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The Mary Celeste (1872)
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1872-11-02 · Mary Celeste finishes loading at Pier 50, East River, New York (Saturday night, per Briggs's letter of 3 No
1872-11-04 · Briggs signs the crew list and articles at the US Shipping Commissioner's office, New York; freight insured
1872-11-05 · Mary Celeste leaves Pier 50 but anchors off Staten Island because of a strong head wind
1872-11-07 · Mary Celeste sails from off Staten Island for Genoa. Other reports give 4 Nov (Maritime Register) or 17 Nov
1872-11-15 · Dei Gratia sails from New York for Gibraltar with petroleum
1872-11-24 · Noon: last day's work in the Mary Celeste's log, position by observation 36°56'N 27°20'W
1872-11-25 · Log slate: 'At 5 made the island of S. Mary's bearing E. S. E.' (civil morning of 25 Nov; sea day 'Monday 2
1872-11-25 · Last slate entry: 'At 8 Eastern point bore S. S. W. 6 miles distant.' Nothing is recorded after this
1872-12-04 · Dei Gratia sights the Mary Celeste at about 38°20'N 17°15'W. The log says 2 p.m., Deveau about 1.30 p.m.; l
1872-12-04 · Deveau and Wright board (Deveau: 3 p.m.) and find no one aboard, 3½ feet of water and the boat missing
1872-12-04 · Deveau, Lund and Anderson take charge of the derelict (about 4 p.m.); pumped dry and under sail between 8 a
1872-12-11 · Mary Celeste makes Cape Spartel at 3 p.m.; storm in the Strait of Gibraltar
1872-12-12 · Dei Gratia arrives at Gibraltar 'on the evening of the 12th' (Flood). Wright's testimony gives a different
1872-12-13 · Mary Celeste arrives at Gibraltar early in the morning and is arrested by the Marshal of the Vice-Admiralty
1872-12-13 · Morehouse cables 'FOUND FOURTH AND BROUGHT HERE "MARY CELESTE" ABANDONED SEAWORTHY'; Consul Sprague cables
1872-12-13 · Gibraltar Chronicle prints the first report of the derelict
1872-12-14 · Lloyd's List prints a notice of the derelict brought into Gibraltar
1872-12-14 · Atlantic Mutual Insurance Co. in New York records Morehouse's cable in its Disaster Book
1872-12-18 · Salvage hearing opens before Sir James Cochrane; Deveau testifies. Wikipedia gives 17 Dec; the transcript's
1872-12-20 · Deveau corrects his times; Wright and Lund testify
1872-12-21 · Anderson and Johnson testify; the judge notes that the Dei Gratia's captain was not to be examined
1872-12-23 · Austin surveys the derelict for five hours and Portunato examines the hull; the Dei Gratia sails for Genoa
1872-12-24 · Alexandria Gazette reprints the New York Shipping List report suspecting 'foul play'
1873-01-07 · Flood re-examines the ship with four Royal Navy captains and an R.E. colonel; Portunato swears his affidavi
1873-01-08 · Austin swears his survey affidavit
1873-01-15 · James H. Winchester, principal owner, arrives at Gibraltar
1873-01-22 · Flood writes to the Board of Trade with his theory of murder by a drunken crew
1873-01-23 · Flood's supplementary letter argues from the Dei Gratia's log that the ship was abandoned later and further
1873-01-30 · Date of Dr Patron's report: no blood found on the sword or the stains
1873-01-31 · Court sitting: Cochrane calls the salvors' departure 'most reprehensible' and defers restitution; the Gibra
1873-02-06 · Captain Shufeldt, USS Plymouth, reports to Sprague: panic, not mutiny; the bow marks are splinters
1873-02-24 · Boston Post reports that the ship was seized by pirates (reprinted in the New York Times on 26 Feb)
1873-02-25 · Mary Celeste restored to her owners (Sprague, No. 134); the Maritime Register gives 28 Feb
1873-03-04 · Deveau recalled from Genoa and cross-examined about a cut in the rail, blood and the sword
1873-03-10 · Mary Celeste clears Gibraltar for Genoa under Captain George W. Blatchford
1873-03-14 · Salvage judgment: £1,700 to the master and crew of the Dei Gratia, about one fifth of the value; costs of t
1873-03-15 · Boston Journal reports a libel against the ship in the US District Court and suspicions of insurance fraud
1873-03-21 · Mary Celeste arrives at Genoa after an eleven-day passage
1873-03-24 · US Treasury circular to collectors of customs repeats Flood's suspicion of murder by the crew
1873-04-04 · Sprague writes that the general impression is that the ten drowned in the ship's boat and that no violence
1873-04-26 · Consul Spencer at Genoa reports 1,701 barrels landed, nine of them empty, the cargo in excellent condition
1884-01-01 · 'J. Habakuk Jephson's Statement' appears anonymously in the January 1884 Cornhill Magazine (exact day not k
1884-01-12 · Sprague reports the Cornhill story to the State Department as 'replete with inaccuracies'
1887-07-25 · Seal on Patron's analysis broken in Sprague's presence; certified copy issued on 28 Jul 1887 (per Fay)
1940-02-01 · Oliver W. Cobb publishes his tow-line theory in Yachting, February 1940 (exact day not known)
1942-01-01 · Charles Edey Fay publishes 'Mary Celeste: The Odyssey of an Abandoned Ship' (exact date not known)
2006-05-20 · UCL press release on a 'pressure-wave' vapour-explosion demonstration for Channel 5
2007-11-04 · Documentary 'The True Story of the Mary Celeste' first shown on the Smithsonian Channel
Item · Who was aboard, and the departure from New York, 2-7 November 1872
Item · The cargo: 1,701 barrels of alcohol, from the insurer's record to the unloading at Genoa
Item · The Mary Celeste's last records: log to noon 24 November, log slate to 8 a.m. 25 November 1872
Item · The finding: the Dei Gratia's log for 4 December 1872 (5 December sea time) and the first cables from Gibraltar
Item · Sworn testimony of Oliver Deveau, first mate of the Dei Gratia, Gibraltar, 18 and 20 December 1872
Item · Sworn testimony of John Wright, Charles Lund, Augustus Anderson and John Johnson of the Dei Gratia, 20-21 Decembe
Item · The survey at Gibraltar: affidavits of John Austin (surveyor) and Ricardo Portunato (diver), survey of 23 Decembe
Item · Frederick Solly Flood to the Board of Trade, 22 and 23 January 1873: his suspicions and theory
Item · Dr J. Patron's analysis of the supposed bloodstains (30 Jan 1873) and Captain R. W. Shufeldt's report (6 Feb 1873
Item · Consul Sprague's despatches, the court sittings of 31 January and 4 March, and the salvage judgment of 14 March 1
Item · How the news was reported: newspaper items and a US Treasury circular, December 1872 to March 1873
Item · Fiction that became 'fact': 'J. Habakuk Jephson's Statement' (Cornhill Magazine, January 1884) and the US consul'
Item · Later analysis (1): Charles Edey Fay's reconstruction (1942), drawing on Dr Oliver W. Cobb's tow-line theory (194
Item · Later analysis (2): 2007 documentary reconstruction (navigation error, fouled pump) and 2006 'pressure-wave' expl
Item · Admiralty chart of the eastern North Atlantic, 1870: the waters from the Azores to Gibraltar
Item · Page 2 of 'J. Habakuk Jephson's Statement' (Cornhill Magazine, January 1884): the invented 'Gibraltar Gazette' re
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