The Mary Celeste

by Stan Mason

  Deveau: No, he didn’t. But it seemed to have hit him hard. In normal circumstances a salvage ship is a gift from Heaven, and you don’t hesitate when the opportunity comes. In this case, the Master appeared very concerned and he seemed unable to make a decision.

  Sir James: Surely he had a public duty to bring the vessel into port?

  Deveau: Not necessarily. His prime task is for his men and his ship. If he considered that either would be endangered by efforts to bring in the Mary Celeste, his duty would be to continue to his destination and report to the authorities.

  Sir James: Then Captain Morehouse delegated the decision to yourself and the rest of the crew. What was the decision?

  Deveau: We resolved eventually to bring her in. It was unanimous.

  Sir James: And did Captain Morehouse accept the decision of the men, even though he considered that there could be danger to his own ship through under-manning?

  Deveau: He agreed to abide by the decision of the men.

  Sir James: In your opinion, was Captain Morehouse a good Captain?

  At this juncture, Henry Pisani, the Advocate and Proctor for the Captain, owners, officers and the crew of the Dei Gratia, got to his feet to raise an objection.

  Pisani: I object to this line of questioning which is leading us nowhere. We have heard how the First Mate reported to his Master after returning from the Mary Celeste and the democratic method adopted by Captain Morehouse when the lives of his crew were at risk. There is no reason to cast doubt on his method of decision-making which was both fair and reasonable.

  Deveau: I would like to answer that question in any case, Captain Morehouse is a good captain.

  Sir James: If you were the Captain would you have made the same decision that he did, to let the crew determine what should be done?

  Deveau: No, I would have split the crew and brought in both ships. After all, we weren’t that far from land.

  Sir James: How many Captains do you know who would hold a referendum on a major issue such as this?

  Deveau: I can’t answer for other Captains.

  Sir James: No, of course you can’t. But it would be difficult for you to deny that it is not the usual custom. What was agreed after the decision to take in the Mary Celeste?

  Deveau: The Captain gave me two men, the small boat, a barometer, compass and watch. I took with me my own nautical instruments and whatever food our steward had prepared.

  Sir James: At what time did you board the Mary Celeste for the second time?

  Deveau: It was about 4 p.m.

  Sir James: So you saw her at about 1 p.m., some miles off, caught up and boarded her about 1.30 p.m. You returned to the Dei Gratia at say just after 2 p.m. and went back some two hours later with stores and provisions, instruments and so on. What did you do next?

  Deveau: We hoisted the boat on deck, pumped out the water and took charge of the vessel.

  Sir James: You became the Master with the assistance of Wright and Johnson, who no doubt by now was acquainted with the situation.

  Deveau: I was Master but Augustus Anderson and Charles Lund were the two men I took with me.

  Sir James: Were these men chosen by you in preference to the other two seamen?

  Deveau: I couldn’t take the Second Mate because the Dei Gratia would be without any officers under Captain Morehouse. And Johnny Johnson would have been a handicap in an emergency because he couldn’t understand English properly.

  Sir James: But what difference did it make? I mean both vessels were seaworthy and you were not too far distant from land. Why should you take two different men? Did you hold a vote or ballot to determine who should stay and who should go?

  Deveau: No, it was entirely my decision to take these two men. They are both good seamen.

  Sir James: There was a lot to do on the Mary Celeste, I presume. A lot to do to get her in order.

  Deveau: I found a spare trysail which I used as a but it took me two days to set things right so as to proceed on voyage to make any headway.

  Sir James: Where was the Dei Gratia during this period?

  Deveau: The Master held her up so that contact was made every day. We spoke to each other on three or four occasions, and we proceeded to Gibraltar. There was fine weather at first until we got into the Straits, when it came on a storm, so that I dare not made the Bay, but laid to under Ceuta and afterwards on the Spanish Coast to the east. We arrived there on the morning of the thirteenth December.

  Sir James: The Dei Gratia had already docked a day earlier.

  Deveau: Yes, we kept company until the night of the storm when I lost sight of her.

  Sir James: Did you realise the nature of the cargo of the Mary Celeste?

  Deveau: I went between the decks and found barrels marked ‘alcohol’ on the head of them. I checked this with the Mate’s book, whereby it appeared he had given receipts for a number of barrels at a time. Fifty, a hundred, and so on.

  Sir James: Is there anything else you would like to say about the Mary Celeste or its condition? About the sails, the windows or something else?

  Deveau: Not really, except that the cabin, which was a deck cabin, had all its windows battened up, and I also found the sounding-rod on deck alongside the pump.

  Sir James Cochrane concluded by covering some old ground again for a while but found himself making no progress. Ultimately, he allowed Frederick Solly Flood, the Queen’s Advocate and Proctor to cross-examine Deveau.

  Flood: When did you say you left New York on the Dei Gratia?

  Deveau: I left on the fifteenth November.

  Flood: When did the Mary Celeste leave New York?

  Deveau: I believe she left eight days before us.

  Flood: How did you know that?

  Deveau: I examined her Log and I think she left eleven days before us. Eleven or more or less.

  Flood: Now which is it to be Mr. Deveau, eight or eleven, or more or less?

  Deveau: I cannot remember. I cannot say what number of days she left before us.

  Flood: Did you find the Mary Celeste a good ship when you took control?

  Deveau: Yes, she was a fair sailer.

  Flood: Just that?

  Deveau: I could not call her more than a fair sailer.

  Flood: How would you describe the Dei Gratia?

  Deveau: She’s a fair sailer too.

  Flood: Supposing both vessels were equally well founded, manned and sailed, which ship would be the faster?

  Deveau: In my opinion, the Mary Celeste would have been faster than our own ship.

  Flood: I see. Did you see any other brigantines on your voyage?

  Deveau: We spoke to one other in passing. She was bound for Boston, but we didn’t see any other vessel of a similar class on our outward voyage.

  Flood: Therefore, the first time you could have seen the Mary Celeste was at the beginning of December. Where was your ship on the 24th or 25th November?

  Deveau: I do know we were to the north of the other vessel.

  Flood: Can’t you be more positive than that?

  Deveau: We were between Latitude 40 degrees and 42 degrees.

  Flood: How do you know you were north of the Mary Celeste at the end of November?

  Deveau: From seeing her track traced on her chart.

  Flood: Did you sight St. Mary’s Isle?

  Deveau: We did not sight St. Mary’s Isle during any part of our voyage.

  Flood: What is the Latitude or Longitude of St. Mary’s Isle?

  Deveau: I don’t know without seeing a chart.

  Flood: Come now, Mr. Deveau. You are an experienced seaman! How come you cannot answer such a simple question?

  Deveau: I have made only one voyage from New York to Gibraltar before, and did not sight St. Mary�
��s then. I was never at St. Mary’s - never saw it.

  Flood: As an experienced seaman was it not possible for you to be able to land at that Island?

  Deveau: I think I could enter St. Mary’s by help of charts and sailing directions as well as any other port to which I have not been.

  Flood: Let us turn now to weather conditions which prevailed between the fifteenth November and the twenty- fourth November.

  Deveau: We had stormy weather most of the time of our passage. Most of the time very heavy weather. Everything was battened down, and during that time we never took off our fore-hatch since we sailed.

  Flood: How many hatches are there on the Dei Gratia?

  Deveau: Four. The fore, main, aft and lazarette. The main hatch was off for one hour perhaps.

  Flood: How many hatches has the Mary Celeste?

  Deveau: Only two - the fore and main besides the lazarette.

  Flood: But the cabin of the Mary Celeste is slightly raised above the upper deck.

  Deveau: About two feet above.

  Flood: Can we revert to the condition of the masts and rigging?

  Deveau: The topgallant masts and topmasts were all up. She had foreyards, two topgallant and foreyards and two topgallant royal yards. The royal and topgallant sails were furled, and the running rigging of those sails were all in proper place.

  Flood: Which rigging was out of order?

  Deveau: The braces on the port side were broken; the starboard lower topsail brace was broken; so were the main peak halyards and the gear of the foresail. They were all broken, and the clew-lines and buntings gone.

  Flood: In which direction was the Mary Celeste headed when you first saw her?

  Deveau: Her head was westward when we first saw her, and she was on a starboard tack.

  Flood: She was deserted and there was no one at the wheel. Was the wheel lashed?

  Deveau: No.

  Flood: Did you consider that the wheel gear was good once you took control?

  Deveau: Yes, it was good.

  Flood: As a result of a free-running wheel, would the vessel not come up to the wind and fall off again?

  Deveau: Not with her foresails set. With the sails she had when I first saw her she might come up and fall away a little, but not much.

  Flood: Are you saying, in your opinion, the ship would always keep those sails full?

  Deveau: It would always be moving at a fast rate; although there was no one at the wheel to direct her.

  Flood: Yet she was caught by the Dei Gratia which had left New York some eight or eleven, or more or less, days after the Mary Celeste had departed. How do you account for that fact?

  Deveau: I cannot.

  Flood: In which direction was the wind when you first saw the Mary Celeste?

  Deveau: The wind was north. There was not much wind then though it had blowed heavily in the morning.

  Flood: Are you able to suggest the trend of currents in that area of the Atlantic Ocean?

  Deveau: I am not acquainted with the currents, but we allow for a current to run easterly.

  Flood: Always easterly.

  Deveau: Well, the currents there depend very much on the winds.

  Flood: How did you determine the exact location at which you found the other ship?

  Deveau: The first point I made when I could take my bearings by sight was Cape St. Vincent which I knew from my Latitude. I compared my dead reckoning with the place I supposed St. Vincent and found myself out of reckoning.

  Flood: By how much?

  Deveau: Perhaps ten miles or so. I was in advance of my reckoning.

  Flood: Very well. We have determined the wind, the currents and the direction of the ship when first sighted, how did she continue ahead of you until you caught up with her?

  Deveau: The sheet was fast on the port side and, as I said she was found on the starboard tack. As such, wind would entirely govern the tack on which she was at the time.

  Flood: But both vessels were heading in the same direction.

  Deveau: Both were going one way, although one might be on the port tack and the other on the starboard tack on the same day.

  Flood: You mentioned that a spar had been lashed across the boat davits. Were there any spare spars on the decks of the Mary Celeste?

  Deveau: None whatever.

  Flood: Can you explain why a spar had been lashed there?

  Deveau: Where there is no boat on the davits in the stern there is often a spar lashed to keep the davits steady. In this case the spar was lashed through the sheave-holes.

  Flood: What did this spar prove beyond doubt?

  Deveau: That there had been no boat there.

  Flood: How many boats had the Dei Gratia?

  Deveau: Two.

  Flood: But the Mary Celeste - with ten people aboard against eight on your ship - appears to have had only one.

  Deveau: The Celeste had no accommodation on deck for two boats. One could see where the boat had been lashed across the main hatch but that was not the right place for her.

  Flood: Were any lashings visible?

  Deveau: No.

  Flood: Therefore you cannot swear that the Mary Celeste had any boat at all?

  Deveau: No, but there were two fenders where the boat would be lashed.

  Flood: Assuming there was a boat, was there anything to show how the boat was launched?

  Deveau: No.

  Flood: When did you enter the cabin after boarding the vessel?

  Deveau: Within a few minutes of sounding the pumps.

  Flood: What was on the table there?

  Deveau: The Log Slate.

  Flood: Did you notice any preparations made for eating in the cabin?

  Deveau: No.

  Flood: Therefore no meal was being eaten and to all intents and purposes the table was clear.

  Deveau: There was plenty to eat. The rack was on the table but no eatables. There was nothing to eat or drink in the cabin on the table, but preserved meats in the pantry. The knives and forks were also in the pantry. The galley was in the corner of the forward-house. All the utensils such as pots, kettles, and the like, were washed up.

  Flood: What did you notice about the food in the galley?

  Deveau: There were no cooked provisions. I saw a barrel of flour with one-third gone. She had, I should say, six months provision on board.

  Flood: Did you take your own food from the Dei Gratia or use that on the other ship?

  Deveau: We used the provisions found on board the Mary Celeste, including meat and potatoes.

  Flood: Then it is highly unlikely that the Master or crew of that vessel were affected by the food. Now the binnacle, the box in which the ship’s compass is kept, was injured Can you tell us something of that?

  Deveau: It was injured when I went on board, but I fixed it and used it on our way here. The glass was broken and the binnacle was washed away from its place. It was lashed on the top of the cabin above the deck. Being a wooden one, the lashings had given way. One of the cleats was gone. But I set it back again.

  Flood: Would you say that the binnacle could have been broken in the normal course of operation and the compass washed overboard?

  Deveau: It could have been that way. I found a compass on board afterwards.

  Flood: Afterwards?

  Deveau: I didn’t find it until I went on board the second time. It was the cabin compass in the Mate’s room. But that wasn’t the one which rested in the binnacle.

  Flood: Did you find any wine, beer or spirits on the ship?

  Deveau: None whatsoever.

  Flood: Is that usual?

  Deveau: It depends on the rules laid down by the Master.

  The Queen’s Proctor stoppe
d momentarily at this juncture. He was clearly irritated that no definite progress was being made to pave way for a solution to the mystery. Without any doubt, Deveau was the prime witness. It was he who had visited the Mary Celeste - he who had boarded her again to take her in. If anyone could provide clues with regards to the whereabouts of Captain Briggs, his wife and child, and his crew, one hardly needed to look further. But how to elicit such evidence was proving to be very elusive.

  Flood: Mr. Deveau, you claim that you accidentally wiped clean the Log Slate. What had been written on that slate that you didn’t wish to become known?

  Deveau: Nothing!

  Flood: Do you consider your action extremely careless in the circumstances that prevailed?

  Deveau: I would prefer to say unfortunate.

  Flood: Very unfortunate. One wonders how many other ‘unfortunate incidents’ occurred from the time you boarded the Mary Celeste until she was impounded here! You told the Court that Captain Morehouse did not recognise the Mary Celeste when he first saw her. Did you not consider that rather strange?

  Deveau: We were so occupied with the Mary Celeste I didn’t think about it.

  Flood: Captain Morehouse was looking through the glass at the Mary Celeste. He thought he saw something strange about her. Why did he call you on deck? Does he always call you on deck when another vessel was sighted?

  Deveau: I think he felt that something must have been odd about the Mary Celeste.

  Flood: Indeed! He could see the sails, the masts and the shape of the cabin - yet he didn’t recognise her. Did he turn to you and say: “I think that Looks like the Mary Celeste” or some such phrase?

  Deveau: No, he didn’t.

  Flood: Then he either didn’t recognise her or he pretended not to recognise her. Either he has a very bad memory or there are other reasons which this Court will find in due course. Now, let us turn to another matter. When you first boarded the Mary Celeste you instructed Johnson to remain in the boat. You claim that he was left there in case urgent assistance was required.

  Deveau: That’s right.

  Flood: And Second Mate Wright was immediately despatched to attend the rigging. On reflection, do you not consider your actions a trifle odd. Here we have what is tentatively a ghost ship. No sign of anyone on board. No one at the wheel. A strange set of circumstances. Is it not normal in such cases for people to investigate such situations together in case they need to help one another - even to give each other confidence?