The Gibraltar Chronicle relates a story which might have given
a hint to Edgar Poe or Coleridge. The Dei Gratia, British ship, on 5th December, fell in with an American brigantine, the Mary Celeste, in lat. 38.20 N., and long. 17.15 W. The master boarded her, and found her abandoned, from no apparent cause. She was perfectly sound, had suffered from no storm, a small phial filled with oil being found perpendicular, and nothing whatever had been injured. A sword which was in the cabin was found to be smeared with blood, the top-gallant rail had marks on it of blood, and both bows of the vessel had been cut with some sharp instrument. The captain's effects were of value, and there had been a lady and child on board. It is not mentioned whether the boats were gone, but the theory would seem to be that the crew, or part of them, murdered the captain, ran the vessel towards the Azores, and escaped in the boats, carrying off the lady and child with them.
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