Page 39 - The Insurance Times September 2024

damaged," says Phil Richardson, a physical oceanographer chronometer. By the captain's calculations, he should have
at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in sighted land three days earlier than he did. Solly-Flood's
Massachusetts and an expert in derelict vessels, whom notes yielded one other piece of information that
MacGregor enlisted in her investigation. "The discovery MacGregor and Richardson consider significant: the day
crew sailed it, so it was in really good shape." Richardson before he reached the Azores, Briggs changed course and
said he would need water temperatures, wind speeds and headed north of Santa Maria Island, perhaps seeking haven.
wind directions at the time, data that MacGregor found in
the International Comprehensive Ocean-Atmosphere Data The night before the last entry in the ship's log, the Mary
Set (ICOADS), a database that stores global marine Celeste again faced rough seas and winds of more than 35
information from 1784 to 2007 and is used to study climate knots. Still, MacGregor reasons, rough seas and a faulty
change. She, her yachtsman husband, Scott, and Richardson chronometer wouldn't, by themselves, prompt an
drew on the data to determine whether the Mary Celeste experienced captain to abandon ship. Was there something
could have drifted from its recorded location on November else? MacGregor learned that on its previous voyage, the
25 to where the Dei Gratia crew reported finding it on Mary Celeste had carried coal and that the ship had recently
December 5. Their conclusion was that it could have sailed been extensively refitted. Coal dust and construction debris
all by itself, even without a crew to sail it. could have fouled the ship's pumps, which would explain the
disassembled pump found on the Mary Celeste. With the
At that point, MacGregor considered the fact that a captain pump inoperative, Briggs would not have known how much
would most likely order a ship abandoned within sight of seawater was in his ship's hull, which was too fully packed
land. Since Santa Maria was the last land for hundreds of for him to measure visually.
miles, it seemed safe to assume that the Mary Celeste had
been abandoned the morning of November 25, after the last So, McGregor deduced her findings that Briggs had faced
log entry was written. MacGregor also figured that if she enough rough weather, belatedly sighted land and confused
could determine the precise spot from which Briggs, his in determining whether his ship would sink.might have issued
family and crew abandoned ship, she might be able to shed an order to abandon ship. In this case, their destination was
light on why a perfectly fit vessel was abandoned. Santa Maria Island. Their lifeboat may have then tipped
over, causing all ten of them to drown. MacGregorfs theory
She knew from the transcriptions of the Mary Celeste's log is by no means universally accepted or even provable, but it
slate, that the ship was six miles from and within sight of, at least lines up with the evidence (the disassembled pump,
the Azores Island of Santa Maria on November 25. She knew for example) in a way that other theories do not.
from the testimony of the Dei Gratia crew that ten days
later; the ship was some 400 miles east of the island. But, like Attorney General Solly-Flood, MacGregor can't
MacGregor asked Richardson "to work backward and create leave the story of the Mary Celeste alone; she is continuing
a path between these two points." her investigation for a book. "The research goes on," she
says. "Because I have been touched by the story, as I hope
During this point, MacGregor says, Attorney General Solly- other people will be."
Flood's notes are crucial. He wrote that he saw nothing
unusual about the voyage until the last five days, which is After the investigation in Gibraltar and the subsequent
why he transcribed the ship's log starting five days from the salvage hearing, the Mary Celeste resumed her life on the
end. The ship's log is believed to have been lost in 1885, so seas, albeit under different ownership and with a cloud of
those transcriptions provided the only means for MacGregor mystery forever attached to her name. Over the next 13
and Richardson to plot the course and positions logged for years, the ship would change hands multiple times, with
the ship. The two then reconsidered those positions in light each owner facing a series of misfortunes, further fuelling
of ICOADS data and other information on sea conditions at the belief that the ship was cursed. In 1874, the ship was
the time. acquired by a partnership that included Captain George
Blatchford.
They concluded that Briggs was actually 120 miles west of
where he thought he was, probably because of an inaccurate Under his command, the Mary Celeste sailed primarily in the

The Insurance Times September 2024 35