In December 1872 the brigantine Mary Celeste was found drifting in the Atlantic with its sails half-raised and no one aboard. Plates were on the table, a child’s spoon lay beside them, and the captain’s log ended with a calm entry ten days earlier — yet ten people had vanished without trace.

Investigations found no violence or theft, only puzzling signs of minor damage and alcohol fumes from the cargo. Theories range from accident to mass panic, but the true fate of the Mary Celeste’s crew remains one of the sea’s oldest mysteries.