Abandoned Ship: the Mary Celeste

What really happened aboard the Mary Celeste? More than a century after her crew went missing, a scenario is emerging

  • By Jess Blumberg
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    The British brig Dei Gratia was about 400 miles east of the Azores on December 5, 1872, when crew members spotted a ship adrift in the choppy seas. Capt. David Morehouse was taken aback to discover that the unguided vessel was the Mary Celeste, which had left New York City eight days before him and should have already arrived in Genoa, Italy. He changed course to offer help.

    Morehouse sent a boarding party to the ship. Belowdecks, the ship's charts had been tossed about, and the crewmen's belongings were still in their quarters. The ship's only lifeboat was missing, and one of its two pumps had been disassembled. Three and a half feet of water was sloshing in the ship's bottom, though the cargo of 1,701 barrels of industrial alcohol was largely intact. There was a six-month supply of food and water—but not a soul to consume it.

    Thus was born one of the most durable mysteries in nautical history: What happened to the ten people who had sailed aboard the Mary Celeste? Through the decades, a lack of hard facts has only spurred speculation as to what might have taken place. Theories have ranged from mutiny to pirates to sea monsters to killer waterspouts. Arthur Conan Doyle's 1884 short story based on the case posited a capture by a vengeful ex-slave, a 1935 movie featured Bela Lugosi as a homicidal sailor. Now, a new investigation, drawing on modern maritime technology and newly discovered documents, has pieced together the most likely scenario.

    "I love the idea of mysteries, but you should always revisit these things using knowledge that has since come to light," says Anne MacGregor, the documentarian who launched the investigation and wrote, directed and produced The True Story of the 'Mary Celeste,' partly with funding from Smithsonian Networks.

    The ship began its fateful voyage on November 7, 1872, sailing with seven crewmen and Capt. Benjamin Spooner Briggs, his wife, Sarah, and the couple's 2-year-old daughter, Sophia. The 282-ton brigantine battled heavy weather for two weeks to reach the Azores, where the ship log's last entry was recorded at 5 a.m. on November 25.

    After spotting the Mary Celeste ten days later, the Dei Gratia crewmen sailed the ship some 800 miles to Gibraltar, where a British vice admiralty court convened a salvage hearing, which was usually limited to determining whether the salvagers—in this case, the Dei Gratia crewmen—were entitled to payment from the ship's insurers. But the attorney general in charge of the inquiry, Frederick Solly-Flood, suspected mischief and investigated accordingly. After more than three months, the court found no evidence of foul play. Eventually, the salvagers received a payment, but only one-sixth of the $46,000 for which the ship and its cargo had been insured, suggesting that the authorities were not entirely convinced of the Dei Gratia crew's innocence.

    The story of the Mary Celeste might have drifted into history if Conan Doyle hadn't published "J. Habakuk Jephson's Statement" in 1884; his sensationalistic account, printed in Cornhill Magazine, set off waves of theorizing about the ship's fate. Even Attorney General Solly-Flood revisited the case, writing summaries of his interviews and notes. But the mystery remained unsolved. MacGregor picked up the trail in 2002. "There's so much nonsense written about this legend," she said. "I felt compelled to find the truth."

    MacGregor's four previous investigative documentaries, including The Hindenburg Disaster: Probable Cause (2001), applied modern forensic techniques to historical questions. "There are obvious limitations for historic cases," she says. "But using the latest technology, you can come to a different conclusion."

    For her Mary Celeste film, MacGregor began by asking what didn't happen. Speculation concerning sea monsters was easy to dismiss. The ship's condition—intact and with full cargo—seemed to rule out pirates. One theory bandied about in the 19th century held that crew members drank the alcohol onboard and mutinied; after interviewing crewmen's descendants, MacGregor deemed that scenario unlikely. Another theory assumed that alcohol vapors expanded in the Azores heat and blew off the main hatch, prompting those aboard to fear an imminent explosion. But MacGregor notes that the boarding party found the main hatch secured and did not report smelling any fumes. True, she says, nine of the 1,701 barrels in the hold were empty, but the empty nine had been recorded as being made of red oak, not white oak like the others. Red oak is known to be a more porous wood and therefore more likely to leak.

    As for that homicidal sailor played by Lugosi in The Mystery of the Mary Celeste, he may have been drawn from two German crewmen, brothers Volkert and Boye Lorenzen, who fell under suspicion because none of their personal possessions were found on the abandoned ship. But a Lorenzen descendant told MacGregor that the pair had lost their gear in a shipwreck earlier in 1872. "They had no motive," MacGregor says.

    After ruling out what didn't happen, MacGregor confronted the question of what might have.

    Abandoning a ship in the open sea is the last thing a captain would order and a sailor would do. But is that what Captain Briggs ordered? If so, why?


    The British brig Dei Gratia was about 400 miles east of the Azores on December 5, 1872, when crew members spotted a ship adrift in the choppy seas. Capt. David Morehouse was taken aback to discover that the unguided vessel was the Mary Celeste, which had left New York City eight days before him and should have already arrived in Genoa, Italy. He changed course to offer help.

    Morehouse sent a boarding party to the ship. Belowdecks, the ship's charts had been tossed about, and the crewmen's belongings were still in their quarters. The ship's only lifeboat was missing, and one of its two pumps had been disassembled. Three and a half feet of water was sloshing in the ship's bottom, though the cargo of 1,701 barrels of industrial alcohol was largely intact. There was a six-month supply of food and water—but not a soul to consume it.

    Thus was born one of the most durable mysteries in nautical history: What happened to the ten people who had sailed aboard the Mary Celeste? Through the decades, a lack of hard facts has only spurred speculation as to what might have taken place. Theories have ranged from mutiny to pirates to sea monsters to killer waterspouts. Arthur Conan Doyle's 1884 short story based on the case posited a capture by a vengeful ex-slave, a 1935 movie featured Bela Lugosi as a homicidal sailor. Now, a new investigation, drawing on modern maritime technology and newly discovered documents, has pieced together the most likely scenario.

    "I love the idea of mysteries, but you should always revisit these things using knowledge that has since come to light," says Anne MacGregor, the documentarian who launched the investigation and wrote, directed and produced The True Story of the 'Mary Celeste,' partly with funding from Smithsonian Networks.

    The ship began its fateful voyage on November 7, 1872, sailing with seven crewmen and Capt. Benjamin Spooner Briggs, his wife, Sarah, and the couple's 2-year-old daughter, Sophia. The 282-ton brigantine battled heavy weather for two weeks to reach the Azores, where the ship log's last entry was recorded at 5 a.m. on November 25.

    After spotting the Mary Celeste ten days later, the Dei Gratia crewmen sailed the ship some 800 miles to Gibraltar, where a British vice admiralty court convened a salvage hearing, which was usually limited to determining whether the salvagers—in this case, the Dei Gratia crewmen—were entitled to payment from the ship's insurers. But the attorney general in charge of the inquiry, Frederick Solly-Flood, suspected mischief and investigated accordingly. After more than three months, the court found no evidence of foul play. Eventually, the salvagers received a payment, but only one-sixth of the $46,000 for which the ship and its cargo had been insured, suggesting that the authorities were not entirely convinced of the Dei Gratia crew's innocence.

    The story of the Mary Celeste might have drifted into history if Conan Doyle hadn't published "J. Habakuk Jephson's Statement" in 1884; his sensationalistic account, printed in Cornhill Magazine, set off waves of theorizing about the ship's fate. Even Attorney General Solly-Flood revisited the case, writing summaries of his interviews and notes. But the mystery remained unsolved. MacGregor picked up the trail in 2002. "There's so much nonsense written about this legend," she said. "I felt compelled to find the truth."

    MacGregor's four previous investigative documentaries, including The Hindenburg Disaster: Probable Cause (2001), applied modern forensic techniques to historical questions. "There are obvious limitations for historic cases," she says. "But using the latest technology, you can come to a different conclusion."

    For her Mary Celeste film, MacGregor began by asking what didn't happen. Speculation concerning sea monsters was easy to dismiss. The ship's condition—intact and with full cargo—seemed to rule out pirates. One theory bandied about in the 19th century held that crew members drank the alcohol onboard and mutinied; after interviewing crewmen's descendants, MacGregor deemed that scenario unlikely. Another theory assumed that alcohol vapors expanded in the Azores heat and blew off the main hatch, prompting those aboard to fear an imminent explosion. But MacGregor notes that the boarding party found the main hatch secured and did not report smelling any fumes. True, she says, nine of the 1,701 barrels in the hold were empty, but the empty nine had been recorded as being made of red oak, not white oak like the others. Red oak is known to be a more porous wood and therefore more likely to leak.

    As for that homicidal sailor played by Lugosi in The Mystery of the Mary Celeste, he may have been drawn from two German crewmen, brothers Volkert and Boye Lorenzen, who fell under suspicion because none of their personal possessions were found on the abandoned ship. But a Lorenzen descendant told MacGregor that the pair had lost their gear in a shipwreck earlier in 1872. "They had no motive," MacGregor says.

    After ruling out what didn't happen, MacGregor confronted the question of what might have.

    Abandoning a ship in the open sea is the last thing a captain would order and a sailor would do. But is that what Captain Briggs ordered? If so, why?

    His ship was seaworthy. "It wasn't flooded or horribly damaged," says Phil Richardson, a physical oceanographer at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts and an expert in derelict vessels, whom MacGregor enlisted in her investigation. "The discovery crew sailed it, so it was in really good shape."

    Briggs' life before the Mary Celeste offered no clues, says MacGregor, who visited the captain's hometown of Marion, Massachusetts, and interviewed descendants of Arthur Briggs, the 7-year-old son the Briggses had left behind so he could attend school. MacGregor learned that the captain was experienced and respected in shipping circles. "There was never a question that he would do something irrational," she says.

    Did Briggs, then, have a rational reason to abandon ship? MacGregor figured that if she could determine the precise spot from which Briggs, his family and crew abandoned ship, she might be able to shed light on why. She knew from the transcriptions of the Mary Celeste's log slate—where notations were made before they were transcribed into the log—that the ship was six miles from, and within sight of, the Azores island of Santa Maria on November 25; she knew from the testimony of the Dei Gratia crew that ten days later, the ship was some 400 miles east of the island. MacGregor asked Richardson "to work backward and create a path between these two points."

    Richardson said he would need water temperatures, wind speeds and wind directions at the time, data that MacGregor found in the International Comprehensive Ocean-Atmosphere Data Set (ICOADS), a database that stores global marine information from 1784 to 2007 and is used to study climate change. She, her yachtsman husband, Scott, and Richardson drew on the data to determine whether the Mary Celeste could have drifted from its recorded location on November 25 to where the Dei Gratia crew reported finding it on December 5. Their conclusion: yes, it could have, even without a crew to sail it. "We found out it basically just sailed itself," Richardson says.

    At that point, MacGregor considered the fact that a captain would most likely order a ship abandoned within sight of land. Since Santa Maria was the last land for hundreds of miles, it seemed safe to assume that the Mary Celeste had been abandoned the morning of November 25, after the last log entry was written.

    But why?

    On this point, MacGregor says, Attorney General Solly-Flood's notes are crucial. He wrote that he saw nothing unusual about the voyage until the last five days, which is why he transcribed the ship's log starting five days from the end. The ship's log is believed to have been lost in 1885, so those transcriptions provided the only means for MacGregor and Richardson to plot the course and positions logged for the ship. The two then reconsidered those positions in light of ICOADS data and other information on sea conditions at the time. Their conclusion: Briggs was actually 120 miles west of where he thought he was, probably because of an inaccurate chronometer. By the captain's calculations, he should have sighted land three days earlier than he did.

    Solly-Flood's notes yielded one other piece of information that MacGregor and Richardson consider significant: the day before he reached the Azores, Briggs changed course and headed north of Santa Maria Island, perhaps seeking haven.

    The night before the last entry in the ship's log, the Mary Celeste again faced rough seas and winds of more than 35 knots. Still, MacGregor reasons, rough seas and a faulty chronometer wouldn't, by themselves, prompt an experienced captain to abandon ship. Was there something else?

    MacGregor learned that on its previous voyage, the Mary Celeste had carried coal and that the ship had recently been extensively refitted. Coal dust and construction debris could have fouled the ship's pumps, which would explain the disassembled pump found on the Mary Celeste. With the pump inoperative, Briggs would not have known how much seawater was in his ship's hull, which was too fully packed for him to measure visually.

    At that point, says MacGregor, Briggs—having come through rough weather, having finally and belatedly sighted land and having no way of determining whether his ship would sink—might well have issued an order to abandon ship.

    But, like Attorney General Solly-Flood, MacGregor can't leave the story of the Mary Celeste alone; she is continuing her investigation for a book. "The research goes on," she says. "Because I have been touched by the story, as I hope other people will be."

    Jess Blumberg is an intern at Smithsonian.

    The True Story of the 'Mary Celeste' will première November 4 on the Smithsonian Channel on high-definition DirecTV.


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    Comments (19)

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    Is it possible that the ship mary celeste it a small iland outside the island of san jorge, known as elheo do topo. the town of topo on the san jorge island has a celeberation once a year,where a sword with a white handle is exhibited at the church.no one seems to know where it came from.can it be the sword of captian briggs.I have seen a picture of it.there is also only one family on that island with redhair and they are from that town.was any of the crewman redheaded.

    Posted by john melo on January 22,2012 | 09:57 PM

    I have read the book of this amazing ship but im not sure you have all the details of the old ship

    Posted by anna on January 6,2012 | 04:42 PM

    I am an avid fan of Clive Cussler, especially his two books "The Seahunters", And "Seahunters II", which document his searches and discoveries of famous historical lost ship wrecks. I'm not familiar with the coast surrounding Santa Maria Is., but if it was seen by Capt. Briggs and he felt his ship was in dire straits , would it have been possible to ground his ship on the beach if one was avaliable. Just a thought...

    Posted by Bob A. on March 15,2010 | 11:26 PM

    this was a good story what is the movie called i would like to watch it an learn some more facts about it

    Posted by jason on March 15,2010 | 10:47 PM

    "Coal dust and construction debris could have fouled the ship's pumps, which would explain the disassembled pump found on the Mary Celeste. With the pump inoperative, Briggs would not have known how much seawater was in his ship's hull, which was too fully packed for him to measure visually."

    OK this is where I get confused. I've lived on boats, worked on boats, new boats, old boats, even very old wooden sailing ships and if they had a pump there had to be an access hatch to lower the pump into the water or lower a hose attached to the pump. It's a very simple an effective way to check the water level. I don't know of any captain that would abandon their ship and their cargo without being absolutely certain that the ship was going down. A responsible Captain which by all accounts Captain Briggs was, would of checked the water level in the ship first before ordering anyone to abandon ship even if they had to dump cargo over the sides to do it.

    Posted by Matthew on March 15,2010 | 09:53 PM

    There is a book written by Brian Hicks called "Ghost ship: the mysterious true story of the Mary Celeste and her missing crew," which posits the most likely scenario.

    The ship was carring industrial-grade alcohol, used to fortify wines. 9 barrels were found be empty. As alcohol is lighter than water, the leaking barrels would have filled the hold with noxious fumes. The fumes would have overcome anyone on board. The captain, with his wife and child to think of, would have not want to risk their lives, or the lives of his crew. He made the hasty decision to put everyone on the life boat, tethered to the ship until the fumes cleared.

    One lone rope was found trailing in the water, not hooked up to any rigging, with the ends frayed. It likely snapped, causing all aboard to tragically, be lost at sea.

    Curiously not mentioned in this article. I wish there was somewhere to rent this DVD or watch it online without having to pay for iTunes.

    Posted by Anonymouse on January 9,2010 | 02:26 PM

    Common sense should explain the disappearance of the unfortunate crew of the Mary Celeste. First look at some vital clues such as clogged pump and missing life boat and possibility of alchol-caused explosion. Obviously Captain Briggs no longer trust his boat to be safe for long and therefore ordered everyone to abandon ship ASAP. The hapless souls simply drifted into the unknown in their life boat most likely victims of bad weather and rough seas- their remains became instant food to sharks and other creatures of the sea leaving no trace. It's people's love of mystery and intrigue that lives on!

    Posted by DALE ROBERTS on October 24,2009 | 06:16 PM

    I find a certain irony to the fact that the reason for the Mary Celeste to be abandoned was simply because of a clogged pump. Sea Monsters, tidal waves are theories that a fanciful mind would produce. It might be possible that the Mary Celeste might be last century's news and no one here would write about it today if people looked at the facts with a clear and sensible head. I'm glad the mystery has finally been brought to light.

    Posted by jake on June 24,2009 | 05:39 PM

    I have been heavily researching MC for 10 years and the only known picture of her is by Honore Pellegrini of Marseille in 1861 as Amazon. As Mary Celeste she had an additional deck added in 1872 and the account of changes made do not correspond to the photograph. It is a different ship. The only known photos of her were taken by Clive Cussler's team, of the wreck such as it is, in Haiti. Capt Morehouse of Dei Gratia commissioned a painting of his ship by Giuseppi Coli in Sicily April 1873. I have nearly completed my book which will forever change what is known about Mary Celeste including how she got her name. Arthur Briggs died in 1931 sans issue. Benjamin's surviving brother James Cannon Briggs married Zenas Briggs' (1844-70) fiancee Mary Reynolds and had four sons. The lineage continues. P.S. I have now authenticated over 100 souls lost in the N Atlantic hurricane Nov 19-30 1872. I don't want to give too much away but can say without reservation that it was a "perfect hurricane" that caused her misfortune that November. You read it here first.

    Posted by Roger Campbell on June 22,2009 | 04:33 PM

    Derek, I would be interested in information regarding the descendents of Captain Briggs and any crew members. I know Captain Briggs left a son behind and beleive there are descendants from him. Do you know if any of the other crew members left children behind? Also interested in photos that you may have if possible to email. Thankyou

    Posted by wendy robson on May 11,2009 | 04:35 PM

    I spend every summer in Nova Scotia.In Spencers Island to be exact. The master builder of the Mary Celeste was an Uncle of mine. My great great Grandmother's sister was married to him. My great great Grandfather was a share holder as well. The Mary Celeste is family to me. Let me know what info or pictures anyone woulf like to see.

    Posted by Derek on January 6,2009 | 09:23 PM

    I read a book about this and I want to find out more. So if anyone who reads this has some information they would like to share with me, I would love it so email me at bluepenguin12346@yahoo.com.

    Posted by Katherine on December 15,2008 | 11:41 AM

    In reference to the comment from Roger Campbell 2/1/08 I believe that picture was a photo taken from a painting that Capt. Morehouse had done after his return home. My mothers oldest and dearest friend was his granddaughter, Elizabeth Jennings and that very large oil painting hung over her fireplace up until her death in her nineties. I imagine the Fairfield Historical Society probably has it as many of her priceless possessions were left to the Society.

    Posted by Elisabeth A. Smith on July 18,2008 | 04:31 PM

    What happened to the Marie Celeste after it was found. Was it for salvage, or was it preserved/reconstructed?

    Posted by Gilly Thornton on June 24,2008 | 11:24 AM

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