On December 5, 1872 John Johnson, helmsman of the Dei Gratia, spotted a ship about five miles off their port bow.  It was an hour past noon, and in the bright sunlight, Johnson could immediately spot that something was wrong.

Johnson wasn't sure what the problem was, so he reached for his spyglass to get a better look.  The glass revealed what his own eyes couldn't: The sails of the ship were slightly torn.  The ship itself was yawing to the right. 

The Dei Gratia was just off the coast of Gibraltar. The month of November had hadn't seen as many of the great storms as the the month of August, and the ship wasn't flying distress signals.  Johnson was reluctant to disturb his captain over what might be nothing.  Instead he summoned the ship's second officer, John Wright.  Wright confirmed Johnson's impressions that there was something wrong with the ship, and the two of them alerted their captain, David Morehouse. 

As the Dei Gratia sailed closer, the three men realized that they knew the ship.  They had seen it only nineteen days before in New York.  The ship was the Mary Celeste.  They were still 600 miles from Spain, yet the ship had departed ten days ahead of the Dei Gratia.  Why was it not yet in Italy?

Morehouse immediately began to fear for the fate of the Mary Celeste's crew.  Especially the captain, Benjamin Briggs, and his family.  Morehouse and Briggs were old friends.  They had sailed together in their youth.  Just weeks before, on November 4, the two men and their wives had dined together before setting sail.  Morehouse knew that Briggs was accompanied by his wife and two-year old daughter on this trip.  Brigg's son had remained behind with Briggs's mother. 

It seemed unthinkable that the Mary Celeste could be in trouble.  Captain Briggs was an experienced, temperate and level-headed man.  Since his cargo was a hull full of commercial alcohol destined for Italy to fortify the Italian wines manufactured there, the company bankrolling the venture had heavily insured it and selected an experienced crew for the voyage. Briggs had even bought into the shipping venture.  Six shares of the profit would be his once the ship reached its destination.

Yet as the Dei Gratia approached the ship, they couldn't see that there was anyone on board.  No one stood at the wheel and there was no one even on deck. When the ship was hailed, no one responded.

After waiting two hours for signs that the ship was inhabited Captain Morehouse dispatched his chief mate, Oliver Deveau, along with two other crewmen to investigate.  They reported back that the Mary Celeste was completely abandoned.  Yet they could not figure out why.

As the crew of the Dei Gratia explored the Mary Celeste, it became clear to them that whatever had happened to the Mary Celeste's crew had caught them unprepared.  The crew's personal belongings, including valuables, were all still in place.  Inside the first mate's cabin, they found half-finished calculations.  In the captain's quarters, clothing had been strewn “hither and tither.”  On a table, a small portable piano stood with sheet music still on it.  A portable sewing machine still had a half-sewed garment lying on it.  An open bottle of child's cough medicine sat out. 

The ship itself was, in the words of Deveau, “a thoroughly wet mess.”  Only one of the ship's pumps worked.  The rest had been dissassembled.  Ropes hung over the side.  The lazarette where equipment was stored had been left open.  There was a lot of water between decks and three and a half feet of water in the hold.  The skylight in the captain's quarters had been left open, and Morehouse recalled later that the captain's bed “was not fit to sleep on and had to be thoroughly dried,” and that all bedding and clothing throughout the ship was in a similar condition.

Yet the ship was still seaworthy.  The riggings, though tangled in a confusing snarl, were still functional.  The main hatch was sealed.  Most of the water had come in due to rough seas and an open forehatch. 

Along with most of the ship's important paperwork, many of the ship's navigational instruments were missing.  Only the captain's log, a broken compass and a stopped clock remained behind. The log held no further clues.  The last entry had been ten days prior as the ship passed the Azores. 

 Evidence seemed to indicate that the captain, his family and the crew had taken the ships boat (a small craft with six oars for rowing), and abandoned the Mary Celeste in the middle of the ocean.  Even more confounding to the crew of the Dei Gratia was that the crew of the Mary Celeste had left behind rain gear and provisions.  They had also made no effort to roll up the canvas, tie up the ship or weigh anchor. Ropes trailed over the side of the ship, indicating that the crew had climbed down it and into the boat.  Deep axe cuts scored the ship's side, leaving the impression that the crew was in such a hurry to leave that they did not want to be slowed even long enough to untie the boat.

 With no clues as to the whereabouts of the crew and passengers of the Mary Celeste, the crew of the Dei Gratia sailed the empty vessel the rest of the way to Gibraltar.  When the cargo was later unloaded, it was noted that nine barrels (approximately 500 gallons) of the American alcohol were empty.

 When the ships reached Gibraltar, the British convened a trial in Vice Admiralty court to determine what had happened to the Mary Celeste.  And while the judge of the court praised the crew of the Dei Gratia for their actions, the Attorney General of Gibraltar suspected that the crew of the Dei Gratia might have murdered the Mary Celeste's crew for their cargo.

 Eventually the crew of the Dei Gratia was granted a salvage fee that amounted to one sixth of the value of the cargo.  The fee was so low because of the suspicion that they had something to do with the disappearance of the Mary Celeste's crew. 

 The ship and its mystery might have slipped into obscurity, if not for Sir Aurthur Conan Doyle.  The noted author of the Sherlock Holmes mysteries is credited with creating the Myth of the Mary Celeste in his 1884 story J. Habakuk Jephson's Statement.  Conan Doyle's version contains fanciful elements that have since been taken as facts.  Clocks on the ship run backwards, a still-warm breakfast is left on the table in the captain's quarters next to tea still steaming in the cups.

The story sparked popular interest in the events, and the ship has become both a literary staple and a much-repeated mystery.  Theories abound as to what happened to the ship.

Piracy.

With any disappearance on the high seas, piracy is usually the first solution offered up.  In fact, the Vice Admiralty court put forth the possibility of piracy as a reason for the crew's disappearance.  But if so, then why weren't any of the valuables on board touched?  Why wasn't the cargo taken?  Why weren't there signs of struggle on board the ship?

A second problem with the pirate theory is that the waters between the Azores were heavily patrolled by the British navy.   At the time of the disappearance, there hadn't been a report of pirates in the waters off Gibraltar in decades.

The Crew of the Dei Gratia was Responsible.

 Some suspicion did fall on the Dei Gratia's crew, both at the time of the disappearance and afterward.  But even circumstantial evidence points away from the possibility of foul play on the part of the crew.  To begin with, the two captains were old friends.  It seems unlikely that captain Morehouse would murder Captain Briggs, his wife and toddler.  Additionally, as with the pirate theory, the lack of signs of struggle and the presence of the crew's valuables point away from greed as a motivator behind the disappearances.

 Also, since the Mary Celeste set sail over a week before the Dei Gratia, the incident would have had to have happened before the Dei Gratia caught up with them.  Otherwise the Dei Gratia couldn't have caught them.

Insurance Fraud.

It has been suggested that an insurance fraud plan between Briggs and Morehouse is another scenario.  And while the circumstantial evidence fits this scenario better than the other two, the limited reward for such an elaborate scheme makes this theory unlikely.

Tsunami, Earthquake. Storm at Sea or Waterspout.

Some theorists have suggested that a calamity caused by natural disaster would have led the crew to abandon ship.  Either the ship entered a storm with only one working pump causing the captain to fear that the ship would sink, the crew was washed overboard by a tidal wave or an earthquake caused the captain and crew to abandon ship in fear of their lives.  The ships logs and stories by locals in the Azores refute such claims.  The waterspout theory, though plausible, has also been dismissed as unlikely.

The Risk of Explosion.

Of all the theories put forth, this one is most widely regarded as plausible.  According to the theory, Briggs, who believed in abstinence and had never hauled a cargo as volatile as the alcohol, was nervous about his dangerous cargo. 

So the theory goes: the nine empty barrels were the result of leakage, and the bands securing the barrels often threw out sparks as they rubbed together.  When Briggs smelled the leaking alcohol, he feared an explosion and called for the crew to abandon ship.  In their haste to get off the possibly exploding vessel, the crew failed to secure the rowboat to a tow line and were quickly lost at sea. 

In some versions of the story, the alcohol fumes actually ignited, setting off a loud boom and a flash fire that quickly burned out, leaving the rest of the cargo intact. The explosion could have explained the open fore hatch.  The captain and crew heard the boom, panicked and abandoned ship.  In other versions, the crew had the presence of mind to secure the boat to the ship, but their towline broke during a sudden freak storm.

However even the explosion theory isn't supported completely by the facts.  When the crew of the Dei Gratia boarded the ship, they didn't report smelling alcohol vapors, which should have still been present in the ship. 

Drinking, Tension, Mutiny or Hallucinations.

 Another theory is that the crew, drunk on the missing alcohol, murdered the captain and his family and then abandoned ship.  Or possibly mutinied due to captain Briggs' harsh rule as captain.  Neither scenario seems likely.  Both the captain and crew had exemplary records.  Another theory is that the crew suffered the effects of ergotamine, a fungus that can grow in flour and cause hallucinations similar to those caused by LSD.  According to this theory, the crew abandoned ship while on a bad trip.  This theory is easily disproved.  The crew of the Dei Gratia consumed rations from the Mary Celeste while sailing the ship to Gibraltar with no ill effects.  

Whatever the cause, the puzzle of what happened to the captain and his family and crew remains one of the biggest nautical mysteries in history and has slipped into popular culture. 

The Mary Celeste changed hands several more times, but was never able to turn a profit.  Notoriously superstitious sailors refused to crew her, and investors refused to ship cargo in her hold.   Eventually she was wrecked by her owner in an unsuccessful bid to claim insurance on her through fraud. She remains on the sea floor, somewhere off the coast of Haiti.

Konstam, Angus.  Ghost Ships: Tales of Abandoned, Doomed, and Haunted Vessels.  Globe Pequot, 2007.

Edey, Charles Fey.  The story of the Mary Celeste.  Dover Publications, 1988.