I read a book about a whole bunch of different mysteries and one that I was really interested in was the Mary Celeste. Apparently, a ship found another ship out at sea abandoned completely with no people anywere and everything on the boat was untouched and in place. WTF

Lost at sea stories really are very interesting. Like the stories of time warps in open areas, maybe our brains are incapable of sticking to a time frame if everything is the same...and we somehow slip. That is if the theory that time only exists in our mind is true...

It's been ages since I heard of that! If I recall correctly, that had a captain, his wife, and daughter on the ship, and when they found the ship it was completely abandoned. To further the mystery, There was a still warm, half -eaten breakfast in the captain's cabin, as well a recent log entry, and a recent impression in a pillow of (supposedly) the captain's wife's head. Odd, indeed, this is. Best I can say is that they were seized by pirates, but they found nothing of value, and left the ship, perhaps taking the family as captives. *shrugs*

The amount of dissapearances at sea is not coincidence.

Then what do you propose it is?

That there are alot of ships disapearing at sea

Well the Mary Celeste was still there, it was the crew that was missing...

Which makes it more strange.

Who knows maybe they discovered an island and there ship drifted away...

I find it extremely creepy to think that someone could just disappear without a trace.

The Mary Celeste was a 103-foot, 282-ton brigantine. Originally built as the Amazon in Spencer's Island, Nova Scotia in 1861, the ship seemingly had bad luck and, due to numerous negative occurrences, had changed hands several times. It became the Mary Celeste in 1869.

On November 7, 1872, under the command of Captain Benjamin Briggs, the ship picked up a cargo of American alcohol (for fortifying wine) shipped by Meissner Ackermann & Coin in New York City and set sail for Genoa, Italy. In addition to the crew of seven, it carried two passengers: the Captain's wife, Sarah E. Briggs (née Cobb), and daughter, Sophia Matilda.

On December 4, 1872 (some reports give December 5, due to a lack of standard time zones in the 1800s), the Mary Celeste was sighted by the Dei Gratia, captained by a Captain Morehouse, who knew Captain Briggs. The Dei Gratia had left New York harbor only seven days after the Mary Celeste. Dei Gratia's crew observed her for two hours and concluded that she was drifting, though she was flying no distress signals. Oliver Deveau, the Chief Mate of the Dei Gratia, led a party in a small boat to board the Mary Celeste. He reported finding only one pump working, with a lot of water between decks and three and one-half feet of water in the hold. He reported that "the whole ship was a thoroughly wet mess". The ship seemed otherwise to be in good condition, but no one was aboard.

The forehatch and the lazarette were both open, the clock was not functioning and the compass was destroyed. The sextant and chronometer were missing, suggesting the ship had been deliberately abandoned. The only lifeboat appeared to have been intentionally launched rather than torn away. Other accounts claim the lifeboat was still on the ship.

The cargo of 1700 barrels of alcohol was intact, though when it was eventually unloaded in Genoa, nine barrels were noted as being empty. A six-month supply of food and water was aboard. All of the ship's papers except the captain's logbook were missing. The last log entry was dated November 24 and placed her 100 miles west of the Azores. The last entry on the ship's slate showed her as having reached the island of St Mary in the Azores on November 25th.

The crew of the Dei Gratia split in two to sail the Mary Celeste to Gibraltar where, during a hearing, the judge praised the crew of the Dei Gratia for their courage and skill. However, the admiralty court officer Frederick Solly Flood turned the hearings from a simple salvage claim into almost a trial of the men of the Dei Gratia, whom Flood suspected of foul play. In the end, the court did award prize money to the crew, but the sum was much less than it should have been, as "punishment" for wrongdoing which the court could not prove.

The recovered ship was used for 12 years by a variety of owners before being loaded up with boots and cat food by her last captain who attempted to sink her, apparently to claim insurance money. The plan did not work as the ship refused to sink having been run up on the Rochelois Reef in Haiti. The remains of the ship were discovered on August 9, 2001, by an expedition headed by author Clive Cussler (representing the National Underwater and Marine Agency) and Canadian film producer John Davis (president of ECO-NOVA Productions of Canada).

In 1884 Arthur Conan Doyle published a story entitled J. Habakuk Jephson's Statement, part of The Captain of the Polestar. Doyle's story drew very heavily on the original incident but included a considerable amount of fiction and called the ship the Marie Céleste. Much of this story's fictional content, and the incorrect name, have come to dominate popular accounts of the incident, and were even published as fact by several newspapers. It was said that their tea was still warm and breakfast was cooking when the ship was discovered; these are fictional details from Doyle's story.

Mary Celeste

That is some freaky sheezy lol. Like just think about it though, what the hell could have happened. That is so freaky.

But if they did reach the island of st. marys, wouldnt someone come forward and say something? Lol maybe you included that in the thing im just too lazy to read it all lol

Isn't one of the theories that for some reason they thought the ship was going to sink and therefore everyone abandoned ship? I could be wrong but I do believe that is at least one idea of what happened to them

Some suggested there was a mutiny among the crew who murdered Briggs and his family then escaped in the lifeboat. However, Briggs was known as a very religious, just and fair man. He was not the kind of Captain to provoke his crew to mutiny. First Mate Albert Richardson had served in the American Civil War before going away to sea, and the rest of the crew also had excellent reputations.

When all theories have been tabled, the answer to the mystery most probably lies with the barrels of raw alcohol. Alcohol fumes were known to be volatile, even explosive. A strict New England Puritan, Briggs had never hauled such a dangerous cargo and did not trust it. Nine barrels leaking would build up a lethal mixture of fumes in the hold.

Historian Conrad Byer believes that after a few calm days at sea, Captain Briggs ordered the hold to be opened. There was a violent rush of fumes and then steam. Captain Briggs believed the ship was about to explode and ordered everyone into the lifeboat. In his haste, he failed to properly secure the lifeboat to the ship with a strong towline. The wind picked up and blew the ship away from them. The occupants of the lifeboat either drowned or drifted out to sea to die of hunger, thirst and exposure.

Another theory is that the Mary Celeste got caught up in a waterspout, a tornado-like storm with a funnel cloud that occurs at sea. If the ship were caught up in a waterspout, the water surrounding the boat would have risen up the hull, letting the crew assume incorrectly that the Mary Celeste was sinking.

Other, more extreme speculation is common. Some authors cite a connection with the Bermuda Triangle, though the ship was far from it.

Speculation and fiction on the Mary Celeste

Whatever happened to the boat?

The recovered ship was used for 12 years by a variety of owners before being loaded up with boots and cat food by her last captain who attempted to sink her, apparently to claim insurance money. The plan did not work as the ship refused to sink having been run up on the Rochelois Reef in Haiti. The remains of the ship were discovered on August 9, 2001, by an expedition headed by author Clive Cussler (representing the National Underwater and Marine Agency) and Canadian film producer John Davis (president of ECO-NOVA Productions of Canada).

or did you mean the lifeboat?

None of the Mary Celeste's crew or passengers was ever found. Their fate may never be known, and rumors abound.

In early 1873 it was reported that two lifeboats landed off the shores of Spain, one containing a body and an American flag, the other containing five bodies. It was never investigated whether or not it could be the remains of the crew of the Mary Celeste.

Mary Celeste

maybe pirates did it....

Unlikely. Pirates would have torn the ship to shreds looking for valuables. Also, there would likely have been signs of a struggle - bullet holes, saber marks, scratches on the ship where the grappling lines would have been set. It's almost certain the crew abandoned the ship.

Personally, I'm inclined to believe the alcohol fumes drove them off and they simply drifted away. But the endearing quality of this story is that it's very unlikely we'll ever know for sure what happened. I remember reading a short story inspired by the Mary Celeste in which a giant squid (!) attacked the ship and dragged all the men overboard to their deaths. It seems far-fetched, but then, there are far, far more outrageous theories out there...

-Pilgrim

Hi there,
I have a new theory for the disappearance of the crew of the Mary Celeste. So here goes...
I think that perhaps thecrew had heard of the story of the sinking of the Essex by a giant whale 52 years earlier. The MAry Celeste crew maybe saw a sperm whale, and jumped over board and drowned. Later, the rescue boat disappeared because it was washed off the ship by a huge wave, and water from the wave slightly filled the hull.
So....what does anyone thinK?

Wouldnt a huge wave take off more than just a little boat?

i think a huge wave would have completely obliterated the ship and i dont think it would have taken everyone and only selected papers ??? although theories are abound i think we should stick to ockams razor

Personally I think that this sums it up pretty nicely:



From http://www.forteantimes.com/articles/172_ghostship.shtml.

i did a huge thing on the Mary Celete on this site.. i dont no look it up under my topics.. its called mary Celeste.. its everything, and its in great detail!!!

I often have read that the Mary Celeste was carrying wood alcohol, which is poison, not drinkable alcohol, not that it makes much difference.
A real mystery is the behavior of the prize court in Gibralter-the recovery of a derelict at sea is not uncommon, why all the fuss?
The furor over the case may be one factor, with the court determined to force an explanation.
Another might be that the chief officer was a "sundowner", an irrational and imbecilic sort of officer who exceeds authority and good sense routinely, and takes sadistic delight in making those under his power suffer.
Or, what say, might there have been a bribe refused, and a demonstration of power made?
I spent a lifetime in the military and paramilitary services, and I can see any of those scenarios playing out.
What I cannot see is the lack of some deeper motives.

The Mary Celeste Story certainly is facinating.

I know this is kinda off the topic, but I was watching a documentary last night and it said that over 126 Boats go missing every year never to be seen again in the Bermuda Triangle. I only thought it was just a small handful of boats going missing there, but no, it's a huge average of 126 boats a year .

There are a hell of a lot of things we don't know about our planet Earth!! -Anything could have happened....

The Bermuda Triangle was debunked nearly 40 years ago.

-Pilgrim

What do you mean by 'debunked'? What did they find out? discover?

Basically, in the mid-70's, some people actually looked into the incidents that are sighted as proof of the triangle, such as the Flight 19 disappearance. What was discovered was that triangle researchers had been guilty of very poor scholarship. Instead of actual research, they were all just passing along reports as gospel. The cases of disappearances in the triangle were not mysterious. For instance, in some cases what was reported as calm weather was, according to weather reports of the time in question, raging storms. Some disappearances attributed to the triangle did not in fact occur anywhere near it. Some ships that seemingly vanished were later found.

Given its size and the amount of traffic that passes through it, there is nothing mysterious about the Bermuda triangle.

-Pilgrim

The area is also lousey with pirates.
Piricy is not dead, in fact this is a time of rampant pirate villiany.
Forget the peg legs, hooks and eye patches(hire the handicapped must have been part of the pirate code) there are scads of sea-going skells active in our presemt day.
Witness a recent attack on a cruise ship, repelled with some kind of sound device, off the coast of Africa.
Pirates in the triangle area are often seeking vessels to use for dope smuggling runs, and they are as bad as any of the rovers on the old Spanish Main.
This problem is largely ignored, and I don't know why.

The only thing I have to add about this very infomative post is that on May 16th 1873, A newspaper in Liverpool reported that two rafts had been found near Madrid Spain. One raft had a dead body lashed to it, the second had the corpes of five decomposing people onit. The matter was never investigated. Could these have been the missing people from the Mary Celeste?

as pointed out, It was never investigated whether or not it could be the remains of the crew of the Mary Celeste. so, everything else is conjecture...

Beware the humbug!
In times past, reporters sometimes made up spectacular stories to spice up a slow news day, or sell some extra papers.
These usually happened far away, so they couldn't be checked easily.
That's a big ocean, and the boats are small, frankly, it's a wonder that any traces of lost ships or crews ever turn up.
The myth of the Triangle(and the Vile Vorteces) appeared in Argosy magazine in the '60's-that publication often published such stories.
As I recall, it was Argosy that first ran pictures of the ice-block monster of sideshow fame-remember what happened when it was finally retired and melted?

The iceman was never melted to my knowledge. When scientists wanted to purchase and thaw the iceman, the owner admitted that he had for some time been displaying a fake. He claimed that the "real" iceman had been shipped back overseas. Of course, no one believed this, with good reason, and the iceman story was exposed as a hoax.

Also, it was Argosy magazine itself which coined the phrase "Bermuda triangle," for those who care about such trivia. It was Charles Berlitz who supplied most of the triangle "research." Much of what he wrote has since been shown to be either mistaken or fraudulent. According to Larry Kusche, one of the individuals involved in debunking the triangle myth, "if Berlitz were to report that a boat were red, the chance of it being some other color is almost a certainty."

-Pilgrim

I recall a report that it was melted and shown to be a dummy-but who's to know?
Kind of a shame, it was a great sideshow attraction in its day.
Since we're examining maritime monkeyshines, does anyone recall the common name for those nasty little Mermaids that were made up from a fish and a monkey(Ye Olde Curiosity Shoppe in Seattle has a nice collection of them, and a couple of dandy mummies)
They were sometimes called Jenny something, or Fiji mermaids, but I'm damned if I can remember what it was!
Any help would be appreciated.

Jenny Haniver was the most popular Fiji Mermaid
Jenny Hanivers (or Hannivers) is the general name given to fake mermaids concocted of various body parts of different species.

Bless you-that's been driving me bonkers for years.
I even contacted Joanna Russ, an author who wrote a very good story that involved the Jenny Hanniver, and she couldn't remember either. (Its called 'The Malaysian Mer' and was published in Fantasy and Science Fiction Magazine, a long time ago.
But, back to our topic-was Mary Celeste carrying wood alcohol or drinking alcohol?
Inquiring minds want to know!
And while we're wandering, has anyone else read "The Colorado Kid" by Stephen King?
This book is a fine exploration of the nature of mysteries, as mysteries.
And he said he was going to retire-hah!
And thanks again to our lady friend from down under, for solving my little mystery.