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This series presents information based in part on theory and conjecture.

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The producer's purpose is to suggest some possible explanations but not necessarily

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the only ones to the mysteries we will examine.

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The 5th of December 1872.

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Ship from the Salvatow!

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The captain of the Brigantine Dei Gratia

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cites a ship in the Atlantic 800 miles off the Portuguese coast.

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It appears to be unmanned and steering wild.

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Ahoy, there!

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Captain Brig!

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Ahoy!

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Anyone aboard?

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The only reply is an eerie creaking.

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No one appears on deck.

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The ship is completely forsaken.

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What happened to the crew of the Mary Celeste is one of the enduring mysteries of the sea.

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The ship is completely forsaken.

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We represent the government of the United States of America.

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We have permission from your government to board your vessel.

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Today, Coast Guardsmen are accustomed to finding abandoned vessels.

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The first boarding is tense and dangerous.

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Modern abandoned ships usually mean only one thing.

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They're being used for illegal drug traffic.

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In the days of the Great Sailing Vessels, however,

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heroic ships were not so easily explained.

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And no abandoned vessel has remained as mysterious as the Mary Celeste.

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Theories abound as to why the Mary Celeste was abandoned.

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It might have been the result of a pre-arranged salvage fraud,

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pirates, mutiny, a burst of deadly marine gas,

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or even a homicidal maniac killing the rest of the crew one by one,

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dumping their bodies, and then committing suicide.

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To try to unravel the web of intrigue surrounding the Mary Celeste,

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we must examine a reenactment of that fear of suicide.

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To try to unravel the web of intrigue surrounding the Mary Celeste,

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we must examine a reenactment of that fateful voyage, the winter of 1872.

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On November 2, the New York Harbor, the Mary Celeste completed loading her cargo,

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1700 barrels of alcohol.

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During the loading, two of the kegs slipped,

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damaging the longboat so severely it was put ashore as useless.

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A replacement could not be found,

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but the Mary Celeste still carried her yaw on deck.

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If absolutely necessary, it could accommodate the entire ship's company.

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The master, Captain Benjamin Spooner Briggs,

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brought his wife Sarah and two-year-old daughter Sophia on board for the voyage.

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In his final letter to his mother, he wrote,

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It seems real home like since Sarah and Sophia got here,

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and we enjoy our little quarters.

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Sophia has got over the bird cold she had when she came,

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and has a first-class appetite for hash and bread and butter.

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I think the voyage will do her lots of good.

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Our vessel is in beautiful trim, and I hope we shall have a fine passage.

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To this, Sarah added,

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Benjamin thinks we've got a pretty peaceable crew this time all around,

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if they continue as they have begun.

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The night before the Mary Celeste sailed,

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Captain Briggs dined with Captain David Reed Morehouse of the Dei Gratia.

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The two ships were moored side by side at the dock.

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In light of subsequent events, this was a strange coincidence.

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The two men knew each other well.

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What did Captain Morehouse think of Briggs?

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Briggs was a teetotaler and a God-fearing man.

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He could be stern when occasionally he was in the ship.

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He could be stern when occasionally required it,

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and was not a man to be intimidated or imposed upon.

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But he was just and considerate towards the men serving under him,

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just as he was gentle and affectionate in his family relations.

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One, two, three, four!

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One, two, three, four!

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On November 5th, 1872, the Mary Celeste set sail.

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One month later, she was sighted by the Dei Gratia.

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The Mary Celeste was drifting, unmanned, 800 miles off the Portuguese coast.

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She would be sailed by a skeleton crew from the Dei Gratia to Gibraltar,

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where the official inquiry was held.

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At the British Admiralty Court,

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the proceedings opened with Captain Morehouse's description

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of his first sighting of the Mary Celeste.

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I reckoned the way the yards were square.

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She was running before the wind when she was abandoned.

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It's possible the storm that we met at four o'clock that morning

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might have sent her round had she also met it.

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First time I saw her, two o'clock afternoon, her head was westward.

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The jib was trimmed on the port side.

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Although she was on a starboard tack.

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She was yawing, coming up to the wind then, falling off.

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I judged something was amiss.

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I thought I saw a flag of distress at her yard,

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but subsequently it turned out to be a flapping sail.

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By three o'clock, we were about 350 yards off.

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I hailed her, but got no reply, and I couldn't see anyone on deck.

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So I sent Mr. Devereaux, my friend, to the port.

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And in due course, he signaled me to come over myself.

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When I got on board, Mr. Devereaux had already sounded the pumps

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which showed she made little or no water.

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During the next hour, Captain Morehouse would carefully inspect

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every inch of the ship.

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The ship was perfectly sound.

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Her hull, masts, and yards were in good condition.

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Her cargo, which was barrels of alcohol,

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was properly stowed and hadn't shifted.

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But the forehatch had been lifted off.

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This was only one the many enigmas Morehouse would encounter.

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I came to the conclusion that she'd been left in a panic.

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The main sole was lying loose, as if it had been run down.

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The laser attach was also off.

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But there were plenty of provisions and water in there.

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Anybody below?

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The glass on the compass was smashed.

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The compass glass is smashed.

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Together, we searched the ship from stem to stem

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At first we were worried that she was a fever ship

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and the crew had died of cholera, but there wasn't a sole on board.

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Nor were there any visible signs of there having been any trouble.

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In the folks' home, oil skins, boots, and pipes were scattered about

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as if abandoned in great haste.

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And among the dunnage were articles of value

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who might have supposed their owners would have taken

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if abandoning ship.

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In the galley, everything was scattered.

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In the galley, everything was in good order,

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as it would be between meals.

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There was no wine, beer, or spirits on board.

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A child's clothing and toys were strewn about.

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And on the table was a sewing machine

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with a baby's pinnifor on it

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and a number of small items lying on the table alongside.

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There were books and charts

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that the chronometers and the ship's log were missing.

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The slate log had an unfinished letter beginning Franny,

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my dear wife, Francis, and I,

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which I took to be the start of a message scribbled by the mate.

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The ship's boat was missing.

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You could see where the boat had been lashed across the main hatch,

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but that was not the right place for her.

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There were no signs of any tackle to launch her,

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but we usually launched our boat from the rail

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with only a tow rope to secure her.

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I saw no remains of painter or boats rope fastened to the rail.

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Captain Morehouse's observations were detailed,

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but they raised more questions than they answered.

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The man responsible for the official inquiry was Mr. Solly Flood,

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from Majesty's Advocate General,

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Proctor for the Queen in her Office of Admiralty,

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and a legal bloodhound.

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A new age of belief in science, invention, and technology was dawning,

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and the ability to seek and find cold, hard evidence

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in order to solve any mystery was reaching a golden era.

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Was there any evidence to indicate foul play?

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The only facts available so far?

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A ship in good order, yet abandoned in a hurry.

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The investigation about to take place in Gibraltar

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would propel the Mary Celeste to her place

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as the most infamous abandoned ship in the history of the sea.

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MUSIC

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Advocate General Solly Flood

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boarded the Mary Celeste to examine it in minute detail.

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There was no appearance of fire or explosion

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or any other assignable cause of abandonment.

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She was well provisioned,

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and it seems had encountered no seriously heavy weather.

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She was thoroughly sound, staunch, and strong,

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and in every way, seaworthy and well-found.

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But both bows had been recently cut by a sharp instrument.

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MUSIC

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On the starboard top gallant rail,

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there were marks, apparently, of blood,

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and a mark of a blow, apparently, by a sharp axe.

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MUSIC

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A sword appeared to me to exhibit traces of blood

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and to have been wiped before being returned with scabbard.

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In the forehatch, a barrel, ostensibly of alcohol,

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appeared to have been tampered with.

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My object is to move the board of trade

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to take such action as they may think fit

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to discover, if possible, the fate of the master,

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whose name was Briggs, his wife and child,

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and the crew of the derelict.

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My own theory, or guess, is that the crew got at the alcohol,

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and in the fury of drunkenness murdered the master,

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and his wife and child, and the chief mate,

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that they then damaged the bows of the vessel,

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and was to give it the appearance of having struck on some rocks

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or suffered some collision,

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with a view to inducing the master of any vessel

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which might pick them up, if they saw her at some distance,

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not to think her worth attempting to save.

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And that they did, sometime between the 25th of November

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and the 5th of December,

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escape on board some vessel bound for some south

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or north American port or the West Indies.

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Is this the real story, mutiny and murder?

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The Advocate General was convinced he was on the trail of a sensational crime.

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Soon, the story spread to the newspapers of the world

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and began to read like a modern detective yarn.

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As the inquiry proceeded, however,

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it became increasingly evident that the Advocate General

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had let his imagination run wild.

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Blood was later found to be wrong on almost every statement he made.

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The forensic tests proved that the sinister bloody sword

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was really an old bayonet used to mix paints,

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and the blood on the rail was only rust.

201
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The final results of the inquiry cleared Captain Morehouse

202
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and the Dey-Gratia crew of piracy,

203
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and in fact, the Dey-Gratia was awarded a portion of the salvage fund.

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There, the story might have ended,

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but for an amazing discovery, 30 years later.

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A young apprentice sailor was sent ashore to collect some sand at St. Paul's Rocks,

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a tiny island in the middle of the South Atlantic.

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He found a skeleton dropped in the shade of a rock.

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And beside it, a bottle stuffed with a soiled and faded letter.

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A letter which told an amazing tale.

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My ship struck these rocks at dawn three days ago.

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She sank immediately.

213
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Only eye of all her crew reached the shore alive.

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I am dying of thirst.

215
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It has been a voyage of disaster,

216
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three deaths in two days.

217
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Then came the poison on the seventh day out.

218
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Ship helpless, and so for three days we lay.

219
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Knew we must ask assistance to take us to Gibraltar for crew.

220
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Early morning sighted small Brig become.

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Mate said, take her crew.

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Went aboard.

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Captain asked why we came.

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His wife and child were with him.

225
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We left no one on board.

226
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The Brig was called Mary Celeste.

227
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Years later, this tragic letter was brought to public attention

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in the London Daily Express.

229
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Was this at last the real clue to the mystery of the Mary Celeste?

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If so, why did the young sailor wait nine years to publish the letter?

231
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Many people doubt its authenticity.

232
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It is just one of the hundreds of theories proposed during the last century.

233
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There is a universal sailor's superstition about ships born unlucky.

234
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And the Mary Celeste lived up to that superstition.

235
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From all the evidence collected, in search of, proposes a logical explanation.

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The Mary Celeste had been at sea for eight days.

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The hatches had remained closed because at first the weather was stormy.

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Gradually though, the ship was not in the air.

239
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The ship was in the air.

240
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The ship was stormy.

241
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Gradually though, the cold November chill of New York

242
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gave way to the milder latitudes of the Azores.

243
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The cargo of alcohol was stored in barrels made of red oak,

244
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and extremely porous wood.

245
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At least eight of the barrels leaked badly during the voyage.

246
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Battened down under the hatches, the fumes mingled with the foul air of the hold.

247
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Was a potentially explosive mixture of gas forming?

248
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Off the Azores, the wind dropped to a gentle breeze.

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Taking advantage of the calm weather,

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Briggs probably ordered the ventilation of the hold,

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which may have set off a fateful chain of events.

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An upward rush of fumes, perhaps even an explosion.

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Then steam, looking like smoke, poured out of the hatch.

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Abundance ship!

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Some of the men began to take in sail.

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Convinced that the ship was about to blow up, Briggs ordered the boat lowered.

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A sailor broke out a coil of rope as a tow line from the lazarette.

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Someone grabbed some tins of preserved meat.

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Briggs snatched up his chronometer,

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and any of the ship's papers he could quickly lay his hands on.

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Feeling certain that time was of the essence,

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he urgently herded his family and crew to the yaw.

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According to meteorological reports, a sudden squall blew up that day.

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Under the impact of a violent gust,

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the vessel may have lunged forward with a suddenness and force,

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which broke the improvised tow line.

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They may have tried to row after the merry celeste,

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or they may have turned toward the island of Santa Maria,

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a jagged inhospitable coastline.

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The ship was then taken to the coastline,

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a jagged inhospitable coastline,

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where a small boat and her occupants would easily be smashed to pieces in the surf.

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The wind shifted, however,

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so it seems more probable that the small boat was blown southeast,

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away from the island and out into the vast reaches of the Atlantic,

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disappear forever.

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When the merry celeste was found on December 5th,

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the last entry on her log slate was for the morning of November 25th,

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eleven days earlier.

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This entry was the merry celeste six miles north of the island of Santa Maria,

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in the Azores.

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With the set of her sails and with no one at her helm,

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her natural course would be roughly at right angles to the wind.

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This presumably was how, over the ten days,

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she covered the 750 miles between the last entry in the log

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and the position where she was first sighted by the de Gratian.

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What has been reenacted seems to be the most likely explanation,

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but whatever the cause of the panic,

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Captain Morehouse was certain of one thing.

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Captain Briggs bore the highest character for seamanship and correctness,

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and would not, I think, desert his ship except to save his life.

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The merry celeste became a marked ship.

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Sailors being superstitious,

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no one wanted to owner, sailor, or have anything to do with her.

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She was sold and resold rapidly at well below her commercial value.

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Thirteen years after the events we have described,

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she was deliberately wrecked by her owners in a failed insurance fraud scheme.

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On Rochelle's reef off Haiti, she quickly broke up.

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And today there is no more trace of her

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than there is of Captain Briggs and his crew of that fateful voyage of 1872.

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Coming up next, voyage with a team of psychics in search of shipwrecks.

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Then agents hunting down a ring of drug dealers

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get help from a courageous father on FBI The Untold Stories.

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00:21:59,893 --> 00:22:04,875
Log on at veterans.com, a new website brought to you by the History Channel.

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Veterans.com, a place where veterans, their families, and others can connect,

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share stories, and pass on the legacies of all American veterans.