7th November: The Mary Celeste

In 1872, the Mary Celeste set sail from New York. About a month later, she was discovered drifting abandoned off the coast of Portugal. Nobody knows what became of her crew. 10 facts you may not know about this legendary ship:

1. She was built in Nova Scotia and initially registered as a British ship, named Amazon.
2. Her maiden voyage in 1861 encountered a few problems - the captain fell ill and died, and there were a couple of collisions with fishing equipment and a brig. After that, however, the ship made numerous voyages without incident.
3. In October 1867, at Cape Breton Island, Amazon was driven ashore in a storm, and was so badly damaged that her owners abandoned her as a wreck. However, some businessmen in America saw her potential, bought her and spent $8,825 repairing her. When this was done, the ship got a new American registration and a new name: Mary Celeste.
4. In 1872, before the fateful voyage, the ship underwent a major refit, making her bigger.
5. The captain on this voyage was called Benjamin Briggs. He came from a seafaring family and was a committed Christian. He was also a shareholder of the Mary Celeste, having invested his savings in her. He had sailed with the first mate, Albert G. Richardson before, and he wrote to his mother before setting sail that he was satisfied with the ship and the crew. Also on board was Brigg's wife and two year old daughter. His son, Arthur, was left at home with his grandmother, possibly because they didn't want to take him out of school. His mother promised to write a report of the voyage for him.
6. The Mary Celeste was bound for Genoa, Italy, with a cargo of 1,701 barrels of poisonous denatured alcohol.
7. On December 4 1872, Mary Celeste was found abandoned by another vessel, Del Gratia. Her captain, David Morehouse, probably knew Benjamin Briggs and they could even have been close friends. A boarding party found: the sails and rigging were partly set, and badly damaged; some hatches had been opened; the lifeboat was gone; the most recent entry in the ship's log was nine days before, reporting a position 400 nautical miles from where she was found; about 3.5 feet (1.1 m) of water in the hold, a significant but not alarming amount for a ship this size, and a makeshift sounding rod (a device for measuring the amount of water in the hold) abandoned on the deck; cabins in good order aside from water damage from open skylights; Briggs's sword, sheathed and under his bed with possible traces of Blood on it; the ships papers and navigational equipment missing; galley equipment neatly stowed away and plenty of food in the stores.
8. A more detailed inspection by experts and divers noted cuts on the bow which may have been caused by a sharp instrument; no evidence of a collision or encountering particularly bad weather; possible blood stains on the railings and a mark which could have been caused by an axe.
9. After the inquest in Gibraltar, Mary Celeste continued in service under new owners for over ten years. In 1885, her captain deliberately wrecked her off the coast of Haiti, as part of an attempted insurance fraud.
10. Although Marie Celeste has become synonymous with mysterious abandonment and is the most famous mystery of this type, it wasn't the only one. Rupert Gould, a naval officer and investigator of maritime mysteries, lists several such occurrences between 1840 and 1855.

So what happened? A bonus ten: theories which have been put forward over the years:

1. A mutiny - the crew got drunk and murdered the officers before escaping in the lifeboat. Or, as suggested in a famous story by none other than Arthur Conan Doyle, then a 25-year-old ship's surgeon, a hijacking by a passenger who hated the white race and had the crew killed so he could take the ship to Africa (Doyle never suggested his story was anything other than a fictional tale, albeit possibly inspired by the incident, but the then US consul in Gibraltar did look into the possibility it may have been true).
2. A scam, possibly insurance, on the grounds of newspaper reports that Mary Celeste had been heavily over-insured. The insurance companies did not initiate any enquiry, however. Or a conspiracy by the two captains to stage the whole thing and share the proceeds of salvage. Or Briggs was staging his own death and intended to disappear with his wife and daughter - but if this was the case, why did they leave their son behind?
3. Pirates - but the ship hadn't been looted. Or, the crew of the Del Gratia lured Briggs and his crew aboard their own ship, killed them and then claimed they'd found the Mary Celeste abandoned. However, Del Gratia left port several days later, and was slower, so there was no way they could have caught up. A similar theory has Briggs and his crew cast as pirates who board another deserted ship with £3,500-worth of gold and silver in its safe. They split the money and escape to Spain in the lifeboats to start a new life. Again, seems unlikely as Briggs had left his son behind.
4. Briggs had had a fit of religious mania and killed everyone and then himself.
5. The crew had believed the ship to be in danger and had evacuated in a panic. Perhaps the sounding rod on deck had been used to evaluate how much water was being taken on and the danger had been over-estimated. Or the captain feared she was going to run aground after being becalmed (but the setting of the sails didn't support this theory).
6. The volatile cargo was emitting noxious fumes and there had been fears it might explode. This was thought to be unlikely as in most scenarios, the passengers would have a better chance of survival in the ship than in the lifeboat, and an experienced captain and crew would have known this.
7. The entire crew were drowned or eaten by Sharks after a temporary platform, set up for a swimming contest, collapsed into the sea.
8. The entire crew were picked off one by one by a giant squid. According to the Natural History Museum, giant squid, or Architeuthis dux, can reach 49 feet (15 m) in length and they have been known to attack ships. However, they wouldn't have taken the lifeboat or the missing navigational instruments.
9. Something paranormal, like the Bermuda Triangle, although the ship was nowhere near it.
10. Everyone on board was abducted by aliens.