# What happened on the Marie Celeste? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 24, 2001, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-on-the-marie-celeste/51634 "2001-01-24T23:53:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![McMurphy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e19adc/32.png) [@McMurphy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/McMurphy)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2001, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-on-the-marie-celeste/51634/1 "2001-01-24T23:53:34Z")
Y’know, that ship on which every passenger disappeared mid voyage never to be seen again. Did they ever find out what that was all about? ---
**Author:** ![Cabbage](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f07891/32.png) [@Cabbage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cabbage)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2001, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-on-the-marie-celeste/51634/2 "2001-01-25T00:09:12Z")
Here are some speculations that came up on a previous thread: [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=24755](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=24755) ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2001, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-on-the-marie-celeste/51634/3 "2001-01-25T00:22:34Z")
No passengers - it was a cargo ship with a small crew. I don’t believe there’s a universally accepted explanation. Some TV documentary I saw once had one that sounded reasonable to me: The ship was carrying a cargo of denatured alcohol, something that the captain was rather leery of and had no previous experience with. Somebody theorized that some of the barrels burst their lids due to the heat, they opened the holds to investigate, and the alcohol caused visible fumes to emerge. They paniced, thinking the ship was on fire and abandoned using the lifeboats. They were unable to get back to the ship after realizing that there was no danger. ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2001, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-on-the-marie-celeste/51634/4 "2001-01-25T01:59:03Z")
**yabob** , do you really think that is a better explanation than _space aliens_?