Mary Celeste

Throughout maritime history, there have been many stories of ghost ships, but none may be more famous and hard to explain than the story of the Mary Celeste. The Mary Celeste, a merchant ship, sailing from New York to Italy, was discovered near Azores on December 4, 1872 completely abandoned. Though weather conditions were fine, and there were no signs of a struggle or mutiny on the ship, there was a not a single crew member to be found. To this day, no traces from the crew were discovered; they had vanished into thin air. For the captain, Benjamin Briggs, and his crew, the ship was the key to their livelihood and it would not have been abandoned without good reason. The only problem is, through years of investigation, a "good reason" for Briggs and his crew to leave the ship has not been found. When the boat was discovered, the entire ship was wet, there was scratched railing, a broken compass and the lifeboat was missing.

While looking for a plausible explanation, many creative theories on the happenings of the Mary Celeste have been created. Some less cited and supernatural explanations include UFO abductions, sea monsters, and a link between the Mary Celeste and the unexplained occurrences of the Bermuda triangle. Some attribute the absence of the crew to a possible natural disaster out at sea. Whether it be a heavy storm, seaquake or other event of that nature, it is believed that the crew of the Mary Celeste became frightened and thought the ship was going to sink. This fear led them all to the lifeboat and one way or another, the lifeboat sank and the crew drowned. The Mary Celeste was carrying alcohol, which is key in many of other theories. Some believe that the alcohol may have created a small explosion, or threat of explosion that scared off the crew. Some even believe that the crew murdered the captain and his family in a drunken rage, before drowning in an attempt to escape to a near port on the lifeboats.

The problem with most of the theories is that they don't fit the mold of the crew. Captain Briggs was an experienced and able captain; it would be hard to believe that he ordered an evacuation on a ship that was really not close to sinking. All of the theories about mutiny are unsound, because the captain was not the tyrannical type that would usually spark an uprising from the crew. None of the crew was reported to be violent or ill-tempered; they were all good men and able seamen. These contradictions and lack of evidence are the main reason why the case of the Mary Celeste is still in debate today. Misfortune continued to befall the owners of the Mary Celeste until it was intentionally sunk in an insurance fraud scam in 1885.