"Mary Celeste": mystery ghost ship

World history knows many cases of mysterious disappearances, which was never found an explanation. But, perhaps, the first place among these puzzles take the story of the ship "Mary Celeste", more precisely, its crew and passengers. These ten men disappeared from aboard a sailboat in 1872, and what happened to them, unknown until now. All sorts of attempts to solve the riddle have failed: none of the versions of what happened could not explain all of the oddities encountered by researchers.

The ship is intact, there are no people

Left people "Mary Celeste" was found in the Atlantic Ocean December 4, 1872. The sailors of another vessel called "Dei Gratia", saw the sailboat drifted on the waves without any control - it is constantly tossed from side to side. Captain "Dei Grace" David Reed Morehouse gave the command to get closer to the country's leading ship itself and soon saw his name, was worried especially strong. He was personally acquainted with the captain of the "Mary Celeste" Benjamin Spooner Briggs knew that this journey with him went his wife Sarah Elizabeth Cobb Briggs and two year old daughter, Sophia Matilda.

Captain Benjamin Briggs mysterious ship

When the sailors' Dei Grace "boarded the" Mary Celeste ", it appears that there is not a single living soul. Deck, cabin, hold - everywhere was deserted and almost there was no confusion, just in the control room on the floor lay a broken compass, and in the cabin of Sarah Elizabeth and her daughter were scattered children's toys. In the galley on the plate was freshly baked, still fresh and soft bread, cabin wife of the captain discovered a sewing machine with a not finished sewing, and the last entry in the logbook, made the day before the ship found abandoned, said: "In Mary Celeste everything is fine".

The only surviving photo of Captain Briggs, his wife and daughter, as well as first mate Albert Richardson

Bilge sailboat was partially filled with water - it has risen by about a meter due to the fact that there were open all the hatches - but the cargo, barrels of ethanol, was intact. The pipes cabin crew members have been found - none of the smokers, wherever they fled from the ship, I did not take them with you. And just as the captain's wife left in his cabin jewelry box. But all the documents except the logbook, as well as the lifeboat had disappeared.

Giving the impression that all on board have suddenly dropped their case and in great haste got into the boat, then sailed on her in an unknown direction.

The ship left in complete calm

"Mary Celeste" resulted in Gibraltar navigator and several sailors "Dei Grace." In the port of derelict carefully studied investigators, but they failed to find any clues pointing to the cause of the flight crew and the captain's wife with child. They drew attention to the fact that after the disappearance of people, "Mary Celeste" do not fall in a storm, or even a small rocking. Otherwise, in the cabins and other rooms would have been much more had fallen to the ground of things - well, except for the scattered toys and a broken compass, everything was in place. Including open oiler with the engine oil for the lubrication of the sewing machine and standing next to her - she had to tip over at the slightest push.

The fact that during the voyage of the ship on its way was not storms, confirmed and meteorologists. So the version that people in a violent storm have decided that a sailboat is sinking, and sailed away in the boat, investigators had to be rejected at once. But what, then, made them leave the ship? This question could be answered only by themselves, but just ask them what had happened, there was no way. Boat "Mary Celeste" and was not found, nor the people, nor an empty ...

From pirates and alien to insurance fraud

Among the hypotheses to explain this puzzle, there were an attack on the sailboat giant squid or octopus, which dragged people to the deep ocean, and fight with the pirates, and the madness of someone of the crew members who had killed and thrown overboard all the others, then drowned himself. In the twentieth century these versions added some fantastic sort of the crew and passengers of abduction by aliens or creatures from a parallel world, "leaked" into our reality in the area of ​​the infamous Bermuda Triangle. But all these assumptions were divided about the absence of any signs of a struggle in the "Mary Celeste".

Giant squid do exist, but they can not afford to carry off the water at once ten people

Also put forward the version of fraud captains "Mary Celeste" and "Dei Grace", which had agreed to stage the discovery of the abandoned ship, then to get insurance. This scenario looks quite authentic, but still in doubt. If everything is sailing to the "Mary Celeste" people were still alive and hiding in the "Dei Grace", and then started a new life under assumed names, surely none of them had blabbed about it and caught the eye of someone of your friends?

"I'm sorry" alcohol?

The most plausible version currently considered a suggestion by one of the relatives of the captain's wife, "Mary Celeste" on the Cobb family. He suggested that the alcohol vapors in the bilge sailboat warmed up and began to explode, because of what and flew all the hatches. Captain, fearing a strong explosion, gave the command to all sit in a boat and sail to a safe distance from the ship. He expected to wait until the alcohol vapors weathered through the hatches, and come back, but the tackle with which the boat tied to the boat broke. Wind carried on a sailboat, and a heavily loaded boat was left in place. Most likely, later it turned the storm will happen after the "Mary Celeste" found.

But to prove that it was all just so and not otherwise, is no longer possible now ...