Mary Celeste
The Mary Celeste is one of history’s most mysterious stories of shipwrecks. Discovered on December 4th, 1872, with everything in place except for the entire crew, the ship was stranded at sea days after starting its voyage from New York toward Genoa, Italy.
There were seven crew members plus Captain Benjamin Briggs with his wife and their toddler aboard the vessel, loaded with raw alcohol. Days after, when a passing British ship found Mary Celeste under partial sail in the Atlantic, off the Azores Islands, the craft was crewless, and the lifeboat was also missing.
No trace of the people aboard the vessel or the missing lifeboat has ever been found. Studies ruled out the possibility of a pirate attack since everything on the ship was untouched. Theories included criminal conspiracy and even an attack by a giant squid.
The possibility of a natural disaster also comes into play. Many suggested the role of an undersea earthquake behind the accident, while few proposed an accidental foraying of the vessel into the Bermuda Triangle. As much as these deductions seem valid, NONE fit.
After all, why would a skilled crew abandon it on a good weather day with their ship completely intact and never surface again?
