The Mary Celeste is a ghost story that many people have heard time and time again; it’s also one of the most puzzling, as well. I mean, a whole crew disappears and the ship comes back in one piece as if it’s sailing itself. Spooky!

The Mary Celeste was originally named the Amazon, and was built in Scotland in 1861. It seemed to be cursed right from the beginning, as on its maiden voyage, the Captain suddenly died on board, which to sailors is extremely bad luck. Later, sailing along the English Channel, the Amazon (as it was known then,) hit another ship and sunk it.

It seemed the curse followed her like a lost puppy. Over the years, the ship changed hands many times, until eventually it was bought by an American gentlemen by the name of Captain Benjamin Briggs. He seemed undeterred by the ships history and disregarded all of the sailors “silly superstitions,” as he thought.

The first real mistake Briggs acted upon was changing the name of the ship from “The Amazon” to “The Mary Celeste,” thus cementing an already-cursed ship into an even darker place. Did he think of himself as above the superstitions? Was he tempting fate? Was he trying to bring good luck to an already doomed ship? Nobody will ever know, as Captain Briggs’ notions disappeared with his ship. A superstitious man Briggs was not, as he even brought along on his journeys his wife and daughter. This was considered extremely bad luck; to have not just one woman on board, but two? That was sheer suicide.

It seems Briggs tempted fate once too often and doomed himself with the sailors’ “rules” he broke. On the 7th of November, 1872, Fate had had enough. The condemned ship set sail for Genoa, Italy, complete with seven crew member, Briggs himself, his wife and two-year-old daughter, Sophia. It never made its destination.

On the 4th of December, 1872, another passing brigantine named the Dei Gratia passed by the Mary Celeste, the crew observed the ship closely through a spyglass and became very curious when they realised that there was no crew aboard. Two men went sent to investigate and found that the cargo, the ship’s logbook and everything else remained. The men sailed the ship into Gibraltar with hopes of claiming the salvage rights, but the authorities were not convinced, as Captain Briggs sword was found with blood on it.

Many theories have surfaced since the disappearance of the crew of the Mary Celeste, but one thing’s for sure: we’ll never find out what actually happened on that fateful day many years ago. Take heed of Captain Briggs, and do not follow in his footsteps, as it could lead to certain doom and purgatory. The question remains, though: if Briggs had listened to all the superstitions and stories, no matter how silly they were, would this still have happened? Or is there a rational explanation for the entire story? One thing is for sure: don’t tempt fate or it may just bite back.