Cape Breton Places & Foods

As we sit and watch the shipping, I am easily persuaded to talk of the sea and on this occasion I am going to ask you to bring to mind one of the greatest riddles of the sea which concerns a Nova Scotian-built ship. Now all you seafaring men sit up and take notice, perhaps you have the answer to this mystery of the sea.

Just a week ago, our British United Press ticker carried a news item telling us that a yacht with sails set, was picked up at sea with nobody aboard, and that the authorities were endeavoring to locate her home port and owner. In this day of strange happenings at sea during war time, this item did not cause much of a stir. There was a point in the news item which interested me more than anything else, and that was the fact, that the yacht was picked up at a point at sea within twelve miles to the spot, where the famous Nova Scotian vessel, the Mary Celeste, was picked up about seventy years ago, with no living soul aboard, and to this day no definite and satisfactory explanation has been given out.

When-if ever-will someone come forward with an explanation of that mysterious episode of the sea, the finding of the Mary Celeste? By this is meant, a real explanation- one that will satisfy even those ancient mariners who listen to a tale of the sea, shake their heads gravely, and say “Couldn’t ha’ happened.” The one who explains this mystery satisfactory must tell why there was but one boat missing from the docks of the Nova Scotia brigantine; why, in apparently excellent weather, the captain and crew of the vessel deserted her; why one hatch cover, overturned was found lying on her decks; why there was no traces of a struggle other than spatters of blood here and there over her decks; why the hip’s log was left in the captain’s quarters, and all the other papers and instruments were taken; why nothing ahs ever been heard from the eleven souls who were on board, all of whom, including the captain’s wife, and little girl, must have perished.

There have been many attempts at explaining all this; but none seems to be satisfactory. Briefly, the known history of the Mary Celeste is as follows: She was built at Spencer’s Island, N.S., in the Dewis shipyards, about 1865. Launched under the name Amazon she made a few profitable voyages for her Bluenose owners, and then she went ashore on the rocky coast of Cape Breton, and pounded her bottom out. She was sold to J.J. Winchester & Co., of New York, was repaired, and she went to sea again under the name Mary [not Marie as it is often given] Celeste.

For one voyage, she loaded oil and spirits for the Mediterranean at an East River [New York] pier and set sail. From that day until she was sighted by the British brig Dei Gratia, her story is wrapped in mysterious silence. The Dei Gratia sighted her a few miles off the Azores group. The Mary Celeste was stated to have all sail set, was yawning frightfully, and was falling off continually in the light breeze that was blowing. Mystified by her behavior, the Dei Gratia sent a boat across to the Mary Celeste, and discovered abandoned, in the state mentioned beforehand. Everything otherwise was in perfect order, even some sewing and a small bottle of oil rested upon the sewing machine in the captain’s wife’s cabin.

There, sketchily told, is the greatest mystery that the sea has ever known, those who wish to explain the matter usually base their explanations upon the fact that the cargo carried by the Mary Celeste was highly inflammable.

For example, Frederick William Wallace, the dean of Bluenose sea-story writers, offers the following. On her way across the Atlantic, the Mary Celeste fell in with a ship carrying powder or some equally dangerous cargo. She was on fire, and while the menace of the flames was not immediate, it was enough to make Captain Braggs of the Mary Celeste, stand be the crippled ship. During the night, the wind fell, and a stray current bore the burning ship rapidly down upon the Mary Celeste. Terrified, the crew of the latter vessel crowded into a boat, and put away from the danger. At the entreaties of those on the burning ship they put back to try to take them in their boat, with the result that the boat capsized, and the crews of both were drowned. A breeze carried the Mary Celeste away from the burning ship, and saved her, to be discovered by Dei Gratia.

Mr. Wallace admits that this is not the best possible explanation. The open hatch is not disposed of; neither are the blood stains or the hacked bows taken into account. Farther than that, this presupposes that another vessel disappeared at about the time of the finding of the Mary Celeste. There is no record of such a vessel.

Another explanation, from the United States of America, is along somewhat the same lines. The Mary Celeste, it says, ran into very warm weather, and the captain and mate became fearful lest the cargo of whale oil ignite spontaneously. To cool off the hold, they opened one of the hatches. Their action as apparently too late; a huge fountain of burning gas spewed forth from the hold, and terrified, they took to a boat and rowed away a few miles and watched for another and fatal explosion. But that explosion did not come. A breeze came up, and carried away the brigantine, out of their sight, and so they perished in the boat. The blood stains are explained by saying that the cook, who was cutting some meat at the time of the explosion, became exited and cut himself; blood from his wound, as he ran excitedly about, spattered over the decks.

But this theory, plausible as it is, neglects the hacked bows, and leaves unexplained a very important matter.. The hatch-cover was overturned; no deep-water sailor would remove a hatch-cover, and lay it down upside down. It is just not done.

Arthur Conan Doyle, who was intrigued by the tale, wrote a story intended to explain the mystery. Unfortunately, all that the great creator of Sherlock Holmes explained was the hacked bows. These he explained to perfection by saying that a diving platform had been built there, and had been carried away in a squall. The rest of his story is so at variance with the known facts that it is almost completely forgotten.

All these explanations were given on the assumption that the facts concerning the ship were as follows:

The Mary Celeste overtaken and when boarded, sound from truck to keel, all shipshape and undamaged, and under full spread of canvas; her galley fire still warm, and food upon the stove; wash hung to dry in the fo’castle, with the crews money, pipes, and razors laying about; spread on the cabin table a half eaten meal, including a dish of porridge, a boiled egg slicked open at one end, three cups of lukewarm tea; besides these an uncorked bottle of cough medicine. A watch ticks hanging from a nail over the captain’s berth.. On the desk in the mate’s cabin is a piece of paper, on the paper an unfinished sum. The cash box has not been touched; the cargo appears to be in good order; the pumps are dry. There is no lack of food or drinking water-no sign of fire, or panic, or disorder. Yet, every soul that was aboard was vanished into the unknown without a trace.

Just lately another account of this great mystery ship has been written by George S. Bryan of Philadelphia, who claims that all former accepted accounts were all wrong. Mr. Bryan states that the Mary Celeste was not overtaken, she was met; she was not under the spread of canvas, she was under a lower topsail and two jibs with upper topsail and foresail blown away and the rest of her sails furled; her galley fire was out, all cooking utensils were washed and hanging in their places, and there was no sign of food being prepared; there was no wash hanging in the forecastle; there was no food of any kind on the kitchen [cabin] table., and no bottle of cough mixture; there was no watch ticking anywhere, there was no unfinished sum on a piece of paper; there was no cashbox aboard the vessel; the pumps were not dry, for the Mary Celeste had three and a half feet of water in the hold. All this the author brings out clearly in his text, without a shadow of misunderstanding.

This latest expert feels like the case itself was strange and mysterious, indeed; yet it must have had a simple explanation. The Mary Celeste was met by another vessel off the Azores in 1872 sailing free under shortened canvas as described; there was no one on board, there were no signs of violence, there was every indication that she had been abandoned in haste, the ship’s papers and chronometer were missing. Captain Briggs had his wife and baby along-there were ten people in the ship’s company-no word of them has ever come to light.

The cargo, consisting of alcohol in barrels, appeared to be in perfect condition. The fore and lazaret hatches were open the water in the vessel evidently had come from the seas shipped while she was sailing abandoned, and this was further proved by the fact that the binnacle had been knocked over and the compass smashed by a boarding sea.

The other vessel, the British brig Dei Gratia, put her mate and a couple of seamen aboard the Mary Celeste; they pumped her out, after which she did not leak to any extent, and sailed her into Gibraltar. There Admiralty proceedings were held, testimony was taken, surveys were made, salvage was awarded and the Mary Celeste finally went on under another crew to complete her voyage to Genoa. Thereafter she sailed under the American flag for eleven years, at last was wrecked off Port au Prince in Haiti, in an insurance scandal that ran through the Boston courts.

As for a final explanation of the Mary Celeste mystery this latest account favours the idea that the cargo of alcohol leaked and developed gases in the hold; that the fore hatch possible blew off with the sound of an explosion frightening the ship’s company; that they took to the boat, the wind being light or calm, and they hung astern at the end of a long rope and that a sudden squall parted the rope and the ship sailed away. The latest account also brings out the fact that Captain Morehouse, master on the Dei Gratia who was a friend of Captain Briggs, by the way, had a similar theory and claims that all seafaring men naturally hold to simple and rational explanation.

Old seamen about Nova Scotia, in discussing the Mary Celeste mystery, seem to be of the opinion that there was somebody alive on the vessel when the boarding crew from the Dei Gratia arrived. Indeed, this was the opinion of the British Admiralty Court, for an exhausted inquiry based upon this supposition was made by that body. Nothing came of the inquiry however, and the matter was allowed to drop.

But even today, when you mention the Mary Celeste to one of the old Bluenose skippers, he will shake his head and say, “Ah that mate from the Dei Gratia could have told a lot more than he did.” And , ask as you will, that is all they will say. Perhaps this latest author has the right answer and all previous accounts were twisted. You can take your choice, and so there my friends there you have the story of the Mary Celeste with the different explanations given. I suppose someone else will write a story about this mystery some day and so it will go on and on. As far as we are concerned we must leave it to others to settle.