The ‘Mary Celeste’

The infamous “ghost ship” that is the Mary Celeste has dumbfounded scientists for more than a century. The ship was discovered drifting hundreds of miles East of Azores by the crew of another cargo vessel in 1872. The ship was eerily found with no passengers or crew members and many possessions were left behind.

A long-held theory was that the crew had abandoned ship due to a fire, but there was no sign of an explosion or any charred parts of the ship. Determined to prove this theory in 2006, a scientist at University College London constructed a replica of the hold in the Mary Celeste to simulate an explosion by using paper instead of barrels. What resulted was a “pressure wave” explosion that left no soot or scorch marks behind. If this is true, the noise of the supposedly safe blast will have spooked the crew enough to abandon ship.

This may rule out a more exciting theory – a 1965 episode of Doctor Who that saw the passengers vacate the ship when the Daleks turned up. As good an explanation as any!