Title: A good sea yarn
Review: This book is a good, brisk read by a sharp journalist. The Mary Celeste was a ship found adrift in the Atlantic in the 1870s, with nobody aboard and no sign of a struggle or bad weather. Since that time the mystery of her crew's fate has puzzled and intrigued writers and historians. Hicks lays out all the known facts of the case, while delving into the personal life of the captain and the details of the lawsuit which followed the incident, when the ship was salvaged. He then takes a few amusing detours, recounting the ship's subsequent ill-fated story, the absurd tales that grew up around it, and more plausible early theories of what had happened. In the end, Hicks lays out what he believes occurred, and his case as presented here is certainly the best explanation to date; I do fancy he's solved it. We close with a brief discussion of the Mary Celeste's wreck, which was found recently by divers off Haiti, and this satisfying, well-rounded true tale is complete.
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