Marie Celeste

The most famous ghost ship of all time

MMDE: Marie Celeste

Current: Mary Celeste

In 1872 an American merchant ship was found adrift near the Azores Islands. It was deserted and waterlogged, and appeared to have been drifting for many days. When the ship was inspected, it was found the last log entry was 10 days earlier with no mention of any unexpected events. Food and supplies were plentiful, there were many valuables left onboard and even partially eaten food on the tables, suggesting it was not pirates or lack of supplies which caused the sudden disappearance of the crew.

Over the years many myths built up over this story, ranging from aliens abducting the crew to sudden vortexes appearing from a parallel dimension.

The biggest mystery to many however is the name of the ship - was it the Marie Celeste or the Mary Celeste?

Records today show it as the Mary Celeste, but there is even more to this than at first appears...

An important detail

There could be two Mandela Effects at work here, because all this talk of aliens or sea monsters would never have arisen had one fact, which is now claimed to have been always disclosed from the start, been truly widely known - the lifeboat was missing.

In fact, there is now a very plausible theory which explains everything. The ship was carrying barrels of denatured alcohol in its sealed hold. The theory goes that vapour leaked from some barrels and ignited, blowing both the hatches above deck off their hinges in shooting columns of flame. Immediately, the captain would have ordered the crew off the ship into the lifeboat. However, and lab experiments prove this, there was not only no fire, but no burn marks anywhere. All the gas ignited, and threw some furniture below decks around, without leaving another mark.

The crew would not realise this, so all left in the lifeboat, probably towed a safe distance behind the ship. Unfortunately, this rope appears to have broken, and since the ship was partially sailed it would be impossible for them to catch it.

The detail of the lifeboat being missing in this story hits some people as new, and whilst it takes away some of the mystery from this tragedy, it only serves to add another in the form of a Mandela Effect.