Over the lee rail came a crew of technicians carrying the heavy Ward-Workman tridi recorders of the twenty-seventh century, and their director pulled a script from his pocket and said:
"Joe, you and Pete dislocate the binnacle and break the compass. Al, open the fore hatch and lazarette. Tony, that spring-wound chronometer is a pre-atomic clock and worth a fortune to the National Museum, put it among my personal loot, along with the sextant. You can keep the ship's register, but give the navigation books to George with my compliments. Let's see, um. Sails, jib and fore-topmast. Now toss the yawl overboard; get it out of the way. It's missing." One of his men came up and said something to him that I could not hear. "No," he replied, "It would not be more dramatic to dummy-up a half-eaten breakfast and a pan of milk warming on the stove for the baby. Too many writers tried to make it that way in the beginning. I know what's authentic."
Then he paused as the Ward-Workman cameramen panned around Mary Celeste making close-up and approach shots. One by one they finished their work and reported to him.
"Fine," he said, looking at his strapwatch. "Now let's back off for some long shots. And remember, we don't know what kind of a catastrophe this is going to be, so keep those tridi recorders running constantly until I tell you to stop!"
Captain Benjamin Spooner Briggs of Mary Celeste put an arm around his wife. To me he said, "I don't completely understand, but I do get enough to realize that we're the subject of something evil."
"Yes," I replied, "you—"
"We're not waiting here to let it happen to us!" he snapped.
"But you can't change history!" I objected.
"Watch," he said roughly. And then with a stentorian voice, Captain Briggs roared: "Abandon ship!"
The captain and his wife, still carrying their daughter Sophia Matilda, mingled with the photorecording crew. The two mates, the steward, and the four German seamen went over the side and swam swiftly for the barges. There were flurries of activity when they went aboard the barges, but then the activity stilled and I was alone on Mary Celeste.