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1872: The biggest mystery of the sea happened OTD
1872: The biggest mystery of the sea happened OTD
Mary Celeste is an iconic mystery – a perfectly seaworthy ship found wandering aimlessly at sea, her crew strangely and inexplicably missing.
Paul Begg tells the story of the discovery of Mary Celeste and the people who vanished, and investigates over a century’s worth of speculation and survivors’ tales, searching for the facts behind one of the world’s great mysteries.
One of the most enduring mysteries of the sea – what happened to the Mary Celeste?
The ship sailed from New York and was supposed to end up in Genoa. It was found floating aimlessly close to the Azores Islands in Portugal. There was no one aboard yet everything else remained untouched. The food and drinks supply were intact, belongings still in the quarters, beds made…
The ship only had one lifeboat which was missing and one of its two pumps had apparently been disassembled. The ten person crew however were no where to be seen.
There have been many conspiracy theories over the years; sea monsters, ghosts and much more besides.
The story of the Mary Celeste even caught the attention of the famous author Conan Doyle who published “J. Habakuk Jephson’s Statement” in 1884; his sensationalistic account, printed in Cornhill Magazine, set off waves of theorizing about the ship’s fate.
Destination/location: Atlantic Ocean Author/Guide: Paul Begg Departure Time: 1872
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