Mary Celeste
Atlantic Ocean, between the Azores and Portugal (where it was found)
What happened
In November 1872, the Mary Celeste sailed from New York for Genoa, Italy, carrying barrels of alcohol. On 4 December, another ship found it drifting in the Atlantic between the Azores and Portugal. The ship was still seaworthy and had plenty of food, but its lifeboat was gone and no one was aboard.
Why it matters
No one who sailed on the Mary Celeste was ever seen again, and nobody knows for sure what happened. It is one of the most famous mysteries of the sea.
What came next
Officials in Gibraltar investigated but found no evidence of a crime. In 1884, a young writer named Arthur Conan Doyle wrote a made-up story about the ship that spread many myths about it.
Did you know?
Arthur Conan Doyle, who later created Sherlock Holmes, misspelled the ship's name as 'Marie Celeste' in his story, and that misspelling is still common today.
Timeline
- 1861The ship is launched in Nova Scotia, Canada, named Amazon.
- 1868New American owners rename it Mary Celeste.
- 7 November 1872The Mary Celeste sails from New York.
- 25 November 1872The last entry is written in the ship's log, near the Azores.
- 4 December 1872The Dei Gratia finds the ship abandoned.
- 1885The ship is deliberately run onto a reef near Haiti.