MYSTERY Of The Missing Brigantine HOT!
Mary Celeste (/səˈlɛst/; often erroneously referred to as Marie Celeste[1]) was an American-registered merchant brigantine, best known for being discovered adrift and deserted in the Atlantic Ocean off the Azores Islands on December 4, 1872. The Canadian brigantine Dei Gratia found her in a dishevelled but seaworthy condition under partial sail and with her lifeboat missing. The last entry in her log was dated ten days earlier. She had left New York City for Genoa on November 7 and was still amply provisioned when found. Her cargo of alcohol was intact, and the captain's and crew's personal belongings were undisturbed. None of those who had been on board were ever seen or heard from again.
MYSTERY of the Missing Brigantine
The inconclusive nature of the hearings fostered continued speculation as to the nature of the mystery, and the story has repeatedly been complicated by false detail and fantasy. Hypotheses that have been advanced include the effects on the crew of alcohol fumes rising from the cargo, submarine earthquakes, waterspouts, attack by a giant squid, and paranormal intervention.
After the Gibraltar hearings, Mary Celeste continued in service under new owners. In 1885, her captain deliberately wrecked her off the coast of Haiti as part of an attempted insurance fraud. The story of her 1872 abandonment has been recounted and dramatized many times in documentaries, novels, plays, and films, and the name of the ship has become a byword for unexplained desertion. In 1884, Arthur Conan Doyle wrote "J. Habakuk Jephson's Statement", a short story based on the mystery, but spelled the vessel's name as Marie Celeste. The story's popularity led to the spelling becoming more common than the original in everyday use.
The keel of the future Mary Celeste was laid in late 1860 at the shipyard of Joshua Dewis in the village of Spencer's Island, on the shores of the Bay of Fundy in Nova Scotia.[2] The ship was constructed of locally felled timber, with two masts, and was rigged as a brigantine; she was carvel-built, the hull planking flush rather than overlapping.[3] She was launched on May 18, 1861, given the name Amazon, and registered at nearby Parrsboro on June 10, 1861. Her registration documents described her as 99.3 feet (30.3 m) in length, 25.5 feet (7.8 m) broad, with a depth of 11.7 feet (3.6 m), and of 198.42 gross tonnage.[4][5] She was owned by a local consortium of nine people, headed by Dewis; among the co-owners was Robert McLellan, the ship's first captain.[6]
While Mary Celeste prepared to sail, the Canadian brigantine Dei Gratia lay nearby in Hoboken, New Jersey, awaiting a cargo of petroleum destined for Genoa via Gibraltar.[39] Captain David Morehouse and first mate Oliver Deveau were Nova Scotians, both highly experienced and respected seamen.[40] Captains Briggs and Morehouse shared common interests, and some writers think it likely that they knew each other, if only casually.[35] Some accounts assert that they were close friends who dined together on the evening before Mary Celeste's departure, but the evidence for this is limited to a recollection by Morehouse's widow 50 years after the event.[37][41][d] Dei Gratia departed for Gibraltar on November 15, following the same general route eight days after Mary Celeste.[40]
On December 23, Flood ordered an examination of Mary Celeste, which was carried out by John Austin, Surveyor of Shipping, with the assistance of a diver, Ricardo Portunato. Austin noted cuts on each side of the bow, caused, he thought, by a sharp instrument, and found possible traces of blood on the captain's sword. His report emphasized that the ship did not appear to have been struck by heavy weather, citing a vial of sewing machine oil found upright in its place.[57] Austin did not acknowledge that the vial might have been replaced since the abandonment, nor did the court raise this point.[26] Portunato's report on the hull concluded that the ship had not been involved in a collision or run aground.[58] A further inspection by a group of Royal Naval captains endorsed Austin's opinion that the cuts on the bow had been caused deliberately. They also discovered stains on one of the ship's rails that might have been blood, together with a deep mark possibly caused by an axe.[59] These findings strengthened Flood's suspicions that human wrongdoing rather than natural disaster lay behind the mystery.[60] On January 22, 1873, he sent the reports to the Board of Trade in London, adding his own conclusion that the crew had got at the alcohol and murdered the Briggs family and the ship's officers in a drunken frenzy. They had cut the bows to simulate a collision, then fled in the yawl to suffer an unknown fate.[60] Flood thought that Morehouse and his men were hiding something, specifically that Mary Celeste had been abandoned in a more easterly location, and that the log had been doctored. He could not accept that Mary Celeste could have traveled so far while uncrewed.[61][f]
Another theory posits that Briggs and Morehouse were partners in a conspiracy to share the salvage proceedings.[76] The unsubstantiated friendship between the two captains has been cited by commentators as making such a plan a plausible explanation.[77] Hicks comments that, "if Morehouse and Briggs had been planning such a scam, they would not have devised such an attention-drawing mystery." He also asks why Briggs left his son Arthur behind if he intended to disappear permanently.[73] Another suggested event was an attack by Riffian pirates who were active off the coast of Morocco in the 1870s. However, Charles Edey Fay observes that pirates would have looted the ship, yet the personal possessions of captain and crew were left undisturbed, some of significant value.[78] In 1925, historian John Gilbert Lockhart surmised that Briggs slaughtered all on board and then killed himself in a fit of religious mania. Lockhart later spoke to Briggs's descendants, and he apologized and withdrew this theory in a later edition of his book.[75][77]
Arthur N. Putman, a New York insurance appraiser, was a leading investigator in sea mysteries in the early 20th century and wrote a similar lifeboat theory. Putman laid special stress on the fact that only a single lifeboat was missing from the vessel. He discovered that the rope of the boat was cut, not untied, which indicated when the Mary Celeste was abandoned it was done quickly. Several times in the ship's log there is mention of ominous rumbling and small explosions from the hold. Cargos of alcohol naturally give off explosive gas and these sounds described are quite common. He supposes that one day there was a more intense explosion and a sailor ventured below deck with a light or lit cigar which set off the accumulated fumes causing an explosion violent enough to blow off the top covering on the hatch, which had been found in an unusual position. Putnam ends his theory, that in a panicked terror the captain, family, and crew piled into the lone lifeboat, cut the rope and set out to sea, abandoning the vessel.[82]
In October 1955, MV Joyita, a 70-ton motor vessel, disappeared in the South Pacific while traveling between Samoa and Tokelau, with 25 people on board.[133] The vessel was found a month later, deserted and drifting north of Vanua Levu, 600 miles (970 km) from its route.[134] None of those aboard were seen again, and a commission of inquiry failed to establish an explanation. David Wright, the affair's principal historian, has described the case as "... a classic marine mystery of Mary Celeste proportions."[135]
There has never been a clear consensus on any one scenario. It is a mystery that has tormented countless people, including the families of the lost sailors and hundreds of others who have tried in vain to solve the riddle. The Ghost Ship may be the best example of the old proverb that the sea never gives up its secrets.
At Spencer's Island, Mary Celeste and her lost crew are commemorated by a monument at the site of the brigantine's construction and by a memorial outdoor cinema built in the shape of the vessel's hull.[144] Postage stamps commemorating the incident have been issued by Gibraltar (twice) and by the Maldives (twice, once with the name of the ship misspelt as Marie Celeste).[145]
As befits the Time Chronicles part of its title, this game presents a double challenge as each location needs to be visited in the present and a past period as you search for a listed collection of items. While the visual aspect of the location may remain the same, some variety does occur in the list of required in each period. The completion of each location brings the reward of a small section of the missing Mona Lisa painting. Mini game will appear and need to be completed from time to time.
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.
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."
Passing a boat exam not only ensures better safety for you and other boaters but prepares you for worst case scenarios but reduces the risks of getting into potentially harmful situations like getting lost. For as long as man has traveled the great big blue, stories of disappearing ships have inspired many a nautical lore. From Krakens to the Bermuda Triangle, with no living being or ship remains around to tell the real story, new theories for these odd disappearances emerge every generation. Yet despite an abundance of theories these ships' ends remain shrouded in mystery. 041b061a72