Anomaly DailyAAnomaly Daily
← All cases
PLATE Nº 08COLD CASESSp. enigma desertum
Engraving of the Mary Celeste under partial sail, drifting

Found with the table set and the lifeboat gone.

The Mary Celeste was discovered in December 1872 drifting in the Atlantic between the Azores and Portugal with her cargo of denatured alcohol intact, the captain's last log entry ten days old, and no sign of her seven-person crew. The lifeboat was missing. No bodies, no blood, no distress signal, no piracy markers were ever found. The official inquiry concluded with no determinable cause. A century and a half later, the case has accumulated dozens of theories — none of them supported by physical evidence sufficient to close the file.

154 years
since the Mary Celeste was found abandoned, cause still officially unknown

Crew of 7. Bodies recovered: 0.

Smithsonian MagazineThe Mystery of the Mary Celeste — Smithsonian Magazineretrieved 2026-05-24

Open the full plate in the Field Guide ↗