Mary Celeste ghost ship mystery

Mary Celeste

The world’s most famous riddles of the sea, she’s Mary Celeste. For many years of strange legends, her story became synonymous to mystery.

One day, a ship from nowhere was found drifting in the horizon of Atlantic Ocean; it was in good condition and no traces of destruction. But the problem is, there was nobody aboard.

“The Mary Celeste was a small merchant with the Benjamin Briggs (Captain) with 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”.

There were no obvious signs of trouble and all appeared to be in order. Still, there were a few interesting clues.

Captain Benjamin Briggs

The ship was in good order but its sails were strangely set. There was no lifeboat on her deck. The chronometer, sextant, bill of lading, navigation book are the things which are missing. The rest of ship's instruments were left abandoned so as the logbooks and slips, the captain's charts and crew's belongings. There was no sign of any attack or damage. Everything was wet in the cabin.

There is a temporary log found on Captain Briggs' cabin. It reads: "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 kilometers) distant." In the mate's cabin Deveau found a chart showing the track of the vessel up to 24th November.

What is the possible reason for a great sailor like Benjamin Spooner Briggs has to transfer his wife and two-year-old daughter and the seven members of crew into a small and weak unstable boat?

These clues produce more questions than answers. As a result, the mystery deepened.

Most of the theories came up were about murder and crime saying that Mate Richardson was in a drunken fury that time and murdered Captain Briggs, his wife and child and other crews.

Paranormal experts believed that all of its crew became spirits and turned into invisible. They have explanation for this. "When they found the Mary Celeste, there were untouched breakfasts with still-warm cups of tea on the cabin table".

Others says that it has some connection to the "monster from the depths" stories in which Mary Celeste was attacked by some sort of huge monster from underwater. Although many had believed on this, the theory also has a number of flaws. The ship was not destroyed and no trace of blood found.

For some reason, the story of Mary Celeste became "detectives-nightmare" and never solved. Is it because it has something to do with deeper mystery? How about the Bermuda Triangle that is also located to Atlantic Ocean? Do you believe that "they didn't leave the ship; they were taken to somewhere and never come back."