October 31st, 2008 ·
The List Universe brings us: Top 10 Unsolved Mysteries
Mystery number 2, the harrowing tail of the sailing ship: Mary Celeste
Mary Celeste was launched in Nova Scotia in 1860. Her original name was “Amazon”. She was 103 ft overall displacing 280 tons and listed as a half-brig. Over the next 10 years she was involved in several accidents at sea and passed through a number of owners. Eventually she turned up at a New York salvage auction where she was purchased for $3,000. After extensive repairs she was put under American registry and renamed “Mary Celeste”.
The new captain of Mary Celeste was Benjamin Briggs, 37, a master with three previous commands. On November 7, 1872 the ship departed New York with Captain Briggs, his wife, young daughter and a crew of eight. The ship was loaded with 1700 barrels of raw American alcohol bound for Genoa, Italy. The captain, his family and crew were never seen again. The ship was found floating in the middle of the Strait of Gibraltar. There were no signs of struggle on board and all documents except the captain’s log were missing.
In early 1873, it was reported that two lifeboats grounded in Spain, one with a body and an American flag, the other containing five bodies. It has been alleged that these could have been the remains of the crew of the Mary Celeste. However, the bodies were apparently never identified.
Tags: · Halloween, History, mary_celeste, sailing_ship, tall_ship, unsolved_mysteries
April 24th, 2008 ·
Our photo of the week shows the Canadian Tall Ship S/V Concordia undersail. It was taken by Flikr photographer Oriano nicolau. The original can be found HERE.
Tags: · canada, flickr, Photo, tall_ship
December 6th, 2007 ·
After one long day of a full-press search for the tall ship Alvei, New Zealand Coast Guard’s P-3 aircraft crew was able to find the overdue ship. The reason for worry? Expected radio check-ins never happened. News.au tells us;
Julia Lang from Maritime New Zealand said authorities would meet The Alvei’s crew when they arrived in Opua, in New Zealand in 8-10 days time.
They would be asked why the ship did not respond to the radio broadcasts, and why the delay was not reported to authorities.
“Relatives have been concerned … had the vessel been making VHF contact we would have been able to allay anyone’s fear relatively quickly,” Lang said.
“All maritime authorities internationally see skippers as responsible for their vessels. Part of that is being responsible by keeping regular and scheduled communications via maritime radio or other means.
“The fact is it has been extremely difficult. It created a lot of anxiety.”
It is unclear whether the crew may be asked to fund the cost of the search. Continue Reading…
Read gCaptain’s full coverage: P
Tags: · coast_guard, Communication, maritime_authorities, maritime_radio, new_zealand, radio_broadcasts, radio_check, tall_ship, vhf
Mary Celeste was launched in Nova Scotia in 1860. Her original name was “Amazon”. She was 103 ft overall displacing 280 tons and listed as a half-brig. Over the next 10 years she was involved in several accidents at sea and passed through a number of owners. Eventually she turned up at a New York salvage auction where she was purchased for $3,000. After extensive repairs she was put under American registry and renamed “Mary Celeste”.
