British scientists have uncovered the mystery of the Mary Celeste ghost ship

British scientists from the University of Manchester conducted an experiment and said they had solved the mystery of the legendary ghost ship Mary Celeste. The Daily Star writes about this.

The brigantine Mary Celeste was discovered on December 4, 1872 in the Atlantic Ocean about 650 kilometers from Gibraltar. The ship was abandoned by the crew. No damage was found on board, and the crew's belongings and cargo were untouched. The Mary Celeste has become a classic example of a ghost ship. Chemists Jack Rowbotham and Frank Mair tested one of the most plausible hypotheses regarding the mysterious ship for a British television documentary.

According to a theory put forward in the 1940s by doctor Oliver Cobb, the crew abandoned the ship due to an explosion of alcohol vapor in the hold. The Mary Celeste was carrying 1,700 barrels of pure alcohol from New York to Genoa.

Investigators found that nine barrels were empty. Cobb suggested that the barrels were leaking. Due to bad weather, the crew had to batten down the bilge hatches. When the Mary Celeste found itself in warm waters and the hatches were opened again, the alcohol vapors accumulated in the confined space mixed with oxygen and exploded after contact with fire, for example, coal from the pipe of one of the sailors.

The crew, fearing a new explosion, temporarily left the Mary Celeste in boats to wait for the holds to be ventilated. However, due to a storm, the ship developed high speed, and the sailors were unable to catch up with it. Then the boats were overturned by the waves.

Jack Rowbotham and Frank Mair conducted an experiment on a 1:18 scale model of a brigantine. They filled the hold with a mixture of ethanol vapor and air. When the temperature was low, as in New York at the time of the Mary Celeste's departure, the mixture did not explode from an electrical discharge.

However, when scientists simulated warm weather at the site where the ship was discovered, the same discharge caused a powerful explosion that blew out the hatches on the model. Due to the rate of combustion of alcohol vapor, the hold of the model was not damaged, although the temperature at the time of the explosion reached two thousand degrees Celsius.

Now British chemists consider Cobb's version proven. They said their experiment disproves "numerous crazy conspiracy theories" surrounding the fate of the crew of the Mary Celeste.