The Mary Celeste Read online

  When news arrived that the Mary Celeste had been wrecked off the coast of Haiti and her master was arraigned for barratry, it was clear to many that she had been a ship with an evil spell cast on her from inception to death. Imaginations worked at feverish speed.....half the facts unknown or forgotten..... and most of the story became built around a fantasy which people preferred to believe. Many of the misbegotten stories, designed to entertain a captive audience rather than present the truth in useful discussion, fell on amused ears. The general public listened to what it wanted to hear and became bored if the orated yarn was stale. It was then that distortions were necessarily introduced into the tale to keep it alive. Narrators and commentators attempting to stimulate further interest began to break new ground, whereby details and events hitherto omitted began to creep into dialogue and print. None of these new facts contained any truth at all but few people were sufficiently informed or interested to mount any kind of a serious challenge. Unfortunately, each writer who tried to earn money in this way failed to realise that the introduction of new facts acted as an additional weight on the story. It could only overload it to its disadvantage, in the same way as ice sometimes builds up on the wings of a very high-flying aircraft.

  The exaggerations led to further theories and rekindled old flames. Although the record was never expunged by an accepted solution, the lapses of time between each resurrection grew, as a developing world occupied itself with other matters of importance or interest. However, the distortions still continued, albeit slower than in the past, which included a variety of minor matters adding incentive.....yet they were all figments of the imagination and far from the truth. For example, it was suggested by one writer that a half-eaten breakfast remained on the cabin table, with cups of tea still warm as though the crew had been spirited away seconds or minutes before she was discovered. A cat was supposedly sleeping peacefully on a locker. The galley fire burned brightly as though recently stoked and was filled with fuel. A chicken was boiling in a pot, and the boats creaked as they swung in their davits. In those terms, the story was weird and contained a ghostly setting for the story-teller who often relished in the words: “.......and there wasn’t a soul aboard nor anyone to be seen!” But none of it was true!

  What of the many theories put forward as solutions to the mystery? Tales of explosion were rife, ostensibly proved by the fact that the fore-hatch had turned over. Gases escaping from the alcohol had ignited and the crew, fearing for their lives, had taken to the long-boat. Another theory intimated that the vessel was taking water in the hold which made such a noise during a storm that the Captain and crew abandoned her and perished at sea. Someone else believed that the Captain went mad, killed his wife and his child and the crew and, on returning to his senses, threw himself overboard with remorse at his actions. Others decided that the Captain and his crew became so drunk they fought and destroyed each other. Each theory had a semblance of truth to those unaware of the facts. They provided the thinkers.....the day-dreamers.....with their own views of what might have happened. But there was no evidence to support any of these ideas. The true facts were that there was no sign of an explosion on board; no signs of any fire was evident; the water in the hold was not disproportionately high; Captain Briggs was a stable man..... a family man of good temperament.....he was not a likely candidate for insanity, temporary or otherwise; liquor was not allowed on board because the Captain was religious and a teetoller; and there were no bodies to be seen after any fight to the death, which destroys that theory entirely.

  The mystery was bolstered by wider ramifications whereby it was suggested that the Captain and his crew had deserted the ship when they realised that a gigantic ice-berg was bearing down on them. This was extremely unlikely as the position of the Mary Celeste was far to the south of the limits of arctic ice, even during the Spring melting period. There was mention of the possibility that the cook had poisoned everyone on board and, having disposed of all the bodies, slipped while attending the rigging and fell overboard. Whether the originator of this story intended to mean that the cook killed the crew deliberately or whether he was so bad at the practice of culinary art is by no means certain. However, it needs to be pointed out that some cooks on board smaller vessels in those days were a greater hazard to seamen than any other maritime dangers. Next came the pirate theory to account for the disappearance of the crew. The most plausible solution suggested that the Mary Celeste was raided by Riff or Barbary pirates who captured the Captain and his crew and sold them as slaves in a North African slave market. To examine the validity of this theory, history shows that the American navy, although in its infancy, pursued a policy of wiping out piracy on the high seas, and their tactics included destroying the ports at which pirates were known to have established themselves. Consequently, between 1801 and 1813, American ships bombarded and rased the ports of Algiers, Tunis and Tripoli. In addition, they sought international co-operation from European countries to make safe the high seas and not only did a joint British and Dutch expedition destroy Algiers in 1815, but they wiped out the Algerian and Salle corsairs which had preyed upon shipping for centuries. One widely-held theory which resurfaced regularly concerned the disappearance of the crew and the abandonment of the vessel during violent storms. There were very severe gales at sea recorded in the winter of 1872 and 1873 which led to many wrecks and casualties. Even the city of London in England was struck on the eighth of December, 1872, by what was described as the most severe gale for centuries. Whether there is any credence to the supposition can only be left to the imagination of the reader. Suffice it to say, it was not uncommon to lose sailors during a severe storm at sea, but how can one account for the Captain, the crew and the passengers to be lost in this manner.....including a two year old child who would have been kept safe and warm downstairs? Another factor which laid the groundwork for rumour was the display of meteors in November, 1872. The earth is recorded to have been swept by the disjecta membra of Biela’s lost comet. However, neither storms nor lost comets, or any other phenomena, were entered in the logs of either the Mary Celeste or the Dei Gratia. Perhaps the most amusing version concerns the alleged sudden appearance of a giant octopus or squid which sucked each member off the ship for its evening meal; or the appearance of a space-ship to carry off the crew to some distant planet for examination. If the last theory is accepted, they were absorbed into an alien society and, it would appear, that the visitors from the alien planet which invaded earthly skies during much of the twentieth century, as recorded in the annals of any history of Unidentified Flying Objects, refused to bring them back. There were other matters.....some backed by oral evidence.....to cast new light on the subject. These are set out in chronological order below. In advance of that, however, it is impossible to ignore the complete conviction of the Queen’s Proctor, Frederick Solly Flood, who never doubted at any time that a conspiracy existed between the Captains of the two vessels involved. His motto, when in doubt, was to revert to basics and, although both Captains were characters of paramount integrity, Mr. Flood failed to move his gaze from their direction. Had be progressed down to crew level he might have been able to see the wood for the trees, as is shown later .

  After the story in the Cornhill Magazine in 1884, and the demise of the vessel in 1885, a reporter employed by the New York World decided to write an article through the eyes of a Captain Coffin. His version did little to satisfy the doubt which existed in many minds but the article acted as a catalyst for future writers who wished to develop other theories. Captain Coffin declared that the long-boat of the Mary Celeste was missing and that the fore-hatch was found lying bottom-up on the deck. He suggested this might have occurred through an explosion, endorsing the views of Captain Winchester, the owner of the vessel, concerning the combustibility of gases released by alcohol in an enclosed space. In Captain Coffin’s opinion, the derelict had continued on the same course for ten days without drifting. His imagination then took its own direction w
hich offered other writers the fruit from which to feed. After that submission, the New York World let the matter drop until February, 1913, when they published Captain Winchester’s theory.....after his death.

  In the August of 1877, Longman’s Magazine ventured a story written by a novelist by the name of Clark Russell, who introduced the hitherto undisclosed, and untrue, facts about the uneaten meal and the galley fire. His story, entitled “The Mystery of the Ocean Star” was clearly based on the Mary Celeste incident although the author tried to disguise the vessel and the events in many unsubtle ways. In his story, a steamship with the name “Guide” painted on its bows proceeded through dense fog in mid-Atlantic and managed to avoid collision with a barque called Ocean Star, whose sails were in disarray. The Mate of the steamer boarded the other vessel and noticed that the ship’s boat was missing, the galley fire had been recently tended and was burning brightly, and that a chicken was boiling in a saucepan on the stove. He searched the ship but could not locate anyone and, on examining the log, he discovered that the last entry was written ten days earlier. Yet there was evidence of the presence of someone on board. The Guide put aboard a minimum crew to claim salvage monies and on the following day they came across the missing crew who were rowing aimlessly across the wide ocean. These men cleared up the mystery quite simply by explaining that a series of mishaps had occurred on the Ocean Star. They alleged that the Captain was found dead in bed one morning. Then the First Mate died suddenly of fever. Thirdly, there were incidents on board in which two seamen lost their lives. Fourthly, the rudder jammed and the Second Mate fell overboard as he examined the problem. Lastly, the crew went to his rescue and lowered the boat, leaving one man aboard but, as they searched for the Second Mate, the wind freshened and the ship moved swiftly away in the fog, lost to those in the small boat. As to the fate of the sole surviving sailor on board the Ocean Star, his efforts to attract the attention of the crew of the Guide were so vigorous that he tripped, fell overboard, and was drowned minutes before the rescuers arrived. When challenged on the story.....on the grounds that it represented his solution to the mystery surrounding the fate of the crew of the Mary Celeste.....Clark Russell denied the allegation. He purported that all those mishaps occurred in one voyage of a ship which sailed from Hull to Rio in 1877. But other people knew better! The story appeared again in 1888 when it was reprinted in a collection of the author’s maritime sketches. The impact at that time, however, was negligible. It took second place to Conan Doyle’s effort which was reprinted as ‘The Captain of the Polestar’ in 1890. A brief account of the last voyage of the Mary Celeste was published in McClure’s Magazine in November, 1894, written by a Mr. Robert Barr, but many facts were well wide of the mark, including the statement that she was bound for Europe with a cargo of clocks. The source of this information is not disclosed and merely proved to show that baseless facts were being introduced by careless writers who were prepared to capitalise on the mystery without any intention of conducting basic research before putting pen to paper.

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  The mystery then faded away for a further eight years until a reporter working for the Brooklyn Daily Eagle found himself short of topical news. He decided to search for relatives of the crew of the Mary Celeste and eventually found a willing subject in Mrs. Fanny Richardson, the widow of the missing First Mate. Setting up a meeting on the ninth of March, 1902, almost thirty years after the event, he eagerly wrote notes on her views. In her opinion, Albert Richardson was a qualified Captain without the command of a vessel, although he had been offered this position on a barque which was being fitted out. Until the vessel was seaworthy, he decided to act as First Mate on the Mary Celeste. She corroborated the fact that Captain Briggs had taken his wife and daughter on the voyage, as well as Richardson and William Head. However, her husband had complained that although the Captain and his chief men were Americans, the rest of the crew were Portuguese, Italians and Turks. The reporter of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle waxed lyrically on such information commenting they were said to have been “as bad a looking lot as ever swabbed a deck!” In her own words, Mrs. Richardson stated:

  “I always believed and always will believe that my husband, Captain Briggs, Mrs. Briggs, her baby and the cook were murdered by the crew. My husband had a presentiment of evil before he sailed and he appeared to me in a dream on the night of the twenty-fourth of November, 1872, the date on which I believe the catastrophe occurred. My brother-in-law (CAPTAIN LYMAN RICHARDSON) on the other hand, thought that those on board the Mary Celeste had been done away with by the crew of the Dei Gratia, and I can tell you now that he sailed the seas for several years in an assumed character for the purpose of ascertaining if there was anything in his theory.”

  Other information released by her proved to be fresh evidence which had not been mentioned earlier. Somehow she knew that the cradle on the forward-hatch, intended to carry an additional boat, had been smashed during the loading of the cargo.....a matter which had not been divulged earlier. She claimed that Albert Richardson had told her that Captain Briggs had experienced difficulties not only in arranging for the cradle to be repaired but also in obtaining a new long-boat. As such, it was decided to repair the damage during the voyage and to purchase a new long-boat in Genoa. Of all the effects left on the derelict vessel no item was more indicative of a third party than the ship’s slate. Scratched upon it were the words: “Fanny, my dear wife, Frances NR” which appeared to be the opening words of a letter by the Mate to his wife, abandoned as a result of urgent duty, uncollected thoughts, or for some reason which will for ever remain unknown. Mrs. Richardson dismissed many of the sophisticated suggestions on the disappearance of the crew, firmly believing that the foreign crew broke open a barrel of alcohol (ONE BARREL HAD BEEN SMASHED IN THE HOLD), drank the contents, and took to the boats when they sobered up, realising they would be hanged from a gibbet if they were caught. She ridiculed the idea that they had landed on an island in the Azores and hid there for the rest of their lives. The newspaper reported the dialogue of the Mate’s widow as it was told to them. “The solution to this mystery,” it stated, “will probably never be learned until the sea gives up its dead.” It would appear there would be a very long wait!

  In March, 1904, the Yale Alumni Weekly commented on the salvage award. However, the public were to greet the next theory with great surprise. In September, 1904 in Chambers Journal, a British author by the name of J.L. Hornibrook wrote “The Case of the Marie Celeste: An Ocean Mystery”, explaining how the incident occurred through the appearance of a huge octopus. It is difficult to understand the audacity of an author to give himself enough licence to promote ideas of such a wide nature coupled with an established incident. His imaginative powers connected with the name of the Mary Celeste was reprehensible. Worse still, having written such fiction, it might have been possible to forgive the author for presenting such a monstrous story but, alas, he completely abandoned the idea thirty years later in favour of a new and more fashionable theory. His original story needs to be examined if only to indicate the inaccuracies he allowed to creep into the tale.

  “On a certain morning, back in the sixties (should be seventies), the Spanish authorities near the Straits of Gibraltar noticed a vessel in the office which speedily attracted special attention (it was the Dei Gratia not the Spanish authorities which found the Mary Celeste). She was a brig, with all sails set, and at first sight appeared to be heading direct for the Straits, as though to enter the Mediterranean. A few minutes scrutiny, however, revealed the fact that there was something wrong on board - something strange and inexplicable. A boat was quickly manned and put off to the vessel, for it was seen by this time that she was not under control. As the men drew near they hailed her more than once, but no answer came back to them from the brig. They now perceived that the wheel was deserted; nor was a single soul observable on deck. The brig was absolutely devoid of life. The entire crew from Captain to cabin-boy had disappeared
- vanished! (NO CABIN BOY WAS ENLISTED). A minute examination of the vessel revealed a truly extraordinary and astounding state of affairs. There was not a single boat missing (UNTRUE: THE SHIP SAILED WITH ONE BOAT MISSING) They were all in their proper places, slung on the davits and stowed on deck in the usual manner (WRONG). Further than that, not a rope or stay, not a sail or spar, was injured. Everything, from truck to keep, was as sound as the day the vessel had sailed (TWO SAILS HAD BEEN BLOWN AWAY). More astonishing still, the Captain’s watch was ticking on a nail above his berth, and on the cabin table was found the remains of a half-consumed dinner, apparently as fresh as when it came from the cook’s galley (UNTRUE). The same thing was noticeable in the mens’ quarters and looked as though the entire crew had been interrupted or startled in the midst of their meal. And that was all. The brig was navigated into Gibraltar, and there the American Consul came on board for, as was seen by the name of her port on the stern, she hailed from Boston (COMPLETELY UNTRUE). He, in turn, proceeded to make a minute and searching inspection overhauling the vessel from stem to stern, and noting every detail. (UNTRUE). Let us now turn to the commencement of this remarkable voyage, which ended in such a mysterious and unaccountable manner. The Marie Celeste (SHOULD BE MARY CELESTE) set sail from Boston (it was New York) under the most favourable auspices (UNTRUE) and certainly there was nothing either in her complement or otherwise to warrant the assumption that the voyage would result in tragedy of any kind. She was an ordinary trading brig, bound for the Mediterranean ports with a general cargo of merchandise (ALCOHOL ONLY). Her crew consisted of seventeen hands (ONLY SEVEN) composed chiefly of Americans, Danes and Norwegians (NO NORWEGIANS). In addition, there was the Captain, his wife, and their little daughter - twenty souls all told. (THERE WERE ONLY TEN). Of the various theories advanced in explanation of this singular ocean mystery, many may be dismissed as wholly untenable. Piracy may be put on one side, for piracy was unknown in the Atlantic in the sixties (SEVENTIES) as it is at the present day. Besides, if pirates had boarded the vessel and murdered the crew, they must have left traces of their deadly work; not to mention the fact that they would scarcely have taken their departure without looting from stem to stern. It is equally impossible to suppose that the crew deserted the brig in a sudden panic, caused by the fear of her sinking, for not a single boat was missing (UNTRUE). Nor was their disappearance due to a storm which swept every soul overboard. Storms leave abundant traces of havoc among sails and rigging. The idea that every human-being on board suddenly went mad and voluntarily cast themselves into the sea is altogether too far-fetched. It has been suggested, on the other hand, that one of the crew may have been attacked by homicidal mania, and murdered by his fellows. But if so, where were the bodies? Even supposing that he had succeeded in his desperate attempt one against seventeen (WRONG) - threw the bodies overboard, and finally plunged into the sea himself, traces of the tragedy would have been noticeable everywhere. One truly startling and surprising theory would seem to cover the entire facts. There is a man stationed at the wheel. He is alone on deck, all the others having gone below to their mid-day meal. Suddenly, a huge octopus rises from the deep, and rearing one of its terrible arms aloft encircles the helmsman. His yells bring every soul on board rushing on deck. One by one they are caught by the waving, wriggling arms and swept overboard. Then, freighted with its living load, the monster slowly sinks into the deep again, leaving no traces of its attacks. It may be pointed out, in support of this theory, that the mark of a slash on the bulwark of the vessel would look as if some member of the crew had seized an axe and attempted to chop off one of the threatening arms. If, however, the theory is not accepted, it must be left to the reader’s imagination to furnish a better one.”