Mary Celeste
“There is...no...dope...on this boat!”
“I'd keep my eyes peeled for icebergs instead, if I were you.”
“Condie, fire up the sails: we're takin' the Mary Celeste.”
The Mary Celeste was a ship that was sailing to Portugal when it was found completely empty with no sign of a struggle. This became one of the greatest mysteries of the age. Not even Sherlock Holmes could solve it. Ever. Some of the theories speculated were alcoholic fumes, mutiny, aliens, UFOs, sea monsters and a dangerous lack of minties. I mean why didn't it have a plausible explanation like the Titanic? Like the captain and engineers complete stupidity? Plus, they can't make a top box movie out of it either, as we don't know what happened!
Early Life[edit | edit source]
The Mary Celeste was a very heavy ship, made completely of wood. She was built at the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, which is coincidently where they made the Titanic. (Which, if you didn't know, is ALSO a ship that killed practically everyone on board.) She was originally called the 'Amazon'.
The Amazon's first captain, Robert McLellan, son of one of the owners, contracted pneumonia nine days after taking command. John Nutting Parker, the next captain of the Amazon, struck a fishing boat, and had to steer her back to the shipyard for repairs. At the shipyard, a fire broke out in the middle of the ship, killing him. Her first trans-Atlantic crossing was also disastrous for her next captain, after she collided with another vessel in the English Channel near Dover, England. This resulted in the dismissal of the new captain. After this rather, er, awkward beginning, the ship had a couple of years of peace (or what we would call 'fast forward this part' in the movie world). She travelled to the West Indies, Central America and South America, and transported a wide range of cargoes, including the atomic bomb that destroyed Hiroshima. Then, the ship ran aground and a couple more people were killed by that ruthless bitch of a ship. The new owners' intention was to take her across the Atlantic and make a profit trading with the Adriatic ports. lol
Discovery[edit | edit source]
The crew of Dei Gratia were enjoying a midnight disco, when their watchman (some jerk named Smith) spotted the Mary Celeste bobbing along in the water. The sailors quickly stopped their dancing and a couple of them rowed off to the boat. They found it completely empty – even emptier then your ‘party’ last night you invited everyone to. The sails were ripped, the porthole was open, the lifeboat was gone and it seemed someone had eaten too many oysters and vomited all over the handrail. Fearing the worst, the sailors entered the porthole and crept into the captain’s room. Luckily, there was no crappy Hollywood monster to eat them. Instead, they found everything normal. The captain’s Windows XP laptop was siting turned on at his desk, showing an Uncyclopedia article at work. This told them two things:
- The captain was an utter idiot
- He had no taste in computers
These were startling discoveries, but had no utter meaning to the case at all. The sailors searched the entire ship and found many more clues. In the end the sailors sailed it back to the mainland, where they promptly arrested for the suspicion of murdering everyone, and executed. The next day they found it it couldn't of possible of been them. Nice work, guys.
Cultural Impact[edit | edit source]
A whole Wikipedia page was made about the mystery, which is no surprise really. But countless other sites and books have popped up, including a bloody hard assignment that I got in 7th grade. 5/10! I mean – seriously! Hey – don’t laugh. You don’t realise how hard that bloody thing was.
Theories[edit | edit source]
Aliens and Monsters[edit | edit source]
Many people believed that aliens abducted them or a giant sea monster attacked the ship, killed or abducted everybody and then left. Yes, very believable.
They left the boat for no particular reason[edit | edit source]
Many people think the sailors were bored of their crappy wooden ship, jumped in the lifeboat and sailed off onto the horizon as the credits rolled. And they lived happily every after.
A Grue[edit | edit source]
As everyone knows large amounts of alcohol attract Grues, and this ship happened to be carrying about fifty barrels of the stuff. Therefore a Grue was lured onto the ship and ate everyone, burped and left. The sailors tried too fight with guns, swords, broken bear bottles and experimental nuclear bomb, but as you ALSO know, Grues can't be killed by ANYTHING.
Flu Season[edit | edit source]
This theory states that all the sailors contracted Swine Flu after leaving Mexico and committed suicide hoping they would prevent it spreading to every inch of the world. Sadly, they failed. Badly.
Big Storm[edit | edit source]
The Mary Celeste may have encountered a storm, like the ones you see on a every single sea movie. And when I say every single movie, I say EVERY SINGLE MOVIE. Which is why this theory was sued for copyright infringemet.
Dei Gratia crew[edit | edit source]
Many people think that the Dei Gratia crew were dirty little liars and had actually killed everyone aboard themselves. The theory was dismissed as everyone knows that people don't lie.
Captain = Homicidal maniac[edit | edit source]
The Captain is thought to have became insane and butchered everyone on board, putting them to sleep with drugs, tying them to an anchor and then throwing them overboard. Then he killed himself for no particular reason.
Chuck Norris with a Machine Gun[edit | edit source]
'Nuff said.
What REALLY Happened[edit | edit source]
Originally a two-masted merchant schooner, the vessel was secretly seized by the United States in November 1872 and converted into a stealth transporter. Briggs was hypnotized, had his memory wiped by the MiB, and was sent off to become full partner in a lawnmower manufacturing venture with a fellow named Stratton. The crew were processed into Soylent Green and presented as tribute to the pirate kings of Libya.
Anticipating Radar by over half a century, American scientists modified civil war smokeless powder technology and created a 'ghost ship'. As insurance adjusters were extremely pissed off about the disappearance of the vessel and her cargo, they put out an APB and a bounty. Tales soon began to arise of a crewless and empty ghost ship that appeared out of the fog and later vanished. At least, that's what the scavengers told the insurance companies as they pirated merchant vessels, murdered their crews and stole the cargos. After five long decades Lloyds of London gave up, realizing the story was bleeding the industry white; other insurers followed quickly. Astonishingly, Mary Celeste sightings plummeted. Correlation or causation? You be the judge.
Appearance in Iraq Crisis[edit | edit source]
The Mary Celeste should have played a major role in the search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. On the advice of psycho Paul Nietzsche, President Bush ordered the stealth vessel in to coordinate the search. Unfortunately, as the ship was undetectable, it could not carry out its mission. The only time the US fleet could see the Mary Celeste was when it pulled up alongside out of the mist. Four "man overboards" were experienced by other warships on these occasions. The uncoordinated mission was doomed and no WMDs were found. For his public failure chief inspector Hans Blix was placed aboard in irons and lost to posterity. The story was leaked and NBC made a two-hour docu-drama (picture right).
Trivia[edit | edit source]
- President Ford fell down the gangway during a 1975 inspection, but nobody saw it happen.
- "Little Boy" was transported across the Pacific in the unsecured #2 hold.
- Admiral Mahan invaded the Philippines in 1900 using only the Mary Celeste and a handful of Lego men, whooping it up about The Influence of Sea Power on History.
- The Captain was Helen Keller.