Question: Benjamin Briggs was the captain of a merchant ship  that was discovered deserted off the shores of which Island ?

Auguste was a full rigged sailing ship which sank at Aspy Bay, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia in 1761 while carrying exiles from the fall of New France.  "Auguste" was a former French privateer ship which had been captured by the British and converted to a merchant ship.  In September 1761, she was hired by the British government to transport French exiles and prisoners of war from Montreal to France.  For the voyage, she was under the command of Joseph Knowles, an English sea captain.  The ship was unarmed and carried 121 passengers and crew.  Almost immediately upon clearing the mouth of the St. Lawrence on October 28, she encountered a week of contrary winds followed by a nor'west gale and heavy seas which badly damaged the ship.  Leaking heavily with an exhausted crew and damaged rigging, the captain sought a sheltered harbour in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia.  However Knowles was unable to find a safe refuge as "Auguste" carried only charts of the French coast.  The ship struck land on the northeastern side of Cape Breton Island near an inlet known as Aspy Bay.  Only seven of the 121 made it to shore alive.  These included the captain, the merchant Luc de la Corne, two soldiers, two servants, and one discharged soldier. <SEP> The Action of 26 July 1806 was a minor naval engagement of the Napoleonic Wars fought off the southern coast of the island of Celebes in the Dutch East Indies.  During the battle, a small British squadron attacked and defeated a Dutch force defending a valuable convoy, which was also captured.  The British force—consisting of the frigate HMS "Greyhound" and brig-sloop HMS "Harrier" under the command of Captain Edward Elphinstone—was initially wary of the Dutch, mistaking the Dutch East Indiaman merchant ship "Victoria" for a ship of the line.  Closer observation revealed the identity of the Dutch vessels the following day and Elphinstone led his frigate against the leading Dutch warship "Pallas while "Harrier" engaged the merchant vessels and forced them to surrender.  Only the corvette "William" escaped, taking no part in the engagement. <SEP>  The Canadian brigantine "Dei Gratia" found her in a dishevelled but seaworthy condition, under partial sail, and with her lifeboat missing.  The last entry in her log was dated ten days earlier.  She had left New York City for Genoa on November 7, and on discovery was still amply provisioned.  Her cargo of denatured alcohol was intact, and the captain's and crew's personal belongings were undisturbed.  None of those who had been on board were ever seen or heard from again. Mary Celeste (often misreported as "Marie Celeste") was an American merchant brigantine, discovered adrift and deserted in the Atlantic Ocean, off the Azores Islands, on December 5, 1872. <SEP> Benjamin Spooner Briggs (April 24, 1835 – probably November 1872) was an experienced United States seaman and master mariner.  The lifeboat was missing, yet the "Mary Celeste" herself was still under sail and there were signs of a sudden and unexplained abandonment.  He is famous today for being the Captain of the merchant ship "Mary Celeste" when she was discovered unmanned and drifting in the Atlantic Ocean near the Straits of Gibraltar, on December 4, 1872.  Benjamin Briggs, his wife Sarah and two-year-old daughter Sophia Matilda, along with the crew of the "Mary Celeste", the lifeboat and sextant, were never found and presumed lost.