All The Rage: the ‘Mary Celeste’
The latest (November 2007) issue of All The Rage is out, and the theme this month is ‘puzzles and mysteries’. Particularly recommended: Rob Jones’s artful Mystery on the District Railway and Tim Warriner’s guide to the best way to remember playing cards (’requires a good understanding of hexadecimal and binary and the ability to convert from one to the other quickly’). But, of course, it’s all good. My contribution is an article exploring that classic mystery of the sea, the case of the brig Mary Celeste:
The tale of the Mary Celeste is one of the sea’s most enduring mysteries, a puzzle with no apparent solution: a vessel found drifting on the open sea, dry and in perfect condition, sails set, boats intact, no sign of storm or violence, food served out on the table, cargo in perfect order, and no living soul aboard … Many solutions have been suggested over the years: mutiny, insurance fraud, alien abduction, mass religious frenzy, and an attack by sharks during an impromptu swiming competition; but the enigma remains. Yet the Mary Celeste of this enduring mystery is quite different from the real Mary Celeste …
… as you will discover if you read ‘The Mary Celeste: fact, fiction and mystery’ in the new issue of All The Rage. Here is a direct link to that very issue (PDF).
Picture: Engraving of the Mary Celeste as found in December 1872. [Source]
