The Mystery of Mary Celeste:

Definition: The mystery of Mary Celeste began with the discovery of the deserted brigatine adrift in the North Atlantic, its captain, his family, and their crew gone. There was no evidence of piracy or foul play, and the ship's six month store of supllies was intact.

What the Believers Say: Something bizarre happened onboard the Mary Celeste. The unexplained dissaperance of the people on ship rivals the dissapearance of the Roanoke colony for its enigmatic mystery. Paranormal solutions to the riddle must be considered, including alien abduction, an attack by a monster from the depths, or some kind of time warp.

What the Skeptics Say: The captain, his family, and the crew abandoned ship for some unknown reason and were lost at sea. This is the most logicial, albeit unstatisying, explanantion of finding the ship yawing in the North Atalantic, its cargo and gear in perfect condition. Why they took a small lifeboat may never be known, but looking to aliens or monsters as an explantion is ridiculous. (Out of the book "The Wierd 100")....

The History of the Mary Celeste:

Two days after taking command of the Amazon, her first captain died.

On her maiden voyage, she collided with a fishing dam and damanged her hull.

While here hull was being repaired, a fire started onboard, doing further damage.

After being repaired, she set saild through the Straits of Dover and promptly collided with another ship sinking it.

The ships fourth captain ran her aground on Cape Breton Island, doing considerable damage...

Was The Mary Celeste Possesed... Who knows... REPLIES WOULD BE AWSOME!! THANX UM!!! see what you guys have to say

suprised with all the data and information i gave to UM, im suprised noone has replied.. maybe its a boring topic hehe.. sorry about that!!

Actually that mystery has pretty much been put to rest. Do a google search, or even search through this website, as i have posted this at least twice.

The ships cargo was alcohol (or some other flammable substance, i can't remember but I am pretty sure it was alcohol). A small fire started in the ships galley. It was an oil fire i believe and couldn't be put out. With all that alcohol on board, they passengers were afrain of an explosion so they abandoned ship. They probably tied off the life boat so they could get far enough away not to be injured in an explosion, but close enough to watch the ship. If they fire put itself out they would get back on. Well the fire did put itself out, but somehow they lost the connection with the ship and floated helplessly away.

I still wonder what happend to the crew I remember watching this story on Unsolved Mysteries.

but if the ship blew up, they would have remains of it floating around, they didnt find anything and also all the other things happened to it b4 that "explosion".

LucidElement:

It does seem to be a quandry. What actually did happen to the ship?

As to the crew, I would assume that this is anyone's guess. Especially given the time that has passed since. Don't you think?

Thanks
Peacelover

the ship didn't blow up....the fire in the galley probably went out by itself but the crew were too far out in the life boat to come back...that's all...they probably died at sea

Yeah...It's a bummer having to repeat yourself.

But surely the story you have related is one of several stories which attempt to explain what happened to the crew. In your opinion it is the most feasible (and probably is the answer) but that doesn't make it necessarily so.

Vimjams

True, but i have to ask, which is more likely? that something ordinary happened with tragic results or that something otherwordly happened.

And honestly i haven't seen any other explanations that are plausible...if you know of any, i would be interested

I too would lean toward fire putting itself out and poor judgement on crews part to leave ship

I thought a serpent ate em all or sumthing.

Clive Cussler's book Sea Hunters 2 ( I believe), goes in depth on what actually happend on this ship and how the crew did leave the ship. They also explore the remains of the wreck. This is one of Clive's few Non-Fiction novels.
Steve

but, if the ship did BLOW UP, where were the remains, i mean they say it blew up but there is no evidence of the remains.

I used to be intrigued by this story. I saw a very detailed program about this. Anyway turns out the skipper of the Mary Celeste was one of the finest captains of his day. Included in the cargo hold was large ammount of wine/alcohol & under certain conditions a highly unstable & volatile alcohol gas can emanate from the liquid. This is a natural phenomena & it was said to have happened many times & the Captain was so highly rated he would have definitely been aware of the possibility. Anyway from all the records incl. those of the salvagers it is considered that the Captain once aware of the situation (more than likely from the strong smell) lowered one small boat attached by longline to Mary Celeste & put the entire crew aboard it in order to wait for the volatile gases to dissipate (this was apparently normal procedure in the circumstances). What happened next is the mystery ... the maritime experts on the program best guess is that while waiting it out a flash storm hit & sunk the small boat with all the crew, ripping the line that held the small boat & leaving no trace. One thing though, the Mary Celeste never blew up because it was salvaged for quite alot of cash.

I heard a rumour the Barrels of Whisky they were transporting was really Gold Bars as the Captain had connections.
A few of the crew found out about this and murdered the Captain and the rest,throwing their bodies from the ship and escaping.
Who knows? The Mary Celeste is a cool mystery! I like to think it was ghostly like a Scooby Doo Cartoon.

Nobody said it blew up. What the person said was that the crew was afraid it would blow up, and got in a liferaft.

Obviously, the ship never blew up. It was found adrift, which is what started the mystery.

Is everyone ignoring that if the ship had a fire on it, there would have been evidence of it. Instead they found a perfect ship with no reason for the crew to have disappeared. All we have are theories and nothing else.

well i guess the story i read more in depth and i guess there is no mystery really... basically they say people died from scurvery, over half the population of the crew did, and ya no they dont all die at once,, so they just tossed the bodies over board when one died ya no.. and the remains in the ocean of course detererate in days and the ocean is so deep u cant find bones, but the ship DID have a fire on it, which i did not know sorry for that confusion, and also!!! the life boat i guess was taken by the survivors on the ship.. and the ship WAS found some of it.. either there was a fire on it and there was also a hole in it... so it was a mess. but they DID find the ship.. but i guess over half the crew died from scurvey... sorry just wanted to clear up my mistakes!!

Just finished a book by Brian Freemantle (The Mary Celeste) which gives the most plausible account I've read yet and adheres to the actual documented facts known as opposed to rumours and other romantisiced 'urban myths'. Some of the comments listed have nothing to do with reality or history, revealing little effort to do some genuine investigation and get facts straight.

P.S. There was NO evidence of a fire on board and only 'rumour' sites allude to one. There is no report or evidence in any of the historical documentation to support this theory. Flood's attempts to discredit the crew of the 'Dei Gracia' and implicate Winchester in an insurance fraud scandal as well as his accusations of violence against the crew of the "Mary Celeste" were not only spurious and based on circumstancial evidence so basically 'thrown out of court'. Meteorological records from that time attest to the considerable and highly erratic storm activity, especially around the M.C.s crew disappeared. The cargo was 1,700 barrels of commercial alcohol, known to become volatile under certain conditions such as sudden changes in temperature, lack of proper ventilation in the hold etc. The alcohol being highly concentrated was not fit for human consumption. It was stored in red-oak, a porous timber. Numerous captains who had transported such cargo previously, posted their beliefs based on experience, that given all the circumstances, the decision to hastily abandon the ship was most likely have been due to this likely scenarion involving the cargo. The prevailing wind also meant that lifeboat was being swept away from Santa Maria and having very little freeboard, was most likely swamped by one of the sudden, violent stroms which raged through the area at that time. No effort was made to determine if the bodies eventually found by fisherman lashed to a raft were those of the crew.

seems good to me, except the part of the crew... they could have died from scurvey which was very very popular to get in those days.. because of the lack of nutrition, vitamins, nurishment, ect.... so when they died they threw the bodies over board as i said earlier, and a body detererates after a couple days in the sea, or the fish eat it.. but still thats what ithink happened to most of the crew!

There is one fact that may clear up the lack of evidence to support the theory a fire forced the crew off ship.There is a condition that occurs when containing large amounts of commercial grade alcohol in porous containers.Under the right atmospheric conditions a visable gas is formed and easily resembles a smoldering fire.Seen around the barrels it would be believable that one would think a full scale blaze was about to erupt.I can't imagine the horror of seeing the ship slip away from your "lifeboat" holding everything you value in life.An ironic twist of fate that cast the Captain's wife, daughter,and crew into oblivion.-usdi Agaluga

but they said the lifeboats are all intact. And no signs of rushing or panicking either

Yes the lifeboat was gone.And while there were no signs of overt bedlam or panic it was obvious everyone stopped in the middle of what they were doing.Meals half eaten,bunks not made, gear not stowed away.

Meals half eaten meals etc part of 'urban myth. The actual signs were of rapid departure but not the 'warm half eaten food' etc. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote a 'fictional' short story about a " Marie Celeste" which caught the publics imagination. Many elaborations etc came about from that .

Lifeboats were not found on board. Prior to departure from New York, original lifeboat was damaged and not able to be replaced in time. A secondary lifeboat, 'gift' of main owner to Capt Briggs (in consideration of his wife and child being aboard) was considered sufficient under circumstances as the regular rafts were still available. They too had been launched in emergency departure. "Cut" in rail believed to be from manually launching the lifeboat overside.

SO..you dont believe they left in a hurry ,but you do believe they left on some kind of lifeboat?Whats your point?They're gone,,the lifeboats gone.?????

Excuse Me????
Your gut level, 'mule kicking' response to my posting is unwarrented.
Reread what I said!
My remarks should reveal I was in agreeance that they left in a great hurry and that in accordance with what you had to say, I thought I had supplied additional information that supported your belief/ views.
Silly me!!! I responded thinking you were an intelligent , thinking person who had actually done some genuine research into this subject yourself.
'Get real 'and properly read and take into account replies before you blow people off again!!

Scurvey unlikely as that condition was already dealt with overcome as problem in voyages by then. The duration of Mary Celeste voyage on this occasion only meant to be 3-4 weeks. Even in that period of time developing scurvy not even a consideration. Also food provisions still on board were more than sufficient to sustain crew from "Dei Gracia" that eventually boarde and sailed vessel to Gibralta.