We all know about mysteries, and many aren't solved, but how do you go into oblivion without any records or eyewitnesses? This is precisely what happened to the captain and crew of the Mary Celeste. The Mary Celeste was a cargo ship carrying around 1,700 barrels of alcohol starting at the port of New York heading for its destination at Genoa, Italy. The captain of the Dei Gratia found it about 400 miles from the Azores Islands without anyone on board. To this day no one knows what happened to the crew and captain of the Mary Celeste. Still, many theories have been from the Dei Gratia deceiving the government to pirate attacks. But the most suitable elucidation would be that the crew evacuated the ship from the fear of the alcohol igniting.
Firstly, the crew and captain of the Mary Celeste abandoned the ship because of the mass load of alcohol. The weather was fine, and the ship was seaworthy. Captain Briggs suspected a storm but not one to be aware of. Mary Celeste can easily go through the storm with no difficulty at all. “[There were] 1,701 barrels of undrinkable alcohol…” and “Captain Briggs was nervous about carrying such dangerous stuff” which is why they evacuated the ship (Moss 2015). The crew also found “an open hatch-cover on the deck; [f]earing an explosion, Captain Briggs would have ordered everyone to abandon the ship as quickly as possible” (Noelene 2009). From that point on, they had to find a lifeboat to get away from the ship "and the lifeboat [was gone]” which displays that the sailors had used it (An Ocean Mystery 2005).
Furthermore, the sailors abandon the ship because of the load of crude alcohol as this is “the more scientifically minded [proposal]-caused by fumes from the 1,700 barrels of crude alcohol in the ship’s hold” (Pruitt 2015). [T]he ship was very tidy and there was plenty of food and water on board”, but “it looked as the crew of the Mary Celeste had left in a hurry” revealing that the crew had the assumption of something that was going to happen like the alcohol exploding(An Ocean Mystery 2005). The crew abandoned the ship due to the fact that the mass load of 1,701 barrels of alcohol could have exploded.
Many historians and scholars believe that the members of the Dei Gratia- an explorer ship -have misled society and indeed done something to the crew of the Mary Celeste but this can’t be true. The chief judge in Gibraltar was “convinced that the Dei Gratia had mutinied and murdered the captain and his family [, but] [t]here was no blood and Briggs was well-liked and a fair captain”(Noelene 2009). The Dei Gratia came under suspicion but “the captains were friends. And in the end, they were rewarded only a small amount” because of their wariness. (Noelene 2009). Undeniably, the members of the Dei Gratia did not make foul play, divulging the fact that they didn’t conceal the sailors of the Mary Celeste.
The crew and captain of the Mary Celeste had abandoned the ship in the middle of the ocean 400 miles east of the Azores. The sailors used their one lifeboat to escape into oblivion. Although the Dei Gratia could mislead society, the members of the Mary Celeste left the ship due to the fact that the 1,700 barrels of alcohol may have ignited during their journey. No one knows where the members went to this day, but we do know that they left because of an explosion that could have ended their lives earlier if they didn’t choose to evacuate.
Works Cited
"An Ocean Mystery." BBC Learning Is Fun!, Issue, 2005. ProQuest; SIRS Discoverer, https://explore.proquest.com/sirsdiscoverer/document/2250243324?accountid=10988.
"Famous ships." Britannica School, Encyclopædia Britannica, 13 Oct. 2022. school.eb.com/levels/middle/article/famous-ships/277035#208001.toc. Accessed 15 Jan. 2024.
Martin, Noelene. "The Mystery of the Mary Celeste." Touchdown, 10 2009. ProQuest; SIRS Discoverer, https://explore.proquest.com/sirsdiscoverer/document/2250119313?accountid=186362.
Moss, Meg. "The Mystery of the Mary Celeste." Ask, vol. 14, no. 6, July-Aug. 2015, pp. 16+. Gale In Context: Elementary, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A425237570/ITKE?
u=j043905058&sid=bookmark-ITKE&xid=a06b3629. Accessed 7 Jan. 2024.
Pruitt, Sarah. “What Happened to the Mary Celeste?” HISTORY, HISTORY, 21 July 2015, www.history.com/news/what-happened-to-the-mary-celeste.
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