The Ghost Ship Mary Celeste

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A silent ship in open water, a missing crew, and a century of wild theories—this is the story that made “ghost ship” part of our vocabulary. We pull the lens wide, starting with the Mary Celeste’s earlier life as the Amazon, a fast, carvel-built brigantine whose career seemed shadowed by bad luck: a captain’s sudden death, collisions, a grounding, and a salvage. When Benjamin Briggs steps aboard as owner-captain, he brings discipline, family, and a small, trusted crew to carry denatured alcohol from New York to Genoa. The plan is routine; the Atlantic is not.

We follow the Dei Gratia’s eerie encounter with the Mary Celeste: sails ragged, rigging loose, cabins soaked, one hatch secured, lifeboat gone, and no bodies. The logbook offers no menace, the hold has water but not doom, and navigation instruments are missing from the captain’s cabin—clues of a deliberate evacuation. From there, we step into Gibraltar’s slow-motion courtroom theater. Attorney General Frederick Solly-Flood chases mutiny and murder, but the evidence refuses to cooperate. Broken compass glass, scattered galley gear, and alleged blood give way to the simpler forces of storm and time. The court praises the salvors, awards a thin payout, and leaves the central question open.

We confront the theories that never die—pirates, sea monsters, aliens—then test the ones that might. A disabled pump, rough seas, and a misread of flooding would rattle any captain. More compelling is the vapor risk from nine damaged alcohol barrels. A modern lab demonstration shows how a pressure wave flash can erupt without soot or charring, exactly matching the ship’s clean surfaces. Picture the call: lower the boat, tow astern, wait out the fumes, and return. In worsening weather, a towline parts, and caution becomes catastrophe. No villains, no melodrama—just the unforgiving math of seamanship.

If you love maritime mysteries, careful debunking, and the human choices behind famous legends, this deep dive is for you. Hit play, subscribe for more history without the hype, and leave a review to tell us your own Mary Celeste theory.

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Special thank you to Lunarfall Audio for producing and doing all the heavy lifting on audio editing since April 13, 2025, the Murder of Christopher Meyer episode https://lunarfallaudio.com/

Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_00 (00:01):
There's something about Mary.
Don't know what it is though.
Can't quite put my finger on it.
People have been wondering thesame thing also for over a
hundred years.
And of course, the Mary I'mtalking about is the Mary
Celeste, one of the most famousghost ships in nautical history.
People have also been asking,what happened?

(00:22):
I'm Andrew, and this isHistory's A Disaster.
Tonight we are diving into whatis arguably the most famous
ghost ship, the Marie Celeste.
And tonight's episode is broughtto you by the law offices of
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(00:44):
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Now the Marie Celeste wasoriginally called the Amazon

(01:06):
under British registration.
Construction began in late 1860at the shipyard of Joshua Dewis
in the village of Spencer'sIsland on Nova Scotia.
The keel of the Marie Celestewas laid out first since it is
the bottom of the ship and themain foundation that the ship is
built on.
Kind of like a building.

(01:26):
You lay down the foundation andbuild up from there.
The keel was built from locallyobtained Canadian lumber
alongside two masts, and it wasbuilt to be a brigantine.
Using skills honed over hundredsof years, the Marie Celeste was
Carvel built, which means thatthe hull planks were laid edge

(01:46):
to edge and fastened to a rigidframe, forming an extremely
smooth and watertight surface.
With the planks flushed asopposed to overlapping, the ship
was billed as being more secureand reliable than most others.
These brigantine ships had beenan extremely popular ship since
the 1500s, so a good shipyardwould have no issues building

(02:11):
one, especially in NorthAmerica, where it was the second
most popular ship behind thesloop.
Brigantines are a two-mastedship that could be ran by sail
or oar and were quicker and moremaneuverable than a sloop,
making them popular with piratesand the navy for things like
recon or anything that wouldrequire a ship to get in and out

(02:33):
quickly.
The only downside was theydidn't have the durability of a
warship.
Once completed, the Amazon was99.3 feet long by 25.5 feet wide
and had a depth of 11.7 feet andweighed in at 198 gross tons.
So it was a fairly big ship atthe time, and it was originally

(02:54):
owned by a group of 10 men, withone of them, Robert McClellan,
serving as its first captain.
Its maiden voyage was plannedfor June 1861, and it was to
carry a load of timber from NovaScotia to London.
Captain McClellan oversaw theloading of the cargo to ensure
the lumber was properly storedand loaded the day before the

(03:16):
ship was set to sail.
During the loading, CaptainMcClellan started to get sick.
Not long after it set sail, theship turned around and returned
to Spencer's Island.
After its return, CaptainMcClellan died of pneumonia on
June 19, 1861.
With all the money invested inthe ship and cargo, they just

(03:36):
couldn't give up.
So John Nutting Parker took overthe captain's role and the ship
once again left to complete itsfirst trip.
However, Captain McClellan'sdeath was just the harbinger of
the bad ship to come.
While passing through EastportMaine, the Amazon struck and

(03:59):
destroyed some fishingequipment.
The rest of the trip to Londonwas uneventful.
However, when they left London,they smashed into and sank a
brig in the English Channel.
Captain Parker would keepcommand of the ship for the next
two years, mainly working theprofitable West Indies trade
route.
On one of his trips to France,the ship would be included in a

(04:21):
now famous painting by anunknown artist in November of
1861.
In 1863, William Thompson tookover as captain.
He enjoyed a quiet, profitablefew years as captain.
It was quiet until October of1867 when a storm overwhelmed
the ship off Cape Breton Island.

(04:42):
Unable to see in the storm andthe winds making the ship hard
to control, they ran aground.
The Amazon was heavily damaged,so the crew abandoned ship and
left it behind as a shipwreck.
And apparently it was not acomplete wreck.
Alexander McBean found the shipin the middle of October and
made the decision to salvage thederelict ship.

(05:05):
He didn't actually want the shipto use.
He planned to salvage it andflip it for a quick buck.
By 1868, it was sold to RichardHaynes for$1,000, which is about
$22,000 today.
Haynes turned around and droppedanother$9,000 to have the
damaged ship repaired andrenamed it the Marie Celeste

(05:28):
when he registered it in NewYork City.
He was not a very successfulcaptain, and since he borrowed
almost all the money used to buyand repair the ship, he fell
behind in repaying the money heowed.
The people he owed eventuallygot tired of waiting for him to
make good on his debt and repothe Marie Celeste.

(05:49):
They had no interest in it.
They just wanted their money.
So they sold the ship off to gettheir money back to James
Winchester and a small group ofshareholders who would turn
around and drop another$10,000on the ship, refitting and
making it larger.
The rebuild extended its lengthto 103 feet and its width to 26

(06:11):
feet.
They increased its depth, or itsheight, by more than 5 feet by
adding another deck to the ship.
By October 1872, Winchester wasthe major shareholder with 6
shares, which was half of theshares.
Of the six remaining shares,four were held by Benjamin
Spooner Briggs, who would nowcaptain the ship.

(06:33):
Benjamin Briggs was born onApril 24, 1835, in Wareham,
Massachusetts.
He was one of seven children andfollowed in his dad's footsteps,
who was also a sea captain.
He learned how to sail aboardhis dad's ship as soon as he was
old enough to sail.
In 1862, he passed an exam forthe American Shipmasters

(06:56):
Association, earning him acertificate.
He was an excellent bookkeeper,keeping detailed records of his
receipts and expenses throughouthis career.
He married his cousin, SarahElizabeth Cobb, in September
1862.
He had his own schooner namedForrest King, and they took it
across the Atlantic for theirhoneymoon.

(07:16):
In 1865, they had their firstson, Arthur, who would outlive
the rest of his family,surviving until 1931.
They had a second son in 1869who would not survive infancy,
and their last two kids wereboth daughters.
Sophia Briggs was born in 1870,and their final child, born in

(07:38):
1872, did not make it pastinfancy.
Their family home was known asthe Rose Cottage, and the land
still remains in the familytoday, although the original
cottage was knocked down so theycould build a bigger home in its
place.
Now his wife Sarah loved theseas as much as he did and would
often join him on trips toEurope along with the kids.

(08:00):
However, life at sea was rough.
After a lifetime of crossing theAtlantic, Briggs considered
quitting and opening a hardwarestore with his brother.
This idea would not last long.
By 1872, he became interested inthe Marie Celeste.
He bought his shares in the shipand began to make his own
modifications.

(08:20):
As the captain, he was able tomake changes, so he redesigned
it to accommodate his wife anddaughter.
His son was being left with hisgrandmother at Rose Cottage so
that he could continue hiseducation.
Once the ship's remodeling wasfinished, it was time for it to
start making the owner somemoney.

(08:44):
Its first voyage was planned forOctober 1872.
The crew was to take barrels ofdenatured alcohol from New York
to Genoa, Italy.
With the commission set, Briggsbegan hiring a crew.
He settled at a small crew ofseven, since that's all that was
needed for a ship of this size.
Albert Richardson was brought onas first mate, having worked

(09:06):
with Briggs before.
Andrew Gilling, a Danish sailor,was second mate.
Edward William Head was hired asthe ship's steward and cook, and
the remaining four sailors wereall Germans.
Arian Martens, GottliebGoodschul, and two brothers,
Bolkert and Boz Laurensen.
With the crew hired, Briggsheaded to Pier 50 on October

(09:29):
20th.
He needed to oversee the loadingof more than 1,700 barrels of
denatured alcohol.
Since they had a lot to load andnot a lot of space, it took over
a week to get the ship loadedup.
During the loading, Briggs wroteto his mother often with no
other form of communication.
They wrote a lot back then.
He was satisfied with howeverything was going and

(09:52):
reported no issues with theloading or with the crew.
With everything loaded, theylaunched from the pier on
November 5th, moving to New YorkHarbor.
However, with the storm brewing,they stopped near Stanton Island
to wait for the seas to calmbefore heading out.
They had to wait two days beforeeverything calmed down before
Briggs gave the order to headout.

(10:13):
While the weather had calmed, itstill wasn't great.
The water was choppy and thetrip across the Atlantic was
rough.
As the Marie Celeste was settingsail, the Digrucia was gloating
up to make the same run out ofHoboken, New Jersey.
Captain David Morehouse oversawthe loading of petroleum onto
his ship destined for Genoa,Italy.

(10:35):
Eight days after the MarieCeleste left, the D Grucia
followed roughly the same routeacross the Atlantic.
Three weeks after leaving port,the D Grascia caught up with the
Marie Celeste and was bobbingaimlessly in the water with only
three sails rigged.
No one came out on deck asCaptain Morehouse signaled the

(10:55):
ship.
Since no one came out, CaptainMorehouse sent first mate Ola
DeVu and second mate John Wrightover in their little rowboat to
check it out.
As they got closer, they noticedthe sails were in rough shape,
with some of them missing, andthe rigging was fucked up with
ropes hanging all over theplace.
Once on the ship, they ran intoother issues.

(11:17):
Like only one of the threehatches, the main hatch, was
secure.
The single life raft on the shipwas gone, and there was no one
on board.
All ten people who had left NewYork were missing.
They continued to look around,looking for any signs of what
had happened to the people orsigns of why they would have
left the ship since it wasobviously still floating and not

(11:40):
at risk of sinking.
They did find a few signs ofproblems.
The compass had been shiftedfrom where it should have been
and its glass was broken.
Down in the hold, the ship hadtaken on about three and a half
feet of water, which is a lot ofwater, but not enough to really
be a problem for a ship thisbig.
Next, they headed to the cabins,where they found the last log

(12:03):
entry, which was stored in themate's cabin.
Disappointingly, the last entrydid not shed any light on what
had occurred.
It just showed that the crew andpassengers were still aboard
nine days earlier and they hadsailed roughly 400 nautical
miles since then.
There was no mention of anyproblems with the crew, pirates,

(12:23):
other ships, or anything else.
As far as the log showed, thingshad been going pretty much as
expected.
They looked around the othercabins, but nothing seemed out
of place, besides everythingbeing extremely wet.
The only other place where therewas any indication that
something was wrong was in thecaptain's cabin.
Personal items had been tossedaround the room.

(12:46):
His sword was under the bed,still in its sheath.
It probably fell to the floorand slid under the bed because
of the choppy motions of theship.
His personal papers were alsoscattered about the cabin.
The other items that weren'twhere they were supposed to be
were the navigation instrumentsthat Brakes kept in the room and
the documentation for the ship,apart from the logs that had

(13:09):
been found in another cabin.
There was no obvious signs oflife on the ship.
There were no interrupted meals,no food being cooked, and no
fires.
There was no clear indicationthat something violent had taken
place.
There were no bodies or largepools or spatters of blood.

(13:30):
Apart from the items in thecaptain's cabin and the compass,
everything else seemed to beproperly stowed.
There was no sign that a firehad broken out or that the ship
had been attacked.
Even the cargo was still mostlyintact and secured below deck.
All of the signs pointed to thecrew and Briggs family getting
in the lifeboat and leaving oftheir own free will.

(13:51):
DeVaux and Wright left the MarieCeleste and returned to the
Degracia to report theirfindings.
This left Moorhouse with a majordecision.
What should be done with theship?
Just leaving it floating on thewater as it was could be
dangerous to other vessels.
Plus, taking it with them couldbring in a tidy sum of cash for
the captain and crew.

(14:12):
Maritime law allowed for anyonewho salvaged a ship to be given
a large portion of the ship'sworth and the amount of sale of
the cargo it carried.
So, obviously seeing dollarsigns, Morehouse decided to
bring the ship in.
After all, it was going to thesame location, which was roughly
600 nautical miles from wherethey were.

(14:33):
The only issue was they wouldhave to split the crew up
between the two ships.
While running both ships withthe skeleton crew wasn't
impossible, it would slow themdown significantly.
Instead of just a day or two ofsailing, it would take over a
week to reach Gibraltar.
Once they made it to Gibraltar,the Marie Celeste was impounded

(14:54):
until a salvage hearing could beheld to determine what had
happened to the ship, and howmuch, if anything, Captain
Morehouse and his crew would bepaid for salvage.
This hearing and investigationwas a slow process that would
take months.
James Cochran served as judgeover the hearings.
Frederick Sally Flood, theAttorney General for Gibraltar,

(15:14):
headed up the investigation intothe Marie Celeste.
Under his orders, people weresent aboard the ship to check it
out.
Obviously, with the lack ofmodern technology, there was
probably a lot of things theywere unable to find.
Plus, all the water on the shipcould have wiped out a lot of
shit, but they made do with whatthey had, like bloodhounds.

(15:35):
But the water damage andexposure to the sea air for a
couple of weeks would havefucked up their ability to
detect anything.
Plus, a skeleton crew had spentmore than a week on the Marie
Celeste, so things were notexactly as they had been when
the ship was found.
Still, a small team was sentaboard to see what they could
determine based on the state ofthe ship when it pulled into the

(15:58):
port.
Inspector John Austin was incharge of this and was joined by
diver Ricardo Portunato.
Now, Sally Flood, who was oftendescribed as a stubborn,
egotistical shithead, believedsomething had happened on the
ship that led to thedisappearance of crew and
passengers.
He was so convinced of this, heran the investigation into the

(16:19):
ship like a criminalinvestigation.
He couldn't believe the crew hadjust left without being forced
to do so by someone else.
As a result, there was some biasin the initial assessment.
There were some marks on thedeck they claimed came from
either a saber or an axe.
They also found a substance onthe boat that he was certain was
blood.

(16:40):
And they also claimed there wasblood on the captain's sword.
You know, the one that was stillfound in its sheath in his
cabin.
The galley was pretty torn out,the stove was knocked out of
place, and the cooking utensilswere thrown around, and the
whole ship was soaking wet.
Flood saw this as evidence of afight, but this could easily be

(17:00):
from the ship being thrown abouton the waves.
Once the ship had beendiscovered, the crew of the D
Gracia tried to get a responsefrom the ship and watched it for
roughly two hours before theytried to board it.
During that time they witnessedthe ship rocking on the waves.

(17:21):
With no one manning the sails orkeeping it on course, the Marie
Celeste was knocked about in away that shit would be knocked
out of place.
The waves also explained how somuch of the cabins were soaked.
But, Sally Flood was stubborn inthinking that something criminal
happened aboard the abandonedship.
His opinions were based on somefacts that were never explained.

(17:43):
Inspector Austin found marksalong both sides of the bow that
appeared to be deliberate cuts.
The ship, having traveledroughly 400 nautical miles
without a crew to control her,was held in doubt.
Sailing requires a lot of workby the crew to make sure the
ship doesn't sink.
Even on the open ocean, largewaves can sink a ship quick, and

(18:04):
the Marie Celeste was not thatlarge.
It was big compared to otherbrigantines, but it still was
not a large ship.
It was also going past land, andwith the storms, it was unlikely
that it would have moved pastthe islands without some damage.
James Winchester went toGibraltar in January of 1873 to

(18:24):
represent the interests of theMarie Celeste.
He immediately quashed the ideathat Briggs would have engaged
in a fight with his crew.
He also didn't believe thatCaptain Briggs would have just
deserted his ship.
When it was proved that therewasn't blood on the ship or the
blade, Sally Flood's theory fellapart.
Flood also suspected thatCaptain Morehouse had something

(18:45):
to do with the disappearance ofthe people on the Marie.
He was certain that the captainand crew were hiding something,
despite there being no evidencethat the DeGracia had any
involvement in what happened onthe other ship prior to finding
it adrift with no crew.
Judge Cochran praised the crewof the Degracia for their work
and thorough observation of thevessel, as well as their skill

(19:06):
at bringing it to dock in afairly good state.
The reason that the processdragged out was because Flood
insisted that something criminalhad occurred.
When three months finally passedwithout any evidence to prove
his theory, the court was ableto make its final determination.

(19:27):
The court said that nothingobviously criminal had occurred
aboard the vessel.
This ruled out things likeinsurance fraud and the degracia
having caused the people aboardthe Marie Celeste to disappear.
Its cargo was still mostlyintact, with no signs of the
same kind of disturbances asseen in other parts of the ship.
However, there was nine barrelsmissing.

(19:49):
It was assumed that they hadbeen consumed by the crew,
despite it being denaturedalcohol and would not have been
drinkable.
With the findings indicatingthat nothing criminal had
occurred.
To drive the crew off the ship,at least nothing criminal by the
Degracia.
Captain Morehouse and his crewwere awarded a sixth of what the
ship and its cargo were worth,which were insured for$46,000.

(20:12):
They ended up getting$17,000,which was way less than what
they were expecting.
I believe typically theynormally get at least half of
what it's worth, so this amountwas a little insulting.
Once the Marie Celeste wascleared for sailing again, it
finished its trip.
The barrels were unloaded at oneof the ports in Genoa.

(20:33):
With the delivery done, theMarie Celeste was put back into
service.
But with all the shit in itspast, it was now believed to
have been cursed.
People, especially sailors,being superstitious, they had
trouble finding sailors to crewher, and merchants who wanted
anything to do with the ship.
So the ship sat empty for over ayear before the owners decided

(20:55):
to sell her off at a loss.
The new owners didn't fare muchbetter with the ship.
They tried using it in theIndian Ocean trade, but still
continuously lost money with theship.
After another captain got sickand died in 1879, they said fuck
it and sold the ship off thefollowing year.
These new owners tried for fouryears to turn a profit, which

(21:17):
never happened.
So, Captain Gilman Parker trieda new tactic to make a buck off
the ship.
Parker had the ship loaded withjunk and lied about the value so
he could insure it for$30,000.
With the ship loaded down withcrap, they set off for Port au
Prince.
They sailed into a well-mappedchannel with a large coral reef.

(21:41):
He ran the ship over the reef,ripping out the underside and
damaging the ship beyond repair.
They abandoned ship and sold offwhat they could for$500 before
putting in an insurance claim.
And it wouldn't be long beforethey got found out and arrested
for fraud.
Captain Parker was also chargedwith barretry, the crime of

(22:02):
intentionally wrecking a ship.
This was a pretty seriouscharge.
Since they apparently didn'twant people doing this sort of
thing, it carried a deathsentence.
That's right, they would fuckingkill you for intentionally
wrecking a ship.
Parker, however, got lucky.
The trial ended with a hungjury, and before they could be

(22:22):
retried, they agreed to repayall the money they had got from
wrecking the ship, as well asnot trying to claim any
insurance money.
And since this took care of thatcharge, Parker's charge of Barry
Tree got thrown out.
So he narrowly avoided thenoose.
He, however, could not avoid thehit to his reputation.

(22:43):
No one would hire him again, andhe died a few years later in
poverty.
Arthur Briggs, the onlysurviving member of the missing
family, was raised by one of hisuncles.
He skipped out on a life at seaand settled on being a
bookkeeper.
He would live a long, boringlife with his wife Margaret
Holmes and his two sons.

(23:03):
Since we don't know exactly whathappened to the Marie Celeste,
numerous theories have popped uprunning from the mundane to the
ridiculous.
The ridiculous being things likea sea monster, with a huge squid
being the most popular,attacking the ship.
Despite there being, you know,no signs of any sort of attack
on the ship, or aliens, becauseit's always aliens when there's

(23:28):
no other explanation.
Mutiny and a pirate attack werealso put forward as a theory,
but again, no signs of a fight,kind of rule these out.
Plus, if it was pirates, theywould have taken the cargo, or
at least taking the food aboardthe ship, which had not been
touched.
Waterspouts or a seaquake arealso thought to be a

(23:49):
possibility.
While they would explain thingslike sails being missing and the
water on the ship, it doesn'texplain why everyone was
missing.
Not everyone on board the shipwould have been on deck to get
washed off the ship, so someoneshould have been on board when
the ship was found.

(24:10):
The most likely theory is theyleft the ship of their own free
will.
Why they did this though is whatis unknown.
One thought is they may havemiscalculated the amount of
water on board and feared theship was sinking, which is
unlikely but possible.
Now, my problem with the fear ofsinking theory is how much water

(24:31):
was actually on the ship whenthey abandoned it.
We know the ship was left todrift on its own for over a week
in stormy weather.
All that rainwater gotta gosomewhere.
Plus, water coming in on theship from the rough waves, and
with no one on board to man thepumps, it's just gonna keep
collecting in the hold.
It's not like they hadelectricity to run the pumps

(24:52):
when they weren't there.
Plus, they were down a pump.
One of the two pumps normallyaboard was found disassembled,
so the single pump would havestruggled to put the water back
out anyways.
Another theory is that therewere nine broken barrels of
alcohol in the hold.
The fumes possibly could havedriven them off the ship, or
they feared an explosion causedby the fumes.

(25:15):
Which is unlikely also, but in2006, Dr.
Andrea Seller from theUniversity College London
Chemistry Department used butanegas and cubes of paper to
simulate wooden barrels.
She created a pressure wave typeexplosion which throws out a
huge wave of flame, but behindit, relatively cool air.

(25:38):
No soot was left behind, andthere was no burning or
scorching.
The cubes of paper were leftuntouched by the flames.
Which, if that's what happened,would have made them abandon the
ship fearing another biggerexplosion.
Would have scared the shit outof me.
Once in the lifeboat, they wouldhave potentially gotten lost in
the storm and never seen again.

(25:59):
And there's some other theoriesout there, but none of them, not
very likely.
It also doesn't help that overthe last 150 years, the legend
of the ship has grown.
With everyone from Arthur ConanDoyle, yep, the author of
Sherlock Holmes, putting his ownspin on the tale all the way to
an early episode of Doctor Whotaking on the story.

(26:25):
And that was the Ghost ShipMarie Celeste.
Thanks for listening, and if youlike the show, please consider
leaving a rating or review onyour app of choice.
And don't forget, you can reachout to the show at history as a
disaster at gmail.com withquestions, comments, or
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And follow us on social mediaFacebook, Instagram, TikTok,

(26:48):
YouTube, whatever.
And share the episode.
Your friends will love it.
And take care of yourself outthere.
Chase that dream.
Don't get on that boat.
Live for today, because tomorrowis never guaranteed.
Thanks and goodbye.