This is a fanciful explanation of the real-life mystery of the Mary Celeste (1872) which became famous after an 1884 short story by Arthur Conan Doyle entitled "I. Habakuk Jephson's Statement." The excerpt from the log of this show's fictional ship at the beginning of the episode is practically a dead ringer for the description of the Mary Celeste when it was found off the Azores.