Phantom of the Mary Celeste: A Maritime Mystery That Haunts the Seas

As the cool winds of autumn sweep across the coast, bringing with them the anticipation of Halloween, there’s one maritime mystery that still sends chills down the spines of sailors and landlubbers alike. The story of the Mary Celeste is a haunting tale of a ghost ship that, to this day, remains one of the greatest unsolved mysteries of the sea. It was Dec. 4, 1872, when the British brig Dei Gratia spotted a ship drifting aimlessly in the choppy waters of the Atlantic Ocean. The ship was the American brigantine Mary Celeste, sailing under full sail but eerily silent, with no signs of life aboard. Capt. David Morehouse of the Dei Gratia, recognizing the vessel as one that had departed New York for Genoa, Italy just eight days before his own departure, was puzzled. Something was terribly wrong. Morehouse and his crew approached the Mary Celeste, concerned for its passengers. They boarded the vessel, but what they witnessed left them shaken and bewildered. The ship was completely deserted. The captain, Benjamin Briggs, his wife Sarah, their two-year-old daughter, and the crew of seven were nowhere to be found. Even more unsettling was that there were no signs of a struggle or...