As a historian, I frequently find inspiration for my stories in old documents and real histories of the past. My book Somewhere in the Mist is one such story, based on the drama of the Great Depression and the incredible story of the lost ship, the Mary Celeste.

In 1872, a ship named the Mary Celeste, a 286-ton brigantine, was found 800 miles east of the Azores sailing without a crew. It had embarked from New York with a seven-man crew, carrying a cargo of grain alcohol four weeks before. Captain Benjamin Spooner Briggs took his wife, Sarah Elizabeth Briggs, and their two-year-old daughter, Sophia Matilda Briggs, for what should have been a routine trip. When the crew of the Dei Gratia found the Mary Celeste rolling before the wind, they boarded her to investigate.

The crew of the Dei Gratia found the ship deserted, the ship’s charts flung about, and the crewmen’s belongings still in their bunks. The hatch on the cargo hold was moved aside and three and half feet of water sloshed about in the hold with the 1,701 barrels of alcohol. One of the pumps had been taken apart. The only lifeboat was missing, and a frayed rope trailed behind the ship. The crew of the Dei Gratia sailed the Mary Celeste to Gibraltar for salvage where three months later they received one-sixth the value of its $46,000 insurance policy. But the crew, the captain, and his family were never seen or heard of again.

It’s a tragic story, but writers have crafted all kinds of fantastical, silly, and lurid explanations for the disappearance of the crew, Captain Briggs, Elizabeth, and Sophia. Most reasonable investigators discount the stories of sea monsters, piracy, mutiny, drunkenness, and seduction. Waterspouts and giant waves caused by underwater earthquakes have also been put forward. It is true that if a seaquake shook the ship violently enough, it might have created a panic situation. But no such quakes were recorded in the region in November of 1872.

The most widely accepted theory is that some of the industrial alcohol in the cargo may have leaked into the bilge water, causing a small explosion, or otherwise creating serious concern that the vessel was in danger of exploding. Since all seamen know—or so I am told— that the best lifeboat you have is the ship itself, only a real and pressing belief that the ship was in danger would induce an experienced captain to abandon his ship. All the evidence suggests that the ship was, in fact, abandoned, but we will never know why.

I discovered this story while living in Marion, Massachusetts, and I used it to craft my story Somewhere in the Mist. Though I have taken literary license and fictionalized the story, I have avoided reaching any hard and fast conclusions as to why the ship was abandoned. My characters didn’t know, so I felt no obligation to hazard a guess. Somewhere in the Mist takes place sixty years later in the fictional town of Stony Harbor.

For me, the story has always been one of human tragedy, at least as much as an engaging mystery. One cannot help but wonder what could have driven an able and experienced captain to abandon his ship in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, putting not only his ship and crew but also his wife and daughter at risk. What must have gone through all of their minds? What did they fear so much? And what could they have hoped for?

I also wonder what life would have been like for the boy Captain and Mrs. Briggs left behind at home to pursue his studies. As the sensational trial over the salvage in Gibraltar reached the newspapers, and Arthur Conan Doyle crafted his lurid account of African pirates, what must this boy and his family have suffered? I do not know. I can only imagine. But after reading salacious and unjustifiable stories of Sarah’s flirtations with the crew, mutiny, and murder, I assume it must have been traumatic indeed. As if the loss of loved ones was not bad enough, their good names and character were also called into question and aired for public ridicule.

I have also used this tragedy to highlight how historically insignificant events that might never make it into our textbooks can have profound effects on the lives of individuals and communities. In this story, I have intermingled the tragedy of the Great Depression that was just as mysterious and incomprehensible to the people who lived through it as is the disappearance of the Mary Celeste to us. But one of the incredible and sublime qualities of the human spirit is our ability to survive and even thrive despite tragedy, suffering, and loss. Yes, life does have its storms. Sometimes they are desperate and terrible, but they do not have to cripple us.

Cheers,
James