2. How it was found
• 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. 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.
3. The exploration of the ship
• 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 there. There was
three and a half feet of water in the ship's bottom,
though the cargo of 1,701 barrels of industrial alcohol
was largely intact. There was also a six-month supply of
food and water with no one to consume it.
4. The mystery that rose
• Just like that a new mystery had risen. What happened to
the crew of the ship? Why where there belongings still their
and the cargo still intact? Those questions rose from the
finding of the ship. Now, a new investigation, drawing on
modern technology and newly discovered documents, has
pieced together the most likely scenario.
5. Likely and not likely scenarios
• Speculation concerning sea monsters was easy to dismiss.
The ship's condition—intact and with full cargo—seemed to
rule out pirates. One theory in the 19th century held that
crew members drank the alcohol onboard and mutinied.
Another theory assumed that alcohol vapors expanded in
the Azores heat and blew off the main hatch, making those
aboard fear an imminent explosion. But the boarding party
found the main hatch secured and did not report smelling
any fumes. 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.
6. • Anne MacGregor launched
the investigation of the ship
again in 2002, and although
she said "There's so much
nonsense written about this
legend, I felt compelled to
find the truth“ she was never
actually able to find a real
answer to this mystery.
