The Mary Celeste

On December 4, 1872, the British brigantine Dei Gratia encountered the American merchant ship Mary Celeste adrift in the Atlantic Ocean, approximately 400 miles east of the Azores. The ship was in reasonable condition and carrying valuable cargo, but her crew was gone. No bodies were ever found, no distress signal had been sent, and the reasons for the crew’s disappearance have never been definitively established. The Mary Celeste became history’s most famous ghost ship.

The Ship

The Mary Celeste was a 282-ton brigantine built in Nova Scotia in 1861 under the name “Amazon.” After a series of owners and misfortunes—including the death of her first captain and a collision that required extensive repairs—she was purchased by American buyers, repaired, and renamed Mary Celeste.

On November 7, 1872, she departed New York harbor under Captain Benjamin Spooner Briggs, bound for Genoa, Italy, with a cargo of 1,701 barrels of commercial alcohol. Aboard were Briggs, his wife Sarah, their two-year-old daughter Sophia, and a crew of seven. The weather was fair, and nothing suggested the voyage would be anything but routine.

The Discovery

The Dei Gratia, commanded by Captain David Morehouse—who knew Briggs personally—spotted the Mary Celeste on December 4, sailing erratically with some of her sails set and others furled. Morehouse sent a boarding party to investigate.

They found the ship deserted. The last entry in the ship’s log was dated November 25, nine days earlier, placing the ship about 400 miles west of where she was found. The cargo was largely intact. Six months’ worth of food and fresh water remained aboard. The crew’s personal belongings, including pipes and razors, were in their proper places.

However, some things were missing or disturbed. The ship’s only lifeboat was gone. The sounding rod—used to measure water in the hold—was found lying on deck. The ship’s chronometer, sextant, and navigation book were missing. A section of railing had been removed, and a rope was found trailing in the water.

The Inquiry

A salvage court convened in Gibraltar to investigate. The inquiry found no evidence of piracy—nothing had been stolen. There was no evidence of fire or explosion. The ship was not in danger of sinking. The hull was sound, and the cargo was secure.

The inquiry noted some water in the hold, but no more than might be expected after sailing through Atlantic weather. They found cuts on the bow that some interpreted as damage from an attack, but others attributed to normal wear or previous incidents.

Unable to determine what had happened, the court awarded salvage payment to the Dei Gratia’s crew, and the Mary Celeste was returned to service.

Theories

The fate of the Mary Celeste’s crew has inspired countless theories over the past 150 years.

The most prosaic explanation involves the cargo. Alcohol barrels can release vapors, and nine of the Mary Celeste’s barrels were later found empty. Captain Briggs may have feared an explosion, ordered the crew into the lifeboat, and attached them to the ship by rope while the danger passed. If the rope broke or was cut, the lifeboat would have been lost at sea.

Other theories propose sudden waterspouts, seaquakes, or rogue waves that frightened the crew into abandoning ship. Some suggest murder—either by the Dei Gratia’s crew for salvage money or by someone aboard the Mary Celeste herself. More exotic proposals include sea monsters, the Bermuda Triangle (though the Mary Celeste was nowhere near it), and alien abduction.

The Legend

The Mary Celeste captured public imagination, partly due to a fictionalized account by Arthur Conan Doyle published in 1884. Doyle’s story, presented as fiction but often taken as fact, added dramatic details not present in the historical record and established many of the myths that persist today.

The case became a touchstone for discussions of mysterious disappearances at sea. The term “ghost ship” became permanently associated with the Mary Celeste, even though the ship itself was not ghostly—only abandoned.

The Aftermath

The Mary Celeste sailed for another twelve years under various owners before being deliberately wrecked in Haiti in 1885 as part of an insurance fraud scheme. Her remains have been tentatively identified on a reef off Port-au-Prince.

The crew of the Mary Celeste was never found. Whatever happened on or around November 25, 1872, remained their secret, taken into the waters of the Atlantic.

Assessment

The Mary Celeste remains history’s most famous maritime mystery. The facts are limited: a ship found adrift, a missing crew, no sign of violence. Everything else is speculation.

The most likely explanation—a cargo-related fear of explosion leading to evacuation, followed by the loss of the lifeboat—is mundane compared to the legends. But the ocean keeps its secrets, and the fate of Captain Briggs, his family, and his crew will probably never be known with certainty.