by L. du Garde Peach.
The known facts, which are on record, are that the brigantine Mary Celeste, of 282 tons register, sailed from New York for Vigo in Spain, on November 7, 1872, and was found by the brig Dei Gratia, on December 3 of the same year, abandoned by her crew, some three hundred and eighty nautical miles from Cape Roca in Portugal. The ship was undamaged and there was no sign of confusion on board, except that the fore hatch had been opened and one barrel of the cargo of 1,700 barrels of raw alcohol had been broached. The ship's boat - she only carried one - was missing.
Captain Briggs, skipper and part owner of the Mary Celeste, was a religious fanatic of the New England type, and with him on the voyage he had taken his young wife.
Neither Captain Briggs, his wife, nor any member of the crew has ever been heard of since...
This play is an imaginative version of what might have happened...
At 8.15