on board a ship simply vanish into thin air? There are plenty of theories but no answers

to this day….

Perhaps she was doomed from the start? I'm not talking about that mysterious day on December

4, 1872, when she was found floating adrift in the Atlantic. No, her sorrows go way back,

to another life that was equally filled with unlucky circumstance…

She didn't always go by Mary Celeste. She was originally called Amazon. Hmm. Made in

Canada in 1861, the vessel was about 100 feet (30 m) long and 25 feet (~8 m) wide. Not the

biggest or greatest ship of her time, but her modest size wasn't the reason why she

had problems finding an owner. From her maiden voyage on May 18, 1861, the Amazon already

started getting a bad reputation for possibly being a cursed ship…

She suffered nasty hull damage after going through a fishing dam. When she was docked

in a shipyard for repairs, that shipyard caught fire and almost burned to the ground. Amazon,

however, remained untouched and continued to serve as a merchant ship. A lot of her

future owners would go bankrupt, each of them selling the vessel to repay their debts. She

also lost her first captain to illness. During Amazon's first journey across the Atlantic

Ocean, the ship crashed into another vessel, sending the latter to the bottom of the English

Channel. After that, the unlucky ship ran aground on her way back to Canada. She was

left there, abandoned and damaged beyond repair.

But, alas, she was taken and sold to an American mariner. Amazon was completely renovated and

dubbed Mary Celeste. She bounced from owner to owner once again, finally falling into

the hands of her new and final captain: Benjamin Spooner Briggs. According to people who knew

him, Briggs was a good captain and a master mariner. He always handpicked his crew and

was very mindful of the people under his command. Many even say he was pretty harsh to those

who dared violate the discipline. But he put together the best crew, and those 7 men along

with their captain and his family set out on that fateful trans-Atlantic trip from New

York to Genoa, Italy on November 7, 1872.

Along with the 10 people on board, the ship was also carrying 1,700 barrels of denatured

alcohol. This industrial liquid is highly flammable if not contained properly. But Captain

Briggs was a careful man. In fact, the trip was supposed to begin two days prior on November

5, but Briggs had decided to wait for a minor storm to blow through. So even with tons of

flammable cargo, I imagine the captain knew what he was doing.

For reasons unknown to this very day, Mary Celeste never did make it to Genoa. At some

point in her journey, something terrible happened. But this is where it gets totally bizarre.

On December 4, 1872, about 400 miles (640 km) off the coast of Portugal, the crew of

another ship, a Canadian brigantine called Dei Gratia, noticed a vessel sailing erratically

and heading right towards them. The captain sent a signal, but there was no response.

As the Dei Gratia got closer and closer, it became apparent that there was nobody on deck.

So, the captain pulled up and sent a few men over to investigate. What they found (or,

rather, didn't find) would make the hair stand on the back of your neck.

There wasn't a single soul on the ship. Ok, well, perhaps they had to abandon? But

here's the thing: all of their belongings and food were still there! The precious cargo

was also untouched, and there were no signs of some sort of struggle or trouble. It was

as if all the people on board had simply vanished into thin air! The only things that were missing

were a lifeboat, a rope, the ship's papers, and the captain's navigational equipment.

Captain Briggs had a habit of keeping very detailed and thorough notes in his journal.

The last entry had been made on November 25. It mentioned bad weather, but nothing more

– nothing that would be enough to force Briggs, his wife and daughter, and the crew

to leave Mary Celeste in such a hurry. The coordinates given put the ship about 800 miles

(~1,300 km) away from the coast. Had she been unmanned and drifting aimlessly for 400 miles

(640 km) over the past 9 days?

What on Earth happened to the Mary Celeste? Or, more specifically, to her crew and passengers?

The crew of the Dei Gratia soon became prime suspects in the case. According to this first

official theory, the men of Dei Gratia got rid of everyone on Mary Celeste, made up a

barely believable story about finding her abandoned, and sailed her to the shore for

a salvage reward. Seems like a reasonable theory. I mean, if I just so happened to find

a wallet that had been reported stolen, I imagine the police would question me first!

But after a thorough investigation, that theory didn't hold up. Although, the crew of Dei

Gratia never did get the full payment for salvaging Mary Celeste. But, hey, at least

they weren't being blamed anymore. Since then, investigators have been left with nothing

but theories, all of them with certain facts contradicting others and making a mess of

the whole thing.

So, what's the first thing that comes to your mind when you imagine why a crew would

abandon ship? Probably a storm, right? Especially knowing that Captain Briggs had mentioned

foul weather in his last journal entry. Some other facts point to such a possibility, but

it's still unclear. For example, the pump on Mary Celeste was apparently malfunctioning

and undergoing some kind of maintenance when this “bad weather” rolled in. Perhaps

the captain didn't think the ship would survive the storm, given that it might easily

flood with a broken pump. The only problem is that there were no storms reported in that

area at that time. When Mary Celeste was found, her lowest area was under about 4 feet (~1

m) of water, but that wasn't too scary for a ship her size. Everything inside the ship

was dry and undamaged. Besides, if there was bad weather, do you really think they'd

switch their ship with a slightly malfunctioning pump for a tiny little lifeboat thinking they'd

have better chances at weathering the storm? Captain Briggs was smarter than that.

One theory suggests that pirates could've attacked the ship. But that theory doesn't

hold since all the personal belongings, food, and valuable cargo were left untouched. Not

to mention, the course Mary Celeste was on ran directly through waters heavily guarded

by the British Navy. No pirate would ever risk sailing there just to attack a small

brigantine.

What if the crew mutinied against their captain? Briggs was known to be pretty strict with

discipline. Not to mention, the only belongings they didn't find on the ship were those

of two of the crewmembers. Had there been some horrific scene? Did they take everyone

out, grab their things, jump in the lifeboat, and flee to avoid getting caught? Again, it's

highly unlikely and pretty much disproven. First of all, what chances do 2 men have against

6 others? Also, there were no signs of a struggle or fight when the ship was examined. And finally,

further investigation showed that those two were German sailors that had been tricked

on their previous journey and left with no belongings at all. They hadn't even brought

anything with them in the first place!

The final and most probable theory comes down to the 9 alcohol barrels found empty on the

ship. Those 9 barrels were the only ones out of the total 1,701 that weren't properly

suitable for transporting alcohol. They were made from a kind of porous timber that couldn't

stop alcohol from evaporating. Ok, that explains why they were empty, but what about the missing

people?

Well, you see, when alcohol evaporates, it creates a really dangerous zone around the

source of the leakage by releasing highly flammable fumes that can lead to an explosion.

Captain Briggs might've noticed that some barrels were empty and ordered everybody to

get off the ship as soon as possible before the hull explodes. This sense of emergency

explains the food and belongings being left. And I doubt the captain had time to jot all

this down in his journal before evacuating everyone to safety.

So, everybody probably rushed into the lifeboat. The captain likely grabbed his navigational

instruments and the ship's papers in case she blew up and they'd need to continue

their journey in the lifeboat. As for the long rope that was missing, they probably

used it to tie the lifeboat to Mary Celeste, wait for as long as possible for the flammable

fumes to air out, and then return to the ship. At some point, the rope could've snapped

and set the lifeboat with 10 people on it adrift in the Atlantic with no way of returning

to the ship and little chances of survival out in the open ocean with no food or water.

And still, even this theory has its flaws. Why was there no smell of alcohol on board

when Mary Celeste was found if 9 whole barrels had leaked completely dry? You'd think the

crew of Dei Gratia would've noticed it immediately. Maybe they did, and they just assumed, well,

the ship was carrying alcohol, hence the smell! I guess we'll never know, and the story

of Mary Celeste shall remain a mystery…

What do you think happened to the Mary Celeste and her crew? Let me know your theories down

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