The True Story of The Marie Celeste

On April 14, 1868, two ships were scheduled to leave the busy port of New York, bound for Europe. The night before, their captains met and had dinner together. The dinner was very ordinary and certainly neither man knew he would soon have a role in one of the worlds greatest mysteries. The two ships Left next morning. Their names: the Dei Gratia and the Marie Celeste after several days at the sea, Morehouse, the captain of the Dei Gratia, sighted the Marie Celeste, and immediately recognized that something was wrong. It was not moving and there was no sign of life on deck. Morehouse and a few of his men took a small boat to the Marie Celeste to investigate. They searched every part of the ship and found nothing not a man, dead or alive, no signs of illness or combat, no disruption. In fact,, everything was in good order, as if the crew Left ten minutes before. There was a ten dollar bill on a table with an unfinished letter home near it, a freshly washed stack of clothes in the laundry, and plenty of food and water. These signs of normal, everyday life on an empty ship were the strangest feature of the mystery. What had happened to the captain and crew? If the had been attacked, why was everything still in its place and why were there no signs of a struggle? If they had died suddenly from a disease, where their bodies. Investigators searched for the answers to these questions for years and years, but they came up with nothing. The fate of the men of the Marie Celeste remains as one of the unanswered questions of our time. Mark these statements T (True) or F (False). 1.The two ships set sailforEurope on the same day. 2. Captain Morehouse was not surprised to see the Marie Celeste unoccupied. 3. The captain of the Marie Celeste left a letter explaining what had happened. 4. The crew of the Marie Celeste used all their food and water and died of starvation. 5. Morehouse and his men mystified to find contents of the Marie Celeste undisturbed. Answer these questions with information from the passage. 1. When did the Dei Gratia and the Marie Celeste leave New York for Europe? 2. Who was the captain of the Dei Gratia? 3. What did Morehouse and his men find when they searched the Marie Celeste? 4. What did later investigators discover? 5. Do you know about any other strange disappearances? T T T T T F F F F F