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Marie Celeste Mystery
On December 4th, 1872, the Marie Celeste was found drifting and deserted by the British ship Dei Gratia about 300 miles off the coast of Portugal.
The Dei Gratia was moving along briskly when Mate Oliver Deveau spotted a smaller ship laboring on a path which would intercept the Dei Gratia. The Marie Celeste's sails were furled, in a short sail, and when the crew of Dei Gratia spoke to the other craft, there was no response. Captain Morehouse put about to come alongside the Marie Celeste. As they pulled alongside they could see no one on board. Deveau and three seamen boarded the ship. In their subsequent testimony before the British court at Gibraltar the boarding party agreed on what they found: No one on board; more than three feet of water in the hold; lazarette and fore hatches both open; binnacle compass shattered; the skylight of the Captain's cabin open. Mate Deveau told the
court: "The Captain's clothes were all in place and even the log book was on the mate's desk in his cabin. There seemed to be everything left behind in the cabin as if left in a hurry, but everything in its place. I noticed the impression in the captain's bed as of a child having lain there.'
The party who boarded the Marie Celeste found 1,700 barrels of alcohol in the hold, a rich haul for the ship that could tow her into port for salvage. Captain Morehouse order a skeleton crew to take and run the derelict into port at Gibraltar, register their find and claim the salvage rights. Mate Deveau did as ordered, but ran into trouble from the moment he touched shore at Gibraltar, nine days after he left the Dei Gratia. The Marshal of the Vice-Admiralty considered the size and value of the Marie Celeste's cargo and decided that no one in his right mind would desert 75 thousand dollars worth of alcohol. Therefore it had to be piracy. When Captain Morehouse made port a few days later he found his crew in prison, awaiting trial for piracy.
The court appointed a doctor to examine and determine the source of some mysterious stains found on a sword in the Captain's berth as well as matching stains found on the deck of the Marie Celeste. They also employed a diver to examine the bottom of the Celeste for possible damage from a reef causing the crew to abandon ship. The stain was determined not to be blood and the bottom of the ship was as sound as she could be.
Why then did Captain Briggs, captain of the Marie Celeste, his wife, small daughter, and a crew of nine desert her?
Nothing is known for certain, to this day what actually happened on the Marie Celeste. Her past was strange in itself and many sailors believe she was merely a doomed ship. She was originally christened the Amazon when she was built in 1861. Her first skipper, Captain Robert McClellan, took sick aboard her on her maiden voyage and died within a few days of setting sail. Her second Captain, John Parker, found ill fortune with her. He made no money for the owners and soon found himself jobless. After the trial on Gibraltar she was returned to her owner and then sold again. After two more owners, a piled up ship with her bottom knocked out, she was purchased by James Winchester of New York. He had so many problems with her losing cargo, running aground that he sold her, losing eight thousand dollars in process to David Cartwright. Cartwright loaded her with lumber and set sail. But the trip was so stormy she lost all her rigging and all the lumber. Her skipper found an unsuspecting soul who wanted a load of horses delivered up the coast. The horses died en route, and the skipper himself had to put ashore at St. Helena, where he died. Cartwright was more than glad to dispose of this ship and sold it to Wesley Gove.
Wesley Gove employed as a partner and Captain, Gilman Parker. Gove took out cargo insurance for 25,000
dollars; Parker loaded the Marie Celeste with
furniture and cloth for Haiti.
A few miles from their destination Parker handed out grog to all the crew. Roaring drunk they ram the Marie Celeste head on into a reef. She struck the coral, gutted, she began to settle and sink.
Gove and Parker were hauled into court on a charge of barratry and after the testimony of the crew knew they would be convicted. But before they could be brought to trial Parker
died, his mate died, & all six of the insurance companies involved went bankrupt.
Whatever happened to Captain Briggs, his wife, daughter & nine sailors?
Like many other riddles of the sea, time & time only, has closed the books on the Marie Celeste and all question remain unanswered.
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