The year was 1872 when the crew of the brig Dei Gratia watched the apparently erratic course of an unknown vessel, which was approached for hours. Something seemed to go well on that boat, an old two-masted sailboat. That was another launch, well rigged but that it now only kept two sails, the rest had been taken or were completely torn. The ship lurched to one side or another as if nobody was steering. The crew of the Dei Gratia soon see with astonishment that you could not see any trace of the crew or the passengers, the ship's deck in unknown. No one answered their signals, apparently deserted. Finally we could read the name painted on the stern: Mary Celeste, New York. 

The Mary Celeste had departed from New York in November 1872 due to Genoa carrying a cargo of about 1700 barrels of alcohol. The crew was composed of 9 sailors including Captain Benjamin Spooner Briggs. Also traveled aboard the captain's wife and daughter. 

The entries in the logbook pass perfectly normal until the 25th November, at which time they cease altogether. At no point are recorded unusual events. There was no evidence of discontent among the crew of damage, storms of consideration, nothing ... Everything was normal. 

When from the Dei Gratia boarded the abandoned ship is the mystery became even more apparent. The boat landing was gone, and a compass was smashed, but otherwise everything seemed perfectly normal. Normal for a boat that takes a while abandoned at sea, of course. Below decks, in cabins, all was in order: the clothes piled on your site, toys ordered the daughter of Captain in his cabin, and so on. In the kitchen you could see clearly that he had been preparing breakfast, but by some mystery had reached only half the serving dishes. In the Dei Gratia could not explain what happened. Missing the boat that could lead to think that the crew had abandoned ship, but how and why?. They had not gone through any major storm, the proof was that on the breakfast table had opened bottles that had spilled its contents. Nor was there the slightest sign of struggle so that a riot was also highly unlikely. Moreover, in case of riot, someone with the experience of Captain Briggs would have noticed the first signs of discontent among the crew long before the riot erupted, and there would be some reference in the logbook. There was nothing. Moreover, in the alleged case of mutiny, it is logical that the crew had abandoned the officers, including the captain's family in the boat and they would have continued with the Mary Celeste to safe harbor. "One approach, perhaps? Following appear again if signs of struggle or pillaging. In the cellar had accumulated a certain amount of water, amounting to a meter already, but it was a normal amount for an old boat with the wooden hull. It could easily have been dwarfed in ningíun case constituted a reason to abandon ship. What happened then? 

Painstakingly the Dei Gratia crew members managed to take the Mary Celeste to Gibraltar, where authorities were remarkable except to their explanations. In fact it took them work to get rid of the accusations of piracy. Everything was so confusing and mysterious that researchers tended to think of Gibraltar in some kind of ploy by the people of the Dei Gratia. 

The biggest mystery, and that caused more confusion was how it was possible that the Mary Celeste could have stayed the course without a crew for more than 10 days and almost a thousand kilometers venture. As was the canopy was impossible, force someone should have stayed for a few days after the last entry in the logbook. But who? And most importantly: Where was I?. The missing boat was never found.

Numerous explanations have been proposed over the years, none entirely convincing. Perhaps one of the most curious was given by an old man named Abel Fosdyke that close to death gave a manuscript in which he showed that, despite not having been included in the list of passengers, was one of those who traveled at the Mary Celeste in this unfortunate trip November 1872. In the manuscript as Captain Briggs said he found his daughter playing near the bowsprit, the spar that juts from the bow of the sailboat. To avoid risks ordered the carpenter to build a secure platform for the child does not have an accident. This platform would explain the deep indentations observed in the wooden hull, just under the bowsprit on the bow. The fact is that, according Fosdyke in a special day of calm, the captain held a heated discussion on the ability to swim with clothes on, and to demonstrate his thesis into the water recklessly. All crew and passengers rushed to the platform to better see the feat, and it broke under the weight thrown overboard. The sharks and the sea eventually account for everyone except Fosdyke he could keep clinging to the remains of the platform on which drifted up to the coast of Africa. This is a very surprising story that in his time but was rejected by some credible, it is even today we find it difficult to accept. 

Nobody has yet satisfactorily answer the question: What happened to the Mary Celeste?

In 1954 they reached the hands of the American cartographer Arlington Mallery remains of a mysterious map whose origin dates from the sixteenth century, notably in 1513. Apparently belonged to a Turkish sailor named Piri Reis, who took the name. 

So far, all right, but, cast yourselves out this map: 
If you click on the map, you can see an extension of it in a new window. 

Needless to say, that to be a 1513 map is very detailed. But anyway, you might even think that Piri Reis was a good cartographer apart from excellent navigator ... But the truth is that If you look at the bottom of the map, you can see Antarctica, and also is the coast of the south pole without ice! ie as it was over 10,000 years ago! 

Only now, thanks to satellites, it has been mapping the coast, how the Piri Reis map did 500 years ago?