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During her maiden voyage, the then [I]Amazon[/I] seemed to want to
indicate the ships ghostly pretention when the [I]Amazon[/I]s captain
perished during the inaugural voyage. The ship was salvaged by an
American company that later renamed her [I]Mary Celeste. [/I]

The now infamous [I]Mary Celeste[/I] was a merchant ship that was found
abandoned in the Atlantic Ocean by another ship, the [I]Dei Gratia,[/I] in
December 4 of 1872. The ship was not badly damaged and still seaworthy
even though the compass was smashed. The marine chronometer and the
sextant were missing. Most notably, the Captain Benjamin Briggs, his family
and seven more crewmembers were all missing as well,. Despite being a
capable and experienced crew the only living soul found onboard was a
cat. Stories of meals prepared and on tables, or of a pipe of tobacco
smoldering on the foredeck cannot be verified by the accounts of the time
but are referred to by many writers afterward, most notably by
[LINK=http://www.classic-literature.co.uk/scottish-authors/arthur-conan-
doyle/j-habakuk-jephsons-statement/]Sir Arthur Conan Doyle[/LINK].

Mary Celeste was launched in Nova Scotia in 1860. Her original name was
Amazon. She was 103 ft overall displacing 280 tons and listed as a half-
brig. Over the next 10 years she was involved in several accidents at sea
and passed through a number of owners. Eventually she turned up at a
New York salvage auction where she was purchased for $3,000. After
extensive repairs she was put under American registry and renamed Mary
Celeste.
The new captain of Mary Celeste was Benjamin Briggs, 37, a master with
three previous commands. On November 7, 1872 the ship departed New
York with Captain Briggs, his wife, young daughter and a crew of eight. The
ship was loaded with 1700 barrels of raw American alcohol bound for
Genoa, Italy. The captain, his family and crew were never seen again. The
ship was found floating in the middle of the Strait of Gibraltar. There were
no signs of struggle on board and all documents except the captains log
were missing.
In early 1873, it was reported that two lifeboats grounded in Spain, one
with a body and an American flag, the other containing five bodies. It has
been alleged that these could have been the remains of the crew of the
Mary Celeste. However, the bodies were apparently never identified.