On this day in 1872 the Canadian ship, Dei Gratia found an American ship named the Mary Celeste adrift, without a crew near the Azores Islands (Portugal). The story of the Mary Celeste is wrapped in mystery. The ship was originally built by Joshua Dewis in Nova Scotia in 1861 and was called the Amazon. The ship was built to travel across the Atlantic Ocean to bring loads of timber to and from England and France. The ship had a checkered history during that time. Its first captain became sick on the first journey and had to return back to Canada. He died shortly after. The ship would endure multiple other problems until it was wrecked and abandoned in 1867. The ship was salvaged, repurposed, and sold. It would be renamed the “Mary Celeste.” The ship’s new captain was Benjamin Briggs. Briggs was an extremely capable seaman. He was well-respected among his peers. He had considerable experience and had spent more time at sea than on land. He had considered retiring from the sea shortly before becoming captain of the renamed ship. The ship was loaded down with nearly six months of supplies and was employed to travel to Genoa Italy. The crew consisted of only ten people, including most of Briggs's family. It set sail from New York on November 7th, 1872. The journey across the sea was anything but easy. The captain’s log records that they endured rough seas for roughly two weeks. Captain Morehouse of the Dei Gratia (By the Grace of God) spotted a ship that was obviously adrift. Ironically the Dei Gratia was stationed near the Mary Celeste prior to sailing. There is even a rumor that the captain of the two ships dined before setting sail. Morehouse sent two crew members onto the ‘ghost ship’ to investigate. The ship had obviously endured a rough journey but it was 100% seaworthy. For the most part, nothing was touched on the ship. There were ample supplies and nothing showed any wrongdoing. The only thing missing was maps and the captain’s navigational equipment. The last captain's log was from ten days earlier and nothing seemed amiss in it. Morehouse brought the ship to Gibraltar where it would again be repurposed and used until 1885 when it was purposefully wrecked off the coast of Haiti in an insurance fraud claim.
The mystery of the Mary Celeste remains unsolved to this day. There are multiple conspiracy theories on what happened, but no facts. The only fact that remains is that the ship was adrift and the crew was lost. Being adrift is always a danger. There is a greater danger though, being adrift spiritually. There are countless people who are rudderless and directionless spiritually. The Bible warns about this in Ephesians 4:14, which says “as a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every win of doctrine, by the trickery of people, by the craftiness in deceitful scheming.” Paul talks about people who are adrift spiritually. They are adrift spiritually because they are not grounded in sound doctrine/teaching. Sound teaching is like an anchor for our life. It keeps us grounded when life’s storms come our way. We obtain sound teaching from God’s Word. Not just owning God’s Word, but actually reading and instilling God’s Word in our life. Doctrine, while not necessarily popular or attractive as other areas of our faith, is vitally important to keep us from going adrift. The world will blow winds of false teaching in our direction. New ‘theology’ will crop up. It will be ‘desirable’ and ‘attractive’, but it is destructive to our spiritual growth and undermines true, sound teaching. Get grounded in God’s Word or you will go adrift.
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