This Paranormal Life - #060 Ghost Ship: The Mystery Of The Mary Celeste

Episode Date: May 8, 2018

We've all seen it in movies: the boat floating in the mist, mysteriously empty. But this trope is based on real story. During the heyday of pirates and muskets, The Mary Celeste was discovered empty, in the middle of the Atlantic ocean. Who knows what happened? Only one way to find out: hop on the SS friendship, matey!Support us on Patreon.com/ThisParanormalLife to get access to weekly bonus episodes!Buy Official TPL Merch! - thisparanormallife.com/storeFollow us on Twitter, Instagram, and YouTubeJoin our Secret Society Facebook CommunityIntro music by www.purple-planet.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Are shooting stars actually UFOs from alien worlds? If you eat the seeds in fruit, does the fruit grow in your stomach? Answers to these questions and more on this episode of This Paranormal Life. Hey-o! Welcome back to the podcast. You're listening to This Paranormal Life, the podcast where every week we dissect a different paranormal tale, claim, or beast, and we get to the bottom of whether it is true or whether it is false. You're being joined by your favorite paranormal investigators in the whole wide world.

My name is Kit Greer. This guy's name is Rory Powers. How are you doing today, Rory? I'm doing great. And joined is, you know, is one way to describe it. We came in uninvited. We broke into your house when you weren't here. We sat down and now you're listening to our voices. So I hope you're happy with that. We're sitting at the breakfast table beside you. We've eaten just about everything in the pantry, so you're getting the scraps. And yet we're charging you for every goddamn minute we spend on you. And before we dive right in, I just wanted to bring uh one of our listeners mr tom humphries was posting in our secret society on facebook kitifer greg rory why must you do this we as a humble threesome have broken this run of double nose with my suggestion of the zimbabwe school encounter yet i hear no shout out i'm not angry i'm just disappointed well here you are tom

here is your shout out listen tom all? I'm gonna open your eyes here. The world of the paranormal is not a world where anyone gets recognition. Because if you get recognition, it often comes in the form of shame. You think the guy who, you know, frickin' who first stepped foot on the moon got his name written in this in in the books in the history books hell no that's right neil armstrong did he was like number 17 or something exactly what i'm trying to tell you is there's no glory in the world of the paranormal hell you think rory's my real name god no you think kit's his real name my parents would have disowned me

a long time ago if i said my real if i uttered my real name. My parents would have disowned me a long time ago if I had said my real, if I had uttered my real name on this podcast. Find pride in the shadows. That's, as my father used to say to me, hide from the shame, the power's motto. A really weird thing to say to me on my first day of school. Find comfort in the shadows, son. Really? I just thought, you know, I'd just try and make some friends. Your mom's in the back seat of the car, like, just have a nice day, sweetie.

And you're like, thanks, mum. I packed you a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Thanks, mum. You should eat that in the shadows. Thanks, dad. Your dad's wearing a hockey mask. Shadow. Let no one see your identity.

Never let the mask slip. You leave the car and he's trying to drive in the hockey mask but it's very clear he can't see the road like takes out a bin on the pull out this episode topic actually comes as a suggestion from our listeners monica johnson and paul garmston thanks very much for that guys okay you can email in your own suggestions to this paranormal life podcast at gmail.com well as always we are back this week with a doozy. And as always, we're going to dive right into it. Let's do it.

The year is 1872, December 5th. It's chilly. I don't know where it is yet. I feel a blizzard coming on. It might be in Australia, so it could be summertime. That's a good point. It's not in Australia. Welcome to Phantom Kangaroos Part 2.

The Beast from Down Under. The man above the British ship, the Day Gratia, can make out a distant figure on the horizon. They are around 400 miles off the coast of the Azores. The waves are rough, crashing over the deck, but they can just about make out a ship they must be in trouble the crew thought so they set course to help them wait where are we you say like narnia or some i said the azores uh the azores you know where the azores

are yeah it's right look i've got the globe here right oh boom okay rory's points that's i mean we just talked about Australia, but you've just put it right on Brisbane. Right. Just right there. Okay, so let's spin it one more time. Spin the globe for me. All right.

I think you'll be pretty happy with this one, mate. Melbourne. It was spinning really fast. In fact, I don't know how you pinpointed it so accurately. Where is this location? It's the Hawaii of the Atlantic. Wow. Right in the middle of the Atlantic. Wow. Right in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, in a big expanse of nothingness, there are a small amount of islands called the Azores.

Ah, okay. Yeah. Very beautiful little paradise islands. Nothing either side for like a couple thousand miles. Got it. These sailors are sailing 400 miles off the coast. Right. Yeah.

This crew thought, you know, this ship in the distance, they must be in trouble. They set course to help them. Once they were close enough, they sent a boarding party into the rough waters. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like little pirates do. Yes. Yeah. Yeah, I should have mentioned in the beginning, this is very much like a seafaring pirate, 1872.

Right, okay. So everyone in this story is going to talk like this. Okay. I'll just let you know right now. Because I assume a lot of you will want to tune out. So fair warning, you land lovers. The viewer retention is just dropping substantially. You've got about 90 minutes of this to look forward to.

So the men reached this boat just bobbing about in the water. They climbed aboard. But no one was on deck. It was terrifyingly quiet. All they could hear were doors slowly creaking and closing in the wind and wooden boards of the deck groaning under their footsteps. Ooh, that was it. There was a single sword on deck.

And reports mentioned bloodstains on the sword. Uh-oh. The sails were battered by weather. And going into the hold, they looked around expecting to see a bunch of hardy seamen on board. But all they found were empty cabins. Okay. They looked into the men's quarters all they found were empty cabins. Okay. They looked into the men's quarters. There were just empty bed after empty bed.

Personal items lying around, but no signs of life. And there was, like, even a small cot where there was the ghostly outline of a child's body in the sheets. Wait, what? I was quite on board, if you'll pardon the pun. Yeah, I was quite on board, if you'll pardon the pun. Yeah, I was. Why is everyone missing except a ghost child, the outline of a ghost child?

Well, it's not like, it's not like a ghost. It's just like, you know, if you like lie in bed and it's like a memory foam mattress and then you get out of bed and then there's just like an outline of your body. Oh, okay. That's what it is. foam mattress and then you get out of bed and then there's just like an outline of your body oh okay in my head i was thinking like nuclear blast lines scorched into the walls like this kid frozen in time was just like embedded on the walls okay okay yeah like a like a murder scene like chalk outline yeah baby but this sounds like a dirty little boy laid down on a bed for a little bit. A little bit, yeah. Right. Yar! Search the place top to bottom! Oh, Christ.

Sorry, do you take umbrage with my pirate accent? Very loud. Find this is... Very loud. Find this is period correct. Yar! We're in a small room and you're, for some reason, two feet away from me. Wearing a bandana.

I know both your eyes work. I don't know why you brought the eye patch. But there was nothing. No one hiding from the storm or pirates. Much to my chagrin, no pirates to be seen for a goddamn miles. Right. No one dead. No pussy plundered.

In fact, the Mary Celeste, as it was known, was mostly carrying alcohol. My kind of cruise. 1,700 barrels, to be precise. Oh, yeah. And from all accounts I can gather, the alcohol supply was mostly intact when they found it. All right. No shame in digging in a little bit to the supplies. There was just nine barrels empty.

Just the nine? Listen, that's what I call, you know, a quiet night in with the missus. Nine barrels empty. Quiet night in with Polly. Couple of barrels. Cracker for Polly. Barrel for me. I should let you know now that Polly is how I refer to drunk me.

I'm having a good time. I'm cracking into a couple of bottles. And before you know it, Polly's here. Polly's loud. Polly's loud. Polly is angry. One barrel deep. You're naked and squawking. There were no records or diaries to explain what had happened.

Just one. It's because pirates don't keep diaries. I never said. What a stupid thing to look for. I never said they were pirates. Oh, did they have Um Did they have their F***ing hairbrushes too Kit? Huh?

What? Did they have Um Oh did they have Their Uh You can't think of anything Uh

Hold on Okay You can't think of one of these things All I can think of are things that pirates would have For some reason I was like oh They have their swords Ah f*** Oh Oh Yeah pirates would have for some reason oh yeah doubloons I bet shit no pirates I think are the only ones that have doubloons the point is why would a pirate

yes aka criminal of the sea keep a logbook of his misadventures. He wouldn't. They wouldn't have a diary. I never said they were pirates. What? I simply imitated a pirate. Okay. I didn't say they were actually pirates. Well, these still don't sound like law-abiding men.

I wouldn't be looking for any logs of what's going on. Well, we don't know who they are just yet. But there was a log. Oh, shit. There was one ship log whose last entry was 10 days previous bad pirates bad pirates in the bottom of the ship around the cargo of alcohol there was about three feet of water and one of the ship's pumps was dismantled but the ship wasn't going down it was completely fine there was even a six month supply of food and drink for the crew.

Totally untouched. Oh my god. But it was no random ship out on the high seas. The captain of the Dei Gratia, the ship that went aboard the Mary Celeste, Captain David Morehouse, was shocked. He knew this boat looked familiar. It was a Mary Celeste. He remembered it from being docked in New York.

He had actually sat down to dinner with the captain of the Mary Celeste while docked in New York. They were friends. What? Before they both left for Italy. The Mary Celeste had set off a week before him. So he knew it should have arrived in Italy like ages ago. Yeah. Well, a week ago, right?

This is going pearly. I noticed you just threw a little rum into that Pepsi Max. I know that's kind of tying in with the theme of the podcast, but I am worried about you. Because you've been drinking a lot of rum before you were researching this podcast. Listen, Rory, I don't need to be grilled on the details of this because in the last week since our last episode, I have lived on the high seas preparing for this pod. That's the sunburn, I guess. I haven't slept. You look really dehydrated.

Since last episode, that's right. And I would appreciate it if I would. This is the sunstroke. You are so sea battered. Holy shit. You look like driftwood with eyes. No, this is a mask. I put on this mask to protect my face from the sun because it's fucking hot out there.

And so you wouldn't know the identity of I, Kit Greer. Captain Kit Greer. You are not a captain. Tell that to my crew. All children. Wow. This iser. You are not a captain. Tell that to my crew. All children. Wow. This is illegal. You can't do that. Don't tell their parents. By the way, this cruising on the ocean, was this the pictures that you took in Hyde Park on the swan boats? Not a pirate ship. I'm hungry as shit. We tried to catch some swans to share with my crew. Turns out those swans are pretty nippy, actually.

And they all actually had packed lunches from their mothers. I was the only one. They wouldn't even share it with their captain. Those little bastards. Mutiny, I cried. One by one, I made them walk the plank. They just walk the little bridge back to land. Just walk on.

Come back! You guys actually had the freaking strongest legs to paddle. So knowing this, Captain David... Captain David. That is not a real captain's name. I need to not say that. Was able to piece together something that happened what we do know is the mary celeste set sale november 7th 1872 on board was captain the rum is it's really kicking in now yeah it's not really rum it's denatured alcohol did i mention the alcohol on board was not drinking alcohol

was it rubbing it was ethanol it was pure ethanol jesus i thought for the method acting i thought it would be good to like drink drink raw alcohol yeah definitely bad idea yeah it looks like you're mixing it with sea water as well which you should know is not drinkable this salt is like electrolytes it would would like perk me up. Not true. Offset the ethanol. Wanted to be one with Mother Nature. Like the pirates did. You're so convinced pirates drank seawater. Why do you think they were such gnarly bastards? What?

On board the Mary Celeste was Captain Benjamin Spooner Briggs. Okay. His wife, Sarah. Their two-year-old daughter. They're all dead. And seven other crew. Jesus. Which I kind of like to imagine that, you know, this wasn't like the captain just taking his family on this voyage,

but it was like his wife and the two-year-old were badass pirates. Right, right, right. Yeah, they weren't just tagging along. It was the whole crew. That two-year-old was like singing sea shanties and whipping the other guys rowing into shape. It was probably his sword. And we have a pretty standard log of the journey,

at least right up until November 25th, a few weeks after they left New York, when they reached the Azores. And that's when it all went pear-shaped. All we know from there is that they got to within a few miles of the coast of the Azores, but they obviously didn't get there because the boat was floating then 400 miles off the coast. Right, right, right. So what did the men of the Dei Gratia do?

Well, they sailed this sick puppy all the way to Gibraltar, the British colony on the southern tip of Spain. That sounds like a bad idea. Why? I don't know a lot about ghost ships, but I think rule number one is don't f***ing touch them. Yeah. Leave that bad boy anchored. Like, what do you do?

But I guess it's like, it's worth a lot of money. You cannonball that bish to the bottom of the ocean. That's what you do. But it's worth like a ton of money. This is like... Ghost money? But imagine you... Okay okay i'm trying to think of a good example here you're out on like a hike i often am i know you i know you're a healthy guy you like to go on things like that yeah um not me i like cabins and ships barrels of rum that kind of thing right you're on a hike you know you get a few miles into the hike.

You know, it's real wilderness. Okay. Birds flapping around. You've clearly never been outside. Spoken like a man who has truly never been outside. You know, you're up there. Sky's loud. The clouds are just blasting you in the eyes.

You're just out there with Mother Nick, just drinking out of puddles, bouncing on bushes like trampolines. Right, rubbing bark on your legs. You know, eating ivy, poison ivy. I mean, you don't need to go outside to know eating poison ivy is a bad thing. I thought poison was the good one. Oh, right, like flammable means inflammable, like that thing.

No, poison is always bad. Okay, good to know. If I ever leave this f***ing place. You're on this hike, listen, and then you come across, like, a Rolls Royce. All right. Okay, Rolls Royce. Doors hanging open. Little blood on the seats.

A little bit. Just a smidge. All right. Enough to, you know, make things creepy and weird. Right, but six months worth of food in the trunk you open up the trunk six months worth of food maybe the kind of indent of where a toddler might have been sleeping otherwise good to go otherwise straight off the straight off the court as they say right what i'm trying to say is you don't

cannonball that bish whatever that means you take your driver straight to gibraltar and cash her in hide park straight to gibraltar what i'm trying to say is this thing was worth a pretty penny okay all right you ever heard of money it's actually pretty valuable on the high seas money is valuable i said it it's actually worth a lot dumbass ever heard Ever heard of gold? All right, I get that. You basically, what you got here is a floating paycheck. You got to go cash that into the bank of Gibraltar. So they got it to Gibraltar. They sailed that bish back.

And that's where the British Vice Admiralty Court convened a salvage hearing. Now, I'm no seaman. So what this means is they had to decide whether the people who insured the boat had to pay the crew who salvaged it. Okay. But the court were as baffled about this mystery as you or I. Last thing they know is, you know, Captain Dave has insured this thing for a pretty penny. Next thing, the boat is just found in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, empty. Right.

People just come along and go, hey, I got your boat. Yeah, pay us for the boat that's Atlantic Ocean, empty. Right. People just come along and go, hey, I got your boat. Yeah, pay us for the boat. That's insured. Yeah. And they're like, whoa, whoa, whoa, slow the f*** down. Problem was, they suspected foul play by the crew. That's exactly what I was going to say. A conspiracy of sorts.

And so a three-month court battle was launched. They searched the boat high and low, looking for evidence of a violent takeover or something, but they were unable to prove anything. When they pointed to the sword and its blood stains, the crew argued that it was like rust or something. When they pointed to like damaged bits of wood on the boat that they thought was a struggle, the crew said, oh no, that was like, that was there when they got the boat. love the idea of these guys you know searching like poirot you know they search the upside of the boat they search downside in the boat and at the end they get everyone down at the in the bottom quarters

doing the you know the walk where they're like rounding up the mystery they've got the whole crew out on the table it's like interesting that you were to find a boat just floating there especially one insured for so much money you know he he twirls his like poirot pirate mustache you know like the camera looks at all like the crew and their eyes are shifting super nervously and then he's like but i think you've forgotten to get rid of a very important piece of evidence. A piece of evidence that's buried right here under the floorboards. Rips one board up. Water shooting sites. Ah, right, no, this is...

Over here! More water. He's like, right, this is a boat. All right, okay. Yeah, no, they're fine. They're good to go. My boat is sinking. Everyone's panicking and screaming, trying to get out.

Sorry, guys. I forgot we were on a boat for a second. So crucially, the insurers did end up paying the crew of the Dei Gratia, but only a sixth of the ship's value, which basically meant that they believed there was wrongdoing, but they couldn't prove it. And by the way, the full value of this boat in 1872 was $46,000, which is approximately one milli today.

Okay. Pretty penny. But a sixth of a milli. Right. Like, you couldn't pay me that much to take a ship and sail it to Gibraltar to argue for a three-month court case. I got a lot on. I do.

I got a lot. I don't. I got too much. I'm aware you don't. I got a lot on. I do. I got a lot. I don't. I got too much. I'm aware you don't. We have a paranormal podcast. You'd think we both don't. I feel like we can podcast from the poop deck. I feel like that's fine.

Straight from the poop deck. Our new podcast. Like, intro music is all the same and everything, but it's just like, if you drink seawater, will you go blind? Like, all pirate questions if you follow the north star forever will you fall off the edge of the world which is not far off the questions we ask on this podcast it's not really honestly so this is the core of our story today a real life ghost ship discovered on the high seas totally abandoned and the lack of

evidence about what happens means we can now speculate wildly about what actually happened thoughts what do you think of the story so far the crew killed them the people that handed in the boat they killed them what is there and because obviously the testimonies we're hearing at the minute are directly from the crew that discovered the boat. Correct. There's no third party involved. There was no one who discovered the boat but wasn't involved with the selling of the boat. Right. So everyone that discovered the boat and wanted to sell the boat are the only ones that can testify that this is how it was found.

Right. That's a little bit suspicious okay to counter your point yeah well where did you get a pirate sword you splashed seawater in your face where did you get this i boiled tap water and put in some sea salt i think the idea as to why they weren't murdered by the second crew is there was literally no sign of struggle whatsoever. There was like tobacco and like pipes lying out that had just been smoked and

just as if people just like quietly left they looked for like physical damage to the thing. Was there any sign? I mean back then you're talking muskets and guns so there would have been some blood somewhere yeah because nowadays you know you get your seal team six type pirates coming in right and they you know they you wouldn't even see a struggle yeah when they're and they're coming in with like m16s you know these guys are pros but an old-fashioned pirate

showdown from what i know from popular culture we're talking about boats smashing into each other cannonballs going off screams and blood and muskets and orlando bloom is swinging across a rope he like kicks a skeleton's head off yeah it's just bones everywhere curses like flying through the sky. It's insane. So I can understand why, yeah, no sign of a struggle would be pretty suspicious in this time. Yeah. So basically what we've got right now is just, like you say, a Poirot good old fashioned mystery to solve. Right.

And much like Poirot would have used back in his time. He's not real. I have, what? Poirot's not a real person. It's a character by Agatha Christie. no agatha christie is the fake one pyro made agatha christie up i think that's miss marple ever heard of miss marple sorry you think miss maro were best friends you think borrow invented agatha christie as a woman who wrote him into reality? I think Poirot was a creative man and he was very intelligent

and he took time out of his day from solving mysteries to write novels on the side. By Agatha Christie. About Poirot. I mean, yeah, right. He changed his name from Poirot to Agatha Christie at a time.

I can see that. I can see that. Pen name. What I have is a wheel of fortune of possibilities uh for what happened to the crew of the mary celeste oh hell yes let's spin it oh my god you actually have a spinnable wheel so kid has um has turned his laptop to reveal an actual how did you make this this is a uh looks like some sort of program. I learned to code.

The main things I've been working on is learning to code to build this and learning the ingredients for seawater. I'll tell you, one is a lot harder than the other. I mean, finding the perfect balance between salt and water is just not meant to be. I mean, God is incredible. incredible you see whenever we run out of lombardi on the patreon i'm gonna restock with this paranormal life sea water tremendous for your hair for your rubbing your eyes let's face it it's probably healthier than lombardi at this point how long that stock's been sitting i mean we tried to drop a fish into a tank of lombardi

and he just dissolved in the air before he could actually hit it i don't think he hit the surface no absolutely not it's really worrying it was it was like a comet re-entering the atmosphere it just burned out on it it burned out before it hit the surface uh so if you would like some of this delicious nectar check out the this paranormal life patreon. We can get your own bottle of toxic Lombardi. All right, let's spin this bad boy. Ready? Yeah, let's spin the wheel.

All right, option number one. So the wheel has produced the suggestion cursed ship. The suggestion cursed ship? So what I kind of left out up to this point, and what some people don't know, is that Mary Celeste, although famous for this case, was actually deemed incredibly unlucky even before this. Really?

You might have known her by her maiden name, the Titanic. Over about 13 years, it had something like 17 owners. It was renamed a couple of times. It was mostly known for being in shit condition and losing money on doing runs between Boston to Africa. I mean, that's a big run, to be fair. Yeah, it's very true. Even after it was sold on, it ended up wrecking off the coast of Haiti in January 1885. And basically, it became the subject of another insane insurance scam. Basically, he went ashore and tried to claim that there was an enormous,

there's an enormous amount of stuff in this that was worth a lot of money and that someone would be getting an amazing deal out of salvaging this ship. Right. He claimed that there was, you know, hundreds of casks of beer. There was like thousands of dollars of cutlery, tons of fish. Apparently this was patently untrue when it was investigated. There was what was described as bottom of the barrel runoff from smashed and leaking bottles of beer found in casks. 780 barrels of rotten fish. Yeah, he said there was thousands of dollars of cutlery.

Turned out to be $50 worth of dog collars. Look, one man's trash is another man's treasure. That's all I'm going to say. To the man with the 50 dogs, he's hit the jackpot. And basically what happened to that captain was they obviously decided what he was doing was totally illegal. The crime for which at the time was actually punishable by death. Wow. For this kind of insurance fraud. Fair play for the 1800s.

They actually decided that that would have been too harsh. And I think they gave him a few years in the slammer. Wow. But he didn't lose his life for that one. I just assume it's the 1800s. Like every crime is punishable by death. Yeah. Just depending on what mood the the punisher is in at

best you're getting fingers chopped off right at worst death death absolutely death at worst fingers chopped off then death then yeah and then like shoved up your nose then dead something really bad fingers chopped off then used to flip you off as you're beheaded the worst death of all the most shameful death of all. What I'm trying to say was this was a very unlucky ship, very famous for being unlucky. It is possible that this ship was simply cursed and that a curse-like fate befell the original captain and his crew.

Just one possibility. I think it's about time we spun the wheel again. All right. I hope there's some wicked game show music playing right now as we're spinning this bad boy violence you're editing this like monday night 2am you're like if you think i'm putting music in here all right time to spin the wheel again Cursed ship again He's gone straight back to cursed ship I think my laptop might be cursed

Alright, spinning the wheel again We stuck this one right in We hit pirates Interesting This is pretty self-explanatory Yar har Yar Aye it is, matey

It's the 1800s We're talking about sailing between the Americas, kind of the West Indies, all the way across the Atlantic to Europe. Pirates did operate in these areas. They did operate in this time. Pirates operate today. But we did say pirates of this era would have caused a ruckus.

They would have caused a mess and a fight. So to have no evidence of a struggle. I don't think it was pirates. I tend to agree. Pirates like to leave their mark, from what I know of pirates. You know? They want to know,

we've been here, we did that. They take over a ship, and then they fly the pirate flag. The Jolly Roger. Exactly. This story would have started very different. The captain of the Delgratia would have, as soon as he got into,

what's that in the distance? I see a foggy outline of a boat and as soon as they get close enough the jolly roger the skull yeah comes into focus it's to the turn back man the cannons you know there's gonna be a struggle there's gonna there's gonna be an absolute struggle so i think it's not pirates it's not gonna be pirates now let's spin the wheel definitely that comes out of this as well science what the wheel has chosen science so science is just one of the possibilities they evolved right there on the ship a rational conclusion is i suppose one possibility of what may have happened um basically, there's a filmmaker, Anne McGregor, and she did some deep research on the Mary Celeste. She basically hypothesized that maybe one of two things happened.

When I say science, she went back to the 1800s records of the sea temperature, wind speeds, all of that stuff. How is that logged? Which, by the way, goes back to the 1700s internationally i did not know this that's insane and she worked out that judging by these records of the sea and weather if the boat had been abandoned just off the coast of the azores the boat would have sailed itself to pretty much precisely where the crew of the del cratia found it basically meaning that they probably abandoned it at that point.

One other circumstance that may have played into them abandoning the ship altogether, the nine barrels of alcohol that were empty compared to the other 1,700 had a slight difference to the others. They were made of red oak, not white oak. Okay. Apparently the difference is red oak is more porous.

Studies have been done on this, comparing storing alcohol in red oak barrels compared to white oak barrels. If that alcohol started to evaporate and if something sparked it, it could set off an explosion or a huge flame. Right. And wouldn't necessarily leave any marks on the ship.

It could be that crew heard explosions, heard bangs bangs and assumed that the ship was about to blow up into a million pieces. Maybe abandoned ship. Little did they know it was only nine barrels out of 1700 and the others were totally fine. Right. Interesting. I mean, you said she did deep research into this, this whole mystery. I did. Did she have a wheel? wheel i mean we've done our research and we've got a wheel so listeners of the paranormal nation look we'll leave that one up to you if you want to trust this quote-unquote scientists or you know if you want to step up to the high stakes table roll the dice with your paranormal pals kit and rory listen you're gonna

listen to some asshole with a phd you're gonna listen to the two guys in sunglasses and trench coats in the corner rolling dice in the alley exactly solid gold chunks speaking of spinning the wheel i think it's that time again to spin the wheel science again okay Spin the wheel! Curse ship again! Spin the wheel! Back to curse ship. Alright, look, I might actually take the scientist's advice now. Because this is mad. Pirates, alright!

We're gonna get there. Spin the wheel! What is this, science again? Jesus. I'm just beginning to see the flaws in the wheel. Oh, what is that? Thief brothers are alter aliases. There were two German crewmen above the Mary Celeste, brothers Volkert and Boy Lorenzen, who became a focus of the investigation when it was discovered that none of their personal possessions were found on the abandoned ship.

Oh, okay. So everyone else's ship was left behind except theirs. But when one researcher, who we just spoke about, Anna Gregor, looked into this... No wheel and, as I call her. She spoke to a Lorenzen family descendant who claimed that the pair had lost their gear in a shipwreck earlier in 1872 and that's why they didn't have any gear no gear and

that they had quote no motive i guess we don't know what else was stolen yeah there could have been extra booty on the ship that we don't even know about. Exactly. But that still doesn't really explain two guys aren't going to, you know, overcome a family and five other men. Right. As we've established, that two-year-old is a real badass. Very true. Are we really going to spin the wheel till we get the last option? All right. Spin the wheel.

And I would be remiss if I didn't mention one of the other popular theories. Greys. I'm listening. You have my attention for once. I was starting to think this podcast was a f***ing joke. Did UFOs abduct the entire crew? Absolutely. You're expecting way more resistance.

Thank you for listening to this episode. So, I have no more evidence. Sorry, let me rephrase. I don't have any evidence. What I have are crazy-ass theories. What do you make to be the most likely of all these outcomes? I, you know, uncharacteristically,

I don't mind the science one. That was actually a pretty cool little theory about how this could have come apart. Uh, honestly, I mean, obviously two dudes called the Thief Brothers are pretty suspicious. But I'm still maybe not totally convinced that it wasn't just the crew that discovered the ship, that they were the ones that killed them and took the ship.

Because I know we said there's no signs of a struggle, but hell, we don't know. You got to think about this story from scratch. We're thinking, oh, how could they have done it if there was no sign of a struggle on the ship? We only think that there could have been a fight on the ship because that's what we've been told. Maybe the people invited them onto their ship. Maybe they met on the island. You know, this could have been a whole different story that has been completely, you know, painted over. But doesn't it seem weird that the log of the ship gets to where we're six miles off the coast, which is nothing, by the way. Six miles off the coast of this island.

And then it just stops. I mean, it just stops. And then there's these weird jaggedy scraps in the book. All torn out. Yeah, that is a little bit weird. Maybe the second crew like wrote the log from the very beginning to make it look yeah and they're like having a nice time nothing wrong nothing wrong another beautiful day i think that's my my main theory that i'm going for the ship that the crew that handed it in

they killed them i didn't really expect that really thought you're gonna go for grace i kind of did that's why i saved that shit for last. What's your theory? Researching this, I found that the scientific explanation is actually pretty popular. I didn't really like it that much because it felt like a lot of things needed to happen for them to abandon ship. As someone online pointed out, they were like a captain. You know, the captain goes down with the ship. The captain doesn't leave the damn ship unless that thing is effed right which it wasn't there was nothing wrong with it that's true so that is true just a combination of things maybe a couple of these barrels went up in smoke maybe we do know there

was three feet of water apparently that's not that much in ship terms it doesn't seem that much so but maybe they thought they were i've had more feet of water in my goddamn bathtub three feet of water is quite a lot if you're standing up that's like up to your like stomach or up to my neck me i keep forgetting how small you are yeah it's really shit don't i know it i might actually cut this from the podcast because they didn't know either so i think with the scientific explanation a lot of different things had to come together but on the other hand we don't really have any other solid uh things to go on it's true the wheel has not been kind to us no despite me designing the wheel i think if we're going to come down to a conclusion what is yours today rory i think my conclusion unfortunately today is going to be a no i do not believe this is a paranormal case

unfortunately i think it's a double no no one's coming on with a paranormal explanation god damn it get it all to hell but you know these things happen it's fine no biggie and thank you so much to monica and paul again for submitting that story loved the mary celeste we took a long time getting around to that one but uh what a story it was if you have any of your own thoughts about this episode please send them to this paranormal life podcast at gmail.com if you want to keep up with us on the socials you can get us on twitter at this power life you can find us on facebook at facebook.com forward slash this paranormal life there is of course, the secret society where all the coolest and most secretive listeners hang out and talk shit about us behind our backs because they keep banning us from the group. I accidentally promoted a woman named Joanne as a mod. And first thing she did was remove me as admin.

Yeah. Like a dick move. I really didn't see coming here, Joanne. I thought admin was above Maude. Right. Me too. Turns out it's the f***ing other way around. Me too.

It's crazy. It's like I thought the freaking king would be able to do shit in chess, but he's actually a little coward, and he's always trying to hide everywhere. Turns out Maude rhymes with God. Yeah. And Joanne is very much the queen of this board. The mean queen, I call it. the mean queen i call it the mean queen

who's also a tween and as always if you want to go that extra mile and get a little bit extra in return we've got the patreon that's right that's patreon.com forward slash this paranormal life where from two dollars a month you can get access to our show notes where we post all the pics links and other shit to do with every episode um for five dollars a month you can get bonus episodes and beyond that you can get into merchandise we've got t-shirts lombardi liquid of the dead to give you a taste of what one of those bonus episodes is like here's a clip from the last one so it's 2003 and a man named oscar munos i think i'm butchering that.

Successfully butchered. Is walking through a deserted Chilean town in the Atacama Desert. Okay, fine. As you do, get some of those golden rays. Chill out. For once, you want a goddamn break. You go to your travel agents. I want a sun holiday.

Maybe something by the beach. Just, you know, I've got a quick five days to take off work. Where can you send me? Two phrases. Ghosttown and sandy ass crack. Does that float your boat, Oscar? Door's closed. Ah, shit. The next dude comes in and

sits down. I was thinking somewhere for skiing with the family. How'd you like ghost town? Sandy eyes. They only have one resort to offer people. You pale bastard. You're gonna burn like a lobster on these slopes. So we're just

gonna take a moment right now to thank our patrons who've pledged so far. Special thanks to Roshin Gallaher. I don't really want her to be Roshin. I want her to take her time with this one. I just want to say thank you for contributing to the This Paranormal Life Patreon.

Thank you to Sam Day. Sam Day or Night, I know that you're going to have my back because that's what buddies are for. Except night, because I know you and i are both terrified of the dark so they should just call you sam day wait they do they do all right so it's all good then sam no hard feelings enjoy that nightlight you cowardly bastard i'm right there with you

brother like scared little moths i've got a flashlight like a man. Thank you to Kevin G. Mora. Can I get some Mora, Kevin G? Because this guy's addictive. Thank you to Euan Martin. Me and Martin do what? What? You said Euan Martin. Me and Martin do what? I said Euan Martin. Yeah, what do me and Martin do?? I said you and Martin. Yeah? What do me and Martin do? Huh? Answer me! Yo, Ewan. Not you and.

Ewan, the name. Right, because we're saying that you say a name. Right, not a sentence. I didn't just start a non-sequence. It's like a sentence that wasn't. Sorry, sorry. I've been drinking a lot of seawater. Thank you so much, Ewan, for the coin in the bucket of the paranormal palace. It's been a long day.

Christ. I was pretty skeptical about the seawater, but I tasted it. It's pretty delicious. It's pretty good, right? It's salty and refreshing. Thank you to Stephen McKeown. Stephen, matey, how would you like a little cruise on board the SS Friendship? Aye, it's cursed.

Aye, there's three feet of water in the vessel. But I'm looking for a little cabin boy, and I think you fit the bill. That's the most intimidating thank you I think we've given on this podcast. Thank you to Costa Hagai Hagi. What's the Costa getting you on this here vessel? The SS Friendship. Aye, the only thing left is a couple bottles of rum

and the scorched outline of a burnt child. But we'll clean her up and we'll sail the seas, Costa. Pirates only are cold. This is a really hard voice to do. Thank you to Dylan Dwyer. Dylan, you better not be spilling any of my rum

when we're on the SS Friendship. Come along, matey. Thank you so much for throwing, for tossing a doubloon in the hat of the paranormal pirates. Topical. And lastly, but not leastly, thank you to

Anarcho Murphy. Oh, I thought I was the captain of this vessel, but it's you, Captain Murphy. He takes it, drives it immediately into the rocks. All of our patrons are dead. Well played, Murphy. You seagull see you salty bastard oh man that's how you prove yourself to be the best pirates be the biggest shit of all

well thank you so much to everyone we've shouted out so far yeah um if you guys haven't heard your shout out just yet that's because it is on the way yeah and i will say for people you know who make it this far into the episode just as a little reward i want to let you guys know that there's a couple big episodes that we've been putting off for a while you know ones that we really want to do justice to the big paranormal events of course and we've got one of those the birth of jesus 10 part series we got one of those. The birth of Jesus. 10 part series. We got one of those right on the horizon crawling towards us like that girl from The Grudge. And it's going to be with you guys very soon.

We're looking forward to it. It's about time we had another yes on this podcast. And I think this might just be it. Anyway, spin the wheel. So thank you very much again for tuning into this episode hope you've enjoyed it absolutely we will see you next week for yet another paranormal tale bye