Ghost ship: The Mary Celeste
On Dec. 4, 1872, a British American ship called the Mary Celeste was found empty and adrift in the Atlantic. It was seaworthy and had its cargo fully intact, except for a lifeboat, which seemingly had been boarded in an orderly fashion. But why? Like many strange ocean mysteries, we may never know the truth because no one on board was ever heard from again.
In November 1872, the Mary Celeste set sail from New York bound for Genoa, Italy. She was manned by Captain Benjamin Briggs and seven crew members and also carried Briggs’s wife and their 2-year-old daughter. The ship had plenty of supplies, including luxuries like a sewing machine and an upright piano. Experts agree that to abandon a seaworthy ship, something extraordinary and alarming must have happened. However, the last entry on the ship’s daily log revealed nothing unusual. And everything inside the ship appeared to be in order.
Theories over the years have included mutiny, pirate attack and an assault by a giant octopus or sea monster. In recent years, scientists have proposed the theory that fumes from alcohol on board caused an explosion that, as a result of a scientific anomaly, did not leave behind signs of burning—but was terrifying enough that Briggs ordered everyone into the lifeboat