The Clock That Put Them 120 Miles Off Course

Name: The Clock That Put Them 120 Miles Off Course
Genre: Documentary

A navigation error, rising water, and uncertainty near the Azores produce the strongest reconstruction of why Briggs may have ordered everyone off.

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Transcript

The Mary Celeste was found with its lifeboat missing—and every person gone.
The Mary Celeste was found near the Azores on December 4th, 1872.
Sarah Briggs's November 7th letter became the last word from all 10 aboard.
Captain Benjamin Briggs had brought his wife and two-year-old daughter toward Genoa.
Briggs changed course north of Santa Maria, perhaps seeking haven.
The final log entry was recorded at 5 a.m. on November 25th.
The ship was six miles from and within sight of Santa Maria on November 25th.
A later reconstruction placed Briggs 120 miles west of his calculated position.
The position error was probably caused by an inaccurate chronometer.
Spray crossed the deck as the helmsman's hands gripped the wheel.
When boarded, 3.5 feet of water sloshed in the ship's bottom.
One of the ship's two pumps was partially disassembled.
Yet the survey found no damage below the waterline, and the ship remained seaworthy.
Briggs wrote that the ship was in beautiful trim before the voyage.
Captain Shufeldt later proposed that the crew abandoned ship in a moment of panic.
None of the people aboard the Mary Celeste were ever seen or heard again.

If all ten entered the missing lifeboat, none of them was ever seen or heard from again.

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