Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Mary Celeste - aka The Amazon

She was spotted near the Azores. Captain David Morehouse watched her flail for two hours under full sail, then elected to board her. 





The date was today's date, December 4, 1872 - one hundred and forty years ago. The vessel in trouble was the Mary Celeste, a sleek 100 foot brigantine registered in New York. Boarding found her unmanned and at full sail - the Captain, Benjamin Spooner Briggs, his wife Sarah their two year old daughter, Sophia Matilda, and a crew of seven able sailors, were gone.

She had deported New York harbor on November 7th, bound with cargo of 1700 barrels of alcohol to Genoa, Italy. Though crew-less, she was found basically intact, with one pump working and one failed. Inspection by the boarding crew, and subsequent inspection showed that 9 barrels of the freight were empty, the boat[s] were gone, and it appeared that all had left in a panic. The ship had clearly encountered rough water, the ship had taken on some water, the contents of the cabin was askew, the main 3 inch halyard was found torn and hanging from the bow. The boarders said that the entire ship was wet, the navigational instruments and charts were missing. The captain of the rescue vessel, The Dei Gratia, testified that the winds had been strong for 7 or 8 days previous in this region. He supposed that it would have been difficult for any lifeboat to have stayed afloat for long in those conditions. 

This historical account is a good example of what a mysterious tragedy can spawn in the way of speculation and conspiracy theory. This event has been fictionalized many times, with 'explanation' of what happened. Arthur Conan Doyle, seeking to get his writing career underway, was the first to do so - his short story "The Captain of the Polestar", a fictionalized account that veered far from the facts as recorded by history. Subsequent speculations have included attack by pirates, mutiny, even abduction by aliens. The court of Gibraltar found no significant reason to suggest any of those explanations. This ship was not the only one that encountered such a fate - though not commonplace, it was not a totally rare event for a ship in trouble, in rough waters, to be abandoned, and the crew never found.

All in all - I find this maritime tale interesting, even a somewhat compelling subject for investigation. But, these events always make me aware of just how far human imagination can stray to attach conspiratorial, even supernatural or extraterrestrial explanations to what was likely a tragedy with no witnesses remaining to render an account of record. 

Yet, in thinking about this, I can smell the salts in the air, the wind in my hair, and a yearning to the adventures that can be unveiled from the comfort of my chair in this digital world. Explore!