I need to start looking for new team-building activities this off-season; as coach of the Seahawks, we’ve done a lot of paintball, capture the flag, man-tracking, and other survival games in recent years, but I’m thinking I need to up the difficulty level… we need to take to the open water. In my quest to look for things to do out at sea to bring my boys closer together, I happened to join up with a crew making their way eastward to Europe, trying to unravel a very strange incident indeed… As it turns up, it was right up my alley as well. Read on as I share in my discoveries!

THE DESERTION OF THE MARY CELESTE

Location: Azores Islands, Atlantic Ocean

The Story: In December of 1872, an American merchant brigantine christened the Mary Celeste was found floating adrift about 400 miles east of the Azores Islands, completely abandoned, en route from New York City to Genoa, Italy. While ship accidents were relatively commonplace in the days before modern technology, this one was extremely unusual; when the Mary Celeste was found by the Canadian brigantine Dei Gratia, the ship’s only lifeboat was missing, the ship was still in relatively seaworthy conditions, the last entry in the log book was dated from ten days previously, the cargo of denatured alcohol (used as a solvent and fuel source) was intact, the ship’s provisions well-stocked, and most curiously, all of the crew’s personal belongings completely untouched. Salvage hearings for the ship were held in Gibraltar, and due to the extremely bizarre findings of the incident, a relatively low reward was offered to the Canadians, despite the relatively good conditions of the ship. To this day, the mystery of the Mary Celeste has never been solved, and the name of the ship has become synonymous in the nautical world for unexplained desertions.

• Abandoning a ship while in the middle of the open sea is the very last thing a captain would order his crew to do; due to the highly treacherous and volatile nature of the ocean, if abandoning ship, it would almost certainly be done in sight of land. The last time the Mary Celeste would have been in sight of land would have likely been nine days earlier, off the coast of the island of Santa Maria.
• Despite being a very experienced and respected captain, it’s possible that faulty chart readings or navigational equipment may have put the ship off-course and thus confused the captain of the ship’s actual location in the sea; based on the ship’s final log, dated 5 AM on November 25th, the captain may have thought he was off a different set of islands than the Azores, and due to the rough weather the ship had faced in the two weeks preceding the log entry, it’s possible they were behind schedule in their crossing. How the ship ended up abandoned ten days later over 400 miles away is curious indeed, but a weather analysis shows that there’s a slim chance the ship could have drifted by itself to the location where it was discovered without human intervention.
• The denatured alcohol aboard the ship had additives in it that made it poisonous to drink and noxious to smell; it’s unlikely that the crew would have consumed it and then done some reckless things. Despite this, the strong vapors may have potentially caused issues on board the ship, including potentially building a cloud of gas in the cargo hold that may have caused an explosion. There’s no evidence for an explosion having taken place, though, due to the absence of burn marks or ash noted by the crew of the Dei Gratia. 
• Despite no clear evidence of wrong-doing by the Canadians who sailed the ghost ship to Gibraltar, the insurers only paid out 1/6 of the total value of the ship and its cargo, because at the same time, they couldn’t entirely rule out the potential of piracy, either.

 What might have happened?

Researchers from University College London believe the reason the ship was abandoned was due to the crew being spooked by an explosion on board; despite no evidence of soot or ash on board the ship when discovered, it’s possible that barrels leaking alcohol, when exposed to a spark, could have created a pressure wave, blowing open the ship’s hatches, but immediately followed afterwards by a rush of cool air, not allowing for burning or scorching to take place. Spooked by the explosion, it is thus natural that the captain would have ordered everyone to abandon ship afterwards.

Despite this scientific hypothesis, the mystery of the Mary Celeste has been a part of popular culture since the news of its discovery first travelled around the world. Theories from piracy (including possibly by the crew of the Dei Gratia), to a crew mutiny to giant sea creature attacks to paranormal intervention have all been bandied about; Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, even wrote a short story published in 1884 that saw the crew of the ship murdered by a crew member who was a former slave, looking for revenge for his previous life in captivity. At any rate, there’s still no consensus on what really took place, even after almost 150 years.

Coach Carroll’s Hypothesis: Oh damn! Ghost ships! No one at the helm! It’s like the current Tampa Bay Bucs, just a little bit older! I personally think Gruden and a bunch of Raiders are to blame. If you ask me, this seems like it’s the revenge of Rich Gannon. Call it a gut feeling.

Information from this article taken from here, here, here and here. 

Banner image courtesy of Low Commander of the Super Soldiers.