What really happened to the Mary Celeste?
Dear Straight Dope: What was the deal with the mystery ship Mary Celeste? Was the ship abandoned under such bizarre circumstances that no one has been able to explan what happened or was it a story that got blown up out of all proportion? Also, was it Mary or Marie Celeste? — River Pearl Just sit right back, and I’ll tell a tale. A tale of a . . . okay, I’ll stop that. On Nov. 4, 1872, two old sea captains sat together for dinner in New York–Captain Morehouse of the English cargo ship Dei Gratia, and Captain Briggs of the American ship Mary Celeste. They were old friends, and in New York for but a short while–Morehouse until he set sail on the 15th, and Briggs due to sail the next day with his wife and daughter, both bound for Europe. On Dec. 5 of that year, Captain Morehouse sighted Captain Briggs’s ship halfway between Portugal and the Azores islands, and was disturbed by the way that the Mary Celeste seemed to be careening out of control. For two hours, the Dei Gratia attempted to
