The Marie Celeste, (in fact, in reality it was called the Mary Celeste), is the greatest maritime mystery of all time. She was built in 1861 by Joshua Dewis in Nova Scotia, Canada and was initially named the Amazon. The Amazon was rather calamitous; her first captain died of pneumonia within a week of taking charge; his replacement struck a fishing trawler, forcing the ship to return to the shipyards for repairs where it subsequently caught fire; on it’s first trans-Atlantic crossing it once again collided with another vessel.
In 1867, she ran aground during a storm in Glace Bay, Nova Scotia, Canada; it was the final straw, her owners, sick and tired of it’s bungling sold her to James H. Winchester of New York City, who re-named her Mary Celeste. On 5 November 1872, the ship set sail from Staten Island, New York bound for Genoa, Italy under the command of Captain Benjamin Briggs. She was carrying a cargo of seventeen hundred barrels of commercial alcohol, intended for fortifying Italian wines in Genoa; it was expensive stock with a current evaluation of over half a million US dollars.
The souls on board the Mary Celeste included the captain and seven crew, the captain’s wife Sarah and their two-year-old daughter Sophia Matilda. All of the crew were very experienced, trustworthy, able and seriously competent, but as it sailed away from the hustle and bustle of New York, it would be the last time that any of the ten were seen again, alive or dead.
Russell Shortt is a travel consultant with Exploring Ireland, the leading specialists in customised, private escorted tours, escorted coach tours and independent self drive tours of Ireland.
Article source: Russell Shortt, http://www.exploringireland.net
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