I'm Only the Trombone Player

Abandoned Ship: The Mary Celeste

Authors Note & Prompt ▼

"Invalid Item"  ~ Five Day Blog Challenge ~ April 6^th. ~ Ghost Ship: The Mary Celeste

The subject of lore and mystery of the abandoned ship, Mary Celeste has spawned numerous theories regarding the demise of its crew and passengers.

Theories involving aliens, sea monsters, pirates, homicidal crew members, and criminal conspiracies have all been advanced and dismissed. Based on investigative evidence or sheer lack of believability, most of those theories are unsupportable.

Aliens? While impossible to disprove, is most unlikely. If aliens were abducting ships crews, why wasn’t the “abandonment phenomena” more prevalent?

Sea Monsters? First, though described as a “waterlogged mess,” there was no real damage. Was it a very careful, polite sea monster? Second, in the face of a sea monster attack, why would Briggs, the ships Master abandon the larger Mary Celeste for the much smaller, more vulnerable lifeboat?

Pirates? Easily dismissed. No cargo was missing, and the ship was found abandoned. Why would the pirates attack, take the vessel only to abandon it themselves? What profit was gained?

The “homicidal crew” theory was based on two crew members, brothers Volkert and Boye Lorenzen, for whom little or no possessions were found left behind. Further investigation finds that the two joined the ship shortly after another shipwreck. Simply, they had no possessions.

The criminal conspiracy theory revolves around a plot by the ships Master and crew to claim the prize money from the salvage rights from the abandoned vessel. The difficulty with this theory is multifold; While Master Briggs’ wife and daughter were with him aboard the Mary Celeste, his son had remained behind to attend school. Did Briggs orphan his oldest child for profit? Added to the unlikelihood, in all ten people would have to cease to exist and change identities, not likely when one factors in that seven of them were ordinary seamen.

Then, of course, there are the facts omitted from many accounts supporting these theories; The Mary Celeste had three and a half feet of water in its hold, having sailed through extremely rough weather during its passage. The pump used to remove that water was disassembled, indicating it had somehow failed and needed repair. One of the ships navigation devices, the chronometer, was inaccurate and the location of the ship may not have been true.

With the pump not functioning, no way to tell how much water filled the hold, Briggs may have decided to abandon the ship, heading for what he thought was the safety of land. But what if the land wasn’t where he believed it to be?

Word Count ▼

428 Words