When sailors from the British ship Dei Gratia boarded the abandoned Mary Celeste, they found about 3.5 feet of water in the bottom of the ship's hold. They also found that one of the ship's two pumps was disassembled on the deck, and a sounding rod (used to measure water in the hull) was also found out of place on the deck.
The last entry in her log was dated ten days earlier. She had left New York City for Genoa on November 7 and was still amply provisioned when found. Her cargo of alcohol was intact, and the captain's and crew's personal belongings were undisturbed. None of those who had been on board were ever seen or heard from again.
A ghost ship, also known as a phantom ship, is a vessel with no living crew aboard; it may be a fictional ghostly vessel, such as the Flying Dutchman, or a physical derelict found adrift with its crew missing or dead, like the Mary Celeste.
A Damaged Pump and Flooded Hull
The Dei Gratia crew found a pump that had been taken apart and about 3.5 feet of water in the ship's hull. The dissembled bilge pump — a pump that kept a ship from sinking by pulling excess water out of the hull — was one of two pumps on the Mary Celeste.
Apparently, the Mary Celeste had been drifting toward Genoa on her intended course for 11 days with no one at the wheel to guide her. Captain Briggs, his family, and the crew of the vessel were never found, and the reason for the abandonment of the Mary Celeste has never been determined.
The Mary Celeste was eventually wrecked off the coast of Haiti in 1885, but her legacy as a ghost ship lives on. Theories continue to emerge, with some suggesting that freak weather conditions or rogue waves could have caused the crew to abandon ship.
Briggs, his wife, his daughter and the crew of the Mary Celeste were never found and their fate remains a mystery.
To date, no wreckage has ever been found.
The mystery of the Mary Celeste has never been solved, but the most likely theory is that Captain Briggs abandoned ship because he believed it was about to sink.
MARY CELESTE was built at Spencer's island, Nova Scotia. “We can safely say the final resting place of the infamous MARY CELESTE has been found,” concluded Delgado.
SS Ourang Medan: A Tale of Death and Mystery
The story of the SS Ourang Medan is perhaps one of the most mysterious and terrifying. In 1947, distress signals were picked up from the Dutch freighter, with a message stating, "All officers, including the captain, are dead—lying in chartroom and bridge.
I. Passengers will fall through the water faster because the air rushing from the ship will mix with the water to make it less dense. II. The air pockets in the ship will pull the passengers towards the ship because a cavity is created for water to rush in.
The captains' curse.
The Mary Celeste actually lost three captains to premature death: the other two fell ill while on board. There's also a theory that Captain Briggs might actually have died before the ship was abandoned, and without his good counsel, the crew were more likely to leave a sea-worthy ship.
The most famous ghost ship of them all has to be the Mary Celeste. Having left New York in early November 1872, bound for Italy, the merchant brigantine was spotted drifting alone in the Atlantic Ocean on 5 December.
There are absolutely Ghost ships out there since boats are, for various reasons, abandonned by their crew every year. Most either sink, run aground or are salvaged when they come close to shore since ghost ships are a danger to commercial traffic. However, there are no centuries old ships out there.
On October 20th 1872, Briggs arrived at Pier 50, which is located on the East River in New York City. Briggs was to supervise the loading of Mary Celeste's cargo, which was over 1,700 barrels of denatured alcohol.
Indeed, the last reported shipwreck was only in December 2020, when a ship with 20 crew members disappeared. It is yet to be found and there is no trace of its missing wreckage or debris. On average, it is said that 4 planes and 20 boats disappear unexplainedly each year in this area.
Its disappearance remains one of the greatest mysteries in aviation history: an accident from which the aircraft has not been recovered, nor has conclusive evidence been found to reconstruct what happened to the 239 people on board.
In fact, the loss and disappearance of ships and planes is a mere fact of probabilities. “There is no evidence that mysterious disappearances occur with any greater frequency in the Bermuda Triangle than in any other large, well-traveled area of the ocean,” NOAA wrote in 2010.
The Mary Celeste's crew was never heard from again. British authorities in Gibraltar ultimately ruled against claims of foul play. But that verdict, which didn't offer any alternative explanations for the disappearance of the ship's crew, did nothing to settle restless minds. Ten years later, stories still abounded.
The Mary Celeste was an American merchant ship found abandoned at sea under mysterious circumstances in 1872. The ship was discovered with its crew and a lifeboat missing, but in relatively seaworthy condition and its cargo and food provisions intact.