Chapter One searching a ghost ship Who is David Reed Morehouse Who is Oliver Deveau What did they learn about the Mary Celeste David Reed Morehouse was a ship captain His ship was called Dei Gratia This means by the grace of God He set sail from New York on November 15 1872 His ship was about 600 miles 966 kilometers from Portugal on December 4 He saw another ship The ship was yawing Yawing means drifting out of control Some sails were down Other sails were up Some sails were torn Ropes hung loose 4
Morehouse watched the ship He didn’t see anyone steering He didn’t see distress signals Distress means being in danger It was odd Morehouse used a spyglass A spyglass is a small telescope 5
Consider the EviDeNCE Could pirates have raided the Mary Celeste The Mary Celeste was a brigantine A brigantine is a special ship It’s medium sized It has two masts It’s fast It’s easy to control It can sail in shallow waters This means it can go where heavier ships can’t go It can chase other objects It can escape danger Its front is high This means there’s a good view And it was easier to board other ships from a brigantine A brigantine is easy to maintain It doesn’t need a lot of men to sail For all these reasons pirates liked brigantines 6
Morehouse sailed to the ship He circled it He saw the ship’s name It was Mary Celeste He sent men to investigate Oliver Deveau was one of them He was the first mate This means he was second in charge Deveau walked on board He didn’t hear anything He didn’t see anything There were no signs of life There was no crew Crew means the ship’s workers There were no signs of struggle There wasn’t any blood There were food and supplies enough for 6 months The crew’s things were still there The cargo was intact Cargo means things carried by the ship It looked like whoever was on the ship left quickly and in an orderly way 7
