BOOK REVIEWS

die legend come not from reality but GHOST The Mary Celeste: A Very from fiction. The first was written in 1883 by , before he Plausible Explanation created Sherlock Holmes. It was his first TERENCE M. HINES major literary publication and appeared

raui iron at ••<• anonymously in Cornhill's Magazine. It is : The Mysterious True Story of the Mary Celeste in this tale that the story of the still-warm MMIIHI ' ••» and her Missing Crew. By Brian Hicks. Ballantine Books, meals on the table first appeared. (No BRIAN HICKS New York, 2004. ISBN 0-345-46391-9. 288 pp. such meals were, in fact, found.) It is also Hardcover, $25.95. from this story that the common mis- spelling "Marie Celeste" originated. The first heard of the mystery of the Mary bound for Europe with a cargo of indus- story tells of the experiences of a New Celeste many years ago by way of a trial alcohol. Captain Briggs was a mem- England was a passenger on printed placemat at a restaurant on ber of a distinguished sailing family from the ship and who escaped the murder of I die famous maritime community of New the entire crew. T h e story is written in the the outer banks of North Carolina. It told the story of the ship being found drifting Bedford, Massachusetts. He was an excel- first person by the "doctor." It is clear now in the Atlantic without lifeboats, widi no lent sailor, with a well-deserved reputation that the story has numerous glaring crew aboard, hot meals still warm on the for honesty. A interesting portion of the errors, but at the time, the incident was galley table, no signs of violence, the log book is devoted to Briggs and his family. recent enough that the appearance of the book still on board, and the crew's posses- A pan of the story that was unknown story caused die ever-suspicious Flood to sions, including wet-weadier gear, all pre- to me until I read this book is what hap- try to restan the investigation. sent. All, or most, of the hatches were pened after the discovery of the drifting Doyle most likely intended his story as open. The crew was never heard from ship by the American ship the Dei Gratia. a piece of fiction, not a hoax. This was not again. The question of why the crew left At considerable risk to both ships, die true of odier attempts oudined in the and what happened to them has been small crew of the Dei Gratia was split in book. One told of the deathbed revelation generating interest since the discovery of two, with half going aboard the Mary of a servant to his employer, one Howard the Mary Celeste 500 miles west of Spain Celeste to sail her to to claim her Linford, the "headmaster of a prominent on December 4, 1872. The mystery as salvage. It was expected that die salvage prep school outside London." Linford became a national, even international, hearing would be a short and simple one. cooked up the story of his servant's talc sensation. The fact that Captain It was not. British officials, especially an and published it in Strand magazine, iron- Benjamin Spooner Briggs had his wife admiralty-court officer named Frederick ically the place where the original Sara and two-year-old daughter Sophia Solly Flood, turned the salvage hearings Sherlock Holmes stories first appeared. on board simply added to the interest in into almost a trial of the men of the Dei In any book about a mystery ship in the event. Since then, there have been Gratia, whom Flood somehow suspected the Atlantic, the topic of the Bermuda numerous attempts to explain why the of foul play in the matter. The hearing Triangle will appear, and so it does in this crew vanished. The explanations have run lasted for months and ended up casting book. Happily, Hicks gives shon shrift to from die mildly plausible (e.g., abandon- shadows on die reputation of the crew the Triangle nonsense and cites Larry ment in a storm, mutiny, murder, pirates, of the Dei Gratia. Toward die end of Kusche's superb debunking in The insurance fraud) to die ludicrous (e.g., the proceedings, Flood even suggested Mystery Solved. Unfor- disappearing islands, UFO abductions, diat die missing crew of the Mary Celeste tunately, he does dwell rather longer than Bermuda Triangle effects). might have been involved somehow. needed on the nonmystery of Flight 19. Hicks tells the story of the brigantine In die end, die court did award prize While he certainly doesn't give credence Mary Celeste, starting with the building of money to the crew of the Dei Gratia, but to any explanations, his the ship in Nova Scoria in 1861. It was the sum was much less than it should description of die events does leave die not originally named the Mary Celeste but have been, the low amount being used as impression that he diinks die whole thing die Amazon. She had held her new name a punishment, even though the court is still very mysterious. Hicks is appar- for only three years, when, on November could not prove any wrongdoing on die endy unaware diat Kusche has also dior- 7, 1872, the ship sailed from New York pan of the crew. oughly explained that mystery in his book Hicks also deals at some length with The Disappearance of Flight 19. Terence M. Mines is a professor of psychol- hoaxes and fictionalized accounts of the Hicks's telling of the history of the ogy at Pace University and the author of Mary Celeste, a section of the book I Mary Celeste and die people and placed and the (sec- found among die most interesting. In associated with her are all first-rate. But, ond edition, Prometheus Books, 2003). fact, several of the well known "details" in of course, what really makes the book so

5 2 January/February 200S SKEPTICAL INQUIRER BOOK REVIEWS

interesting is die solution to the mystery them because they expected to come back to was supposed to be a stout rope, die peak that Hicks proposes. A common sugges- the ship. The ship's cargo was wooden halyard. The plan was that after die airing tion has been diat the crew abandoned casks of alcohol. This had led to specula- out, diey would pull and row die lifeboat the ship in a storm and took to die tion of drunken rages on the part of the back to the ship, and all would be well. lifeboats. But why would one abandon a crew. But the cargo was most likely indus- But, in this scenario, a gale blew up large ship that was obviously seawordiy trial alcohol, and when it was inspected, it quickly and the rope broke. In fact, die for a tiny lifeboat in a storm? Or perhaps was found to be largely intact, with, how- peak halyard was found snapped and the crew thought the ship was about to ever, several casks empty, likely through hanging into die water when die ship was sink and dius took to the lifeboats. It is evaporation. This would have meant that found. This rope, unlike die odier rigging true that when the ship was found, there about 450 gallons of the chemical would on die ship, was old and weak. So, die was some water in her bilges, but not have been loose in the ship's sealed hold in poor crew is left in die lifeboat as the enough to worry experienced sailors. And vaporous form, posing a serious problem. Mary Celeste sails away on her own. A if they really thought the ship was going The only way to get rid of die fumes truly horrible and tragic deadi. to sink, they would have taken at least would be to unseal die hold. But die It seems to me diat Hicks's account is some of their possessions with them, and fumes would have been strong enough to die most plausible and parsimonious one certainly the wet-weather clothing. In the be dangerous to the crew. In the weeks yet proposed for die mystery of die Mary next paragraph, I will reveal Hicks's solu- previous to December 4, that area of die Celeste. It accounts for die more mysteri- tion, which I find highly plausible. Since Atlantic had had a time of very calm ous characteristics of the ship when the book reads like an excellent mystery winds, a condition excellent for the found, such as die open hatches and all story, if you don't want to know the solu- buildup of dangerous fumes in the hold personal possessions as well as die wet- tion, stop reading now and buy the book. and very poor for any attempt at ventila- weadier gear still being onboard. And it While die crew did obviously leave the tion. Hicks suggests that as more normal does so without the introduction of extra- ship, diey took nodiing with them. Hicks weather returned. Captain Briggs ordered neous and unlikely events such as mass makes an important point, one appar- the ship "aired out." During diat time, he, murder, waterspouts, UFOs, and the like. endy not made before in die annals of the his family, and the crew went into die In short, Hicks has written die definitive Mary Celeste. The crew took nodiing with lifeboat that was tied to the ship by what work on this case. SCIENCE BEST SELLERS Top Ten Best Sellers

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SKEPTICAL INQUIRER January/February 2005 53