Azores. No one answered the hale, so the British boarded the ship. They found nobody. There were no signs of foul play or any reasons for the abandonment. There was water in the hold, but that was not unusual. The lifeboat was missing, but there was plenty of food and water.
The Mary Celeste had been a troubled ship. It’s first captain mysteriously died. It ran into another ship in the English Channel. Maybe this was three strikes and you’re out. We still don’t know what happened, but there are several theories. In 1884, Arthur Conan Doyle (the Sherlock Holmes author) wrote a short story based on the Mary Celeste. His fictional plot was that there was an angry ex-slave on board. He led a mutiny. Briggs’ family were killed and thrown overboard. The mutineers left in the lifeboat. Although fictional, the story was considered true by many ignorant readers and Doyle’s “theory” became history. Even his misspelling of the ship as the Marie Celeste was written into history.
So, what happened? There are many theories. These included: a mutiny, pirates, a giant octopus or other sea monster. Perhaps the water in the hold made Briggs think the ship was sinking. A 2007 documentary posited a faulty chronometer, rough seas, and a clogged pump. A more recent theory has the casks of alcohol in the hold giving off fumes that resulted in an explosion that may have caused Briggs to panic and leave the ship. None of the theories account for the intact nature of the ship. The ship indicates no reason for its abandonment.
I used to tell my students that one of the great things about history is it gives great questions to ask God in the afterlife. Like “what happened to the Mary Celeste?” It’s the only way we will find out.
https://www.history.com/news/what-happened-to-the-mary-celeste
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Celeste
0 Comments