The Mary Celeste was found abandoned minus the crew in 1872. The weather was perfect. The ship was in perfect condition in full sail headed to the Straits of Gibraltar. She has been at sea for a month with stock of 6 months of foods still in it. Everything untouched including valuables. Table settings and teapots untouched. She was a huge mystery at the time. Theories have ranged from alcoholic fumes (it was it's main shipment). To UFO's, piracy, insurance scam, earthquake, sudden storms, tsunami, waterspout, ergotamine, mutiny. It was also believed that the crew of the ship that found her the Dei Gratia was involved in the disappearance of the crew.
The most famous thing that came out of story. The beginning of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's writing. In his 1884 fiction book, "The Captain of The Polestart". There is one section in the book called, "J. Habakuk Jephson's Statement". People wanted to believe that the character Jephson was a survivor of the Mary Celeste (which there were none). Mr. Doyle in another book created a character with the same name as an infant that was also on the Mary Celeste.
http://www.deafwhale.com/maryceleste/
http://www.maryceleste.net/
That was one of my favorite stories. My father had a habit of bringing up a subject at the supper table and us five kids would have to discuss and come up with theories. This ship was one of his favorites. He was a Navy man in the South Pacific in WWII and he went on the search for Amelia when her plane went down. One of his buddies was in the squadron that went down in the Bermuda Triangle. He always was most intrigued by abandoned ships and such. I think we must have talked about this one many many times at the table, each of us kids rushing out to find out at the library anything we could add to the discussion. It does seem like they abandoned quickly, but why??? What a mystery!
ReplyDeleteLove these stories! Like I said before. I always let to write about places or things that you really don't hear much about. Glad you like it!
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