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=== Evacuation and accident ===  

=== Evacuation and accident ===  

The theory that has gained the most credence among historians is that the crew evacuated the ship after several barrels of alcohol in the cargo hold sprung leaks. The potent fumes from the alcohol would have caused sickness among the crew and posed a threat of explosion. Since the ''Dei Gratia's'' boarding party found all the ship's hatches and portholes open, the argument continues that the crew likely left the ship to air out by boarding the ship's lifeboat and floating some distance away, while remaining tied to the ship. The rope broke and the lifeboat drifted off, marooning the crew in the open sea, where they eventually died. There is much evidence to support this theory: the empty barrels of alcohol, the abundance of open hatches, the missing lifeboat and discovery of a frayed, broken rope hanging over the ship's edge, to which the lifeboat may have been tied. <ref>''Ghost Ship: The Mysterious True Story of the Mary Celeste and Her Missing Crew'' by Brian Hicks, p.294</ref>

The theory that has gained the most credence among historians is that the crew evacuated the ship after several barrels of alcohol in the cargo hold sprung leaks. The potent fumes from the alcohol would have caused sickness among the crew and posed a threat of explosion. Since the ''Dei Gratia's'' boarding party found all the ship's hatches and portholes open, the argument continues that the crew likely left the ship to air it out by boarding the ship's lifeboat and floating some distance away, while remaining tied to the ship. The rope broke and the lifeboat drifted off, marooning the crew in the open sea, where they eventually died. There is much evidence to support this theory: the empty barrels of alcohol, the abundance of open hatches, the missing lifeboat and discovery of a frayed, broken rope hanging over the ship's edge, to which the lifeboat may have been tied. <ref>''Ghost Ship: The Mysterious True Story of the Mary Celeste and Her Missing Crew'' by Brian Hicks, p.294</ref>

==References==

==References==