Mystery of the Mary Celeste - National Geographic Society Vocabulary On December 4, 1872, the “ghost ship” Mary Celeste was discover ed sailing near the Azores Islands, un harm ed and with her cargo intact —but without any crew . The abandon ment of the Mary Celeste and the fate of her crew remains one of history’s greatest maritime mysteries. The Mary Celeste had left New York City, New York, about a month earlier. The ship carried a cargo of industrial alcohol and was headed to Genoa, Italy. A crew of eight, plus the captain’s wife and son, were on board. A British vessel spotted the Mary Celeste sailing erratic ally and investigate d. They found the cargo mostly intact, instrument s working, and all the crew and passengers’ valuable items still secure. The weather was good. The only unusual elements were one missing lifeboat, several broken barrels of alcohol, and a fray ed rope trailing behind the ship. There are many theories surrounding the mystery of the Mary Celeste, ranging from pirate s to mutiny . One of the strongest theories is that insecure barrels of alcohol broke, and the fume s helped create spark s that startled the crew.

Thinking the ship may explode , the crew and passengers of the Mary Celeste boarded the lifeboat, tied to the larger ship while the cargo hold “aired out” the fumes. With the lifeboat safely tied to the Mary Celeste, a storm may have hit. While the large, sturdy Mary Celeste survived the storm, the tiny lifeboat and single rope were much more vulnerable . No trace of the lifeboat or any survivor of the Mary Celeste has ever been found. Term to desert or leave entirely. alcohol Noun chemical compound, usually ethanol or methanol, generated by fermentation and used for fuel, hygiene, medicine, and food. cargo goods carried by a ship, plane, or other vehicle. crew workers or employees on a boat or ship. discover to learn or understand something for the first time. erratic wandering or veering from a set course. explode to expand with great speed, force, and noise. fate predetermined course of events in the life of a person. fray to wear away or unravel. fume vapor from a substance that usually has an identifiable odor. harm having to do with factories or mechanical production. instrument to study or examine in order to learn a series of facts.

maritime having to do with the ocean. mutiny thief who steals from ships or ships' crews while at sea. secure to guarantee, or make safe and certain. spark severe weather indicating a disturbed state of the atmosphere resulting from uplifted air. survive craft for traveling on water, usually larger than a rowboat or skiff. vulnerable The Mystery of the Mary Celeste The Mystery of the Mary Celeste The Mary Celeste, in her earlier days as the Amazon (Public domain image) In 1872, a ship was found adrift in the Atlantic Ocean, in near-perfect condition but for one problem: there was nobody aboard. In time, the story of the Mary Celeste became one of the most famous riddles of the sea. Over the years, many have offered solutions for what happened to the crew. But are any of them correct? As is the case with so many of the mysteries we examine here on Skeptoid, the story of the Mary Celeste was an actual event that was largely forgotten until an imaginative author revived and exaggerated it for popular audiences. This time, the author was a young man who would later be knighted as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle for his Sherlock Holmes books.

It was a short story written under the pseudonym W. Small for the January 1884 issue of Cornhill Magazine, entitled " J. Habakuk Jephson's Statement ". Conan Doyle dramatized the Mary Celeste's story, adding such touches as meals laid out on the table, tea boiling on the stove, and the ship sailing boldly into the harbor at Gibraltar with nobody at the helm. Today, most people who have heard of the ship think these details are part of what actually happened. They aren't. Conan Doyle's was only the first of many such treatments. A 1913 magazine article was the forged account of a man named Fosdyk who claimed to have been a stowaway on board the Mary Celeste, witnessed the entire crew fall overboard as they pressed against the rail to watch three of the men have a swimming race, then managed to be the only one not eaten by sharks and eventually washed ashore on Africa. In the 1920s, an author named Keating forged an article for Chamber's Journal telling the story of a man named Pemberton who survived.

Keating soon expanded the fictitious Pemberton's tale into a book called The Great Mary Celeste Hoax. Unfortunately, the book's success became its downfall: Interviews with Pemberton were widely sought. Keating tried to weasel his way out with excuses, and even offered a picture of his own father as a photograph of Pemberton; but it was soon discovered that he made the whole thing up. The Mary Celeste was a small merchant brigantine of 33 meters and 282 gross tons. She'd just been acquired by a small group of investors, among whom was the ship's one-third owner, Captain Benjamin Briggs. Joining him on board were his wife and baby daughter, plus seven sailors. They left port from Staten Island, New York in November of 1872, fully laden with cargo bound for Genoa, Italy. The cargo was 1,701 wooden barrels of pure grain alcohol, intended to fortify cheap Italian wines. America's vast corn fields made it the cheapest producer of grain alcohol at the time, and it made good economic sense for Italy to buy it and ship it all the way from the United States.

The voyage was relatively uneventful according to Captain Briggs' log entries, and the fine weather was confirmed by the captain of another ship sailing one week behind. Captain David Morehouse commanded the Dei Gratia, a similar brigantine laden with petroleum. Briggs and Morehouse had sailed together for many years and knew each other well, and it was a happy coincidence that the two friends found themselves on nearly identical voyages. But almost halfway between the Azore Islands and Gibraltar, Morehouse made an unhappy discovery. The Dei Gratia unexpectedly caught up with the Mary Celeste, finding her adrift. Morehouse sent a party to investigate, and found the Mary Celeste unmanned. It was a bizarre find; there were no obvious signs of trouble and all appeared to be in order. But there were a few interesting clues. The Mary Celeste had been equipped with a yawl, and though that term usually describes a type of sailboat, in this case it refers to a ship's rowboat capable of being rigged for sailing. The yawl was normally stored atop the main cargo hatch between the two masts, but was gone; and the railings on one side of the ship had been lowered indicating that the yawl had been launched normally.

The other two cargo hatches — the forehatch on the foredeck and the lazarette hatch, above a small compartment aft — had both been removed and were stowed, exposing the cargo of alcohol. When Morehouse found the ship, it was flying minimal sails, the fore lower topsail and two jibs. Modern analysis has confirmed that Morehouse found it just about where it would have been expected to be, driven primarily by currents, if it had been under no helm control since passing the Azores. Interestingly, the main peak halyard, the stoutest line on the ship, was missing; and it was very likely the same rope that was found cleated off and trailing in the water behind the ship. There was a significant amount of water in the bilge and cabins of the ship, but this was believed to be consistent with the open hatches and an opened skylight. The Mary Celeste had tossed about for at least ten days since its last log entries, in freshening weather that had compelled the crew to shorten sail; and so it was not surprising that it had taken on some water.

As its stores were in good shape and it was perfectly seaworthy, Morehouse sent a skeleton crew aboard the Mary Celeste and brought it to Gibraltar, where the loss was reported and investigations took place for purposes of insurance and salvage. When the cargo was unloaded and examined, nine of the barrels of alcohol were empty: undamaged, yet empty. Early theories quickly focused on the relationship between Briggs and Morehouse, and charges of conspiracy and insurance fraud were flung about; but these theories made no sense from a profit standpoint. For a while, some believed piracy had taken place, or that perhaps Briggs' crew had drunkenly mutinied against him; but all of these stories crumbled under scrutiny and lack of evidence that would have been expected. Since then, even more suggestions have come from the fringe, pointing to exotic causes for the abandonment, like waterspouts and rogue waves. One in particular, David Williams, proposes that a "seaquake" struck the ocean floor. He states that the US and British navies know that such quakes can destroy surface vessels with powerful shockwaves, but that they cover it up so it's not generally known.

Williams' theory is that this sudden shaking released embers from the ship's stove, so the crew fled the ship fearing the embers would ignite the store of alcohol. Williams states that there are numerous examples of ships sustaining heavy damage from such shockwaves, but as no damage was noted on the Mary Celeste, his seems an arbitrary explanation. A few pieces of physical evidence strongly suggest what has emerged as the favorite theory, based on those nine empty barrels discovered in Gibraltar. The reason they were empty would have been clear to any cooper. All of those many barrels were of white oak, except for those nine, which were of red oak. Of the species of wood sold as white oak, the majority have occluded pores. This makes the wood watertight, which is why white oak is used for wine barrels and other barrels intended to hold liquid. The pores in the wood of the twenty or so species of red oak, on the other hand, are open; allowing liquids to seep through the wood. Consequently, red oak barrels should only be used for dry goods. But, for some reason, Meissner Ackermann & Co. (owner of the alcohol) used nine of the wrong type of barrel.

At some point in the voyage, or possibly even before, these barrels would have become soaked through. Alcohol evaporates quite quickly, so the smell would have permeated the ship's cargo hold. No record remains of where in that vast pile of 1,701 barrels the nine red oaks were found, but chances are that most of them were hidden from view. A visual inspection of the cargo hold probably would have found nothing, making it impossible to tell the extent of the leakage, but that smell would have been everywhere. This is also evidenced by the removed deck hatches; the crew were undoubtedly trying to vent the flammable fumes. But alcohol vapor is heavier than air, so it's unlikely that venting the deck hatches would have done much to dispel it. The crew had to have feared that an explosion or fire was imminent. The yawl was launched and everyone on board removed to it. This was not done in a panic or haphazardly, but rather urgently and efficiently. The captain had the sense to collect his sextant and marine chronometer, necessary for navigating; but everything else on board that was not essential was left behind.

No strong evidence suggests an answer to the question of whether they intended to completely abandon the ship, or to simply sit at a safe distance until they figured the danger was past. They took the precaution of using the strongest line they had to secure the yawl to the Mary Celeste, but in some unknown circumstance, the line was not secure or became severed. The few sails still set on the ship were enough that the yawl's rowers could not keep up. Once he saw they would not be able to catch the ship, the captain headed for Santa Maria Island in the Azores. And, as was all too often the end of such deep sea open boat voyages in those days, they never made it, and were ultimately swallowed by the Atlantic Ocean. Over the next ten days, the Mary Celeste rocked in the breeze with its open hatches. The last of the alcohol evaporated away, and no one in Morehouse's party reported smelling anything. It's a certainty that all nine barrels, some 450 Imperial gallons, escaped as fumes while the Mary Celeste was at sea. In 2006, Dr.

Andrea Sella, a chemist at University College London, conducted an experiment to recreate conditions that he believes may have prompted Briggs to evacuate. Sella filled a compartment with cubes of paper and butane gas, then sparked it. The resulting combustion produced a sudden flash of flame that was visually dramatic, but was cool and quick enough that the paper was not scorched. Dr. Sella theorized that perhaps such a flash had happened in the Mary Celeste's cargo compartment, frightening the crew into fearing that a much larger explosion may well have been imminent. The ethanol vapors in the Mary Celeste's hold would burn even cooler and quicker than butane, though probably much less dramatically, with a blue or invisible flame, unlike like the butane's yellow flash. But it certainly would have been every bit as alarming to the crew, if it had happened. Without any reasonable doubt, the cause of the disappearance of the Mary Celeste's crew was voluntary abandonment. We can't be certain what prompted the evacuation, but there seems little reason to speculate beyond what's best supported by the evidence: powerful and dangerous fumes from the alcohol-soaked red oak barrels. Briggs' action, though ultimately disastrous, was more than reasonable at the time.

Cite this article: Dunning, B. "The Mystery of the Mary Celeste." Skeptoid Podcast. Skeptoid Media, 20 Dec 2011. Web. 19 Jan 2017. < References & Further Reading Begg, Paul. "The Classic Case of the Mary Celeste." The Unexplained Mysteries of Time and Space. 1 Jan. 1982, Volume 4, Issue 48. Blumberg, J. "Abandoned Ship: the Mary Celeste." Smithsonian. 1 Nov. 2007, Volume 38, Number 8. Corrado, J. "What Really Happened to the Mary Celeste?" The Straight Dope. Creative Loafing Media, Inc., 16 Oct. 2001. Web. 17 Dec. 2011. < Doyle, A. "J. Habakuk Jephson's Statement." Cornhill Magazine. 1 Jan. 1884, Volume 2, Number 7: 1-32. Lee, A. "Solved: The Mystery of the Mary Celeste." UCL News. University College London, 20 May 2006.

Web. 17 Dec. 2011. < Wengert, G. "Red Oak, White Oak, Black Oak, and More." WoodWeb. WOODWEB Inc., 20 Jun. 2005. Web. 17 Dec. 2011. < Copyright ©2017 Skeptoid Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Rights and reuse information December 04, 1872 : The mystery of the Mary Celeste Introduction The Dei Gratia, a small British brig under Captain David Morehouse, spots the Mary Celeste, an American vessel, sailing erratically but at full sail near the Azores Islands in the Atlantic Ocean. The ship was seaworthy, its stores and supplies were untouched, but not a soul was onboard. On November 7, the brigantine Mary Celeste sailed from New York harbor for Genoa, Italy, carrying Captain Benjamin S. Briggs, his wife and two-year-old daughter, a crew of eight, and a cargo of some 1,700 barrels of crude alcohol.

After the Dei Gratia sighted the vessel on December 4, Captain Morehouse and his men boarded the ship to find it abandoned, with its sails slightly damaged, several feet of water in the hold, and the lifeboat and navigational instruments missing. However, the ship was in good order, the cargo intact, and reserves of food and water remained on board. The last entry in the captain’s log shows that the Mary Celeste had been nine days and 500 miles away from where the ship was found by the Dei Gratia. Apparently, the Mary Celeste had been drifting toward Genoa on her intended course for 11 days with no one at the wheel to guide her. Captain Briggs, his family, and the crew of the vessel were never found, and the reason for the abandonment of the Mary Celeste has never been determined. Article Details: December 04, 1872 : The mystery of the Mary Celeste Author December 04, 1872 : The mystery of the Mary Celeste URL Crew VANISHES On Ghost Ship....the Mary Celeste.... - YouTube Crew VANISHES On Ghost Ship....the Mary Celeste.... Want to watch this again later?

Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content. The interactive transcript could not be loaded. Loading... Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later. Published on Aug 21, 2014 The mystery of the Mary Celeste still remains one of the greatest maritime mysteries of all time. Was it haunted?...some sort of ghost ship? The ship is famous for being discovered in 1872, in the middle of the Atlantic ocean, completely abandoned....yet still in fine sailing condition….with plenty of supplies. The lifeboat was missing from the ship as well as part of its cargo which consisted of large oak barrels of commercial alcohol. All of the personal belongings of the crew as well as a 6 month supply of food and water were found on board - countering the notion that pirates had attacked the ship....as they would have taken much more. Can you imagine just sailing up to a huge abandoned ship in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean?...with no one on board...?....creepy isn't it? A true ghost ship.

To this day, one of the more prominent theories is that there was a frightening explosion of alcohol from the cargo they were carrying...causing the crew members to jump onto a lifeboat and trail behind the ship until everything seemed alright...only to accidentally lose their connection during a storm. To this day, the theories as to what exactly happened to the crew members of the Mary Celeste range from pirates, to violent disputes among the crew members, to excessive drunkedness of the crew members causing them to committ murder, to some sort of abduction by unknown entities, to an unforeseen explosion from the alcohol scaring the crew members onto a lifeboat. Regardless, the ship was cursed by sailors after the event....due to whatever the truth to this famous maritime mystery was. Category Ghost Ship Mary Celeste - The World's Most Puzzling and Enduring Mysteries of The Ocean - YouTube Ghost Ship Mary Celeste - The World's Most Puzzling and Enduring Mysteries of The Ocean Want to watch this again later? Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content. Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later.

Published on Feb 15, 2016 Thanks for watching... Mary Celeste (often misreported as Marie Celeste) was an American merchant brigantine that was found adrift and deserted in the Atlantic Ocean, off the Azores Islands, on December 4, 1872, by the Canadian brigantine Dei Gratia. She was in a disheveled but seaworthy condition, under partial sail, with no one on board, and her lifeboat missing. The last log entry was dated ten days earlier. She had left New York City for Genoa on November 7, and on discovery was still amply provisioned. Her cargo of denatured alcohol was intact, and the captain's and crew's personal belongings were undisturbed. None of those who had been on board—the captain and his wife, their two-year-old daughter, and the crew of seven—were ever seen or heard from again. Mary Celeste was built in Spencer's Island, Nova Scotia and launched under British registration as Amazon, in 1861. She transferred to American ownership and registration in 1868, when she acquired her new name, and thereafter sailed uneventfully until her 1872 voyage.

At the salvage hearings in Gibraltar following her recovery, the court's officers considered various possibilities of foul play, including mutiny by Mary Celeste's crew, piracy by the Dei Gratia crew or others, and conspiracy to carry out insurance or salvage fraud. No convincing evidence was found to support these theories, but unresolved suspicions led to a relatively low salvage award. The inconclusive nature of the hearings helped to foster continued speculation as to the nature of the mystery, and the story has repeatedly been complicated by false detail and fantasy. Hypotheses that have been advanced include the effects on the crew of alcohol fumes rising from the cargo, submarine earthquakes (seaquakes), waterspouts, attacks by giant squid, and paranormal intervention. After the Gibraltar hearings, Mary Celeste continued in service under new owners. In 1885, her captain deliberately wrecked her off the coast of Haiti, as part of an attempted insurance fraud. The story of her 1872 abandonment has been recounted and dramatized many times, in documentaries, novels, plays and films, and the name of the ship has become synonymous with unexplained desertion.

In 1884, Arthur Conan Doyle wrote a short story based on the mystery, but spelled the vessel's name as Marie Celeste. This spelling has now become more common than the original in everyday use. The keel of the future Mary Celeste was laid in late 1860 at the shipyard of Joshua Dewis in the village of Spencer's Island, on the shores of the Bay of Fundy in Nova Scotia. The ship was constructed of locally felled timber, with two masts, and was rigged as a brigantine; she was carvel-built, with the hull planking flush rather than overlapping. She was launched on May 18, 1861, given the name Amazon, and registered at nearby Parrsboro on June 10, 1861. Her registration documents described her as 99.3 feet (30.3 m) in length, 25.5 feet (7.8 m) broad, with a depth of 11.7 feet (3.6 m), and of 198.42 gross tonnage.

She was owned by a local consortium of nine people, headed by Dewis; among the co-owners was Robert McLellan, the ship's first captain. For her maiden voyage in June 1861, Amazon sailed to Five Islands to take on a cargo of timber for passage across the Atlantic to London. After supervising the ship's loading, Captain McLellan fell ill; his condition worsened, and Amazon returned to Spencer's Island where McLellan died on June 19. John Nutting Parker took over as captain, and resumed the voyage to London, in the course of which Amazon encountered further misadventures. She collided with fishing equipment in the narrows off Eastport, Maine, and after leaving London ran into and sank a brig in the English Channel. Source: Coast,Silent Partner; YouTube Audio Library Tick Tock,Jimmy Fontanez; Media Right Productions; YouTube Audio Library Drizzle to Downpour,Silent Partner; YouTube Audio Library Category Mary Celeste - The Ghost Ship Mary Celeste - The Ghost Ship On December 4, 1872 Mary Celeste, also known as the Ghost Ship, was found without a single soul on board while she was still sailing.

She was located off the coast of Portugal heading towards the Strait of Gibraltar. This happened even though the weather was fine and she had experienced and able crew. Here is the full story: The Mary Celeste was Originally named "The Amazon", when it was built at the shipyards in Spencer Island in Nova Scotia, Canada in 1861. It was launched in the same year which also happened to be the year when the American Civil War broke out. The brigantine Mary Celeste was 31 meters long, 7.6 meters wide and displaced 282 tons of water. However since her launch, she had always been influenced under some evil power. During her first decade of operations, she was involved in several misadventures and passed through many changes of ownership. It was as if the ship was under the influence of a bad evil. Look at the following chronological events: 1) The First master Robert McLellan fell ill and died. 2) On her maiden voyage commanded by John Parker, the ship suffered a big damage in her hull after running into a fishing dam off the sea. Mary Celeste required major repairs at the shipyards.

Later, a fire broke out at the shipyards, terminating Parkerï¿½s command. 3) During her first Atlantic crossing, she collided in the straits of Dover with a two-masted ship which sank. Mary Celeste again required repairs. 4) Upon her return to America she ran aground off Cow Bay, Nova Scotia. 5) After she was pulled out of the rocks, she continued to change hands between a number of owners. No one made any profit. In fact, some of them went bankrupt. 6) Finally she was purchased by an American, James Winchester. James bought her at a New York salvage auction for $3,000. She went through extensive repairs and renovation. When she was back again, the ship looked completely different and hardly had any resemblance with 'The Amazon'. Her name was then changed to Mary Celeste. In October 1872, Mary Celeste was made ready on a birth in New York's East River for a voyage to Genoa, Italy. The captain of the ship was Benjamin Briggs aged 37. Briggsï¿½ 30-year old wife Sarah and 2-year-old child were also in the ship.

And there were 7 crew making it a total of 10 on board. Captain Briggs was a very experienced and able seaman and captained five ships in his career. He himself was an owner of many ships and had spent most of his life on the sea. Mary Celeste departed New York City on November 7, 1872. She was carrying a cargo of 1701 barrels of raw commercial alcohol valued at some $35,000 and had full insurance. Strangely after almost a month of her sail, on December 4, 1872 a British Empire vessel named Dei Gratia found the Mary Celeste off the coast of Portugal. She apparently looked abandoned although still under sail. There was not a single soul on board. So what could have been the cause of such mysterious abandonment? The weather was fine and she had 6 months of food and water. The crew were all very able seamen and trustworthy. Even the personal belongings including valuables were untouched. Here are some speculations and theories behind the mystery of Mary Celeste: Piracy Some speculated that the Mary Celeste had fallen pray to the North African pirates who were known to be operating in that area.

The pirates would have killed all on board and threw the bodies over to the sea. However, there was no such incidence of piracy reported in the Straits of Gibraltar for the last one decade. This is possibly because the British Navy were stationed there. Even if there was piracy, it is almost impossible to believe that the pirates would spare all personal and valuable possessions of the crew members. They did not even touch the cargo. Also there was no sign of violence on the ship. The Dei Gratia crew as suspects Another theory was that the crew of the ship Dei Gratia that salvaged the abandoned Mary Celeste, would have murdered all on board and then fabricated the story of Ghost Ship in order to claim the salvage rights. But this seems very unlikely. There was no sign of any struggle on Mary Celeste. Secondly, Dei Gratia departed one week after Mary Celeste did and could not have caught up with it. Also Morehouse, the captain of Dei Gratia was a good friend of Briggs. Insurance Scam Some thought that the whole incidence was probably to make a fake insurance claim. But that would have required Morehouse of Dei Gratia to connive with Briggs to make it happen.

While this was possible, the ship Mary Celeste did not belong to either of them. The owner was James Winchester. Also, the insurance value was quite modest. So such a planned and staged act for such a modest amount looks quite improbable. Storm It's true that when the crew of Dei Gratia salvaged the Mary Celeste, they found a lot of water in between the decks and about 3 and half feet water in the hold. Also, two out of the three water pumps were found to be disassembled while only one was working. This led to the theory that Mary Celeste would have been hit by a severe storm and while it was sinking, captain Briggs ordered the crew to evacuate. But there are fallacies to this theory as well. There was no such storm reported in that area of Atlantic during the time the Mary Celeste was discovered abandoned. Also, the water level was not enough for a captain to order evacuation. The ship was still in sail worthy condition. However, it is possible that since Brigg's own family was on board, he would have been extra cautious. Then why didn't they all return and explain the story to all?

Drunken Crew It was found that 9 out of the 1701 barrels of alcohol were empty. So there was a speculation that the crew members would have consumed all the alcohol, got drunk and murdered the captain and his family due to Brigg's tyranny over the years. Sounds good, but seems unlikely. Briggs was known as an able and well behaved captain. Also, he was never heard consuming alcohol himself and therefore likely not to have allowed crew members to consume alcohol on board. Seaquake A modern Captain David Williams offered an explanation stating that there was earthquake under the sea. As a result the nine barrels would have got dislodged and the alcohol would have leaked. So that explains the empty barrels. Heavy rumbling of the sea made the crew members panic and they jumped into a small sailing dinghy boat. Later they tried to catch up with Mary Celeste but could not, and died on the sea. Well, this sounds interesting too. But the fact is, the crew of Dei Gratia did not report any sign of rumbling or aftershock. Also, there was no quake reported at the nearby Portuguese islands or Azores during that time.

Explosion Out of all the theories, a possible explosion causing Mary Celeste's abandonment seems to be the one most likely, although it too has its own caveat. This theory was offered by James Winchester, the owner of Mary Celeste himself. The nine barrels of alcohol which were found empty, were made of red oak and not white oak as the others. Red oaks are generally more porous. There may have been slow alcohol leakage thorough those. That would have create alcohol vapor in the hold. The barrels, that were tied with steel bands would have rubbed against each other. The friction in the steel bands then created a spark which would have then caused an explosion. Captain Briggs seeing a violent gush of fumes and fire, would have panicked and ordered the crew to immediately get on to the life boats. In hurry, the crew could not possibly tie their boat to the ship with a strong rope. And subsequently, a strong wind would have swayed them off and all would have drowned, or died out of hunger or exposure to weather. However, the caveat to this theory is that when Mary Celeste was salvaged, no one could get smell of the alcohol fumes outside the hold, nor could they see any burn marks.

Who knows whether the nine barrels were actually loaded empty at New York itself! There is no explanation that substantiates the Mary Celeste abandonment with full evidence and facts. So this remains as one of the greatest mysteries of the ocean. Related Articles 1) Check out Bermuda Triangle Incidents to know about many other amazing mysteries of Bermuda Triangle. 2) Check out Bermuda Triangle Theories that try to explain the major disappearances. 3) Check out Bermuda Triangle Mystery to know about the mystery of Bermuda Triangle, how it originated, what's happening in the area, its history and more. Your Reviews NOTE: I manually evaluate all posts and include only the ones that are original (not copy pasted from other sources) and having some serious matter. Dennis Slade (August 2014) Just wanted to point out that the Mary Celeste has nothing to do with the Bermuda Triangle...the boat was no where near the area when it was found, it was actually found on 4 December 1872 in the Atlantic Ocean slowly drifting towards the Straits of Gibraltar, thousand of miles away. Raj (bermuda-attractions.com) August 2014 Thanks for your remarks.

So what makes you think that Mary Celeste had nothing to do with Bermuda Triangle just because it was found thousands of miles away off the coast of Portugal. Do you know if it crossed any stretch of the triangle during its voyage from New York and what really happened when? I would appreciate any insights into such matters before considering your point. The Mystery of the Mary Celeste: Crew Vanishes from Seaworthy Ship | Ancient Origins 27 April, 2015 - 00:34 dhwty The Mystery of the Mary Celeste: Crew Vanishes from Seaworthy Ship (Read the article on one page) On 4 December, 1872, a ship now known as the Mary Celeste was found adrift in the choppy seas of the Atlantic. The ship was in full sail and in sound and seaworthy condition with ample provisions, but when it was boarded it was found to be completely empty – the crew had vanished without a trace. It is a mystery that has endured for more than 135 years. In January 1885, a ship slammed into Rochelois Reef, and was wrecked off the island of Haiti.

The captain, Gilman Parker, sold the salvage rights to the American consul for $500, and made an insurance claim for the alleged value of the ship’s cargo. This was the end of one of the most infamous ships to have sailed the seas, the Mary Celeste . However, it was the incident 13 years prior to Parker’s wrecking of the Mary Celeste that made it one of history’s most enduring mysteries. The Rochelois Bank in the Gulf of Gonâve, Haiti, where the Mary Celeste met its end. The Rochelois Bank is faintly discernible in the southerly channel between the island and the mainland. ( Wikimedia Commons ) The Mary Celeste was a merchant brigantine that was launched under British registration in 1861 as Amazon. Seven years later, she was transferred to American ownership, and was re-christened as the Mary Celeste . The ship continued to sail uneventfully until her 1872 voyage from New York to Genoa. The ship’s captain was Benjamin Briggs, a man said to be a staunch abstainer from alcohol and a devout Christian. Captain Briggs was also described as a brave officer who would not abandon his ship unless to save his life.

The first mate, Albert Richardson, was also considered fit to command, and was hand-picked by Captain Briggs. Additionally, Captain Brigg’s wife, his infant daughter, and six other crew members were on board the Mary Celeste . The Missing Crew of the Mary Celeste. From Left to Right: Benjamin Briggs, Captain of Mary Celeste; Albert C. Richardson, First mate; Sarah Briggs, wife of Benjamin Briggs; Sophia Briggs, daughter of Benjamin and Sarah Briggs (public domain) Towards the end of October 1872, the loading of the ship’s cargo – 1701 barrels of poisonous denatured alcohol began. On the 7 th of November, the Mary Celeste left New York Harbour, and sailed into the Atlantic. On the 4 th of December, the British brigantine Dei Gratia discovered the Mary Celeste sailing aimlessly between the Azores and Portugal. Upon closer inspection, the crew of the Dei Gratia discovered that there was no one on board the Mary Celeste , and the last entry in the ship’s daily log was written on the 24 th of November .

In spite of this, the ship was still in seaworthy condition, her cargo still largely intact, and her food and water supply sufficient for six months. Ghost riders: An unmanned Russian ship full of rats is adrift in the Atlantic - so, just how many other vagrant vessels are out there? | The Independent Ghost riders: An unmanned Russian ship full of rats is adrift in the Atlantic - so, just how many other vagrant vessels are out there? Thursday 23 January 2014 21:00 BST Click to follow The Independent Online Phantom cruise: The MV 'Lyubov Orlova' was cut adrift in Canada last February KPA/Zuma/Rex Features In happier times, the MV Lyubov Orlova was a pleasure ship, a cruiser accustomed to taking well-heeled Russian holidaymakers on adventure tours around the Arctic. Today, that same 295ft ship is bobbing somewhere off the coast of Ireland, its only passengers a horde of disease-ridden rats. The trouble for the ship began last February. Set for the breakers yard, it was being towed from Canada to the Dominican Republic by an American-owned tug.

A day into the journey, however, the line between the vessels broke. The tug tried to reconnect it, but was hampered by 35mph winds. It withdrew and the Orlova was left crewless and adrift. The Canadian authorities, worried that the ship might collide with its offshore oil wells, sent another, larger boat that caught hold of the stricken vessel. It did not take it to port, however. Instead, it towed the Orlova beyond Canadian waters and let it drift out to sea. Its lonely journey has now run to 12 months and as many as 2,000 nautical miles. The ship, having crossed the Atlantic, is now supposedly on Ireland's doorstep. Unsurprisingly, the Irish Coast Guard is unenthusiastic about the situation. "We don't want rats from foreign ships coming on to Irish soil," the director of the Irish maritime agency told the Irish Independent. There is not a great deal that can be done to prevent the rats from establishing a beachhead, however, given that the ship has no location-finding devices on board and no one knows where it is exactly.

As Gemma Wilkie, a spokesman for the British Chamber of Shipping points out, the situation is about as uncertain as it gets. "Clearly, the coastguard involved was vigilant in carrying out a search in response to the radar results showing an object of similar size off the Scottish coast – although as yet there has been no confirmed sighting of the ship in UK waters," she says. 7 things you need to know about the Lyubov Orlova Although the maritime authorities do not welcome such floating hazards, they are relatively sanguine about them. As John Murray, the maritime director of the International Chamber of Shipping, says, the chance of a collision with another ship is low. "Shipping containers and adrift crafts don't creep up on ships," he says. "Navigation warnings from other vessels and radar usually ensure they are spotted from quite a distance away. Ships navigate around them." Still, though, the notion of a phantom vessel, disconnected from the world, is discomfiting. The most famous example is, of course, the Mary Celeste, the 100ft brigantine which was found floating, crewless but well-provisioned, in the Atlantic Ocean in 1872.

Alas, though, the "ghost ship" is not a phenomena confined to the history textbook. In June last year, the 69ft Nina, heading to Sydney from New Zealand, was caught in a storm. A text sent by the crew soon after indicated that they had survived unscathed. A search of nearly 500,000 square nautical miles has failed to find the vessel, however. A grainy image, which some have suggested may be the ship, was taken off the coast of New Zealand. It has not been seen since. The family of those on board have financed a private rescue but to little avail. A Japanese fishing boat, the Ryou-Un Maru, also spent 11 months at sea without a crew. After slipping its moorings in March 2011 during the Tohoku earthquake, it drifted into US waters in April 2012. As it had been assumed sunk by the Japanese authorities, its registration had been cancelled and legally it no longer had an owner. The Americans took a pragmatic approach and sunk it in the Gulf of Alaska.

In some cases, though, when a small ship is being towed for scrap, breaks loose and cannot be caught, it is simply not reported and becomes an unquantified hazard for the shipping industry. Pleasure-boat cruisers and cross-channel ferrygoers need not worry unduly then. As Murray makes clear, such incidents are rare: "It would be inaccurate to think that ships are navigating through a thicket of abandoned boats." Phantom ships are certainly an eerie spectacle but the chances, for most of us, of ever being visited by a ghost ship are slim to none. More about: Mary Celeste The Classic Case of the Mary Celeste ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The abrupt disappearance of the Mary Celeste's entire crew is one of the most fascinating mysteries of the sea. But that was only the climax of a long history of weird misfortunes... On 5th December 1872 a crewman on watch on board the British ship Dei Gratia sighted vessel that seemed to be in distress. Three seamen lowered the Dei Gratia's small boat and rowed across to the troubled craft to offer assistance.

They hauled themselves over the ship's rails and dropped onto the deck; save for the sound of the wind in the sails and the eerie creaking of the ship's timbers, there was not a sound. The seamen searched the ship from stem to stern and found her to be in excellent condition, but there was not a soul on board. Her crew had disappeared. The name of the ship was Mary Celeste. The disappearance of her crew is the central element in Mary Celeste's long history of misfortune. She attracted bad luck like a magnet attracts iron filings. The superstitious would call her jinxed, and Mary Celeste's story is one that would make even hard-boiled sceptic agree that the supersti.tious might have a point. Mary Celeste was built in 1860, thc maiden venture of a consortium of pioneer shipbuilders at the shipyards of Joshua Dewis on Spencer's Island, Nova Scotia. She was originally christened Amazon and was launched in 1861, the year that saw the start of the American Civil War. Tragedy struck a short while later when her first skipper, a Scot named Robert McLellan, fell ill and died.

Then one John Nutting Parker assumed command and skippered the Amazon's maiden voyage, but she ran into a fishing weir off Maine, received a large gash in her hull and had to go to the shipyards for repair. While she was there a fire broke out amidships, bringing Captain Parker's short- lived command to an end. Amazon's first Atlantic crossing went without mishap until she entered the Straits of Dover and collided with a brig. The brig sank, Amazon again went for repairs, and her third skipper went to seek another command. Following the necessary repairs and the appointment of a new captain, Amazon returned to America, and she promptly ran aground off Cow Bay, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. Amazon's history now becomes a little hazy. She was pulled off the rocks and repaired, but appears to have passed from one owner to another, several of whom seem to have gone bankrupt and none of whom derived any good from their contact with the ship. She eventually passed into the hands of J.H. Winchester and Co., a consortium of New York shipowners. By this time the Amazon was unrecognisable as the vessel that had left the shipyards of Joshua Dewis.

She had been enlarged, now flew the Stars and Stripes, and on her nameboard was Mary Celeste. It has been suggested that the peculiar mixture of English and French names was the result of the painter's error, the intended name being Mary Sellers or even perhaps Marie Celeste, the name, ironically, by which most people know her. Sometime during late September or early October in 1872 Mary Celeste was berthed at Pier 44 in New York's East River, preparing to take on a new cargo and a fresh crew. Benjamin Spooner Briggs The latest captain of Mary Celeste was a stern, puritan New Englander named Benjamin Spooner Briggs. He was born at Wareham, Massachusetts, on 24th April 1835, the second of five sons born to Captain Nathan Briggs and his wife Sophia. It was a seafaring family; apart from his father, four of his brothers also went to sea. Two became master mariners at an early age, one of them being Benjamin Briggs, who had already commanded the schooner Forest King, the barque Arthur, and the brigantine Sea Foam.

In later years many authors painted him as weak and ineffectual, a man whose religious beliefs had become a form of perversion, a mania, turning his strict abstinence from alcohol which went so far as to allow none on board his ship unless it were cargo - into something akin to over-zealous morality. Briggs was in fact a man of strict beliefs and religious convictions, and although he was a teetotaller he was no monomaniac on the subject. He was described by those who knew him as always bearing "the highest character as a Christian and as an intelligent and active shipmaster". He was also a share holder in the Mary Celeste. Captain Benjamin Spooner Briggs, master of the Mary Celeste. A puritan and abstemious New Englander, his alleged religious fanaticism has been blamed for whatever disaster hit the crew. The first mate was Albert G. Richardson. A soldier in the American Civil War, he had married a niece of James H. Winchester's and had served before with Captain Briggs. He seems to have been trustworthy and competent and was held in high esteem. Andrew Gilling was the second mate.

His birthplace was given as New York but he seems to have been of Danish extraction, Again there is no reason to suspect that he was other than upright and honest. The cook and steward, Edward William Head, hailed from Brooklyn, New York, where it is said that he was respected by all. The remainder of the crew consisted of four seamen of German birth, about whom little is known except that two of them - both named Lorenzen - had lost all their possessions when shipwrecked prior to signing on as crewmen on Mary Celeste. None of these Germans appears to have been anything other than of good character. Also making the voyage into the unknown were Captain Briggs's wife, Sarah Elizabeth - the daughter of the preacher of the Congregational Church in Marion, Massachusetts - and one of their two children, two-year-old Sophia Matilda. The elder child, their son Arthur Stanley, remained at home. The ship's list, giving the names of those who sailed, and were doomed to vanish without trace. Late on Saturday 2nd November 1872 Mary Celeste's cargo was loaded and made secure.

She carried 1701 barrels of denatured alcohol being shipped by Meissner Ackerman and Co., merchants of New York, to H. Mascerenhas and Co., of Genoa, Italy. Early on 5 November the Sandy Hook pilot ship towed Mary Celeste from Pier 44 to the lower bay off Staten Island, New York. The Atlantic was particularly stormy for the time of year and Briggs was forced to drop anchor for two days before he dared to venture out to sea on 7th November. But although Mary Celeste herself would make many more voyages, it was the last time anyone would see this particular crew. On 15 November 1872, eight days after Mary Celeste left New York, Dei Gratia set off with a cargo of petroleum bound for Gibraltar. Her skipper was a Nova Scotian named David Reed Morehouse and the first mate was Oliver Deveau. Both these men and the rest of Dei Gratia's crew were highly able sailors - as later events were to prove - and no 'dirt' has ever been attached to their characters except by sensationalists.

On 5th December, shortly after 1 p.m., one of the Dei Gratia's crew, John Johnson, who was at the wheel, sighted a vessel about 5 miles (8 kilometres) off the port bow. Attracted by the poor State of the ship's sails and her slight 'yawing' (listing), he called the second mate, John Wright, and together they summoned Captain Morehouse. After surveying the vessel through his telescope, Morehouse gave orders to offer assistance. At 3 p.m., having come within about 400 yards (370 metres) of the mystery ship, Morehouse hailed her several times, but, receiving no reply from her, he decided to send some men to investigate. Oliver Deveau, with Wright and Johnson, rowed across to the distressed craft, noting as they drew closer, its name - Mary Celeste. Johnson was left in the boat as the other two hauled themselves over the ship's rails. The Mary Celeste was deserted. Over the next hour Deveau and Wright searched Mary Celeste from stem to stern.

The main staysail was found on the foreward house, but the foresail and upper foresail had been blown from the yards and lost. The jib, fore-topmast staysail and the fore lower topsail were set. The remaining sails were furled. Some of the running rigging was fouled, some had been blown away, and parts of it were hanging over the sides. The main peak halyard - a stiff rope about 100 yards (90 metres) long used to hoist the outer end of the gaff sail - was broken and most of it missing. The wheel was spinning free and the binnacle had been knocked over and broken. The main hatch to below decks was well-battened down and secure, but certain of the hatch covers had apparently been removed and were found discarded near the hatchways. There was less than a foot (30 centimetres) of water in the galley and little of the six months' store of provisions had been spoilt. There was ample fresh water. In short, Mary Celeste was in a far better condition than most vessels then regularly plying the Atlantic.

And, aside from some evidence that she bad recently weathered a storm, she bore no clues as to why she had been so abruptly abandoned by her crew. On a table in Captain Briggs' cabin Oliver Deveau found the temporary log. It read: "Monday, 25th. At five o'clock made island of St Mary's bearing ESE. At eight o'clock Eastern point bore SSW six miles (3 kilometres) distant." In the mate's cabin Deveau found a chart showing the track of the vessel up to 24th November. Missing from the ship were the chronometer, sextant, bill of lading, navigation book, and a small yawl, or boat, that had been lashed to the main hatch. A piece of railing running alongside had been removed to launch the boat. This at least answered the mystery of where Mary Celeste's crew had gone; they had abandoned ship. But why? What possible reason could an experienced seaman like Benjamin Spooner Briggs have had for abandoning a perfectly seaworthy ship and loading his wife and two-year-old daughter and the seven members of crew into a small and comparatively unstable boat?

Abandoning ship is a desperate measure, an act taken only when there is no alternative; yet as one of Dei Gratia's crew said later, Mary Celeste was in a fit enough state to sail around the world. So why was she abandoned? Under international maritime law anyone who salvages an abandoned vessel is entitled to a percentage of what the vessel and its cargo are worth. Generally such a vessel is a wreck, but Mary Celeste, a seaworthy ship, and her valuable cargo were worth a substantial sum, and the salvors could expect to make perhaps as much as $80,000. Captain Morehouse was not consumed by avarice, as many subsequent writers have implied, and was actually reluctant to lay claim to Mary Celeste. He could not really spare the men to form a skeleton crew without both vessels being undermanned and therefore at risk in the event of an emergency; but he was eventually persuaded by Deveau. Deveau and two seamen, Augustus Anderson and Charles Lund, took only two days to restore Mary Celeste to order, and then the two ships set off for Gibraltar. Dei Gratia arrived on the evening of 12th December and Mary Celeste the following morning.

Within two hours of dropping anchor Mary Celeste was placed under arrest by Thomas J. Vecchio, of the Vice-Admiralty Court. The Attorney General for Gibraltar and Advocate General for the Queen in Her Office of Admiralty was an excitable, arrogant and pompous bureaucrat named Frederick Solly Flood; he found the abandonment of Mary Celeste explicable only as a result of murder and piracy. Without Solly Flood the Mary Celeste mystery would have probably faded into obscurity, but his accusations at the hearings in the Vice-Admiralty Court attracted worldwide publicity. First, Flood accused Mary Celeste's original crew - in their absence - of having gained access to the cargo of alcohol and having murdered Captain Briggs, his wife and child, and Mate Richardson in a drunken fury. It is a theory that has been proposed several times since, once by William A. Richard, Secretary of the Treasury of the United States, in an open letter published on the front page of the New York Times in 1873. The fact remains that the cargo was denatured alcohol and liable to give the drinker acute pains long before he could become intoxicated. Flood was forced to abandon his theory.

He next suggested that Briggs and Morehouse were conspirators. Briggs, said Flood, killed his crew and disposed of their bodies. He then took the lifeboat to a destination prearranged with Captain Morehouse, who in the meantime would have found Mary Celeste abandoned, taken her to Gibraltar and claimed the salvage reward. The two men would then meet and split their ill-gotten gains. This theory is just plausible, but there was and is no evidence that Briggs or Morehouse were villains. Moreover, Briggs was part-owner of Mary Celeste and his cut of the salvage money would not have been more than his investment in the vessel. Flood abandoned this idea too. Guilty Until Proved Innocent His third suggestion was that Captain Morehouse and the crew of Dei Gratia had boarded Mary Celeste and savagely slaughtered all on board. Flood tried very hard to make his claim stick, but all he succeeded in doing was generating an atmosphere of suspicion in which Morehouse and his crew would be considered guilty until they could prove themselves innocent. Fortunately, the Vice- Admiralty Court denounced such a flagrant abuse of the law and cleared Morehouse and his crew of any suspicion.

They granted them a salvage reward of ï¿½1700. In the opinion of many people the award should have been twice or three times as much. Mary Celeste was returned te James H. Winchester and, under the command of Captain George W. Blatchford. she continued her voyage to Genoa and finally delivered her cargo. Winchester then sold the ship - it is rumoured at a considerable loss - and over the next 12 years the vessel changed hands no less than 17 times. None of her new owners had a good word to say about her. She lurched up and down the coast of the United States losing cargoes, sails and sailors, running aground and catching fire with depressing regularity. It seemed that Mary Celeste's jinx was there to stay. What Really Happened? It did not take long for the myth surrounding the disappearance of the Mary Celeste's crew to be born. Indeed, it could be argued that it began in Gibraltar in 1872 when Solly Flood tried in vain to attach guilt to Captain Morehouse and the crew of the Dei Gratia. But the story was seized upon by writers and journalists and soon caught the public imagination.

The first major piece of fiction about the ship was published in January 1884 by the prestigious Cornhill Magazine, 11 months before Gilman C. Parker deliberately burnt the ship to a cinder. It was a sensational short story called J. Habakuk Jephson's Statement and it bore little resemblance to the actual facts, It was picked up by American newspapers however and published as fact, much to the outrage of Solly Flood and Horatio Sprague, the US Consul in Gibraltar, both of whom wrote letters condemning the tale. Apart from its literary worth, J. Habakuk Jephson's Statement is interesting for two reasons: it was one of the first literary efforts of a young English doctor named Arthur Conan Doyle, and in it Mary Celeste is called Marie Celeste, the name by which the ship is now most commonly known. However, Conan Doyle was not the first to make the error - this version of the name first appears in Lloyd's List of 25th March 1873. Conan Doyle's story was the first of many fictional accounts that have appeared over the years; for example, a novel based on the mystery was published as recently as 1980.

Some of these tales have been presented as straight fiction, others as fictionalised fact (but nevertheless proposing a serious explanation), and quite a few have been intended to be taken as fact. In the late 1920s Chamber's Journal published an article by Lee Kaye purporting to be a true account of what happened aboard Mary Celeste as supposedly told by a survivor named John Pemberton (one of the many 'survivors' who have popped up over the years but whose names are mysteriously absent from the crew list). Pemberton's story was expanded to book length by Laurence J. Keating in 1929 and called The Great Mary Celeste Hoax. It was a bestseller on both sides of the Atlantic; John Pemberton rapidly became the man of the moment. Many journalists sought interviews with him, but Pemberton remained elusive until a 'special correspondent' of the London Evening Standard tracked him down - and obtained not only the coveted interview but a photograph as well. Both were published in the Evening Standard on 6th May 1929.

However, one of the few true statements in Keating's book was its title: the story was a hoax; Lee Kaye, Laurence Keating, and the Evening Standard's 'special correspondent' were all one and the same person, an Irish Liverpuddlian named Laurence J. Keating. John Pemberton was a figment of Keating's fertile imagination and the photograph of 'Pemberton' was of Keating's own father. While the majority of theories to explain the abandonment of Mary Celeste are generally a variation on the theme of murder - committed either by Mary Celeste's own crew or by the men of Dei Gratia - other solutions are not uncommon and are frequently bizarre. The 1900s favoured 'monster from the depths' stories in which Mary Celeste was attacked by a huge hungry octopus that plucked the entire crew from the deck. Although it has its attractions for illustrators, the theory also has a number of flaws. Even if such a huge creature exists it is highly unlikely that everyone aboard Mary Celeste would have been on deck at the same time or that they would have obligingly stayed there as the monster plucked them off one by one.

We must also assume that for some reason it craved Mary Celeste's yawl, chronometer, sextant, and ship's papers. Real Ghost Ships: 10 Mysterious Abandoned Sea Vessels | Urbanist Real Ghost Ships: 10 Mysterious Abandoned Sea Vessels Article by SA Rogers , filed under Abandoned Places in the Architecture category A lot of things can happen at sea – pirates, mutiny, murder and bad weather not to mention (if you’re so inclined) alien abductions, clashes with sea monsters and the mysterious workings of the Bermuda Triangle. So perhaps it’s no wonder so many ships have turned up without their crew or passengers – but where’s the evidence of a struggle? From an unmanned ghost ship that’s been repeatedly spotted (and boarded) off the Alaskan coast to an apparent British crew kidnapping by a German submarine during World War I, these 10 abandoned vessels all share one thing: strange and seemingly unexplainable secrets. Mary Celeste (image via: wikimedia commons ) When it comes to describing the discovery of the apparently abandoned Mary Celeste in 1872, words like “spooky” and “unsettling” simply don’t cut it.

This brigantine merchant ship was found in the Atlantic Ocean with its cargo and valuables completely untouched, packed with six months’ worth of food and water but not hide nor hair of a single passenger or crew member. Though its contents were wet and it was a bit worse for the wear, the ship was still seaworthy after being out for just a month. The fact that all reasonable explanations – from storms to piracy – seem to have been ruled out has spurred more outrageous theories of alien abduction or sea monster attacks. Today, the fate of the Mary Celeste remains one of history’s most famous and puzzling maritime mysteries – but this is far from the only story of its kind. Carroll A. Deering (image via: wikimedia commons ) Was it mutiny, piracy, Communists or a bizarre supernatural experience in the Bermuda Triangle that robbed the Carroll A. Deering of her crew? This five-masted commercial schooner was on its way back from delivering a load of coal from Virginia to Rio, and during a supply stop in Barbados, the first mate was arrested for making threats against the supposedly interfering and not-so-sharp-eyed captain but was released on bail and forgiven before the ship moved on toward its destination of Norfolk, Virginia.

The ship was spotted when it hailed the Cape Lookout Lightship in North Carolina and a man with a foreign accent onboard told the lightship’s keeper that the vessel had lost its anchors. But the next time it was seen was when it ran aground in Cape Hatteras, North Carolina – the crew, their belongings, and the lifeboats all missing. The crew was never located, and the U.S. government has never come up with an official explanation, though they did consider foul play by rum runners or Communist pirates set on capturing American ships. Today, conspiracy theorists often use the Deering as an example of the mysteries of the Bermuda Triangle, despite the fact the ship was far away it by the time the crew disappeared. Bel Amica (image via: haunted america tours ) When a “classic style” schooner unlike any seen in Italy before was found off the coast of the island of Sardinia with no crew on board, it seemed like a repeat of the Mary Celeste – but this is no seemingly mythical tale from ages past.

Spotted by the Italian Coast Guard in 2006, this ghost ship contained a half-eaten meal of Egyptian food, French maps of North African seas, a pile of clothes, a flag of Luxembourg and a wooden plaque bearing the name ‘Bel Amica’. Italian authorities found that the ship had never been registered in any country. Because the ship was misidentified as an antique in the press, a tsunami of public interest surrounded the case – but it was soon revealed to be a modern yacht belonging to a Luxembourg man who likely didn’t register it for tax evasion purposes. High Aim 6 (image via: simplyscenes ) Murder, mutiny and rotting fish – the story of the High Aim 6 is a strange one. This Taiwanese ship was found drifting in Australian waters without its crew in 2003, though plenty of fuel and provisions remained onboard, along with the crew’s personal belongings and a hold full of stinky seafood. A forensic examination could find no sign of a struggle, and a search of 7,300 nautical miles turned up no clues – but 10 days after the ship was discovered, calls were still being made from Indonesia on the cell phone of the ship’s missing engineer.

The only crew member ever tracked down claimed that the captain and engineer were murdered and the crew headed back to their homes, but no reason was ever given. Jian Seng (image via: bymnews ) A lot of illegal activity goes on in the world’s oceans, from illegal fishing to human trafficking. So, when mysterious ships of unknown origin turn up, they’re automatically suspicious. The Jian Seng is just one such ship, spotted drifting into uncharted waters near Queensland, Australia in 2006, but once Australian Customs officials boarded the ship they couldn’t find evidence of recent human activity at all. In fact, the ship had been stripped, with its name and identifying features painted over, and contained nothing but a large amount of rice. Ultimately, since no owner could be found, the ship was intentionally sunken. MV Joyita (image via: fiji times ) The MV Joyita may have been an “unsinkable” ship, but she wasn’t immune to other problems. With 25 passengers and crew onboard, the Joyita disappeared in the South Pacific in 1955.

Five weeks after the ship was reported overdue, it was spotted off-course partially submerged and missing four tons of cargo including medical supplies, timber, food and empty oil drums. The radio was tuned to the international marine distress channel, the lifeboats were gone and blood-stained bandages were found. Some believe that the captain was injured or killed and that the passengers and crew felt they had no choice but to abandon the ship – but that still doesn’t explain the missing cargo. Kaz II (image via: wikimedia commons ) On April 15th, 2007, three men set out on a journey along the coast of Australia – and three days later, their ship turned up drifting toward the Great Barrier Reef with everything perfectly in place. Everything, that is, except for the men themselves, who were missing. Food was set out on the table, a laptop was open and still turned on, all of the boat’s emergency systems were fully functional and life jackets hung neatly on their hooks. Since the seas were choppy and none of the men were wearing a life jacket, it has been hypothesized that one of the men fell overboard and the others perished trying to save him.

Zebrina (image via: wikimedia commons ) Yet another ship found without its crew was the Zebrina , a 3-masted sailing barge that left a port in Southern England in October 1917 with a cargo hold full of coal bound for Saint-Brieuc, France. When the ship was found in France aground and abandoned but in good shape two days later, it seemed that some kind of conflict related to World War I was to blame – like perhaps the threat of gunfire from a German submarine like the one pictured above. Did the U-boat that threatened the Zebrina force the crew onboard, and then retreat when it spotted an Allied ship nearby? Perhaps – some people believe that this hypothetical submarine was later sunken itself, hence the fact that Zebrina’s crew was never seen again. Schooner Jenny (image via: history cooperative ) “May 4, 1823. No food for 71 days. I am the only one left alive.” The captain who wrote this message was still sitting in a chair with a pen in his hand when this message was found in his logbook a full 17 years later.

His body, and those of the other 6 people onboard the British schooner ‘Jenny ‘, had been preserved by the frigid Antarctic weather which had ensnared the ship in ice and led to their deaths.The crew of the whaling ship that discovered Jenny so long after this disaster buried the passengers – including a dog – at sea. Baychimo (image via: wikimedia commons ) Used to trade pelts for provisions in Inuit settlements along the north coast of Canada, the SS Baychimo was no stranger to harsh conditions. This 230-foot cargo steamer had just been freed from pack ice a week earlier when it got stuck even worse on October 8th, 1931, leading over half of its crew to abandon it while 15 remained to wait out the winter nearby in a wooden shelter that they built. When a blizzard struck on November 24, the ship was later found to be missing and assumed sunken… but it turned up three days later, 45 miles away. The crew gathered up the cargo and abandoned the ship, believing it wouldn’t survive the winter, but once again it did not sink.

Over the next several decades, sightings of the Baychimo were reported all over the coast, and some people even boarded the ship. It was last seen stuck in ice off the Alaskan Coast in 1969. Did it finally sink? Maybe – or maybe it will turn up once again.

Question: What was found in 1872 in the Atlantic with no-one on board but the cargo secure?
Answer: Mary Celeste