Mary Celeste (/sə.ˈlɛst/), sometimes mistakenly called Marie Celeste, was a ship built in Canada and registered in the United States. It was found drifting and empty in the Atlantic Ocean near the Azores on December 4, 1872.
The Canadian ship Dei Gratia discovered Mary Celeste in a messy but still usable condition, with some sails and no lifeboat. The last entry in Mary Celeste’s log was 10 days earlier. The ship had left New York City for Genoa on November 7 and still had enough supplies when found. Its alcohol cargo was untouched, and the captain’s and crew’s personal items were undisturbed. No one who had been on board was ever seen again.
Mary Celeste was built in Spencer’s Island, Nova Scotia, and first named Amazon under British ownership in 1861. It was later owned and registered in the United States, where it received its new name in 1868. The ship sailed without major issues until its 1872 voyage. After it was recovered, a court in Gibraltar considered possible causes, such as mutiny by Mary Celeste’s crew, piracy by the Dei Gratia’s crew, or fraud. No proof supported these ideas, and the mystery remained unsolved. This led to a small reward for salvaging the ship.
The unclear results of the court hearings led to many guesses about what happened to the crew. Stories often included false details, such as alcohol fumes from the cargo, underwater earthquakes, waterspouts, attacks by giant squids, or supernatural causes.
After the hearings, Mary Celeste continued to be used by new owners. In 1885, its captain intentionally wrecked it near Haiti as part of an insurance fraud. The mystery of its 1872 abandonment has been told many times in books, films, and plays. The ship’s name is now often used to describe unexplained desertions. In 1884, Arthur Conan Doyle wrote a short story titled "J. Habakuk Jephson’s Statement," based on the mystery. The story’s popularity made the name "Mary Celeste" more commonly used than its original spelling.
Early history
The keel of the ship that would later be called the Mary Celeste was laid in late 1860 at the shipyard of Joshua Dewis in the village of Spencer's Island, on the shores of the Bay of Fundy in Nova Scotia. The ship was built using locally cut wood, had two masts, and was rigged as a brigantine. It was carvel-built, meaning the planks on the hull were placed next to each other without overlapping. The ship was launched on May 18, 1861, and named Amazon. It was registered at nearby Parrsboro on June 10, 1861. The registration documents listed its length as 99.3 feet (30.3 meters), its width as 25.5 feet (7.8 meters), its depth as 11.7 feet (3.6 meters), and its gross tonnage as 198.42. The ship was owned by a group of nine local people, led by Dewis. One of the co-owners was Robert McLellan, who became the ship's first captain.
For its first voyage in June 1861, Amazon sailed to Five Islands, Nova Scotia, to load timber for transport across the Atlantic to London. After overseeing the loading, Captain McLellan became ill and his condition worsened. The ship returned to Spencer's Island, where McLellan died on June 19. John Nutting Parker took over as captain and continued the voyage to London. During this trip, the ship had several problems, including a collision with fishing gear near Eastport, Maine, and later sank a brig in the English Channel after leaving London.
Parker remained the captain for two years, during which Amazon mainly traveled in the West Indies trade. In November 1861, the ship crossed the Atlantic to France, and in Marseille, it was painted, possibly by Honoré de Pellegrin, a well-known maritime artist from the Marseilles School. In 1863, Parker was replaced by William Thompson, who remained the captain until 1867. These years were described as calm, with the ship's mate later recalling, "We went to the West Indies, England, and the Mediterranean—what we call the foreign trade. Not a thing unusual happened." In October 1867, at Cape Breton Island, Amazon ran aground in a storm and was so badly damaged that her owners gave up on repairing it. On October 15, the wreck was acquired by Alexander McBean of Glace Bay, Nova Scotia.
Within a month, McBean sold the wreck to a local businessman, who sold it in November 1868 to Richard W. Haines, an American mariner from New York. Haines paid $1,750 for the wreck and spent $8,825 to restore it. He became the ship's captain and registered it in December 1868 as an American vessel under the new name Mary Celeste.
In October 1869, the ship was seized by Haines' creditors and sold to a New York group led by James H. Winchester. Over the next three years, the group changed several times, but Winchester always kept at least half of the ownership. No records of Mary Celeste's activities during this time have been found. In early 1872, the ship underwent a major repair costing $10,000, which made it larger. Its length increased to 103 feet (31 meters), its width to 25.7 feet (7.8 meters), and its depth to 16.2 feet (4.9 meters). Structural changes included adding a second deck, extending the poop deck, and replacing many timbers. These repairs increased the ship's weight to 282.28 tonnes. On October 29, 1872, the group consisted of Winchester with six shares, two minor investors with one share each, and the remaining four shares were held by the ship's new captain, Benjamin Spooner Briggs.
Benjamin Briggs was born on April 24, 1835, in Wareham, Massachusetts, one of five sons of sea captain Nathan Briggs. Four of his brothers went to sea, and two became captains. Briggs was a devoted Christian who read the Bible regularly and shared his faith at prayer meetings. In 1862, he married his cousin Sarah Elizabeth Cobb, and they had a Mediterranean honeymoon on his schooner, Forest King. Their children were Arthur, born in September 1865, and Sophia Matilda, born in October 1870.
By the time Sophia was born, Briggs had gained respect in his profession. He considered retiring to start a business with his brother Oliver, who also wanted to leave the sea. Though they did not proceed with the plan, both invested in shares of ships: Oliver in Julia A. Hallock and Benjamin in Mary Celeste. In October 1872, Benjamin took command of Mary Celeste for its first voyage after its major repairs in New York, which was to travel to Genoa, Italy. He arranged for his wife and infant daughter to join him, while his older son remained at home with his grandmother.
Briggs carefully selected the crew for this voyage. First mate Albert G. Richardson was married to a niece of Winchester and had sailed with Briggs before. Second mate Andrew Gilling, about 25 years old, was born in New York and had Danish heritage. The steward, Edward William Head, was newly married and recommended by Winchester. The four general seamen were Germans from the Frisian Islands: brothers Volkert and Boz Lorenzen, Arian Martens, and Gottlieb Goudschaal. A later report described them as "peaceable and first-class sailors." In a letter to his mother before the voyage, Briggs expressed confidence in the ship and crew. Sarah Briggs told her mother that the crew seemed "quietly capable… if they continue as they have begun."
Abandonment
On October 20, 1872, Briggs arrived at Pier 50 on the East River in New York City to oversee the loading of the ship’s cargo of 1,701 barrels of alcohol. His wife and infant daughter joined him a week later. On Sunday, November 3, Briggs wrote to his mother to say he planned to leave on Tuesday, adding, “our vessel is in beautiful trim and I hope we shall have a fine passage.”
On Tuesday, November 5, the Mary Celeste left Pier 50 with Briggs, his wife, daughter, and seven crew members, entering New York Harbor. The weather was unpredictable, so Briggs decided to wait for better conditions. He anchored the ship near Staten Island, where Sarah used the delay to send a final letter to her mother-in-law. She wrote, “Tell Arthur, I make great dependence on the letters I shall get from him, and will try to remember anything that happens on the voyage which he would be pleased to hear.” Two days later, the weather improved, and the Mary Celeste left the harbor and entered the Atlantic.
At the same time, the Canadian brigantine Dei Gratia was in Hoboken, New Jersey, waiting to carry petroleum to Genoa via Gibraltar. Captain David Morehouse and first mate Oliver Deveau were Nova Scotians with extensive seafaring experience. Some sources suggest that Captains Briggs and Morehouse may have known each other, though evidence is limited to a recollection by Morehouse’s wife 50 years later. Dei Gratia departed for Gibraltar on November 15, following the same route eight days after the Mary Celeste.
On Wednesday, December 4, 1872, Dei Gratia reached a position midway between the Azores and Portugal. Captain Morehouse noticed a ship moving erratically toward them about six miles away. The vessel’s sails and movements appeared unusual, and no one was on deck. Morehouse sent Deveau and second mate John Wright in a boat to investigate. They identified the ship as the Mary Celeste by its name on the stern and found it completely empty. The sails were damaged, some missing, and the rigging was broken. The main hatch was closed, but the fore and lazarette hatches were open. The ship’s lifeboat was missing, and the compass housing was broken. About three and a half feet of water were in the hold, and a makeshift tool for measuring water was found on the deck.
In the mate’s cabin, they found the ship’s daily log, with the last entry dated November 25. It recorded the Mary Celeste’s position near Santa Maria Island in the Azores, nearly 400 nautical miles from where Dei Gratia encountered her. The cabin interiors were wet and messy, but otherwise in reasonable condition. Personal items, including a sheathed sword, were scattered in Briggs’ cabin, though most papers and navigational tools were missing. No signs of fire or violence were found, and the evidence suggested the crew left the ship using the missing lifeboat.
Deveau returned to report these findings, and Morehouse decided to bring the abandoned ship to Gibraltar. Under maritime law, a salvor could receive a share of the value of the rescued ship and cargo. Morehouse divided his crew, sending Deveau and two others to the Mary Celeste, while he and four others stayed on Dei Gratia. The journey to Gibraltar was slow due to the small crew, but both ships arrived safely. The Mary Celeste was seized by the vice admiralty court for legal proceedings. Deveau wrote to his wife, saying, “I can hardly tell what I am made of, but I do not care so long as I got in safe. I shall be well paid for the Mary Celeste.”
Gibraltar salvage hearings
The salvage court meetings began in Gibraltar on December 17, 1872, led by Sir James Cochrane, the chief justice of Gibraltar. Frederick Solly-Flood, the Attorney General of Gibraltar, conducted the hearing. He also held other roles, including Advocate-General and Proctor for the Queen in Her Office of Admiralty. A historian of the Mary Celeste affair described Flood as a man who was very proud and confident but not very smart. The historian also noted that Flood was stubborn and did not change his opinions once he made them. The testimonies of Deveau and Wright convinced Flood that a crime had occurred. This belief was reported by the New York Shipping and Commercial List on December 21, which stated that foul play was likely, possibly involving alcohol.
On December 23, Flood ordered an inspection of the Mary Celeste, carried out by John Austin, the Surveyor of Shipping, with help from a diver named Ricardo Portunato. Austin found cuts on both sides of the ship’s bow, which he believed were made by a sharp tool. He also noted possible blood on the captain’s sword. His report stated that the ship did not appear to have been damaged by heavy weather, as a vial of sewing machine oil was found upright in its original place. Austin did not consider that the vial might have been moved after the ship was abandoned, and the court did not raise this idea. Portunato’s report on the ship’s hull concluded that it had not been involved in a collision or run aground.
A further inspection by a group of Royal Naval captains supported Austin’s view that the cuts on the bow were made intentionally. They also found stains on one of the ship’s rails that might have been blood, along with a deep mark possibly caused by an axe. These findings strengthened Flood’s belief that human actions, not natural disasters, caused the mystery. On January 22, 1873, Flood sent the reports to the Board of Trade in London, concluding that the crew had attacked the Briggs family and officers in a drunken state, then cut the bows to mimic a collision before fleeing in the yawl. Flood suspected that Morehouse and his crew were hiding information, such as the possibility that the Mary Celeste had been abandoned in a different location and that the ship’s log had been altered. He could not accept that the ship could have traveled so far without a crew.
James Winchester arrived in Gibraltar on January 15 to inquire when the Mary Celeste might be released to deliver its cargo. Flood required a $15,000 guarantee, which Winchester did not have. Winchester later learned that Flood suspected him of intentionally hiring a crew that might have killed Briggs and his officers as part of a conspiracy. On January 29, during a tense exchange with Flood, Winchester testified that Briggs had a strong character and would not have abandoned the ship unless forced to do so. Flood’s theories about mutiny and murder faced setbacks when scientific tests showed that the stains on the sword and elsewhere on the ship were not blood. Another challenge came from a report by Captain Shufeldt of the U.S. Navy, commissioned by Horatio Sprague, the American consul in Gibraltar. Shufeldt concluded that the marks on the bow were not man-made but resulted from natural sea activity on the ship’s wood.
With no clear evidence to support his claims, Flood reluctantly released the Mary Celeste from the court’s jurisdiction on February 25. Two weeks later, the ship left Gibraltar for Genoa with a locally hired crew led by Captain George Blatchford from Massachusetts. The salvage payment was decided on April 8, when Cochrane announced an award of £1,700, about one-fifth of the ship and cargo’s total value. This amount was much lower than expected, as some believed it should have been twice or three times higher due to the risks of bringing the derelict ship into port. Cochrane criticized Morehouse for earlier sending the Dei Gratia under Deveau to deliver the ship’s petroleum cargo, even though Morehouse had remained in Gibraltar for the court’s use. In his 2005 book, Ghost Ship: The Mysterious True Story of the Mary Celeste and Her Missing Crew, writer Brian Hicks noted that Cochrane’s harsh tone implied wrongdoing, ensuring that Morehouse and his crew would face suspicion in public opinion forever.
Proposed explanations
The evidence in Gibraltar did not support Flood's ideas about murder and secret plans. However, people still thought something bad happened. Flood and some newspaper reports briefly thought that Winchester might have tried to get money from an insurance company because the ship Mary Celeste was insured for more than its value. Winchester denied these claims, and the insurance companies did not investigate further. In 1931, an article in the Quarterly Review suggested that Morehouse might have waited for Mary Celeste and then lured Briggs and his crew onto Dei Gratia, where they were killed. Paul Begg says this idea ignores the fact that Dei Gratia was a slower ship. It left New York eight days after Mary Celeste and could not have caught up to her before she reached Gibraltar.
Another idea is that Briggs and Morehouse worked together to share money from a salvage operation. However, there is no proof that the two captains were friends. Hicks wrote, "If Morehouse and Briggs had planned this, they would not have made such a strange mystery." He also asked why Briggs would leave his son Arthur behind if he wanted to disappear forever.
Although pirates from the Riffian region were active near Morocco in the 1870s, Charles Edey Fay said pirates would have taken valuable items from the ship. However, the captain and crew’s belongings were not disturbed. In 1925, historian John Gilbert Lockhart thought Briggs might have killed everyone on board and then committed suicide because of religious reasons. Lockhart later talked to Briggs’ family and changed his mind in a later version of his book.
Briggs’ cousin, Oliver Cobb, suggested that the crew might have moved to the yawl as a temporary safety measure. He studied Deveau’s report about the ship’s ropes and thought the main halliard might have been used to tie the yawl to Mary Celeste, allowing the crew to return later. However, if the rope had broken, the yawl would have drifted away with its passengers. Begg said it would not make sense to tie the yawl to a ship that the crew thought might explode or sink. Macdonald Hastings argued that Briggs, an experienced captain, would not have led a panicked escape. He wrote, "If the Mary Celeste had exploded, it would still have been safer to stay on the ship than in the lifeboat." Hastings said if Briggs had relied on the lifeboat instead of the ship, he would have "acted like a fool; worse, a frightened one."
Arthur N. Putman, an insurance appraiser and expert in sea mysteries, proposed a similar idea about the lifeboat. He noted that only one lifeboat was missing from the ship, and its rope was cut, not untied, suggesting a quick escape. The ship’s log mentioned strange noises, like rumbling and small explosions, from the hold. Alcohol cargo naturally produces flammable gas, which can make similar sounds. Putman thought a stronger explosion might have happened, and a sailor with a flame or lit cigar could have caused it. This might have blown off the top of the hatch, which was found in an unusual position. He also thought the captain, his family, and crew might have boarded the lifeboat, cut the rope, and left the ship in fear.
Most experts agree that something unusual and frightening must have happened to make the entire crew abandon a ship that was in good condition and had enough supplies. Deveau suggested that Briggs might have left the ship after a false reading from a sounding rod, which could have been caused by a broken pump that made the crew think the ship was filling with water. A severe waterspout before the abandonment might explain the water on the ship and the damaged rigging. Low air pressure from the spout could have pushed water into the pumps, making the crew believe the ship was sinking.
Other theories include a displaced iceberg, fear of running aground when the ship was stuck in calm weather, or a sudden underwater earthquake. Evidence suggests an iceberg drifting that far south was unlikely, and other ships would have seen it. Begg thought the ship might have drifted toward a reef near Santa Maria Island when it was stuck in calm weather. Briggs might have feared the ship would run aground and launched the yawl to reach land. However, if the ship was stuck, all sails would have been set to catch any wind, but the ship was found with many sails folded.
An earthquake on the seabed could have caused enough movement to damage the cargo and release dangerous fumes. This might have led Briggs to order the ship’s abandonment. The displaced hatches suggest someone might have checked the hold or tried to air it out. A newspaper article in 1886 mentioned a ship carrying alcohol that exploded. Another article in 1913 said alcohol leaking from barrels might have caused or threatened an explosion on Mary Celeste. Briggs’ cousin, Oliver Cobb, supported this idea, saying that sounds from the hold, smells of fumes, and possibly an explosion could have caused the crew to flee. In their rush to leave, Briggs might not have secured the yawl properly. A sudden wind could have blown the ship away from the yawl, leaving the crew stranded. However, the lack of explosion damage and the good condition of the cargo weaken this theory.
In 2006, an experiment by chemist Andrea Sella for a television show helped support the explosion theory again. Sella created a model of the ship’s hold using paper boxes to represent alcohol barrels. He used butane gas to make an explosion, which caused a large flame but no fire damage inside the model. He explained, "What we created was a pressure-wave explosion. There was a bright flame, but the air behind it was cool. No soot or burning was left." A 2026 documentary suggested that a quick explosion of ethanol vapors, even without visible damage, might have scared the crew into fleeing the ship.
Retellings and false histories
Fact and fiction became mixed together in the years after the Mary Celeste story. In June 1883, the Los Angeles Times told the story again but added made-up details. It described the ship as having all sails set, the tiller lashed tightly, and the fire still burning in the galley. The dinner was untouched and nearly cold, and the ship’s log was written up to the time the ship was found. In November 1906, the Overland Monthly and Out West Magazine reported that the Mary Celeste drifted near the Cape Verde Islands, which is 1,400 nautical miles (2,600 km) south of where the ship was actually discovered. This account included errors, such as naming the first mate "Briggs" and claiming live chickens were on board.
The most influential retelling was a story published in January 1884 in the Cornhill Magazine. This story, written by Arthur Conan Doyle, a 25-year-old ship’s surgeon, did not match the real events. Doyle changed the ship’s name to Marie Celeste, the captain’s name to J. W. Tibbs, and the voyage’s year to 1873. The ship was said to travel from Boston to Lisbon, and passengers, including a man named Jephson, were on board. In the story, a man named Septimius Goring, who hated the white race, convinced the crew to kill the captain and take the ship to Africa. Most of the crew was killed, but Jephson survived because he had a magical charm that Goring respected. Doyle did not expect his story to be taken seriously, but Sprague, who was still the U.S. consul in Gibraltar, was curious and asked if any part of the story might be true.
In September 1904, Chambers’ Journal suggested that a giant octopus or squid took the entire crew of the Mary Celeste. The Natural History Museum notes that giant squid (Architeuthis dux) can grow up to 15 meters (49 feet) long and have attacked ships. However, Begg said such a creature could not have taken the ship’s small boat or the captain’s navigation tools.
In 1913, The Strand Magazine published a story claiming that Abel Fosdyk, the Mary Celeste’s steward, survived. The story said the crew gathered on a temporary platform to watch a swimming contest, but the platform collapsed, killing everyone except Fosdyk. This version had many errors, such as misspelling names and incorrectly describing the crew. Another story from the 1920s, written by Laurence J. Keating, claimed a survivor named John Pemberton told a tale of murder, madness, and a secret agreement with the Dei Gratia. This story also had errors, like using the name Marie Celeste instead of Mary Celeste and misnaming people. Despite these mistakes, the New York Herald Tribune believed the story was true in 1926. Hastings called Keating’s story “an impudent trick by a man not without imaginative ability.”
In 1924, the Daily Express published a story by Captain R. Lucy, claiming that the Mary Celeste’s former boatswain told him the crew abandoned the ship after finding gold and silver on a derelict steamer. They then used the steamer’s lifeboats to travel to Spain. Hastings said this unlikely story was widely believed for a time, and readers were “fooled by the magic of print.”
Other theories have linked the Mary Celeste to supernatural events. An undated edition of the British Journal of Astrology called the story “a mystical experience” and connected it to the Great Pyramid of Gizeh, the lost continent of Atlantis, and the British Israel Movement. The Bermuda Triangle has also been linked to the story, even though the Mary Celeste was abandoned in a different part of the Atlantic. Similar ideas have suggested that aliens in flying saucers may have taken the crew.
Later career and final voyage
Mary Celeste left Genoa on June 26, 1873, and reached New York on September 19. After news stories about violence and murder were reported, the ship became unpopular. Hastings wrote that she "… rotted on wharves where nobody wanted her." In February 1874, a group of people sold the ship for a large loss to a group of New York businessmen.
Under new ownership, Mary Celeste mainly traveled on routes between the West Indies and the Indian Ocean, but she often lost money. Some details about her trips were reported in shipping news. In February 1879, she was seen at the island of St. Helena, where she stopped to get medical help for her captain, Edgar Tuthill, who was sick. Tuthill died on the island, which led people to believe the ship was cursed—he was the third captain to die early. In February 1880, the ship's owners sold Mary Celeste to a group of Boston businessmen led by Wesley Gove. A new captain, Thomas L. Fleming, stayed in his role until August 1884, when he was replaced by Gilman C. Parker. During these years, the ship’s official port changed several times before returning to Boston. No records of her trips during this time are known, but Brian Hicks, in his study, said Gove tried hard to make the ship successful.
In November 1884, Parker worked with a group of Boston shippers to fill Mary Celeste with mostly worthless cargo, which was falsely listed on the ship’s manifest as valuable goods. The ship was insured for US$30,000 ($1,070,000 today). On December 16, Parker set sail for Port-au-Prince, the capital and main port of Haiti. On January 3, 1885, Mary Celeste approached the port through a channel between Gonâve Island and the mainland, where a large and well-known coral reef, the Rochelois Bank, was located. Parker intentionally ran the ship onto the reef, damaging it beyond repair. The crew and Parker then rowed to shore, where Parker sold the usable cargo for $500 to the American consul and claimed insurance for the supposed value of the goods.
When the consul reported that the cargo was nearly worthless, the ship’s insurers began an investigation, which uncovered the truth about the over-insured cargo. In July 1885, Parker and the shippers were tried in Boston for plotting insurance fraud. Parker was also charged with "wilfully cast[ing] away the ship," a crime called barratry, which at the time carried the death penalty. The fraud trial was heard first, but on August 15, the jury could not agree on a verdict. Some jurors did not want to risk affecting Parker’s upcoming trial for the crime of intentionally wrecking the ship. Instead of a retrial, the judge arranged for the defendants to withdraw their insurance claims and return all the money they had received. The charge of barratry against Parker was postponed, and he was allowed to go free. However, his professional reputation was ruined, and he died in poverty three months later. One of his co-defendants went mad, and another killed himself. Begg wrote, "{I}f the court of man could not punish these men … the curse that had devilled the ship since her first skipper Robert McLellan had died on her maiden voyage could reach beyond the vessel's watery grave and exact its own terrible retribution."
In August 2001, an expedition led by marine archaeologist and author Clive Cussler announced that they had found the remains of a ship embedded in the Rochelois reef. Only a few pieces of wood and some metal items could be recovered, with the rest of the wreckage lost in the coral. Initial tests on the wood suggested it was the type commonly used in New York shipyards during Mary Celeste’s 1872 refitting, which seemed to confirm the remains belonged to Mary Celeste. However, tree ring analysis by Scott St George of the Geological Survey of Canada showed the wood came from trees, likely in the U.S. state of Georgia, that were still growing in 1894—about 10 years after Mary Celeste was wrecked.
Legacy and commemorations
Mary Celeste was not the first ship reported as being found empty at sea. Rupert Gould, a naval officer who studied maritime mysteries, recorded other similar cases between 1840 and 1855. While the truth of these events remains unclear, Mary Celeste is the most well-known case. The ship’s name, or its misspelled version Marie Celeste, is now closely linked with the idea of unexplained desertion.
In October 1955, the MV Joyita, a 70-ton motor vessel, vanished in the South Pacific while traveling between Samoa and Tokelau with 25 people on board. A month later, the ship was discovered drifting north of Vanua Levu, 600 miles (970 km) off its planned route, but no one aboard was ever seen again. An investigation could not find a clear explanation. David Wright, a historian who studied the case, called it “a classic marine mystery of Mary Celeste proportions.”
The story of Mary Celeste inspired two popular radio plays in the 1930s by L. Du Garde Peach and Tim Healey, and a stage version of Peach’s play in 1949. Many books have been written about the event, usually offering natural rather than supernatural explanations. In 1935, the British film company Hammer Film Productions released The Mystery of the Mary Celeste (called Phantom Ship in the United States), featuring Bela Lugosi as a troubled sailor. The film was not a big success, though Begg said it is “a period piece well worth watching.” A 1938 short film titled The Ship That Died showed dramatized theories about the ship’s abandonment, such as mutiny, fear of an alcohol explosion, or supernatural causes.
In November 2007, the Smithsonian Channel aired a documentary titled The True Story of the Mary Celeste, which examined many aspects of the case without providing a certain answer. One theory suggested that the ship’s pump was blocked and its instruments were not working properly. Before carrying alcohol, the Mary Celeste had transported coal, which produces dust. The pump was found broken on the deck, suggesting the crew may have tried to fix it. The ship’s hull was full, and the captain could not measure how much water had entered during rough seas. The filmmakers suggested the ship’s clock might have been faulty, causing the captain to believe they were near Santa Maria when they were actually 120 miles (190 km) farther west.
At Spencer’s Island, Mary Celeste and her missing crew are honored with a monument at the site where the ship was built and a memorial outdoor cinema shaped like the ship’s hull. Stamps showing the event have been made by Gibraltar twice and by the Maldives twice, with one stamp showing the ship’s name as Marie Celeste.