By Diane Batshaw Eisman, M.D. FAAP Doctor Eisman is in Family Practice in Aventura, Florida with her partner, Dr. Eugene Eisman, an internist/cardiologist
It happened on December 5, 1872 near the Azores Islands.
A brigantine, the Mary Celeste, was found drifting and deserted. She looked bedraggled, but she was still seaworthy. Found by the British ship Dei Gratia, there was no sign of the ten people on the Mary Celeste: seven crew, the captain and his wife and daughter.
Captain David Morehouse of the Dei Gratia was amazed to find neatly packed clothing in the crew quarters and personal valuables untouched.
Most of the brigantine’s cargo consisted of barrels of denatured (industrial) alcohol and was intact. Below decks, a few charts had been tossed around. The lowest part of the ship is the bilge which is below the water line, and a few feet of water was found there. The brig had two pumps, and one had been disassembled. The Mary Celeste even carried enough food and water to last at least six months. The ship had carried two lifeboats, and one was missing. The ship’s papers, captain’s logbook, and navigational tools were gone. A few of the sails were improperly set.
What had happened? At the helm of the brigantine was Captain Benjamin Briggs. He was known as a master mariner with a handpicked crew. Why would he abandon a seaworthy ship?
The theories were numerous. There were those who speculated about sea monsters, but this was an easy theory to discount. Some people thought about pirates—an intact ship carrying a full cargo—no way!
Another theory was that of a mutiny, but this was discounted with no evidence of any violence occurring on the Mary Celeste.
What about an explosion due to the industrial alcohol that the ship carried? Well, a couple of barrels could have leaked noxious fumes, and the captain could have feared an explosion. And so Briggs might have issued the order for a temporary evacuation in the lifeboat. Maybe there had been a tow line which had become adrift, and so the ten people were left drifting in the Atlantic. Maybe.
More theories were bandied about, such as an attack of a giant squid, some kind of subterranean earthquake, or alien abduction.
The mystery of the Mary Celeste may have lain quietly, but Sir Arthur Conan Doyle brought it to light in 1884 with his short story “J. Habakuk Jephson’s Statement.” He wrote of an ex slave who captured a ship called the Marie Celeste. A popular author had rekindled interest in the mystery of the ship’s abandonment, even though the there was no truth to his story.
(EDITOR’S NOTE): I am Doctor Curmudgeon’s Siberian husky cousin who serves as her editor. As a devotee of Doctor Who, I feel it is important to note that the mystery was highlighted in the episode “The Chase: flight Through Eternity.” This storyline had a bunch of Daleks (extraterrestrials) land on a ship that is called the Mary Celeste. The Daleks terrorized the crew who jumped overboard, leaving the ship abandoned.)
Dr. Curmudgeon suggests “Bitter Medicine”, Dr. Eugene Eisman’s story of his experiences–from the humorous to the intense—as a young army doctor serving in the Vietnam War.
Bitter Medicine by Eugene H. Eisman, M.D. –on Amazon
Doctor Curmudgeon® is Diane Batshaw Eisman, M.D., a physician-satirist. This column originally appeared on SERMO, the leading global social network for doctors.
SERMO www.sermo.com
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