The Mary Celeste’s lifeboat was missing. That one detail may explain everything

Of all the strange details surrounding the Mary Celeste’s 1872 disappearance, one has become central to almost every serious theory attempting to explain it: the ship’s lifeboat was missing. Everything else aboard the vessel — its cargo, food, fresh water, and the captain’s personal belongings — remained largely undisturbed. But the crew, and the boat that could have carried them away, were gone.

When the British brigantine Dei Gratia discovered the Mary Celeste drifting near the Azores on December 4, 1872, some sails were damaged and several feet of water had collected in the bilge, yet the hull remained seaworthy and the valuable cargo of more than 1,700 barrels of industrial alcohol was largely untouched. Captain Benjamin Briggs, his wife, their two-year-old daughter and seven crew members had all disappeared.

Some researchers have suggested that fumes leaking from the alcohol cargo may have convinced Briggs that an explosion was imminent, prompting everyone to temporarily abandon ship in the lifeboat. Others have proposed that rough seas, waterspouts, or an unusually large wave may have separated the lifeboat from the vessel before those aboard could return, leaving them stranded at sea with no way back.

An official investigation in Gibraltar considered mutiny, piracy, murder and insurance fraud, but found no evidence of violence or struggle. More than 150 years later, without the lifeboat or any bodies ever recovered, the fate of Briggs, his family and crew remains one of the most enduring unsolved mysteries ever recorded at sea.