Mary celeste where is it

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle even weighed in with a short story published in , in which the inhabitants of the ghost ship fell victim to an ex-slave seeking vengeance. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Twice a week we compile our most fascinating features and deliver them straight to you. Live TV. This Day In History. Attention … focused on the highly volatile cargo. It seemed highly possible that the leaking alcohol caught light, sending Captain Briggs into a panic and prompting the dreaded cry: 'Abandon ship!

A blast of sufficient magnitude to persuade an experienced captain to take the last resort of abandoning ship would surely have left at least a few scorch marks on the wooden barrels, or in the hold. Now, however, 21st century scientific techniques have been used to finally solve the 19th century mystery.

An experiment, conducted by a scientist at UCL for a Channel 5 documentary which will be screened next week, shows that an explosion may indeed be the key to the fate of Captain Briggs, his family and crew. Using butane gas, he simulated an explosion caused by alcohol leaking from the ship's cargo.

Her name was then changed to Mary Celeste. The captain of the ship was Benjamin Briggs aged And there were 7 crew making it a total of 10 on board. Captain Briggs was a very experienced and able seaman and captained five ships in his career.

He himself was an owner of many ships and had spent most of his life on the sea. She apparently looked abandoned although still under sail. There was not a single soul on board.

So what could have been the cause of such mysterious abandonment? The weather was fine and she had 6 months of food and water. The crew were all very able seamen and trustworthy. Even the personal belongings including valuables were untouched.

Here are some speculations and theories behind the mystery of Mary Celeste:. Some speculated that the Mary Celeste had fallen pray to the North African pirates who were known to be operating in that area. The pirates would have killed all on board and threw the bodies over to the sea. However, there was no such incidence of piracy reported in the Straits of Gibraltar for the last one decade.

This is possibly because the British Navy were stationed there. Even if there was piracy, it is almost impossible to believe that the pirates would spare all personal and valuable possessions of the crew members.

They did not even touch the cargo. Also there was no sign of violence on the ship. Another theory was that the crew of the ship Dei Gratia that salvaged the abandoned Mary Celeste, would have murdered all on board and then fabricated the story of Ghost Ship in order to claim the salvage rights. But this seems very unlikely. There was no sign of any struggle on Mary Celeste. Secondly, Dei Gratia departed one week after Mary Celeste did and could not have caught up with it.

Also Morehouse, the captain of Dei Gratia was a good friend of Briggs. Some thought that the whole incidence was probably to make a fake insurance claim. But that would have required Morehouse of Dei Gratia to connive with Briggs to make it happen. While this was possible, the ship Mary Celeste did not belong to either of them. The owner was James Winchester. Also, the insurance value was quite modest. So such a planned and staged act for such a modest amount looks quite improbable.

It's true that when the crew of Dei Gratia salvaged the Mary Celeste, they found a lot of water in between the decks and about 3 and half feet water in the hold. Also, two out of the three water pumps were found to be disassembled while only one was working. This led to the theory that Mary Celeste would have been hit by a severe storm and while it was sinking, captain Briggs ordered the crew to evacuate.

But there are fallacies to this theory as well. There was no such storm reported in that area of Atlantic during the time the Mary Celeste was discovered abandoned. Also, the water level was not enough for a captain to order evacuation. The ship was still in sail worthy condition.