Mary Celeste

[Tyler J Frederick]

Do you guys know the stroy of the Imfamous Mary Celeste? She was a three masted ship sailing out of Charleston, South Carolina. Mary Celeste had a cargo of cotton. eight weeks later, she truns up by a clipper ship. The crew boarded the Celeste, & nobody, no passengers, no crew, no captain. just 59 days after the last entry in the log, the Mary Celeste sail over 4500 miles, at full sail, nobody at the helm. If you know more about the Mary Celeste, I would love to hear it. Please & Thank you.
Tyler Frederick

[elenahusky]

The Mary Celeste (or Marie Céleste as it is fictionally referred to by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and others after him) was an American brigantine merchant ship famous for having been discovered on 4 December 1872, in the Atlantic Ocean unmanned and apparently abandoned (one lifeboat was missing), despite the fact that the weather was fine and her crew had been experienced and able seamen. The Mary Celeste was in seaworthy condition and still under sail heading toward the Strait of Gibraltar. She had been at sea for a month and had over six months' worth of food and water on board. Her cargo was virtually untouched and the personal belongings of passengers and crew were still in place, including valuables. The crew was never seen or heard from again. Their disappearance is often cited as the greatest maritime mystery of all time.

[Michael H Standart]

The whole issue of the Mary Celeste isn't quite the mystery which it's often made out to be. Wikipedia has a surprisingly impartial article about it at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Celeste

The first clue are the seven empty barrels of the commercial grade alcohol which was the ship's cargo which points to a possible leakage which was serious enough to prompt the captain and crew to take to the ship's only lifeboat. For some really strange reason, people don't like hanging around when there's the possibility of a massive explosion. Most likely, the wind picked up and carried the ship away and the lifeboat had no chance of catching up.

Much of the legend for this ship comes from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle who never allowed anything like "Facts" get in the way of one helluva good story.