The Mary Celeste Mystery - Arguments on one of the most plausible theories.

The Mary Celeste was a brigantine built in 1860 which was found discarded in a pristine condition in 1872 on a voyage from New York to Genoa by the crew of “Dei Gratia”. Hence, many theories came up and some could sound a bit ridiculous. There are the “Huge Octopus theory”, “Captain-killing-everyone theory” and “Cheating-insurance theory” etc. Out of them all, the most sensible inference that appeared to me was that the crew and passengers discarded the ship due to the fear of cargo explosion, because as stated by Charles, Captain Briggs was a novice at transporting alcohol and in such coincidence; the nine barrels of alcohol were empty when being found, thus the theory is totally plausible.

One of the significant evidences that spoke for this theory was the high possibility of the leakage of 9 barrels of alcohol on this vessel. Firstly, when she was being found, according to Jim, the nine barrels were empty.

Benjamin Briggs, Captain of Mary Celeste

Sarah Briggs, wife of Benjamin Briggs and passenge...

English: Sophia Briggs, daughter of Benjamin Brigg...

Then it was known from Charles that secondly, it was believed that her hatches were closed during most of the voyage (up to the day of abandonment), which resulted no ventilation or little ventilation; and thirdly, since the vessel had started off in New York and supposed to be ending up in Genoa, it was possible that the alternation of the comparatively cool climate of New York to the warmer climate of the Azores had caused impact upon some unventilated barrels of alcohol, which meant some may have leaked. There left us two questions: why a sophisticated and experienced Captain would make such a horrible and huge mistake (though the hatches were being opened at last, it was too late) and why there were no traces of alcoholic liquor. The answers could be explained easily; because as said by Charles, Captain...