Lee el siguiente texto y contesta lo que se indica.
What happened on the “Mary Celeste”?
Introduction
I. The disappearance of the crew of a small American ship, the Mary Celeste, in 1872 is one of the strangest mysteries in the history of sea navigation. Many explanations have been suggested but they have all been discarded in time. Recently, however, a more plausible explanation has been published.
The Story
II.The Mary Celeste was built in 1861. Its original name was Amazon. It was not a lucky ship. On its irst voyage in 1862 it was badly damaged in a collision. While it was being repaired in port, it caught ire. Later, in 1863 it crossed the Atlantic for the irst time, and in the English Channel it collided with another ship which sank. Then in 1867, it ran aground on Cape Breton Island. It was then sold and the name was changed to the Mary Celeste.
III. On November 5, 1872, the Mary Celeste departed from New York, bound for Genova, Italy, with a cargo of 1701 barrels of grain alcohol. There were ten people on board: Captain Briggs, his wife and two-year-old daughter, and a crew of seven. Briggs was an experienced captain and a very religious man. In his cabin there was an harmonium, which was used for playing hymns.
IV. A month later halfway between the Azores and Portugal the Mary Celeste was seen by another vessel, the Dei Gratia. Captain Morehouse of the Dei Gratia, a friend of Captain Briggs, was puzzled to see the ship sailing strangely. It seemed to be in trouble. When the Mary Celeste did not answer his signal he and a few of his men set off on a small boat and duly boarded it.
V. They searched every part of the ship and found nothing –not a man, dead or alive, no signs of illness or combat, no disruption. All the cargo was here. In fact everything was in good order, as if the crew had left ten minutes before. There was a ten-pound bill on a table –an enormous sum in those days. There was also an uninished letter home near the money. All the crew’s personal possessions (clothes, boots, pipes and tobacco, etcétera.) were on board. There was also plenty of food and water. These signs of normal, everyday life on an empty ship were the strange feature of the mystery. What happened to the captain and his crew?
Early Explanations
VI. Some people thought that they had encountered pirates. American Government oficials believed that the crew had got at the alcohol and murdered Captain Briggs and his family in a drunken fury. Considering the fact that Captain Briggs was an old friend of Captain Morehouse, could the mystery be explained in terms of a conspiracy between Briggs and Morehouse? What could have really happened on the ship?
A Recent Explanation
VII. In 1997 Captain Dave Williams published a new theory attributing the ill fate of the crew of the Mary Celeste to the effects of a seaquake (a seaquake is an earthquake at sea).
VIII. What happens on the surface during a seaquake depends not on the magnitude of the event, he explains, but rather on the hypocenter of the quake. The hypocenter is the underground place where the energy of the quake is released. If the hypocenter of the quake is deep in the bowels of the earth, he goes on to say, little occurs on the bottom of the sea or on the surface. But if the hypocenter is very shallow, the seabed usually opens up, then, the energy is released violently and it pushes and pulls the water in such a way that the results onboard the ship are just as if the vessel were setting on dry land during an earthquake.
IX. This is his explanation of the mystery:
“After leaving New York the Mary Celeste arrived at Santa Maria Island in the Azores. They were probably sailing slowly along the shore when suddenly the sealoor started dancing up and down in a violent seaquake, relatively common in the Azores. The vibrations were so severe that they loosened the stays around nine barrels, dumping almost 500 gallons of alcohol into the bilge. Fumes spread rapidly throughout the boat. The seaquake also shook the gallery stove so violently that it was lifted up from its chocks and set down out of place.
X. Choking on the alcohol fumes from the leaking barrels while seeing sparks and embers lying about from the ire in the cooking stove was all it took to send the crew into panic. They needed to get away from what they were sure was a coming explosion.
XI. The captain must have also believed that staying aboard the Mary Celeste was extremely dangerous, because of the explosive nature of the cargo they carried and ordered what any experienced and responsible captain would have ordered in such a situation: ‘Take to the life boat and abandon the ship.’
XII. So, that left the captain, his family and the crew of the Mary Celeste crowded into a tiny boat at the mercy of the Atlantic, in heavy seas.
XIII. The records of the “Servicio Meteorológico” in the Azores say that the weather deteriorated that morning and a storm blew up involving strong winds and torrential rain.
XIV. It is probable that the strong winds sank the small life boat and ironically the violent rains put out the ire onboard the Mary Celeste. The inal story is that Captain Briggs got it wrong and paid the ultimate price along with his family and crew.”
XV. There is little doubt; it is very likely that the crew of the Mary Celeste were victims of an earthquake at sea.
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125. Elige la opción que completa correctamente la síntesis del texto. “¿Qué pasó en el Mary Celeste?”
La Historia
• El 5 de noviembre de 1872, el Mary Celeste ________________________.
• Un mes después fue avistado por otro barco, el “Dei Gratia”.
• El Mary Celeste estaba desierto, la tripulación había desaparecido,
pero todo estaba en orden incluyendo el cargamento.
Explicaciones
• Algunos pensaron que se habían encontrado con piratas.
• Otros pensaron que la tripulación se había emborrachado y asesinado al capitán.
• Se pensó incluso en una conspiración entre Briggs y Morehouse.
• Recientemente se ha pensado que la tripulación pudo haber sido víctima de ________________.