Another ship, Dei Gratia, captained by a friend of Captain Briggs of the Marie Celeste departed Staten Island, New York one week after the Marie Celeste had set sail; it was following a similar route to the Marie Celeste across the Atlantic Ocean, through the Straits of Gibraltar and into the Mediterranean.
On 4 December 1861, the Dei Gratia was some six hundred miles west of the coast of Portugal when the helmsman sighted a ship about five miles off the port bow. The helmsman noticed that the vessel was lurching slightly and that her sails were scattered and torn. The captain of the Dei Gratia directed his vessel to draw up to within four hundred yards of the Marie Celeste, where they observed her for two hours; she was under full sail, erratically following a starboard tack but she was flying no distress signals. The chief mate of the Dei Gratia, Oliver Deveau led a party of three men in a small boat to board the Mary Celeste.
What the party discovered was quite astonishing; there was a lot of water between decks and nearly four feet of water in the hold but there was no fear of the ship sinking and was still seaworthy. Yet there was nobody on board, everybody had simply vanished, the only lifeboat, a yawl appeared to have being intentionally launched. What made the empty vessel all the more extraordinary was the fact that everything on the ship was in it’s rightful place and there were no signs of a rushed leaving.
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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