- A very modern ship for its time, the *Iron Mountain*, 60 m long, 10 m wide, carrying 55 passengers plus crew, vanished in the Missouri (United States).
- The Mary Celeste found abandoned near the Azores, see images/MarieCeleste_300.jpg.
- **November 24th, 11am:** The
*Dei Gratia*, a brigantine, cuts through the waters near the
Azores when it encounters a seemingly helpless ship. The sea is
calm. It is the British brigantine, the *Mary Celeste*, drifting
slowly, all sails out. The *Dei Gratia* sends a boat and some
men, who board the ship. The ship is deserted. An uneasiness
takes hold of the new arrivals. Laundry is still drying on the
deck and, in the cabin, teacups are still arranged, ready to be
drunk. In the cabins, a small harmonium is open, with a sheet of
music on the music stand. Children's toys are scattered on the
floor and, in the captain's office, his gold watch is found. On a
cushion, the imprint of a small child's head can be guessed. As
no boat is missing, the sailors scan the sea in the hope of
seeing a body or a head, floating, but in vain. No other ship
was crossing in the area and yet, all these traces of abandonment
are recent. Nothing is floating. It seems that the cabins had been
abandoned in a hurry, the second of the *Dei Gratia*, Oliver
Deveau, who boarded the *Mary Celeste*, would later declare. The
crew seems to have acted in panic. The men had indeed left their
personal possessions, that is to say that their clothes were
still in their place\... Nothing is missing, not even their pipes,
one of which is still warm and smoking, so dear to any sailor.
The
captain was accompanied by his wife and daughter. A half-hemmed
skirt is still engaged on the table of a sewing machine. Only the
chronometer, the sextant and the logbooks, including the
nationality certificate, are missing. Only a cat emits faint
meows and it is neither hungry nor scared. The cargo --- 1700
barrels of raw alcohol --- has not been touched. The total value
of the boat and its cargo is estimated at around 8500 £. Traces
of boarding with something are found on the *Mary Celeste*:
grooves from a cutting instrument, *on both sides* and a few feet
from the bow, about fifty centimeters above the flotation, are
judged to be very recent, and not due to the action of time. A
deep cut is also found on the starboard railing. Oliver Deveau
declared that he had no idea of the origin of this cut. Near this
cut, brown spots are found on the deck, directly above, seeming
to have been caused by blood. It is then suspected that Captain
Moorehouse, of the *Dei Gratia*, and his crew, had massacred the
crew of the brigantine in order to receive the reward for any
discovery of a drifting wreck and its contents.
However, the
report of the doctor who performed an analysis from the blood
spots remained in a sealed envelope and was not revealed until 14
years later (which did not prevent the suspects from being
prosecuted on mere presumptions). The doctor, Doctor Patron,
declared to have removed with a pair of scissors several brown
red spots, thick 1 mm and about 1 cm in diameter, on the deck
and on the railing. After these negative experiments, I feel
authorized to conclude that, in the current state of our
scientific knowledge, there is no blood, neither in the spots
found on the deck of the *Mary Celeste*, nor in those found on
the blade of the sword I examined. The origin of these brown red
spots is not revealed. A sword is found, covered with the same
brown spots. In the bosun's cabin, on his table, there is a
slate where the temperature, the time, the notes of the dial
were written: November 24th, 11am, 36° north latitude, 27° west
longitude, fine weather. A line passed, one can read: Strange,
my dear wife..
- **December 7th, 1am:** In King's Sutton, Banbury (Great Britain), an object resembling a haystack flies in an irregular trajectory. Sometimes at high altitude, sometimes very low, it is accompanied by fire and dense smoke. It produces the same effects as a tornado, causing trees and walls to fall, then suddenly disappears. [\[Fort 189\]]{.source}