Mary Celeste

The Mary Celeste was an American brigantine merchant ship famous for having been discovered on 4 December 1872 in the Atlantic Ocean, unmanned and apparently abandoned, although the weather was fineand her crew had been experienced and capable seamen. The Mary Celeste was in seaworthy condition and still under sail heading toward the Strait of Gibraltar. She had been at sea for a month and hadover six months' worth of food and water on board. Her cargo was virtually untouched and the personal belongings of passengers and crew were still in place, including valuables. The crew was never seenor heard from again. The Mary Celeste crew's disappearance is often cited as the greatest maritime mystery of all time.
The Mary Celeste is often described as the archetypal ghost ship, since shewas discovered derelict without any apparent explanation, and her name has become a synonym for similar occurrences. The ship was said to be "cursed" and had a long history of disasters andcatastrophes, and three captains died on the ship. The ship was destroyed in 1885 when it was intentionally wrecked off the coast of Haiti in an attempted insurance fraud.
The Mary Celeste was a 282-gross tonbrigantine. She was built by the shipbuilders of Joshua Dewis in 1861 as the ship Amazon at the village of Spencer's Island, Nova Scotia. She was the first of many large ships that were built in thatsmall community. The Amazon was owned by a group of eight investors from Cumberland County and Kings County, Nova Scotia, led by the shipbuilder Joshua Dewis, and William Henry Bigalow, a localmerchant. The Amazon was registered at the nearby Nova Scotia town of Parrsboro, the closest local port of registry.
The Amazon's first captain, Robert McLellan, son of one of the owners,[6] contractedpneumonia nine days after taking command, and he died at the very beginning of her maiden voyage. He was the first of three captains to die aboard her.[7] John Nutting Parker, the next captain of the...