The Ship With No Lifeboat—and No People

Name: The Ship With No Lifeboat—and No People
Genre: Documentary

Sailors board a vessel drifting under sail and discover that its lifeboat and all ten people aboard have vanished.

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Transcript

The Mary Celeste’s lifeboat was gone—and every person aboard had vanished.
Yet the brigantine drifted under partial sail, disheveled but still seaworthy.
On December 4th, 1872, the Dei Gratia spotted her near the Azores.
She was about 400 miles east of the islands, moving without guidance.
Oliver Deveau boarded the Mary Celeste from the Dei Gratia. The boarding party found nobody aboard the Mary Celeste.
The cabins were open, with unused bunks and hanging coats.
Captain Benjamin Briggs, his wife Sarah, and two-year-old Sophia were missing.
So were all seven crewmen, leaving 10 people erased from the voyage.
The captain’s and crew’s personal belongings were undisturbed; nobody aboard was ever heard from again.
Belowdecks, the Mary Celeste’s charts had been tossed about.
The final log entry came at 5 a.m. on November 25th.
10 days after that final entry, the vessel was found adrift.
The ship had 3.5 feet of water; one pump was partially disassembled.
The cargo of 1,701 barrels of industrial alcohol was largely intact.
The dry chests and clothing held rust-free razors.
Oceanographer Phil Richardson says the discovery crew sailed it successfully.
The discovery crew sailed it, so it was in really good shape.
The disappearance left the ship’s fate still unresolved.

But the Mary Celeste was still amply provisioned…

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