https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6t2AZubF8U
Dry storage, yes. In a dry environment.
From a watcher, a REAL good reason why the red oak barrels leaked…this is neat.
by CJ | Aug 11, 2014 | Journal | 6 comments
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Things you didn’t know about oak…….So, I would presume that the Royal Navy’s use of Kentish oak would have been strictly white oak, as well as pine for the masts and spars.
Having built boxes in both white and red oak using a shellac finish, I can say the red oak barrels MUST have been an example of someone shorting materials or incredible stupidity. Those barrels would have been leaking before they were loaded on the boat unless they were coated with something, red oak really DOES wick as fast as that video clip shows. The fumes must have been fierce, although I doubt the hold was really THAT tight…
curiouser and curiouser!
I’d say the manufacturer had somebody sell him a supply barrels, and filled out his order with barrels meant for dry goods, and ill-suited to be carried in a ship’s hold. It’s a wonder they weren’t sweating alcohol when loaded. And they may have been. The loaders may just have ‘done their job’ and gotten it loaded super fast to get paid.
It was some variety of ‘industrial’ alcohol. It was always certain the sailors weren’t drinking it: 8 oz of Isopropyl alcohol and 2 oz of wood alcohol (methanol) are lethal, with stomach cramps and painful symptoms. 9 barrels of what we assume was isopropyl alcohol went into the bilge.
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/abandoned-ship-the-mary-celeste-174488104/?no-ist
The Smithsonian article says the ship was packed too tightly to inspect cargo. I’d assume that’s too tight to pilfer it.
Another theory: the alcohol ignites and burns at such low temperatures, suppose it ignited from the galley and presented the appearance, especially at night, of an inferno; but actually was cool enough that nothing was damaged.
ISTR it was methanol, CH3OH, which is used in Formula 1 & Indy race cars. If you’ve watched a race where there’s an mishap, you may remember methanol burns “invisibly”, making it extrenely dangerous. There’s not a lot of “extra” carbon in it to radiate the orange glow. It’s boiling point is 64.7 °C. Vapor pressure is 100mm Hg @21.2 °C.
Iso-propanol, C3H8OH, is sterically hindered, heavier (BP 82.6 °C, VP 40mm Hg @ 23.8 °C), and burns with a visible flame. It’s just harder to get to burn than methanol.
I don’t think it was methanol. Wikipedia says, “On 5 November 1872, under command of Captain Briggs, Mary Celeste docked on New York City’s East River and took on board a cargo of 1,701 barrels of commercial alcohol intended for fortifying Italian wines…”; while “citation needed,” a Google search shows lots of confirmation on the fortifying wine part.
In any case, the alcohol would be mixed with sea water and the chaff of the ship’s refit (which may have jammed a pump, thus its dis-assembly), and I wouldn’t be confident about the purity of a low end 1872 product. I think ethanol burns blue, but impurities could lead to most any color, I suppose.
I went to the Chart House in Mammoth Lakes at a time they were having a lot of earthquakes. Mammoth Lakes is in a 22 mile across caldera. The Chart House had a walk-around fireplace filled with sand, fed by natural gas. Some wag had shaped the sand into a cone volcano, like Fuji. The caldera of the sand volcano burned constantly, pale blue, and as gas leaked through the sand grains, gas would reach flashover(?) concentration, and waves of blue flame would fly around the cone. It was quite spectacular, and would have been more so in the dark. So, that’s the kind of effect I’m imagining, a spooky fire, seeming to pulse with life.