On December 5 , 1872 , the crew of the British ship Dei Gratia came across a ship called the Mary Celeste , drifting aimlessly and completelyun - crew , when they were about 644 kilometers ( 400 miles ) east of the Azores , a mathematical group of islands in the Atlantic Ocean .

The commandant of Dei Gratia , David Morehouse , cognise that the ship had set sail for Italy eight days before him , and should have already arrived . He diverted course and sent his gang on board to try and assist . What they found only deepen the whodunit . The ship had been abandoned , but the crew ’s belongings stay on on board . The ship had at least a six - month provision of solid food and water and1,701 barrelsof industrial intoxicant on board – however , the bunch had seemingly abandon ship , taking the lifeboat and take chances the open seas rather than stay on card .

The few cue usable , and the fact that the crew did not later show up , turn the typeface of the Mary Celeste into an abide secret rife with supposition . account range from pirate to raw phenomena , with a few massive ocean monster bedevil in for good measure .

There are suggestions that Morehouse ’s crew could have attacked the ship themselves , though this does not account for how the slow ship arrest up on the faster ship after an eight - day head get going . It ’s likely not the case that a mathematical group of literary pirate got there before Morehouse , give that the cargo of worthful industrial alcohol was still get out on board . Mutiny would be an odd hypnotism too , give that there wasno mansion of fightingon board , and mutineer would traditionally take over the sauceboat rather than take flight never to be seen again .

A plausibletheory – give that one of the ship ’s two pump was disassembled , and a minuscule amount of water was found in the ship ’s bottom – is that with one pump down , the skipper may not have known how much H2O they were take on board . When they strike bad weather later , this could have caused the skipper to place his crew to give up ship , rather than run a risk it sinking . The last entries in the ship ’s logarithm shows that the Mary Celeste was going through rough water , with gamey wind speeds of over 35 knots .

Another possible account is that the captain panic after an explosion have by the alcohol cargo , and ordered the crew to give up ship . The problem with this is that there were no signs of a fervour , and most of the barrelful remained full and intact . However , there were a few barrel that were empty – nine of the 1,701 total barrels on board .

In 2006 , one squad test the estimate that these barrels could have trigger off an plosion big enough to make the crew exit the condom of their ship .

Dr Andrea Sella from the University College London Chemistry Department used butane gas and cubes of paper to simulate wooden barrels .

" What we created was a pressure - undulation type of explosion , " Dr Sella said in apress release . " There was a salient undulation of flame but , behind it , was relatively cool air . No soot was leave behind and there was no electrocution or scorch . "

" Given all the fact we have , this retroflex condition on control panel the Mary Celeste . The explosion would have been enough to blow get to the hatch and would have been completely terrifying for everyone on board . "

Once they were off the ship , perhaps just as a precaution in case the fire take hold , the crew could have been lost to the stormy seas .

" It is the most compelling explanation , " said Dr Sella . " Of all those suggested , it fits the facts best and explains why they were so dandy to get off the ship . "

Ultimately though , we will probably never get a definitive reply to what bump on that Nox in December 1872 .

An early version of this article was published inMay 2022 .   =