Dear Editor

The recent article on the Mary Celeste (Clubs and Societies December 4th) did not mention the conclusions of Charles Edey Fay’s comprehensive account.  The most important point is that the Mary Celeste was carrying some 1700 barrels of raw alcohol.  She had been through the warm waters of the Gulf Stream and then encountered several days of stormy weather. 

The most likely explanation for her abandonment was that, when on a calm day near the Azores, the captain, a well-respected and experienced sailor with his wife and child on board, ordered the hold to be opened for ventilation, a build-up of warm alcohol vapour coming into contact with cooler,  humid sea air produced a cloud of condensation.  Believing the hold to be on fire and knowing they had so much highly flammable cargo the crew took to the ship’s boat for safety, allowing it to trail astern on a long rope. 

In their haste they used the main peak halyard as a painter and lowered some, but not all the ship’s sails.   The rope parted, possibly as a result of a sudden Atlantic squall. Unable to catch their disappearing ship, the poor crew were left to drift in a small heavily laden boat, which was eventually overwhelmed by the sea.  So it was most likely down to human error and bad luck, not foul play or Daleks.

Below is my own attempt at a picture of the Mary Celeste.

Martin Lamport

Dancing Green