St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-12-26

her to the wind, and she got sternway
and backed off until the wind filled her
topsails, when she sprang away like a
deer. leaving the crew and the boat be-
hind.
The chase that ensued may be imag-
ined. The brig would come to at inter-
walls of few minutes and raise the
homes of the seamen tugging at the oars
of the heavily laden long boat. As she
came up ana spilled the wind from her
square sails her jib and staysail would
fill and pay her off, and again she
would run before the wind. Her yards
being squared. she would pay off first
on one tack and then the other. but
would keep, in the long run, pretty
straight course. The hopeless, tanta-
lizing chase no doubt lasted until night
came Oh. and then the brigantine dis
appeared, leaving the b0atload OF peo-4
pie adrift OH the ocean without food or
water. They were i'll the vicinity OF
the Azores, but so far away that they
could not reach the islands before
famine and thirst would destroy them.
Their only hope was that some vessel
would pick them up, but that good for:
tune was not theirs, and they persisted
at sea.
AN UNLUCKY CRAFT.
The Mary Celeste was unlucky from
the day when she was launched. Being
built of green timber, she stuck on the
ways and was fioated only at great eX-
pense. She lost mOney'On every voy-
age, and in 1871, when only two years
old, she ran ashore on the island OF
Jamaica. Her captain, discouraged by
heavy losses, blew out his brains.
She was taken to New \ ork and sold
as a wrecked vessel to a Boston man,
who refitted her and got an American
register, although the vessel was built
in Nova Scotia, and never had been
wrecked on the American coast. A year
later she was seized for debt and sold at
auction for $500 to Capt. Winchester
ana others. 1t cost sl1, 800 to repair her,
as her timbers were all rotten. Then
she was seized for having fraudulent
register, and it cost the owners good
deal of money 10 prove that they were
innocent parties and to get her released.
Capt Winchester and his partner lost
$4,000 on her in three years, and sold
her to Cartwright 81 Harrison, who kept
her for five years and lost 5000.
The Mary Celeste always lost her
deck load, and generally lost her sails
and spars along with it. Her last own
ers were Knowles, Freeman u Co.. of
Boston. who bought her at low figure.
WRECKED FOR GOOD AND ALL.
In July, 1885. Capt. Gilman {. Parker,
the last master of the Mary Celeste, was
tried in the United States court in BoS-
ton for barratry. The indictment
charged Capt. Parker, Abraham Q.
Wendell. George w. Miller, Raphael
Boris, Emile Boris. Sullivan A. Free
man and Knowles Freeman with con-
spring to destroy the vessel and cargo,
with intent TO defraud the insurers.
The Mary Celeste was wrecked on a
coral reef off Hayti Jan. 3, 1885, and the
mate, Joseph f. Howes. declared that
the captain deliberately ran her on the
reef. She was loaded with spoiled fish,
bottled lees for an ale house and other
utterly worthless stuff that could not be
sold in any port, ard the district att0r-
ney declared that the shippers must
have had an understanding with some
body that the vessel never should reach
port.
Ernest BarthOld testified that he was
at the helm, and the captain told him to
head for the reef. He kept the course
until the vessel struck, at o'clock in
the afternoon, on clear day and in a
smooth sea. The masts were cut away
under the captains order, and the crew
left the brig on the reef. where some of
the crew set fire to her some weeks
later. The captain threw the ships
papers overheard, and told the consul
at Hayti that he lost them.
Capt Parker declared that the Mary
Celeste went upon the reef because she
wouldn't mind her helm. He had two
trials, but the juries disagreed, and he
escaped punishment.
The developments in this case sug-
gested a possible explanation of the
abandonment of the Mary Celeste in
1878. 1t was said that Capt. Briggs
might have tried to wreck her on one
of the reefs of the Azores; that he
headed her for the reef, pretended that
she would not mind her helm, and or
dered all hands into the boat: that after
he had left her, the wind hauled
around and so changed the vessels
course that she ran past the reef in
safety and scudded away. But this
theory is not plausible, because the cap
tain would not have risked the lives of
his wife and child by taking to small
boat very far from the islands, and if
he had tried the trick near the islands,
he would almost certainly have
reached shore.