The Wreck Bought for $1,750

Name: The Wreck Bought for $1,750
Genre: Documentary

With murder unproven, the inquiry's financial suspicions lead backward through the vessel's turbulent history.

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Transcript

Rescuers reached the drifting Mary Celeste, its lifeboat gone.
None of the 10 people aboard were ever seen or heard from again.
The disappearance sparked suspicions of foul play, but Gibraltar's court found none.
The vessel's story began in Nova Scotia under another name.
The Amazon was launched on May 18th, 1861.
After Amazon grounded in 1867, Richard Haines bought the wreck for $1,750.
Replace the damaged hull boards. We’ll make this wreck a working ship again, plank by plank.
Haines spent $8,825 restoring it, then registered Mary Celeste in December 1868.
Mary Celeste's major refit came in early 1872.
Refit raised displacement to 311 tons, or 282.28 metric tons.
Captain Briggs held four of 12 shares, then brought his wife and daughter toward Genoa.
Briggs’s wife Sarah called Mary Celeste’s quarters “our little home.”
It left New York November 7th, 1872, with about 1,700 alcohol barrels.
The last log entry came at 5 a.m. November 25th. The ship was making eight knots on November 25th.
When found, the ship still held six months of food and water.
Alcohol cargo was intact, captain's and crew's belongings undisturbed.
Ship and cargo were insured for $46,000.
Salvagers aboard the Dei Gratia found the Mary Celeste, receiving only one-sixth of its insured value.

The Dei Gratia salvagers were awarded only one-sixth of the Mary Celeste's insured value.

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