The Mary Celeste was an American merchant brigantine that was discovered on December 4, 1872, off the Azores Islands, sailing with no one on board and with her lifeboat missing. When found by the Canadian brigantine Dei Gratia, Mary Celeste was in a disheveled but seaworthy condition, under partial sail; the last log entry was ten days earlier. She had left New York for Genoa a month previously, and was well provisioned. Her cargo of denatured alcohol was apparently undisturbed, as were the captain’s and crew’s personal belongings. None of those who had been on board were seen or heard from again.
The story of her 1872 abandonment has been dramatized and fictionalized many times, in novels, plays and films, and the name of the ship has become synonymous with unexplained desertion.
For more facts, follow Ultrafacts
