Tale of the Ghost Ships: Mary Celeste (VIDEO)
On November 7, 1872, a merchant ship named “Mary Celeste” with ten people aboard set sail from New York City bound for Genoa, Italy. About a month later it would become famou for becoming a ghost ship. A British brig spotted the “Mary Celeste” adrift in the Atlantic Ocean on December 5, 1872, about 400 miles east of the Azores. A search party investigated and found no one onboard.
Theories of what happened range from a crew revolt to a sea monster. Alternatively, the “Mary Celeste’s” captain may have thought the boat was leaking and ordered the crew to abandon ship near the Azores. Whatever happened, the crew was never seen again. The “Flying Dutchman” is another famous ghost ship, believed by some to have been a pirate ship cursed by the atrocities committed onboard, and now forced to remain at sea forever. Others think the name refers to the ship’s captain, Willem van der Decken, whose reckless judgment led to its sinking off the Cape of Good Hope in the 17th Century. While some believe the “Flying Dutchman” never existed at all, many sailors have nevertheless reported seeing it.
Some ghost ships are actually available for tourists to visit. The Queen Mary in Long Beach, California is rumored to be haunted. Room B340, where a passenger was once found dead in 1948, has a history of paranormal activity, including knocking sounds and mysterious running water in the bathroom. But there’s an upside to encountering the Queen Mary ghost: maybe he knows what happened to the crew of the “Mary Celeste.”
VIDEO