"The Mystery of the Ghost Ship Mary Celeste"-The ubrupt disappearance of the Mary Celeste's Captain, his wife and two year old daughter, and the remaining crew of seven, in December of 1872 in the North Atlantic, has been the subject of countless books, articles, and speculation for nearly 150 years. The Mary Celeste was discovered adrift with no one aboard. Evidence showed that the occupants on board had left quickly to avoid some sort of impending danger...but what? And why would they give up the safety of a 180 ton brigantine to that of a 20 foot lifeboat?  Sources: Begg, Paul (2007). Mary Celeste:The Greatest Mystery of the Sea. Harlow, Essex: Pearson Education Ltd/ Fanthorpe, Lionel, Fanthorp, Patricia (1997) The World's greatest Unsolved Mysteries: Toronto" Hornslow Press. Chase, Sea. the Mystery of Nova Scotia's Infamous Mary Celeste. Article. Smithsonian Mag. Special thanks to Captain David Williams for allowing us permission to use portions of his well-researched re-enactment of the abandoning of the Mary Celeste from his web page www.deafwhale.com/mary-celeste. Also see his article on why whales are beaching themselves. Thanks to the painstaking research of many, and especially experienced sea captain David Williams with his website www.deafwhale.com, we may have the answer.