 One of the greatest mysteries that still fascinates us today is that of the circumstances surrounding the Mary Celeste. We have grown up with this story and there are various accounts. Some say the ship, when it was discovered, had all the characteristics of the people on board having vanished, literally in thin air. Others say this is impossible, but the fact remains that the ship was found intact drifting and fully stocked with supplies and trade goods. It wasn't robbed, so either the people simply jumped off the sides of the ship for no apparent reason or something altogether more sinister took place on December 5th, 1872. Wait, do you hear this? The mystery has lasted over 140 years so far and even if we can draw conclusions on what might have happened onboard the American vessel that day it disappeared, it is highly likely that we will ever truly know the extent of what took place and why. The leading theory on what might have happened is as follows. The captain is alerted to alcohol leaking and in the throes of panic, thinking it may explode, he ordered the ship to be abandoned, an entire crew and on board simply jumped off and couldn't reboard. This is the explanation offered as the most logical thing to have happened. Their theories range from mutiny to aliens kidnapping them all, but nobody survives so we are only left to theorize. In 1872 Captain Benjamin Briggs, his family and a small trusted crew set sail on a voyage from New York to Genoa on a merchant ship called the Merry Celeste. When the British boarded the Merry Celeste they found everything in perfect order, with even the crew's clothes neatly packed away yet no people anywhere to be found. The only clues about the lack of people were a disassembled pump in the hold and a missing lightboat and so began one of the most enduring mysteries of the sea. After leaving New York the Merry Celeste battled its way through treacherous seas and howling winds for two weeks. Then on November 25th the captain entered what would be the last entry in the log when reaching the Azores at 5am on November 25th and at this time nothing was wrong. The worst was passed. When the Dei Gratia found the Merry Celeste on December 5th there was not a person in sight. When the captain of the Dei Gratia boarded the ghost ship he found 3.5 feet of water in the bilge, the lowest point of the ship that sits below the waterline. The cargo was intact though some of the barrels were empty. What's more the ghost ship was still seaworthy so the British split up and together the two ships sailed to Gibraltar where they claimed salvage rights under maritime law. They were granted an insurance payment after a three month period however they received a fractional payment of an overall payment suggesting that perhaps the insurers suspected foul play by the British. However a court found no evidence of foul play and the British received one sixth of the $46,000. Abandoning a ship in the open sea is the lasting a captain would order and a sailor would do. But is that what Captain Briggs ordered? If so, why? His ship was seaworthy, it wasn't flooded or horribly damaged and Phil Richardson a physical oceanographer and an expert in derelict vessels states. The Discovery crew sailed it so it was in really good shape. On its previous voyage the Mary Celeste had carried coal and the ship had recently been extensively refitted. Coal dust and construction debris could have fouled the ship's pumps which would explain the disassembled pump found on the Mary Celeste. With the pump inoperative the captain would not have known how much seawater was in the ship's hull which was too fully packed for him to measure visually. In 1884 author Conan Doyle wrote his short story based on the tale of the Mary Celeste. The publicity from the short story led to a new investigation into the ship but no new revelations were found. Finally in 2002 documentarian Anne McGregor began to investigate. Using various modern methods she reconstructed the drift of the ghost ship and deduced that the captain had a faulty chronometer and was hopelessly off course. The Mary Celeste was 120 miles west of where it should have been. The captain therefore expected to sight land three days earlier than he did. He then changed course towards Santa Maria Island in the Azores and was probably looking for shelter from the relentless weather. However, even all of this wouldn't make a captain abandoned ship. He was lost. He flagged the British ship for instance and in all probability whatever happened to the Mary Celeste is probably in the hands of the British crew who later claimed the insurance. It would seem that this would offer us a logical explanation and the most likely thing to have happened is murder of the captain, his family and crew. There was one lightboat missing and the likelihood would be that the crew of the Dei Grata put them in the lightboat dead or alive. In any circumstance they would not have survived in these conditions. They made a note of some of the cargo being empty. This was barrels of alcohol and it is likely it was the crew of the British flagged vessel who used this after their hijacking of the vessel. A Boston newspaper from the time of the incident appears to clarify the suspicion but of course this is all highly theoretical, right? What do you guys think happened on board the Mary Celeste? Comments below and as always thank you for watching.