In the 1870s, there was a sailing ship full of cargo, traveling on the vast Atlantic Ocean, other ships found him and sent people to board the ship to check, but they searched inside and outside, and did not find half a figure, what is puzzling is that there is 1.1 meters of water in the ship's cargo warehouse, and the last date recorded in the nautical log is 9 days ago, but who the owner of the ship is and where the people on board have gone, it is unknown.
Today to talk about the famous maritime mystery - "ghost ship incident", in the 1860s, in Cumberland, Nova Scotia, Canada, a brig called the Amazon was completed, she was 30.3 meters long, 7.8 meters wide, 3.6 meters high, displacement of nearly 200 tons, the hull is made of spruce, pine, birch and other wood, is a small merchant ship.
In June 1861, the Amazon began its maiden voyage, which would depart from Cumberland, Canada, then across the Atlantic Ocean and finally to the Anglicans, where the Amazon would depart at the docks, loaded with a shipment of wood. Just as they were about to depart, Amazon and the captain fell ill, and when the cargo was loaded, the captain insisted on the first voyage with the illness, and the ship sailed into the vast Atlantic Ocean under his command. During the voyage, the captain's condition suddenly deteriorated, it was useless to take any medicine, and the ship could not dock, so the captain insisted on not long before he died, after which the other members of the ship took over the captain's position, and the Amazon continued to sail towards its destination, which was its first voyage, and everyone was cautious for fear of problems. However, the more I worry about it, the more it will happen. When the Amazon arrived in the waters near Maine, the United States, accidentally collided with some fish-hunting facilities in the sea, resulting in damage to some of the hulls, fortunately, the main structure of the ship was not damaged, and it was able to continue sailing.
Throughout the voyage, although there were some unfortunate things that happened, the good news was that the Amazon successfully crossed the Atlantic Ocean to London, England. During the return voyage, the Amazon collided with other ships in the English Channel, resulting in the sinking of the other party, and all the cargo on board sank to the bottom of the sea, the owner of the Amazon made compensation, and since then shouldered a high debt, in the next few years, the Amazon has been smoothly carrying out various sailing sports tasks. It wasn't until six years later, during a sailing voyage, that the Amazon encountered a fierce sea storm and ran aground in Glesby, Canada, that the owner of the ship thought that the cost of repair was too high, so he temporarily left the ship on the dock and waited for someone in need to buy him in the future. A year later, a sailor from the United States bought the Amazon for $1,750 and took out a loan for $9,000 to renovate the ship as a whole, and he renamed the Amazon, the Mary Celeste, and the good times did not last long, due to poor management, he was unable to repay the payment, the ship was seized by creditors and transferred to a New York shipping company.
In 1872, the shipping company carried out a modification of the Mary Celeste, its length was extended from the original 30.3 meters to 31 meters, the height was increased from the original 3.6 meters to 4.9 meters, some hull materials were also replaced with better wood, the displacement was increased from the original 198 tons to 282 tons, and the entire renovation cost 10,000 US dollars. The new captain of the Mary Celeste, Benjamin Briggs, was a 37-year-old devout Christian who was very responsible and had extensive sailing experience.
On October 20, 1872, the Mary Celeste was docked at the port of Staten Island in New York, where he would load a shipment of industrial alcohol and ship it to London, England. On this voyage, Captain Benjamin, with his wife and two-year-old daughter, in addition to seven other crew members, a total of 10 people on board. Half a month later, when the ship's cargo was loaded, the Mary Celeste slowly sailed out of New York and sailed over the endless Atlantic Ocean.
Seven days after its departure, another Canadian brig, called the DeGradia, also departed from New York for Gibraltar, whose captain was David Morehouse, who was experienced in navigation, and the De Gratija was on the 20th day of its voyage at sea, at a time at 38 degrees 20 minutes north latitude and 17 degrees 15 minutes west, located in the waters near the Portuguese Azov Islands.
At one o'clock in the afternoon, the helmsman of the De Gratija reported to Captain David that an unknown sailing ship had been found not far away, and seemed to be slowly approaching them, and Captain David came to the deck at once after hearing this, and he took up his telescope and carefully observed the ship, only to see that his sails were extremely unstable, and seemed to be drifting on the surface of the sea completely uncontrollably, just like a general ghost ship, perhaps out of curiosity, Captain David ordered to approach the fake ship, and as the distance between the two drew closer, the crew finally recognized the ship, which was the Mary Celeste Captain David tried to contact the opposing crew, but got no reply.
Out of caution, they watched from the sidelines for two hours, but never saw anyone on the other deck, the captain sent two crew members to the Mary Celeste, and when they boarded the deck, they found that some of the cables had been broken and were not fixed in their original positions, and the cabin was empty and very damp. The depth of the water is 1.1 meters, as if it has just experienced a storm at sea, but the hull is not damaged, I do not know how the water is generated, the front and rear hatches are open, the lifeboat on the ship is gone, there are one to two thousand barrels of industrial alcohol in the cargo compartment, all intact, the cabin still has food for the entire crew for 6 months, it does not look like it has been robbed, there are two pumps on the ship, one of which has been damaged. They found the Mary Celeste log, the last date recorded on it, which was 8 a.m. on November 25, nine days ago, when the Mary Celeste was located at 37 degrees 01 minutes north latitude and 25 degrees 01 minutes west longitude, passing through Santa Maria Island in the Azov Islands, 400 nautical miles from its current location.
According to the indications that some personal belongings were scattered in the captain's cabin of the Mary Celeste, navigation equipment and documents were lost, Captain David of the De Gratier believed that the crew of the Mary Celeste might have encountered some emergency and left in a lifeboat. Under the maritime law of the time, if a vessel assisted the shipwrecked vessel in its rescue, a portion of the total value of the rescued vessel itself and its cargo could be obtained as a salvage payment, depending on the degree of danger in the rescue process.
Eight days later, the Mary Celeste was brought back to the port of Gibraltar, investigators entered the ship for inspection, some items had marks of damage, some dark blood-like stains were also found on the deck and the floor of the captain's room, and the 1701 barrels of industrial alcohol on board were not missing, but 9 of them were empty. The purity of industrial alcohol is generally 95% and 99%, containing a small amount of methanol, aldehyde organic acids and other impurities, industrial alcohol can be used for printing, cleaning agents, solvents and so on. Based on these clues, investigators speculate that the crew of the Mary Celeste, possibly having drunk the ship's industrial alcohol, clashed with Captain Benjamin on deck, where the angry crew killed Captain Benjamin's family and threw them into the sea, before the crew left the Mary Celeste in the only lifeboat. However, such speculation is not convincing, because industrial alcohol can not be drunk, if drunk may lead to poisoning, serious blindness and even life-threatening, as the investigation progressed, confirmed that the dark substance found on the ship is not blood, there are no signs of fighting on the ship, so this speculation was overturned. Some investigators believe that Captain David of the De Gratija may have killed the crew of the Mary Celeste with the crew and then fabricated such a story in order to defraud the rescue money. They also speculated on the possibility that the captains of the two ships colluded with each other, and that the people on board the Mary Celeste pretended to disappear and then defrauded the ship's insurance and salvage money, but investigators found that Captain Benjamin of the Mary Celeste only owned 1/3 of the ship, and he could not have done such a thing. Four months later, since there was no evidence that the case was related to the crew of the DE Gratija, Captain David and the rest of the crew were awarded a bailout of £1,700, equivalent to 1/5 of the value of the Mary Celeste and the cargo on board. This incident also became one of the biggest maritime mysteries at the time, and everyone wondered where the people on the Mary Celeste had gone.
In 1883, the Los Angeles Times published a news article that read: The Mary Celeste was found intact, the kitchen stove was still on fire, the dinner was still steaming on the table, and the logbook was updated an hour before the ship was discovered, and many people believed it to be true, and the report was later confirmed to be fictitious. A year later, the author of The Holmes Detective Series, based on the incident, was adapted into a short story in which a crew member seeking revenge killed everyone on board. Although this story was fictional, it was quickly accepted by the public, and even many people firmly believed that this was the real story on the Mary Celeste, and those who supported this view believed that Captain Benjamin on the Mary Celeste, due to some incident that caused dissatisfaction among the other crew members, led to riots on the ship, he and his family were killed in the conflict, and the other crew members fled in a lifeboat. According to the investigation, Captain Benjamin has a good reputation, the other crew of the ship and he has sailed many times, it is unlikely that such a thing will happen, after the incident, the Mary Celeste continued to sail the sea for 12 years after the repairs were completed, during which several owners were replaced, in January 1885, the last owner of the Mary Celeste, loaded some boots and cat food on board, he drove the ship to a public sea, intending to create some accidents to defraud the huge insurance money, but the shipowner's plot did not succeed, He was revealed, but the Mary Celeste sank to the bottom of the sea forever.
What really happened on the ship that year has been a discussion for more than 100 years, and there is speculation that the Mary Celeste encountered a waterspout at sea, a tornado that occasionally appears above the warm water, the upper end meets the thunderstorm clouds, the lower end extends to the surface of the water, and the waterspout is full of water vapor while rotating, and the rapid rotation of the waterspout is no less dangerous than ordinary tornadoes. According to the logbook aboard the Mary Saracet, the vessel's last recorded location was at 37 degrees 01 minutes north latitude and 25 degrees 01 minutes west longitude, near Santa Maria Island in the Azov Islands, where after encountering a waterspout, damage to the surface of the freight yard began to accumulate inside. Considering that it is not far from Santa Maria, it is speculated that Captain Benjamin led everyone to the lifeboat and went to Santa Maria Island for help, but they encountered danger on the way, and everyone was buried in the sea. Although this speculation explains the 1.1-meter-deep water in the cabin of the Mary Celeste and the marks of damage in some parts of the ship, Captain Benjamin has a wealth of sailing experience, even if there is a lot of water on board, he can use a pump to drain the water, and the Mary Celeste can still barely sail, not to the point of abandoning the ship. There is speculation that the Mary Celeste was attacked by a giant octopus, and the crew tried to get out of the trap through the lifeboat, but was overturned by the giant octopus's tentacles, and everyone became its food.
In 1883, the Los Angeles Times published a false report that there was an unfinished dinner on board, so some people thought that the crew had been kidnapped by UFOs and taken away, but this speculation could not explain why the lifeboat was also taken away. There is also speculation that at that time, the Mary Celeste was loaded with 1701 barrels of industrial alcohol, and it was later found that 9 of them were empty, but these 9 empty barrels were made of red oak, and the other barrels were made of white oak, which was a porous wood that he was more likely to leak than white oak, when there was a sudden appearance of unknown toxic smoke on the ship, and then a small explosion occurred, Captain Benjamin was not sure whether there would be another explosion on board, so he ordered everyone to enter the lifeboat and temporarily leave the Mary Celeste After they entered the lifeboat, a storm suddenly appeared at sea, the lifeboat could not withstand the huge waves, so it overturned, and after the incident, a Spanish fisherman found two small rafts on the coast, one of which had a person wrapped in the American flag, the other had 4 people on the chopsticks, all the people on the two wooden valves had died, these five people were believed to be the crew written by Marisesen, but their identities were not confirmed, and they were buried by the fishermen. This speculation explains why they abandoned the ship. But opponents of this view argue that if there had been an explosion on the ship, they would have left some traces, but there was no damage caused by the explosion on the ship.
In 2006, a chemist did an experiment in which he built a model of the cargo compartment, using cardboard boxes to represent the barrels on the ship at the time, and he created a small explosion with butane gas, during which smoke and fireballs were also produced, and surprisingly, the cargo compartment model was not damaged and did not leave smoke, so this speculation is theoretically valid.
Now more than 150 years after the incident, the cargo on board the ship no longer exists, and the speculation about the Mary Celeste incident cannot be confirmed or falsified. Where the crew went may be a mystery that will never be solved.