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Look Inside. Her cargo is intact and there is no sign of struggle, but her crew has disappeared, never to be found. As news of the derelict ghost ship spreads, the Mary Celeste captures imaginations around the world—from a Philadelphia spiritualist medium named Violet Petra to an unknown young writer named Arthur Conan Doyle. In a haunted, death-obsessed age, the Mary The Ghost of the Mary Celeste is by turns a provocative mystery, an inspiration to creativity, and the tragic story of a family doomed by the sea. Based on actual events, spanning seas and continents, life and death, The Ghost of the Mary Celeste is a spellbinding exploration of love, nature, and the fictions that pass as truth. In the American merchant vessel Mary Celeste was discovered adrift off the coast of Spain. Her cargo was intact and there was no sign of struggle, but the crew was gone. They were never found. This maritime mystery lies at the center of an intricate narrative branching through the highest levels of late-nineteenth- century literary society. While on a voyage to Africa, a rather hard-up and unproven young writer named Arthur Conan Doyle hears of the Mary Celeste and decides to write an outlandish short The Ghost of the Mary Celeste about what took place. The Ghost of the Mary Celeste story causes quite a sensation back in the United States, particularly between sought-after Philadelphia spiritualist medium Violet Petra and a rational- minded journalist named Phoebe Grant, who is seeking to expose Petra as a fraud. Each member of this ensemble cast holds a critical piece to the puzzle of the Mary Celeste. These three elements—a ship found sailing without a crew, a famous writer on the verge of enormous success, and the rise of an unorthodox and heretical religious fervor—converge in unexpected ways, in diaries, in letters, in safe harbors and rough seas. In a haunted, death-obsessed age, a ghost ship appearing in the mist is by turns a provocative mystery, an inspiration to creativity, and a tragic story of the disappearance of a family and of a bond between husband and wife that, for one moment, transcends the impenetrable barrier of death. She has been awarded grants from… More about Valerie Martin. The novel—unlike the Mary Celeste—sails home with flying colors. Emotionally rewarding. A tour de force. A beautiful, affecting literary tapestry. An exquisite and intricately layered ghost story. The seemingly disparate plotlines are skillfully woven together to create a novel that is well crafted, intriguing, and suspenseful, perhaps as a homage to Sir Conan Doyle himself. Highly recommended for all readers who appreciate quality historical fiction. Martin has wound the disparate threads of her novel into a haunting personal drama. When you buy a book, we donate a book. Sign in. Chilling Audiobooks for a Haunting Halloween. Read An Excerpt. Feb 03, ISBN Add to Cart. Also available from:. Jan 28, ISBN Available from:. Paperback —. Also in Vintage Contemporaries. Also by Valerie Martin. See all books by Valerie Martin. The Ghost of the Mary Celeste Details. Inspired by Your Browsing History. The Eight. Katherine Neville. Sarah Waters. The Spirit Keeper. Cathedral of the Sea. Ildefonso Falcones. Fates and Traitors. Jennifer Chiaverini. Company of Liars. Karen Maitland. Robert Harris. James Clavell. Tides of War. Steven Pressfield. The Whiskey Rebels. Diana Gabaldon. Sacred Hunger. Barry Unsworth. The Lost Sisterhood. Anne Fortier. The Game of Kings. Dorothy Dunnett. Where the Light Falls. Allison Pataki and Owen Pataki. The Last Town on Earth. Thomas Mullen. Khan: Empire of Silver. Conn Iggulden. The Long Ships. Frans G. Mistress of The Ghost of the Mary Celeste Art of Death. Ariana Franklin. The Lost Book of the Grail. Charlie Lovett. Follow the River. James Alexander Thom. The Devil The Ghost of the Mary Celeste. Craig Russell. Welcome to Hard Times. Buy other books like The Ghost of the Mary Celeste. Related Articles. Looking for More Great Reads? Download Hi Res. LitFlash The eBooks you want at the lowest prices. Read it Forward Read it first. Pass it on! Stay in Touch Sign up. We are experiencing technical difficulties. Please try again later. Become a Member Start earning points for buying books! Abandoned Ship: The Mary Celeste | History | Smithsonian Magazine

Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read. Want to Read saving…. Want to Read Currently Reading Read. Other editions. Enlarge cover. Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Open Preview See a Problem? Details if other :. Thanks for telling us about the problem. Return to Book Page. A captivating, atmospheric return to historical fiction that is every bit as convincing and engrossing as Martin's landmark Mary Reilly. In the American merchant vessel Mary Celeste was discovered adrift off the coast of Spain. Her cargo was intact and there was no sign of struggle, but the crew was gone. They were never found. This maritime mystery lies at the center A captivating, atmospheric return to historical fiction that is every bit as convincing and engrossing as Martin's landmark Mary Reilly. This maritime mystery lies at the center of an intricate narrative branching through the highest levels of late-nineteenth-century literary society. While on a voyage to Africa, a rather hard-up and unproven young writer named Arthur Conan Doyle hears of the Mary Celeste and The Ghost of the Mary Celeste to write an outlandish short story about what took place. This story causes The Ghost of the Mary Celeste a sensation back in the United States, particularly between sought-after Philadelphia spiritualist medium Violet Petra and a rational-minded journalist named Phoebe Grant, who is seeking to expose Petra as a fraud. Then The Ghost of the Mary Celeste is the family of the Mary Celeste 's captain, a family linked to the sea for generations and marked repeatedly by tragedy. Each member of this ensemble cast holds a critical piece to the puzzle of the Mary Celeste. These three elements—a ship found sailing without a crew, a famous writer on the verge of enormous success, and the rise of an unorthodox and heretical religious fervor—converge in unexpected ways, in diaries, in letters, in safe harbors and rough seas. In a haunted, death-obsessed age, a ghost ship appearing in the mist is by turns a provocative mystery, an inspiration to creativity, and a tragic story of the disappearance of a family and of a bond between husband and wife that, for one moment, transcends the impenetrable barrier of death. Get A Copy. Hardcoverpages. More Details Other Editions Friend Reviews. To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. To ask other readers questions about The Ghost of the Mary Celesteplease sign up. Steven To use Valerie Martin's own words on page : "He turned toward the hall, pausing in the doorway to ask The Ghost of the Mary Celeste final question. She smiled, nodding her head contentedly. It was the question she'd been waiting for. See 2 questions about The Ghost of the Mary Celeste…. Lists with This Book. Community Reviews. Showing Average rating 3. Rating details. More filters. Sort order. Start your review of The Ghost of the Mary Celeste. This is by no means the worst book I have read, but it is definitely one of the biggest disappointments in a long time. I was hoping for a titillating historical-fiction mystery about the real-life vessel Mary Celeste, found floating on the sea without her crew. What I got was The Ghost of the Mary Celeste fragmented and vapid tale about I'm not sure. Arthur Conan Doyle's fascination with spiritualists? I am totally clueless as to why this book was written at all, I've rarely read a story with so little direct This is by no means the worst book I have read, but it is definitely one of the biggest disappointments in a long time. I am totally clueless as to why this book was written at all, I've rarely read a story with so little direction or cohesion. Not recommended. The Mary Celeste was a merchant ship discovered in December,under sail heading towards the Strait of Gibraltar. No one was on board. With one lifeboat missing, the ship was presumed abandoned. Strangely, though, there was no indication of what caused the captain to leave the ship, along with his wife, two year old daughter, and seven crew members. There were no signs of a struggle, there was plenty of food and water, and the ship was still seaworthy. Engraving of the Mary Celeste at t The Mary Celeste was a merchant ship discovered in December,under sail heading towards the Strait of Gibraltar. The anonymous author was the twenty-four year old Arthur Conan Doylestill three years away from publishing his first Sherlock Holmes story. Martin interweaves tales of The Ghost of the Mary Celeste, a family that seems cursed by its association with the sea, a to-be-famous writer, and the Victorian world of the occult, replete with spiritualism, mediums, and charlatans. Martin tells these stories The Ghost of the Mary Celeste different points of view, giving us little glimpses of the whole through the eyes of narrators with varying degrees of reliability. Some of The Ghost of the Mary Celeste characters are more distant from the central events than others, but each is carefully drawn and feels fully realized. The character portrayals are convincing for both the historical figures and the purely fictional characters, an important trick in historical fiction. I expected this novel to be a re-imagining of what could have happened to the ill-fated ship. It turned out to be less linear and more ambiguous than I thought it would be, and, ultimately, more intriguing. View all 8 comments. Aug 24, Matt rated it really liked it Shelves: historical-fictionliterary-fiction. The British merchant brig Mary Celeste was discovered afloat and empty on December 5, A lifeboat was missing, along with eight crewmen and two passengers. There was no sign of a struggle, no apparent reason for the ship to have been abandoned. None of the passengers or crew were ever heard from again. Thus was born the greatest maritime mystery of all time. If you are interested in that story, do not read this book. I know that seems emphatic. Almost like a threat. This is actually a public service to keep you from disappointment and internet-trolldom. Including myself — I knew the gist of this novel before picking it up, therefore recalibrating my projections. If you are looking for speculative fiction about the real-life Mary Celesteyou should look elsewhere. But as the title implies, the ghost-ship haunts every page. The Ghost of the Mary Celeste is an ornately crafted novel, part epistolary, constructed with diary entries and newspaper clippings, and partially told in the third person. It has different characters and narrative strands that sometimes intertwine, and sometimes only inform each other from a distance. The novel is about many things at once: it is a sea story; it explores 19th century Victorian-era spiritualism; and it is a story of unusual women during a time when women had a usual place. There is a wonderful evocation of the ocean: She pulled her hood in close, took a few steps from the hatch, and there it was, the sight she had long imagined — at once she lamented the paucity of her imagination — the sea. Slate-blue peaks studded with white foamy caps, line after line, each wave preceded by another and every one followed by another, as wide as the world was wide, and above The Ghost of the Mary Celeste the sky, which was white, flat, and cold, the sun a brighter patch hovering in the distance. The weather turns bad, and the peacefulness of the The Ghost of the Mary Celeste is disrupted by a visceral, terrifying portrayal of a shipwreck: The captain, rising up to take a breath, felt a blow across his shoulders that knocked the remaining air out of his lungs and pushed him cruelly back down. When he tried to rise again, something solid blocked his way. There was no air left in his lungs; he could feel his eyes bulging with the effort not to breathe. He sensed a light behind him and turned toward it. Then, with what terror and sadness he understood that he was looking down… It turns out that the wife of the captain of the Early Dawn had a thirteen year-old cousin. That girl grows into the main character of The Ghost of the Mary Celesteat least to the extent it can be said there is a main character. Her name is Violet Petra, and she becomes a famous psychic. She earns her living through the patronage of wealthy benefactors who use her to communicate with the land of the dead. Violet is a fascinating and sharply drawn character. She is both confident and vulnerable; tough and fragile. And she is always a bit ambiguous. She is given a worthy antagonist in Phoebe Grant, a female journalist and avowed skeptic. Phoebe first meets Violet in an effort to expose her as a fraud. Eventually, a strange kind of friendship grows between the two. The main-character triumvirate is rounded out by the aforementioned Arthur Conan Doyle. His storyline is the weakest and most peripheral of the The Ghost of the Mary Celeste. It pays to pay attention, but the overall structure is not overly complex. Mary Celeste - Wikipedia

The British brig The Ghost of the Mary Celeste Gratia was about miles east of the Azores on December 5,when crew members spotted a ship adrift in the choppy seas. David Morehouse was taken aback to discover that the unguided vessel was the Mary Celestewhich had left New York City eight days before him and should have already arrived in Genoa, Italy. He changed course to offer help. Morehouse sent a boarding party to the ship. Belowdecks, the ship's charts had been tossed about, and the crewmen's belongings were still in their quarters. The ship's only lifeboat was missing, and one of its two pumps had been disassembled. Three and a half feet of water was sloshing in the ship's bottom, though the cargo of 1, barrels of industrial alcohol was largely intact. There was a six-month supply of food and water—but not a soul to consume it. Thus was born one of the most durable mysteries in nautical history: What happened to the ten people who had sailed aboard the Mary Celeste? Through the decades, a lack of hard facts has only spurred speculation as to what might have taken The Ghost of the Mary Celeste. Theories have ranged from mutiny to pirates to sea monsters to killer waterspouts. Arthur Conan Doyle's short story based on the case The Ghost of the Mary Celeste a capture by a vengeful ex-slave, a movie featured Bela Lugosi as a homicidal sailor. Now, a The Ghost of the Mary Celeste investigation, drawing on modern maritime technology and newly discovered documents, has pieced together the most likely scenario. The ship began its fateful voyage on November 7,sailing with seven crewmen and Capt. Benjamin Spooner Briggs, his wife, Sarah, and the couple's 2-year-old daughter, Sophia. The ton brigantine battled heavy weather for two weeks to reach the Azores, The Ghost of the Mary Celeste the ship log's last entry was recorded at 5 a. After spotting the Mary Celeste ten days later, the Dei Gratia crewmen sailed the ship some miles to Gibraltar, where a British vice admiralty court convened a salvage hearing, which was usually limited to determining whether the salvagers—in this case, the Dei Gratia crewmen —were entitled to payment from the ship's insurers. But the attorney general in charge of the inquiry, Frederick Solly-Flood, suspected mischief and investigated accordingly. After more than three months, the court found no evidence of foul play. Habakuk Jephson's Statement" in ; his sensationalistic account, printed in Cornhill Magazineset off waves of theorizing about the ship's fate. Even Attorney General Solly-Flood revisited the case, writing summaries of his interviews and notes. But the mystery remained unsolved. MacGregor picked up the trail in MacGregor's four previous investigative documentaries, including The Hindenburg Disaster: Probable Causeapplied modern forensic techniques to historical questions. For her Mary Celeste film, MacGregor began by asking what didn't happen. Speculation concerning sea monsters was easy to dismiss. The ship's condition—intact and with full cargo—seemed to rule out pirates. One theory bandied about in the 19th century held that crew members drank the alcohol onboard The Ghost of the Mary Celeste mutinied; after interviewing crewmen's descendants, MacGregor deemed that scenario unlikely. Another theory assumed that alcohol vapors expanded in the Azores heat and blew off the main hatch, prompting those aboard to fear an imminent explosion. The Ghost of the Mary Celeste MacGregor notes that the boarding party found the main hatch secured and did not report smelling any fumes. True, she says, nine of the 1, barrels in the hold were empty, but the empty nine had been recorded as being made of red oak, not white oak like the others. Red oak is known to be a more porous wood and therefore more likely to leak. As for that homicidal sailor played by Lugosi in The Mystery of the Mary Celestehe may have been drawn from two German crewmen, brothers Volkert and Boye Lorenzen, who fell under suspicion because none of their personal possessions were found on the abandoned ship. But a Lorenzen descendant told MacGregor that the pair had lost their gear in a shipwreck earlier in Abandoning a ship in the open sea is the last thing a captain would order and a sailor would do. But is that what Captain Briggs ordered? If so, why? His ship was seaworthy. MacGregor learned that the captain was experienced and respected in shipping circles. Did Briggs, then, have a rational reason to abandon ship? MacGregor figured that if she could determine the precise spot from which Briggs, his family and crew abandoned ship, she might be able to shed light on why. MacGregor asked Richardson "to work backward and create a path between these two points. Richardson said he would need water temperatures, wind speeds and wind directions at the time, data that MacGregor found in the International Comprehensive Ocean-Atmosphere Data Set ICOADSa database that stores global marine information from to and is used to study climate change. Their conclusion: yes, it could have, even without a crew to sail it. At that point, MacGregor considered the fact that a captain would most likely order a ship abandoned within sight of land. He wrote that he saw nothing unusual about the voyage until the last five days, which is why he transcribed the ship's log starting five days from the end. The ship's log is believed to have been lost inso those transcriptions provided the only means for MacGregor and Richardson to plot the course and The Ghost of the Mary Celeste logged for the ship. The two then reconsidered those positions in light of ICOADS data and other information on sea conditions at the time. Their conclusion: Briggs was actually miles west of where he thought he was, probably because of an inaccurate chronometer. By the captain's calculations, he should have sighted land three days earlier than he did. Solly-Flood's notes yielded one other piece of information that MacGregor and Richardson consider significant: the day before The Ghost of the Mary Celeste reached the Azores, Briggs changed course and headed north of Santa Maria Island, perhaps seeking haven. Still, MacGregor reasons, rough seas and a faulty chronometer wouldn't, by themselves, prompt an experienced captain to abandon ship. The Ghost of the Mary Celeste there something else? With the pump inoperative, Briggs would not have known how much seawater was in his ship's hull, which was too fully packed for him to measure visually. At that point, says MacGregor, Briggs—having come through rough weather, having finally and belatedly sighted land and having no way of determining whether his ship would sink—might well have issued an order to abandon ship. The Ghost of the Mary Celeste or Give a Gift. Privacy Terms of Use Sign up. SmartNews History. History Archaeology. World History. Science Age of Humans. Future of Space Exploration. Human Behavior. Our Planet. Earth Optimism Summit. Ingenuity Ingenuity Awards. The Innovative Spirit. Travel Virtual Travel. Travel With Us. Featured: Travel to Alaska. At the Smithsonian Visit. New Research. Curators' Corner. Ask Smithsonian. Vote Now! Photo of the Day. Video Ingenuity Awards. Smithsonian Channel. Video Contest. Games Daily Sudoku. Universal Crossword. Daily Word Search. Mah Jong Quest. Subscribe Top Menu Current Issue. Archaeology U. History World History Video Newsletter. Related Content Saving Our Shipwrecks. Like this article? Comment on this Story. Last Name. 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