What happened
The “Carroll A. Deering,” one of the last great commercial sailing ships, had carried coal to Rio de Janeiro, and in January 1921 she was returning from Barbados to Virginia. Late in the month she passed the lightship off Cape Lookout – a sailor standing on deck called out that the ship had lost her anchors. On January 31 the schooner was found aground on Diamond Shoals with her sails set. When rescuers boarded her after several days of storms, they found no one; the lifeboats, logbook, navigational instruments, and the crew’s personal belongings were missing. Several U.S. government agencies investigated the case, and the press linked it to the disappearances of other ships around the same time. The fate of the sailors was never explained.
Witnesses
The keeper of the Cape Lookout lightship, who was the last to see the crew, and the rescuers who discovered the abandoned ship.
Explanations and hypotheses
The investigation was inconclusive. Theories considered included a mutiny – there had been conflicts between the captain and the first mate – an attack by pirates or Prohibition-era rum runners, and the abandonment of the ship in lifeboats during a storm after she ran aground. Even Bolshevik agents were suspected. The case was later incorporated into the Bermuda Triangle legend.
Unexplained There is no convincing explanation.
More: Wikipedia (en)