Mary Celeste

So basically this is one of the greatest nautical mysteries in history.

In the early afternoon of December 4th, 1872, the crew aboard the Canadian brigantine, Dei Gratia, spotted a ship in the distance off the Strait of Gibraltar. The ship was under sail and moving erratically, slightly to starboard.

As they got closer they realised that she was the Mary Celeste (often incorrectly spelt Marie due to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's fictional book that used several factual details surrounding this mystery) and that there were no sailors on deck. When they came aboard they found that all the important documents were missing (except for the Captain's logbook), there was enough food and water onboard to last six months, and there was no sign of struggle.

This was the mystery I know and love.

Unfortunately, a little research has proven this tale to be a slight fabrication, spiralling me into a despair akin to when I learnt that lemmings did not, in fact, commit mass cult suicide by leaping off cliffs.

There are some important facts that have been conveniently left out of this tale; for one, the inside of the ship was "a thoroughly wet mess". This is somewhat sad to read, as I had always heard the fantastical ghost story of sailors boarding the empty vessel to find warm soup and tea on clean dinnerware, lit candles, and no sign of a struggle.

Well at least there was no sign of struggle. The only things out of the ordinary were a loose rope with one frayed end dragging in the water behind the ship; the missing documents; the one and only lifeboat was gone; the ship's clock which was not functioning; the compass had been smashed by some object; the sextant and marine chronometer were missing; and that of the 1701 barrels of alcohol that the vessel shipped from New York's East River, nine were found to be empty.

From this, people have theorised that perhaps rough sea conditions had knocked over the nine barrels, and the fumes were ignited by the galley's oven. This sent the crew into a panic and they quickly gathered some navigational equipment, papers and other useful tools, dropped the tiny lifeboat and tied it a safe distance from the Mary Celeste (this was the standard procedure for fires on vessels at sea - the crew would hope that the fire would burn down to an extinguishable level, and then they would haul themselves back aboard).

Unfortunately it is also standard procedure to take-in the sails beforehand. This quite apparently did not happen.

It seems that the explosion and flame from the ignited alcohol left no damage to the ship, and the Captain and crew were unlucky enough to have the ship (under sail) pull away from them so rapidly that it snapped the rope holding them to it.

They then had to watch their perfectly sailable and seaworthy vessel (and it's incredibly valuable cargo) steadily drift away from them.

One little mistake.

Ah screw that "intelligently weighed" explanation! I say ghosts or aliens or giant sea creatures or dinosaurs or Elvis took them. I love a good ghost story.

Commodore Ethan..