Mary Celeste

One day in 1872, another ship called the Dei Gratia saw a sailing ship all by itself. It was the Mary Celeste! The ship looked okay, with its sails partly up, but there was nobody steering it. It was like a ghost ship! The crew of the Dei Gratia climbed aboard and found it empty. The captain and all the sailors were gone, vanished into thin air! It was a super spooky mystery.

The Mary Celeste had left New York City ten days before. It was supposed to be sailing to Italy with a cargo of alcohol. When the Dei Gratia found it, the ship was still full of food and drinks, and the crew's belongings were still in their rooms. It was like everyone just disappeared in the middle of their journey. No one knows for sure why they left the ship, and they were never seen again.

Because no one knew what happened, people came up with all sorts of crazy ideas. Maybe the alcohol fumes made them dizzy and they all jumped off? Or perhaps a giant sea monster attacked? Some people even thought it was pirates! But there was no proof for any of these stories. The mystery of the Mary Celeste is one of the most famous unsolved puzzles at sea.

Even though the Mary Celeste was found empty, the ship itself didn't disappear. It was sold and sailed for many more years. But sadly, in 1885, a new captain deliberately crashed the ship on purpose to try and get money from insurance. So, the famous ghost ship ended its days not with a mystery, but with a planned wreck!