ROME, Aug. 24 (UPI) -- Italian authorities have towed to port a $525,000 schooner found drifting empty in the Mediterranean Sea, off the Sardinian resort of Punta Volpe.
Britain's Daily Mirror reported the fate of the schooner appeared to mirror that of the Marie Celeste, which on a voyage from New York to Italy, was found empty and drifting off the coast of Portugal in 1872.
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The 66-foot schooner had no name and carried no other identification markings, the report said. Authorities found a half-eaten meal, sea maps, some clothes and a punctured dinghy on board.
A spokesman said: "It gave the impression of being abandoned very quickly. It could be piracy, we just don't know."
