Page 34 - The Insurance Times September 2024

Mary Celeste:

Salvage Insurance

Fraud or Real

Mystery

Dr. Soumi Mukherjee
- Historical Maritime Fraud M.A., PH.D

BRIG: Two-masted square-rigged ship, typically having an additional lower fore-and-aft sail on the
gaff and a boom to the mainmast. Till the beginning of 20th Century it was using for sea trading.

G host ships have long captured the imagination of ex-slave who captures a ship called the Marie Celeste. The

story reignited interest in the ship, but as a theory, the story
people. These are vessels that are found adrift or
abandoned at sea with no crew on board. Ghost
ships can be traced back to the early days of seafaring, and is entirely baseless.
their mysterious nature has led to many stories and legends The keel of the future "Mary Celeste" was laid in late 1860
surrounding them. The history of ghost ships is a long and at the shipyard of Joshua Dewis in the village of Spencer's
varied one, with accounts of abandoned vessels dating back Island, on the shores of the Bay of Fundy in Nova Scotia.
centuries. Despite the supernatural connotations of ghost The ship was constructed of locally felled timber, with two
ships, they have had a significant impact on the maritime masts, and was rigged as a brigantine. She was launched
industry. on May 18, 1861, given the name "Amazon", and registered
at nearby Parrsboro on June 10, 1861. Her registration
The discovery of abandoned vessels can lead to documents described her as 99.3 feet in length, 25.5 feet
investigations into safety and security practices, and the broad, with a depth of 11.7 feet, and of 198.42 gross
recovery of valuable cargo from these ships can be a tonnage. She was owned by a local consortium of nine
lucrative business. These ships are often believed to be people, headed by Dewis; among the co-owners was Robert
cursed, abandoned, or lost at sea, and sightings of them McLellan, the ship's first captain.
have been reported throughout history.
For her maiden voyage in June 1861, Amazon sailed to Five
The fate of the captain and crew of the Mary Celeste Islands, Nova Scotia to take on a cargo of timber for passage
remains one of the most enduring maritime mysteries in across the Atlantic to London. After supervising the ship's
history. The mystery may very well have been left alone had loading, Captain McLellan fell ill; his condition worsened. The
author Arthur Conan Doyle not written the 1884 short story Amazon returned to Spencer's Island where McLellan died
"J. Habakuk Jephson's Statement," a fictitious account of an on June 19, 1861. Then, John Nutting Parker took over as

The Insurance Times September 2024 31