Mary Celeste: The Empty Ship and the Secret Behind Its Salvage

On 5 December 1872, Captain David Morehouse saw a sailing ship drifting off course between the Azores and Portugal. It was the Mary Celeste, sailing from New York to Genoa with 1,701 barrels of industrial alcohol. Morehouse sent men to inspect it because nobody was on deck. The ship was still afloat and still carried food and water, but Captain Benjamin Briggs, his wife, their young daughter, and seven sailors were gone.

The Mary Celeste had not sunk, burned, or been stripped by robbers. Its only lifeboat was missing, the painter had been released, a pump did not work, the compass was damaged, and the ship’s papers were gone. The cargo remained. Leaking barrels could explain some fear, but not why an experienced captain abandoned a sound vessel in the Atlantic and never returned.