USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > Marion > Lands of Sippican on Buzzards Bay > Part 20
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The Queen's Proctor asks questions.
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John Wright answers. - "It was as I have said during my watch that we sighted the derelict - the man at the wheel named Johnson first sighted her and he called to me and showed me the vessel - it was the state of the vessel's sails that caught my attention - I should say it was about 2 hours from the time of first seeing her to lowering boat to board her. - She yawed some but not much. That also at- tracted my attention. - I went down into the Cabin. Before I went I assisted sounding the pumps. The pumps were in good state - there was no sounding rod but a piece of iron and line attached to it. - It was found lying on the deck near the Cabin. - The only way of lighting the Cabin is by the skylight, and the windows, three on each side of the Cabin, and by the com- panionway when the door is open - the windows were nailed up on the Starboard side with plank - they were not nailed up on the Port side, and would let light in. - When below in the Cabin there was plenty of light to see what was on the table - I did not see any of the skylight broken."
Questions! Questions! And a sailor's voice answering!
"The compass was destroyed. Any force that would remove the binnacle would destroy the compass. - the glass cover of the compass was knocked off - I left it where it was - I did nothing to it. - There were davits to hang a boat astern - They were in good shape.
I could not tell one way or other whether a boat had been launched from them - There were no davits on the quarter of the vessel. I saw nothing from which I could judge whether a boat had been upon deck.
I saw no lashings cut loose - I saw no ropes on either side showing that a boat had been launched from the ship at all - I observed no towline - I saw no spare spars on deck - The ship's anchor and chain were all right and on board, so that there was nothing to show that she had been moored and parted her cable - If she had done so, we should have seen it.
I went to the galley - the door was open. It was in bad shape. The stove was knocked out of its place - That could have been done by a sea striking the galley, and the stove through the door - it would knock the stove out of its place. I
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have been on board ship where the galley has been carried away, on two or three occasions.
I did not go in and could not see what provisions there were - the door sill is about 9 inches high and would pre- vent water running out the galley - I do not know how long the water had been there."
"The forehatch was lying on the port side - three feet from the hatch. - I did not go inside the Captain's Cabin - I stood at the Cabin door. - I stayed on board about half an hour and about ten minutes near the door - the main hatch was closed - fastened down - two spars were lashed there - they were rough spars - I do not know why they were put there."
The mists of the Atlantic hide two brothers. Capt. Oliver has not come in to his port.
Across the ocean goes another letter to the "Honorable Secretary of State, Washington.
- I have now to inform you that her principal owner James H. Winchester, arrived here on the 15th inst. from New York - Mr. Winchester is now entering his claim in the Vice Admiralty Court with the assistance of a Proctor as required by the British law in such cases - in the meanwhile nothing is heard of the missing crew of the Mary Celeste, and in face of the apparent seaworthy condition of this vessel, it is difficult to account for her abandonment, particularly as her Master, who is well known, bore the highest character for Seamanship, and correctness; besides he had his wife and young child with him, and was part owner of the Mary Celeste.
The Queen's Proctor in the Vice Admiralty Court, who is also Attorney General, seems to take the greatest interest in the case, and rather entertains the apprehension of some foul play having occurred. - So far the matter is wrapped in mystery."
The sailors' voices sound, one after the other.
"I am one of the crew of the Dei Gratia."
The Vice Admiralty Court adjourns, and along the paths and waterways of the world the news goes out of the story of
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Captain Ben and of Capt. Oliver, too, for the Julia A. Hallock, which had been reported as unloading its cargo at Vigo, had shipped 50 tons of coal for ballast, and Oliver had sailed to keep his appointment with Benjamin at Barcelona.
A black night in the turbulent Bay of Biscay; something clinging to a floating object in the path of an on coming vessel. As the clouds break, the moon makes a shining path, and a cry rang out from the lookout. The clouds shut out the picture. Again a rift of moonlight, and again the cry rang out to the officer on the watch.
The ship was hove to, a boat lowered, and a sailor was lifted from a floating deck hatch. He was in the last stages of exhaustion. When he could speak, he told of the Cap- tain! Captain Oliver Briggs of the Julia A. Hallock, of the terrible gale, of the ship foundering, of the brave crew pump- ing, pumping, of the fine coal dust of the ballast clogging the pumps, of the going down of the ship, and of finding the float- ing deck hatch, and the Captain and himself clinging for four days until the Captain growing weaker, had been washed off only a few hours before help came. Another young captain of Sippican claimed by the sea, while the story of another is told in halting answers in the Admiralty Court of Gibraltar.
Augustus Anderson sworn.
"I am an A. B. seaman, and one of the crew of the Dei Gratia."
To the Judge - "I was present when the pump was sounded - I never saw any other sounding rod than the iron bolt and string - the Mate told me there was a sounding rod lying on the deck and that it was all wet and could not be used. He did not tell me what he did with it.
There was nothing wrong with the vessel - we had hard work to get her into good order - to get the gear into order and sails right. It took us two or three days to set her to rights --- on her voyage to Gibraltar."
The Queen's Proctor reads from the Log. The witness was questioned as to what was done on board the Mary Celeste from the entries in the Log and answers "Yes" to every ques- tion, and that it is correct as stated in the Log.
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"The vessel was in fit state to go round the world with a good crew and good sails - We made Cape Spartel 3 p. m. of 11th - there was then a fresh breeze - I saw our own ship when we were off Cape Spartel - there are a good many lights I do not know the name of and I do not know Ceuta light - I was never in the Straights of Gibraltar before. - I shipped in my vessel at New York but never made this voyage before."
The next witness was called. John Johnson, a Russian Lutheran, sworn in on the New Testament.
"I am an able bodied seaman on the Dei Gratia - I went in the first boat with John Wright, 2nd Mate, and the First Mate of the Dei Gratia."
The witness does not understand English except in a very slight degree so Mr. Pisani proposes that one of the other crew who understands more English should interpret, but the Queen's Advocate objects because he can admit nothing.
"I did not go on deck - I remained in the boat alongside - I returned back to my own vessel - And the boat returned a second time from our vessel Dei Gratia to this derelict."
The Queen's Proctor declines to cross examine the witness as not understanding the English.
There is a tense feeling in the court room!
The Judge to the Queen's Proctor.
"You have the opportunity of seeing the Log of the Dei Gratia now if you please, and therefore if you do not choose to avail yourself of it, it is your own fault."
"I have asked for the Log 20 times a day, and not been able to procure it!"
Pisani answers.
"The Log is here in Court and has always been acces- sible to the Queen's Proctor."
Pisani to the Judge.
"The Mate is here and if the Queen's advocate or your Lordship would like to ask him any further questions about the sounding rod, here he is."
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"I don't wish to ask him anything. If the Queen's Proctor chooses to do so, he may do it. I understood in the first in- stance that the Captain of the Dei Gratia was not to be examined, and I cannot understand what objection there could be to its production."
The Judge speaks again.
"There are certain matters which have been brought to my notice respecting this vessel, my opinion about which I have very decidedly expressed, and which make it desirable and even necessary that further investigation should take place be- fore the release of the vessel can be sanctioned or before she can quit this port. The conduct of the sailors in going away as they have done has in my opinion been most reprehensible and may probably influence the decision as to their claims for remuneration for their services and it appears very strange why the Captain of the Dei Gratia who knows little or nothing to help the investigation should have remained here while the First Mate and the crew who boarded the Celeste and brought her here should have been allowed to go away as they have done.
The Court will take time to consider the Decree for Re- stitution."
The S. S. Plymouth arrives at Gibraltar and Capt. Shufelt writes on Feb. 6. - "After a cursory examination of the vessel and a somewhat imperfect knowledge of the circumstances, I. am of the opinion that she was abandoned by the Master and crew in a moment of panic and for no sufficient reason.
She may have strained in the gale through which she was passing and for the time leaked so much as to alarm the Mas- ter, and it is possible that at this moment another vessel .in sight induced him (having his wife and child on board) to abandon thus hastily. In this event he may not be heard of for some time to come, as the ship which rescued him may have been bound to a distant port. I reject the idea of mutiny from the fact that there is no evidence of violence about the decks or cabins, besides the fore, aft, and forward was so equally divided that a mutiny could hardly have had such a result.
The damage about the bows of the Brig appears to me to amount to nothing more than splinters made in the bending of
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the planks which were afterwards forced off by the action of the sea, neither hurting the action of the ship, nor by any pos- sible chance the result of an intention to do so.
The vessel at the present moment appears staunch and seaworthy. Some day I hope and expect to hear from the crew. If surviving the Master will regret his hasty action, but if we should never hear from them again, I shall nevertheless think they were lost in the boat in which both Master and men abandoned the Mary Celeste, and shall remember with in- terest this sad and silent mystery of the sea."
The weeks go by with no news. The dark winter days go slowly to those who wait in Sippican.
March comes, and Oliver DeVeau, Mate of the Dei Gratia, is again in Gibraltar, cross examined by the Queen's Advocate and Proctor in the "Vice Admiralty Court setting the 4th of March, 1873, on Tuesday."
"I saw no remains or pieces of a painter or boat's rope fastened to the rail - or cut. I did not see this cut in the rail now shown to me to notice it.
I cannot see how the cut came in the rail, it appears to have been done with a sharp axe, and I do not think it could have been done by my men whilst we were in possession of the vessel-I did not see any new axes on board the Celeste - there was an old axe found on board - I did not replace the rails of the ship found on deck before I returned to the Dei Gratia the first time - I can form no opinion about the cause of the axe cut in the rail - I observed no marks of blood on deck - I noticed no marks or traces of blood upon the deck - I cannot say whether there were any or not. - We never washed the decks of the Mary Celeste or scraped them. We have not men enough for that. - The sea washed the decks."
The Queen's Proctor explains that salt water contains chloric acid which dissolves the particles of blood ..
"If there are some parts of the deck or rail scraped, I did not notice them, and they were not done whilst we were on board."
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In the Gibraltar Chronicle had appeared the story of a sword - a mysterious. sword found on the floor of the Cap- tain's cabin of the Celeste. It was found by the Marshall of the Court. "It is of Italian make and bears the Cross of Savoy on the hilt! It remains in the custody of the Court."
And DeVeau in the Admiralty Court says "I saw a sword on board the Mary Celeste. I found that sword under the Captain's berth - I took it out from there - I looked at it - drew it from its sheath - there was nothing remarkable on it - I do not think there is any thing remarkable about it now - it seems rusty - I think I put it back where I found it or somewhere near there - I did not see it at the foot of the ladder - perhaps some of my men put it there. I was not on board the Celeste when the Marshall came on the Celeste to arrest the vessel, and therefore I did not see him find the sword."
The Queen's Proctor goes on to explain that the sword has been cleaned with lemon which has covered it with Citrate of Iron, which has destroyed the marks of the supposed blood which therefore is not blood at all as at first supposed but an- other substance put there to destroy and disguise the original marks of the blood which was once there.
"It did not occur to me that there had been any act of vio- lence" said DeVeau "There was nothing to induce me to be- lieve or to show that there had been any violence."
Witness and prosecutor stare at each other in the Gibral- tar Court room.
Ships meeting far out at sea call for any news of the Captain and crew of the Mary Celeste. From one ship to another the story is told. Whalers in the North Atlantic visit- ing sister ships, ask for news, and speculate upon the where- abouts of Captain Ben. Clipper ship captains come home, and in the stores, the blacksmith shop, at the Post Office comment on the probable fate of Capt. Ben and the Mary Celeste. They wait in Sippican, in the Old Landing, the Center, for news, and tell of how they felt when the ship went down, and they clung to spars and deck hatches, as did Capt. Oliver of the Julia A. Hallock. They can understand that adventure, that death, but
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this mysterious silence is beyond their experience. They tell again of their escapes from old ocean. Joe Snow Luce talks again of being on the lost ship Asia with Capt. J. F. Cowen or Rochester and Steve Delano of the Old Landing on board.
There is the story told in the Mecurio and Valparaiso West Coast Mail. It was two years before the Graduate went down, when the Asia of New Bedford had sailed from New Castle. England with a cargo of 1400 tons of coal for San Francisco and was caught in a Cape Horn blow. A heavy snow storm and gale from the South West wrecked the ship on the 21 of August on Barnwell Island.
"The ship at the time of the accident was under close reefed and foretopmast stag sail" according to the Valparaiso paper, "when she struck surf that was running so high that it was found impossible to lower boats and a spar was run from the boat on the rocks, by means of which the crew were enabled to reach the shore. The ship struck the eighth fathom within ten minutes after the Captain, who was the last on board, left. The only food they could get ashore was a barrel of biscuit and a few tins of preserved meat, not amounting to half a bis- cuit a day during the time they were on the Island.
There were nineteen men, and they suffered indescribably from cold, hunger and thirst. They didn't have sufficient canvas to rig a shelter for all, and had to stand outside watch and watch for fifteen days, without fire, only possessing for fuel a few pieces of the wrecked bark."
One ship came in sight, only to pass out again, leaving them with a horror at seeing her depart. Up to that day they had received a biscuit a day for rations, but it became neces- sary to diminish this to half a biscuit. In calm weather they picked up a few shell fish. For fifteen days the snow fell. They were afraid of the Indians. For 21 days they watched after the first ship showed on the horizon, and then they saw another approaching rapidly. It was the British bark Pro- fessor Airey.
"You know" said Joe, "I shipped at Valparaiso on the Northern Light for Woods Hole, but Capt. came into New Bed- ford. Just four years ago that was. Well, here we are, and I
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can't help thinking we'll hear from Ben. Some ship has picked him up, or they have landed somewhere. on some island. We'll hear!"
The circle around the sawdust ringed stove, nodded heads, and a few spat vigorously.
A clipper ship captain who has driven down from the Old Landing gives his opinion.
"As I see it, it was the alcohol! Sometime before noon the mornin' follerin' the last entry in the Log, the wind bein' Southerly and the weather warm, I figger the gas which had accumulated in the hole had expanded and begun to rumble. Alcohol, will do that, yer know. I figger Ben had the Celeste hove to on the Starboard tack. He would have had the top gallant yard lowered, and also would have let go the gaff topsail halliards. They would then have braced the yards around so as to bring the square sails about. That would stop her headway."
Heads nod assent.
"Then they lowered the boat, and brought it alongside. Sarah picked up the baby from the bed, and they were got into the boat. Then Ben went back to the Cabin, put the ship's papers in his pocket, picked up the chronometer and sextant. In the meantime the cook was hastily getting some canned stuff from the drawer."
The voice stopped, a vision of sailors jumping into a little boat, perhaps a boat capsizing. Capt. Steven stops talking. There is silence in the circle. Everywhere sailors talked, there came the same silence.
A baby; an open boat!
The story reaches the homes of the sailors who signed up for the voyage on the ship.
From Mettersum, Isle of Fohr, Prussia, comes a letter.
"Please excuse me of writing these few lines of informa- tion regarding two sailors, brothers, belonging to the American Brig Mary Celeste, their mother and their wives wish to know in which condition the ship had been found, whether the boats were gone or not, so as to find out on what day they have left
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the ship, and farther do they like to know whether any signs of disturbance have been found on board. I know three of the sailors personally and know them to be peaceable, and first class sailors. Please favour us with an answer and let us know your opinion why they left the Brig."
And the story tellers of the world begin to tell their opinions of how and why the sailors left the brig! Mutiny! Bearded pirates! Money stolen from the crew and trouble! A crazy Captain! Huge seaserpents who cleaned the deck in one swoop! Great devil fish whose long arms picked off one by one the crew while the crazed onlookers jumped into the sea!
Long ago the voice of Mate DeVeau, the questions of the Queen's Proctor the opinions of the Judge, ceased. In Gibraltar, there came a picture in the minds of all who listened.
Eight men, a frail woman, a baby, an open boat on the open ocean, one hundred miles from St. Mary's Isle; no com- pass, a little canned food, and no water!
The Journal of Commerce, April 9, 1873.
"Seventeen hundred pounds sterling has been awarded by the Admiralty Court of Gibraltar to the salvors (master and crew of Br. Brig Dei Gratia) of brig Mary Celeste, from New York, taken into Gibraltar, derelict; costs of suit to be paid out of property saved. The Mary Celeste was valued at $8,700. and her cargo at $36,943.00."
Mr. Perry, the 2nd Mate of the Julia A. Hallock came home to Middleboro. He sent word he would come to Sip- pican, and tell of the last hours of Capt. Oliver, but poor little daughter of Minister Cobb could stand no more. Her boys, Benjamin, 37 years old, and Oliver, 35, both gone.
"Tell him not to come" she said.
The brothers did not meet at Barcelona, to human eyes, and Rose Cottage was closed. There seemed no one left to come home from the sea.
Sixty years, and still the house lot below Rose Cottage, as Capt. Oliver left it, with its stout stone curbing, the arbor vitae hedge, the elms, the huge blocks of granite, waits, ready for the new house.
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Captain Oliver Briggs - "Whose arbor-vitae hedge waits after sixty years"
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The pine and locust trees have grown up concealing the huge stones from curious passers by, and the people of the village have made a winding path over the roots of the forest trees to the old graveyard beyond.
Only the seabirds perhaps, as they circled over the waste of ocean knew where the young Sippican captains were swept in the wild grey waters so far from home.
One little ship broken into driftwood by the great waves pounding the shores of Spain; the other piloted by alien hands through the stormy Straights under frowning Gibraltar, to sail and sail in the imagination of the world.
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CHAPTER XV
A GREAT LADY COMES HOME
"Yes; all these brave houses and flowery gardens came from the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans.
One and all they were harpooned and dragged up hither from the bottom of the sea."
MELVILLE.
Over in New Bedford lived the little school marm, Betsy Pitcher, grand daughter of Dr. John Pitcher, "chief surgeon of a regiment in the Revolutionary war", and Elizabeth Sprague, his wife, daughter of Lt. Noah Sprague, and Sarah, of the first families of Rochester.
Betsy had been away from her native village, Sippican, a half a century. She was now Mrs. Elizabeth Sprague Pitcher Taber, a widow, rich, lonely, full of energy.
From good investments in ships and whaling, and later in cotton mills and bank stock, as to all Old Dartmouth families, had come to her a large fortune. Some of the money invested, it was whispered, (and it was the truth), was an inheritance from her slave owning brother, Theophilus, who was killed in a slave uprising.
Not like King Philip's War had the trouble between the States burned over Plymouth County, and placed prisoners on the Lands of Sippican. No dark figures lurked in the wood- lands with revenge in the heart, to come forth at night to waste and kill, but dark thoughts lurked in the minds of the people.
There are more ways of killing life than burning and ravaging. A fire had swept the land, and even the sea, and taken high hopes and beauty from the lives of the people. It was as though all the trees and flowers had been scorched, and now, like a slow fire, deep down in the peat bogs, thoughts
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of lost brothers, husbands, fathers-lost ships-idle ships- dead sailors-slowly consumed the roots, the ambitions of the small sea villages. The old captains and ship builders were depressed and dull.
In 1861 there had been 508 whalers sailing from Buz- zards Bay ports. In 1866 only 199 left the wharves. In 1868 three or four whalers still went out from Sippican, rolling around the South Atlantic, making "plum pudding" voyages. The Cohannet, Capt. Hathaway; the Express, Capt. Handy; the William Wilson; the Admiral Blake sailed out in May and came home in September or October, but captain after captain retired and gave up investing in ships.
The young mates kept on, hoping to become captains. They wrote in their diaries quite in the old manner of "before the war". "Head winds, and so 21 days getting from Gibraltar to Geneva". And the gay mate writes home:
"You have no doubt heard of the beautiful sky of Italy. The weather is mild, and I have seen some quite pretty sunsets, but it does not come up to my expectations. I expect to lay here some time, as they are so slow in these old countries - after commencing discharging I expect it will be twenty days before we are unloaded, and then I suppose they will send us to Leghorn as that is the port we are to load at.
When you write, let me know how you all are, and all about the farm, the fresh hay, how the apples turned out, and the peaches, and how Prince and the pony get along, also the hens and the kittens, and how the crops turned out, and if my potatoes turned out as usual - I forgot to mention that our Captain holds meetings twice a week in the Cabin - all hands attend. He is a very good man - More anon."
Thus on Sept. 27, 1870 writes the gay young mate, but it was a dismal village to which the letter came.
More little whalers were condemned; more little ships lost. On September 12, 1871, at Point Belcher, whaling for Buzzards Bay was finished. Five ships were crushed by the Arctic ice, and then the great fleet was abandoned, left to the slowly creeping Polar floe. Familiar ships to Sippican like
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Gay Head, Awashonks, and others left to perish in the North- ern sea, splintered and ground into atoms by the pounding ice.
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