Mary Celeste

Mary Celeste

Alma García-Parrado Sagrera 4B

Index

- Introduction: ¿What happend in this mystery?

- History

- About the ship

- Captain and tripulation

- Suspicions

- Theories

- Conclusion

Introduction

The Mary Celeste was an american merchant ship that was found banished and aground in Azores Islands, in the Atlantic Ocean, in 1872. Although the boat had some defects, it was in good conditions for sailing and also, the sails were deployed, but the lifesaver boats went missing. By the time the boat was founded, the daily was last written past 10 days.

History

The Mary Celeste was supposed to be making a voyage between New York and Genoa, and had departed just a month earlier. At the time the ship was found, it still had plenty of provisions on board, and both the merchandise and the personal belongings of the sailors and the captain remained intact. However, none of the crew members were ever seen again

About the ship

The ship that would come to be called the Mary Celeste was built in the shipyards of a Nova Scotia town known as Spencer's Island. Her first voyage began on May 18, 1861, but at that time the ship was named Amazon. It was 30.3 meters long, 7.8 meters wide and 3.6 meters deep. In addition, it weighed approximately 198 tons. The builder was Joshua Dewis that was under the command of Captain Robert McLellan, the Amazon made several voyages across the Atlantic. However, in the first of them, bad luck set in: the captain fell ill, and when the ship returned to its home port, the man died shortly after. Over the next two years, the new captain, John Nutting Parker, took the Amazon on a multitude of voyages for the West India Company. In 1863 Parker was replaced by William Thompson, who remained in command until 1867. Up to that point, the ship sailed without any unusual problems. However, in October 1876, on Cape Breton Island, a storm ran the Amazon aground and damaged it in such a way that its owners decided to abandon ship, thinking it impossible to recover it. But, a few days later a dealer named Alexander McBean decided to buy the remains at auction.

The captain and his tripulation

In October, the syndicate that legally owned the ship ceded command of the Mary Celeste to Benjamin Spooner Briggs, who officially became its captain. This American-born man had spent his entire life at sea, by the time he took command of the ship, he was thinking of abandoning that profession and going into commerce. However, his plans changed when he decided to invest part of his savings in the Mary Celeste, of which he came to own an important part. Benjamin prepared for the ship's maiden voyage after its modification. On this voyage, which would go from New York to Genoa, he was accompanied by his wife and newborn daughter. The crew was personally chosen by Brigss, including several members of his distant family and trusted friends. All reports indicate that relations between the captain and the sailors were very good. However, peace was not to last long aboard the Mary Celeste. On December 4, 1872, halfway between the Azores Islands and the coast of Portugal, the lookout told Captain Morehouse (who was in command of the Dei Gratia) that he had seen a ship about ten kilometers away, approaching them slowly and irregularly. When the two ships were close enough, Morehouse realized that the second vessel was the Mary Celeste. Records of the time indicate that the two captains knew each other, so the captain of the Dei Gratia sent several of his officers to investigate when he received no response from the other ship. The ship was completely deserted and in poor condition, although not to the point where it could not have continued to sail. Both the sails were damaged. In addition, there was a small amount of seawater inside the vessel, although not enough to sink it.

Suspicions

Some details caused the abandonment of the Mary Celeste to arouse all kinds of suspicions. For example, most of the personal belongings of the crew and captain were still on the ship, except for the navigational instruments. In addition, there were plenty of provisions left, the cargo had not been touched, and the lifeboat was missing. Upon discovering the Mary Celeste adrift, the captain of the Dei Gratia decided to take it with him to Gibraltar, where he hoped to get a reward for its rescue. However, the unusual circumstances surrounding the abandonment of the ship led to a thorough investigation of what had happened.

- For a long time, it was believed that the abandonment of the ship was an attempt by its captain to collect the ship's insurance, with the collaboration of Morehouse and the crew of the Dei Gratia. - Other researchers believed that the ship had suffered some sort of attack, either by the Dei Gratia itself or by pirates, of which there were many in the area at the time. However, no signs of fighting were found on the Mary Celeste. - Due to the amount of water found on the vessel, some researchers believe that Captain Briggs may have believed that the Mary Celeste was sinking at high speed. This would have led him to put the entire crew into the lifeboat and flee before checking to see if his theory was true.

Theories

Conclusion

In conclusion, the Mary Celeste is a very big mystery that involved a whole tropulation and his own captain. But the ship itself wasnt destroyed or damaged, it only had signs of inundation. There are a lot of theories about it, but I liked the most where the captain had gone crazy and killed the whole tripulation and himself in a psychotic attack.

¡Recuerda publicar!