The Mary Celeste
Page 25
In due course, the Dei Gratia sailed off with a disgruntled crew, still watched by the suspicious eyes of Mr. Solly Flood. Somewhere, sometime, the Queen’s Proctor was convinced, a person from the Mary Celeste would be found to tell the true tale. It never happened! Keating wrote in his book:
“The searchlights have been turned in the wrong direction, the busy rakes have never succeeded in clearing the rubbish. Bunglers and follow-our-leaders have made the affair of the Mary Celeste a greater mystery after fifty years and even the baffled Court found it so after fifty days.”
Dr. Cobb declared emphatically that:
“On board a whaler or maybe a trade amongst the islands of the Pacific, or it may be on a trans- Atlantic liner, a sailor in the forecastle or an officer on the bridge will light a pipe, and after blowing out two or three puffs of smoke will say: ‘Well, what do you suppose ever became of the crew of the Mary Celeste?’”
The question is now timeless. After more than a hundred and twenty five years some people might add that the problem has now become academic.....a feature in the annals of past history.....an unsolved mystery of the sea. One thing is certain, however, while man uses his imagination and seeks to resolve the mysteries of life, the ghost of the Mary Celeste will never be laid to rest. Perhaps it is most fitting to end with the words of Captain Adrian Lonsdale, of the U.S. Coastguard who said:
“If a ship is lost in a violent storm, to us it is a disaster. To someone who doesn’t know the facts it’s uncanny. I suppose anything you can’t understand yourself is bound to be supernatural.”
Indeed, while mystery and curiosity remain features which stimulate human thought, the memory of the Mary Celeste will live forever!
THE END