Article by L. Skryagin commented on by sea captain A. Bochek
Well, incidents that seem to defy any explanation have accumulated quite a lot throughout the history of maritime fleets. However, are they really that inexplicable?
Take, for instance, the case of the *Mary Celeste*.
The mid-19th century marked the peak of the sailing fleet in many European and American countries. Shipowners, exploiting sailors mercilessly, forced them to work 14–16 hours a day. Poor nutrition, terrible living conditions, and physical abuse often led crews to mutiny, which, presumably, is what happened on the *Mary Celeste*. After taking revenge on the captain and unable to remain on the ship, the crew, fearing punishment, abandoned the vessel and likely tried to reach the shore in a lifeboat.
At first glance, the mysterious fate of the *Sea Bird* also seems unsolvable. But who stood to gain from the crew's disappearance and the ship's destruction? Clearly, the shipowner, especially if the brig *Sea Bird* was old and unprofitable. An insurance payout was likely what tempted the captain to stage a tragedy.
Sinking a ship loaded with timber and coffee was practically impossible. To claim the insurance payout, the crew had to vanish without a trace, and the ship had to mysteriously make its way to shore.
The case of the barque *Abbie S. Hart* is the most difficult to explain. The death of the entire crew, except for the captain, is an almost unbelievable event.
In 1909, I was part of a group of cadets conducting a survey of the islands in the Amur estuary. Among us was a carpenter, a man about sixty years old, Estonian by nationality, very gloomy, sullen, and uncommunicative.
We knew that this man had spent a long time in penal servitude and treated him tactfully and kindly. This softened him, and one day, sitting by the campfire, he opened up.
...The tragedy occurred in the 1870s. At the age of 15, the carpenter became a cabin boy on a sailing ship operating in the Baltic.
At the time, there was a vile custom aboard ships. The crew would often choose someone from among them as the target of cruel jokes, ridicule, and sometimes even beatings. If the person couldn't defend their dignity with their fists, they would be driven to utter despair.
This is what happened to the carpenter. Unable to leave the job due to financial need, the cabin boy decided to take revenge on his tormentors by committing a crime. He poisoned the entire crew and then escaped to shore in a lifeboat. The court sentenced him to a long exile in Sakhalin.
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| On the map: 1. Coordinates 38° 20' N — 17° 37' W, where on December 4, 1872, the brig *Dei Gratia* encountered the *Mary Celeste*. 2. At this point, 36°57' N — 27°20' W, the last entry was made in the *Mary Celeste*’s logbook. 3. Here, the *Mary Celeste*’s watch officer took a bearing of the island of *Santa Maria* and recorded it on a slate board. The commission investigating the case concluded that the crew of the *Mary Celeste* disappeared during the voyage between points #3 and #1. |
It is not excluded that something similar could have happened on the barque *Abbie S. Hart*. The barque's captain might have avoided the common fate, perhaps because he did not participate in the bullying of the person who resorted to murdering the crew. Prolonged time at sea with a dead crew aboard might have eventually driven him insane.
As for the incident with the German barque *Freya*, there is nothing mysterious about it. Although weather reports indicated no strong winds, the loss of masts and the ship's list clearly point to a severe squall. Rendered helpless, the vessel was swept into the open ocean. At that time, without radio communication and with little chance of encountering another ship far from the American coast, the decision to abandon the ship and attempt to reach shore in lifeboats was logical.
The case of the American schooner *Carroll A. Deering* is also entirely explainable. The schooner was gaff-rigged, allowing its sails to be quickly stowed. However, grounding on a shoal in the open ocean is extremely dangerous, prompting the crew to abandon the schooner hastily. In such cases, the ship's command would take the logbook for accountability, as well as a sextant and chronometer for navigation.
The fact that the ship's compass and steering gear were found damaged is a clear sign that the schooner had been struck by ocean swells.
Near Cape Hatteras, there is a strong, persistent northwest current. If a shoreward wind was blowing at the time, the lifeboats from the schooner could have been swept into the open ocean, where they likely perished.
The demise of the Dutch steamship *Ourang Medan* appears grim, but it is perhaps the least mysterious. The ship was carrying toxic chemicals, flammable substances, and possibly even materials mixed with explosives. These were likely not securely sealed, leading to the release of gases into the living and working quarters, causing the deaths of the crew and subsequently an explosion that destroyed the ship.
Thus, almost all of these mysterious and dreadful incidents can find entirely plausible explanations.