This article originally appeared in The Skeptic, Volume 5, Issue 2, from 1991.

The view presented by Harris, then, is that on a possible warning from a small explosion, the captain and crew, suddenly alerted to their danger, threw open the hatches to allow any fumes to escape – and to make certain that there would be no follow-up great explosion, launched the small boat and left the ship to wait out the airing out of the cargo spaces in the hold.

In that way they would be away from the ship in the event of a large explosion, and could go back aboard after the wind had cleared the ship of alcohol fumes. (The ‘industrial alcohol’ was intended to be sent to Italy to ‘fortify’ wines, but was not good to be drunk by itself.

This type of cargo, according to Harris, had been known to explode, and it was likely that the captain of Mary Celeste was worried that he was, in fact, riding a sort of bomb.)