Mary Celeste
A ship found empty of all people, in good condition, seemingly abandoned on the high seas; a ghost ship.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
“The abandoned boat looked just like a Mary Celeste.”
“This quiet, empty office feels like a Mary Celeste on Friday afternoons.”
“When we found the yacht drifting with dinner still on the table, it felt like a real-life Mary Celeste.”
“The investigators were puzzled to find the engine running and the lights on, making the empty freighter a perfect Mary Celeste.”
“After the sudden evacuation, the school building sat like a Mary Celeste with open books still lying on every desk.”
“The rescue crew boarded the vessel in silence, unnerved by the eerie atmosphere of a modern-day Mary Celeste left to wander the ocean alone.”
first recorded 19th c.
From the name of the American-flagged brigantine discovered drifting and deserted in the Atlantic Ocean in 1872. The crew and passengers had vanished without a trace, and the circumstances of their departure have never been satisfactorily explained. The vessel’s name entered the language as a shorthand for any site found abruptly and inexplicably abandoned.
Last updated August 10, 2026