Dei Gratia (brigantine) explained
Dei Gratia was a Canadian
brigantine built in
Bear River, Nova Scotia in 1871. The brigantine was named after the
Latin phrase for "
By the Grace of God". She became famous in 1872 when, under the command of David Reed Morehouse, she discovered the ghost ship without any crew near the
Azores. They were east of the
Azores on 5 December 1872. Morehouse and his crew took the derelict
Mary Celeste to
Gibraltar and claimed the brigantine as salvage. They were at first subjected to suspicion by Gibraltar's Attorney General, but the Vice Admiralty Court later approved their salvage prize and commended the crew for their resourcefulness and courage. The hefty court expenses of the extensive probe reduced the salvage compensation, which was originally set at roughly $8,300. Only a sixth of the money was really paid.
Dei Gratia was sold to Irish owners in 1881 and wrecked at Black Rock, Dale, Pembrokeshire after breaking her moorings in a storm on 27 December 1907. Her original ship portrait is preserved at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
References
- Stanley T. Spicer, The Saga of the Mary Celeste, (Halifax: Nimbus Press, 1993), p. 30, 42–43.
- Daniel Cohen, "Curses, Hexes, & Spells", (J. B. Lippincoti Company, 1974)
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