What Do We Know About the Ghost Ship Mary Celeste?

By: Steve Korté, Who HQ

The What Do We Know About? series explores the mysterious, the unknown, and the unexplained. How did the captain, crew, and passengers of this ship disappear without a trace? Find out everything we know about the haunting, unanswered abandonment of the Mary Celeste.

In December 1872, a ship was spotted mysteriously drifting off the coast of a Portuguese island. Upon examination, it was determined to be the Mary Celeste, a ship that had been traveling from New York to Italy. The ship’s passengers were nowhere to be found. The Mary Celeste was intact, the cargo untouched, and in good enough condition to sail. So why did the passengers board the emergency life raft, and where did they go? The passengers and crew on the Mary Celeste were never seen again. For over a century, the world has wondered where they could have gone and why they abandoned their ship.

Could pirates have boarded the boat and forced the crew to leave? Did the captain believe that sinking was imminent? Was there foul play involved? Historians, writers, scientists, and investigators all have their own theories of why the captain and sailors may have left the phantom Mary Celeste to drift at sea. Find out everything we know about the ghost ship Mary Celeste in this book for young readers.