Mystery of the Mary Celeste

Mystery of the Mary Celeste — page 3

Mystery of the Mary Celeste — page 4 — No one knows who first sighted the two-masted ship on the Atlantic Ocean 400 miles 644 km from the Portuguese islands of the Azores On December 5 1872 aboard the British ship Dei Gratia either Captain David Morehouse or seaman John Johnson spotted the sails of a ship 4 to 5 miles 6 to 8 km away The distant ship moved unsteadily and appeared to be in trouble Despite high seas from 5 The Mary Celeste has been surrounded by mystery since it was found abandoned in 1872 CHAPTER ONE A DESERTED SHIP ADRIFT

Mystery of the Mary Celeste — page 5 — previous storms Captain Morehouse brought his own ship closer and yelled to ask if it needed assistance Captain Morehouse received no response He did not see anyone either This was not a good sign He ordered Johnson along with two other sailors Oliver Deveau and John Wright to take a small boat over to the ship As they got closer they could see the name of the vessel Mary Celeste The Ghost Ship Deveau and Wright climbed aboard the Mary Celeste Deveau immediately set out to inspect the ship The first step was to determine how much water was in the hold There was nearly 3 5 feet 1 1 m of water which was too much Deveau next inspected the pumps which proved to be in good order The men found no lifeboats although they could see where one could have been There were six months worth of supplies in the storeroom and plenty of drinking water There were also 1,700 barrels of alcohol The compass stand and the compass were damaged But 6

Mystery of the Mary Celeste — page 6 — Captain Morehouse ordered some of his men to go and check on the abandoned ship the wheel was unharmed and the topmast sail was set Two of the sails had blown away and another sail hung loose Some of the rigging was also gone The sailors continued their search of the ship They could not find the captain’s measurement tools or the navigation book They found the logbook on the captain’s desk and a chalkboard on a cabin table There were regular entries up until November 25 1872 It read At 8 Eastern point bore S S W 6 miles distant indicating that the ship was 6 miles 10 km 7

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