Bermuda Triangle

File:Bertriangle.jpg

NASA image of the western Atlantic, showing the popular borders of the Bermuda Triangle.

The Bermuda Triangle, also known as the Devil's Triangle, is an area in the Atlantic Ocean where the disappearance of many people and their aircraft and surface vessels has been attributed by some to the paranormal, a suspension of the laws of physics, or activity by extraterrestrial beings. Some of the disappearances involve a level of mystery which is often popularly explained by a variety of theories beyond human error or acts of nature. An abundance of documentation for most incidents suggests that the Bermuda Triangle is a sailors' legend, later embellished by professional writers.

The Triangle area

File:Triangles1.jpg

The area of the Triangle varies with the authors.

Since the legends of the triangle do not come from one primary source, its popularity reflects a contiunance of an older tradition of stories passed on orally before being written down and therefore subject to any number of cultural perspectives, it is impossible to pinpoint the exact dimensions of the bermuda triangle. The most common representation is an isocolses triangle that stretches from Miami, Florida to San Juan, Puerto Rico; and the mid-Atlantic island of Bermuda, with most of the accidents concentrated along the southern boundary around the Bahamas and the Florida Straits. Another popular theory is that it is more of a trapezium covering the Straits of Florida, the Bahamas, and the entire Caribbean island area east to the Azores. Occasionally, the Gulf of Mexico is added to this theory.

Beyond the exact geographical boundaries, the general area of the Atlantic, carribean and Gulf of Mexico have been heavily-sailed shipping lanes since Christopher Columbus led the way for the European involvemnet of the [New World]]. From colonial trade ships, to modern day, ships cross through the triangle waters daily for ports in the Americas and Europe, as well as the Caribbean Islands. Cruise ships are also plentiful, and pleasure craft regularly go back and forth between Florida and the islands. It is also a heavily flown route for commercial and private aircraft heading towards Florida, the Carribean, and South America from points north.

The climate in that area of the ocean can be fairly extreme. The Gulf Stream ocean current flows through the Triangle after leaving the Gulf of Mexico. Sudden storms can and do appear, and in the summer to late fall the occasional hurricane strikes the area. The combination of heavy maritime traffic and tempestuous weather makes it inevitable that vessels could founder in storms and be lost without a trace — especially before improved telecommunications, radar, and satellite technology arrived late in the 20th century.

History of the Triangle story

Since mankind began to sail, there have been stories of cursed waters where ships and people dissapear. These dissapearances were attributed to everything from vengeful dieties, sea serpents, even to the proported edge of the world, when people believed Earth was flat with edges that a ship could drop off of. With the advent of modern sailing equipment and techniques, along with scientific understanding of the ocean, much of the maritime lore of earlier days faded away, except for a few areas that became designated as areas of paranormal activity, the most famous of course being the Bermuda Triangle. What many people do not know, is that twentieth century authors are responsible for publicizing paranormal activity in the bermuda triange; before books were written on the subject, there was no general understanding of a specific mysterious place in the ocean where people, planes and ships dissapeared. According to the Triangle authors Christopher Columbus was the first person to document something strange in the Triangle, reporting that he and his crew observed "strange dancing lights on the horizon," flames in the sky, and at another point he wrote in his log about bizarre compass bearings in the area. Modern scholars checking the original log books have surmised that the lights he saw were the cooking fires of Taino natives in their canoes or on the beach; the compass problems were the result of a false reading based on the movement of a star. The flames in the sky were undoubtedly falling meteors, which are easily seen while at sea.

While there probably were many occurances after Columbus, it was not until the twentieth century that the legend became popular. The first article of any kind in which the legend of the Triangle began appeared in newspapers by E.V.W. Jones on September 16, 1950, through the Associated Press. Two years later, Fate magazine published "Sea Mystery At Our Back Door", a short article by George X. Sand in the October 1952 issue covering the loss of several planes and ships, including the loss of Flight 19, a group of five U.S. Navy TBM Avenger bombers on a training mission. Sand's article was the first to lay out the now-familiar triangular area where the losses took place. Flight 19 alone would be covered in the April 1962 issue of American Legion Magazine. The article was titled "The Lost Patrol", by Allen W. Eckert, and was the first to connect the supernatural to Flight 19, but it would take another author, Vincent Gaddis, writing in the February 1964 Argosy Magazine to take Flight 19 together with other mysterious disappearances and place it under the umbrella of a new catchy name: "The Deadly Bermuda Triangle"; he would build on that article with a more detailed book, Invisible Horizons, the next year. Others would follow with their own works: John Wallace Spencer (Limbo of the Lost, 1969); Charles Berlitz (The Bermuda Triangle, 1974); Richard Winer (The Devil's Triangle, 1974), and many others, all keeping to some of the same supernatural elements outlined by Eckert.

Incidents

There are hundreds of odd occurances, recorded over many years, that are connected to the triangle in one way or another. Some of these are historical innacuracies, some nothing more than legends or hoaxes, while others are truly mysterious incidences. Below is a list of the most famous incidents:

Ellen Austin

The Ellen Austin was a cargo ship that was sailing on a southern route from New York to London in 1881 when it came across a desserted schooner, drifting in the sea. The captain of the Ellen Austin had ordered a skeleton crew from his own to sail the schooner to London alongside the Ellen Austin. However, the two ships were seperated by a sudden, but brief storm and the schooner was never seen again. While this is a famous Triangle story, many have pointed to the inconsistancies that are evident when tracing the historic sources of the story

USS Cyclops

The incident resulting in the single largest loss of life in the history of the U.S. Navy not related to combat occurred when USS Cyclops under the command of Lieutenant Commander G. W. Worley, went missing without a trace with a crew of 306 sometime after March 4, 1918, after departing the island of Barbados. Although there is no strong evidence for any theory, storms, capsizing and enemy activity have all been suggested as explanations.

Flight 19

US Navy TBF Grumman Avenger flight, similar to Flight 19. This photo had been used by various Triangle authors to illustrate Flight 19 itself. (US Navy)

Perhaps the most famous of all Bermuda Triangle stories is of Flight 19, a training flight of TBM Avenger bombers that went missing on December 5, 1945 while over the Atlantic. Under the leadership of an experienced pilot, Lt. Charles Carroll Taylor, the routine bombing mission became anything but routine about an hour and half into the flight. Taylor radioed that his compass was not working and that he was lost. For almost ten hours after that, Taylor and his squadron attempted to fly north to find land, but for whatever reason could not. Eventually all radio communication was lost and search planes were sent out, one of which went missing as well. The incident was widey reported in the press, and is sometimes attributed to the genesis of the modern interest in the Bermuda Triangle. However, often left out of re-tellings are the important facts that the weather became rough later in the day and that Taylor may have been confused about the origination of his flight and therefore did not realize that by flying North he was traveling deeper into the Atlantic.

Douglas DC-3

On December 28, 1948, a Douglas DC-3 aircraft, number NC16002, disappeared while on a flight from San Juan, Puerto Rico, to Miami. No trace of the aircraft or the 32 people onboard was ever found. From the documentation compiled by the Civil Aeronautics Board investigation, a possible key to the plane's disappearance was found, but barely touched upon by the Triangle writers: the plane's batteries were inspected and found to be low on charge, but ordered back into the plane without a recharge by the pilot while in San Juan. Whether or not this led to complete electrical failure will never be known. However, since piston-engined aircraft rely upon magnetos to provide electrical power and spark to their cylinders rather than batteries, this theory is unlikely.

Star Tiger and Star Ariel

These Avro Tudor IV passenger aircraft disappeared without trace en route to Bermuda and Jamaica, respectively. Star Tiger was lost on January 30, 1948 on a flight from the Azores to Bermuda. Star Ariel was lost on January 17, 1949, on a flight from Bermuda to Kingston, Jamaica. Neither aircraft gave out a distress call; in fact, their last messages were routine and both had calm flying weather.

SS Marine Sulphur Queen

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Shattered trailboard from Marine Sulphur Queen, recovered near the Florida Keys, February 1963. (U.S. Coast Guard)

SS Marine Sulphur Queen, a T2 tanker converted from oil to sulfur carrier, was last heard from on February 4, 1963 with a crew of 39 near the Florida Keys. Marine Sulphur Queen was the first vessel mentioned in Vincent Gaddis' 1964 Argosy Magazine article, but he left it as having "sailed into the unknown," despite the Coast Guard report which not only documented the ship's badly-maintained history, but declared that it was an unseaworthy vessel that should never have gone to sea.

USS Scorpion

The nuclear-powered submarine USS Scorpion was lost south of the Azores while on a transit home to Norfolk, Virginia after a six-month deployment on May 26, 1968. The Scorpion had been picked up by numerous writers (Berlitz, Spencer, Thomas-Jeffery) as a Triangle victim over the years. The U.S. Navy believes that a malfunctioning torpedo contributed to her loss, while others theorize that it was destroyed by the Russians in a secret confrontation

Paranormal Theories

Atlantis

Reputed psychic Edgar Cayce claimed that evidence for Atlantis would be discovered just off Bimini in 1968. New Agers view the Bimini Road as either a road, wall, or pier meant to service ships bound for Atlantis from Central and South America, or a breakwater built to protect fishing boats. The wall may also have a natural origin.[1][2] [3]

UFOs

Theorists claim extraterrestrials captured ships and planes, taking them beyond our solar system.^{[citation needed]}

Time warp

The proponents of this theory state that the many ships and planes entered a time warp to a different time or dimension on the other side, meaning that their crews could still be alive there, living new lives in another time period of the past or the future – or maybe even in a parallel universe.^{[citation needed]} Usually, the ship or aircraft in the story enters this dimension by way of a cloud.

Anomalous phenomena

Charles Berlitz, grandson of a distinguished linguist and author of various additional books on anomalous phenomena, has kept in line with this extraordinary explanation, and attributed the losses in the Triangle to anomalous or unexplained forces.

Natural Occurence Theories

Compass variations

Compass problems are one of the cited phrases in many Triangle incidents; it is possible that people operating boats and aircraft looked at a compass that they felt was not pointing north, veered course to adjust, and got lost quickly. The North Magnetic Pole is not the North Pole; rather it is the north end of the earth's magnetic field, and as such it is the natural end where the needle of a compass points. The North Magnetic Pole also wanders. In 1996 a Canadian expedition certified its location by magnetometer and theodolite at 78°35.7′N 104°11.9′W; in 2005 its position was 82.7° N 114.4° W, to the west of Ellesmere Island.

The direction in which a compass needle points is known as magnetic north. In general, this is not exactly the direction of the North Magnetic Pole (or of any other consistent location). Instead, the compass aligns itself to the local geomagnetic field, which varies in a complex manner over the Earth's surface, as well as over time. The angular difference between magnetic north and true north (defined in reference to the Geographic North Pole), at any particular location on the Earth's surface, is called the magnetic declination. Most map coordinate systems are based on true north, and magnetic declination is often shown on map legends so that the direction of true north can be determined from north as indicated by a compass.

Magnetic declination has been measured in many countries, including the U.S. The line of zero declination in the U.S. runs from the North Magnetic Pole through Lake Superior and across the western panhandle of Florida. Along this line, true north is the same as magnetic north. West of the line of zero declination, a compass will give a reading that is east of true north. Conversely, east of the line of zero declination, a compass reading will be west of true north. Since the North Magnetic Pole has been wandering toward the northwest, some twenty or more years ago the line of zero declination went through the Triangle, giving sailors and airmen a compass reading of true north instead of magnetic north. A sailor not knowing the difference would sail off course without realizing it, ultimately resulting in a vanishing.

Hurricanes

Hurricanes are extremely powerful storms which are spawned in the Atlantic near the equator, and have historically been responsible for thousands of lives lost and billions of dollars in damage. The sinking of Francisco de Bobadilla's Spanish fleet in 1502 was the first recorded instance of a destructive hurricane. In 1988, Hurricane Gilbert, one of the most powerful hurricanes in history, set back Jamaica's economy by three years. These storms have in the past caused a number of incidents related to the Triangle.

Gulf Stream

The Gulf Stream ocean current that flows out of the Gulf of Mexico, then north through the Florida Straits, and then on into the North Atlantic. In essence, it is a river within an ocean, and like a river, it can and does carry floating objects with it. A small plane making a water landing or a boat having engine trouble will be carried away from its reported position by the current, as happened to the cabin cruiser Witchcraft on December 22, 1967, when it reported engine trouble near the Miami buoy marker one mile from shore, but was not there when a Coast Guard cutter arrived.

Freak waves

This explanation is not without foundation; one such rogue wave wrecked the cruiser USS Memphis (CA-10) off the Dominican Republic on August 29, 1916, killing 40 men. [4]

Other Theories

Human error

One of the most cited explanations in official inquiries as to the loss of any aircraft or vessel is human error. Whether deliberate or accidental, humans have been known to make mistakes resulting in catastrophe, and losses within the Bermuda Triangle are no exception. For example, the Coast Guard cited a lack of proper training for the cleaning of volatile benzene residue as a reason for the loss of the tanker V.A. Fogg in 1972. Human stubbornness may have caused businessman Harvey Conover to lose his sailing yacht, the Revonoc, as he sailed into the teeth of a storm south of Florida on January 1, 1958. It should be noted that many losses remain inconclusive due to the lack of wreckage which could be studied, a fact cited on many official reports.

Deliberate acts of destruction

This can fall into two categories: acts of war, and acts of piracy. Records in enemy files have been checked for numerous losses; while many sinkings have been attributed to surface raiders or submarines during the World Wars and documented in the various command log books, many others which have been suspected as falling in that category have not been proven; it is suspected that the loss of USS Cyclops in 1918, as well as her sister ships Proteus and Nereus in World War II, were attributed to submarines, but no such link has been found in the German records.

Piracy, as defined by the taking of a ship or small boat on the high seas, is an act which continues to this day. Famous pirates of the Caribbean include Edward Teach (Blackbeard) and Jean Lafitte. Lafitte is sometimes said to be a Triangle victim himself.

Another form of pirate operated on dry land. Bankers or wreckers would shine a light on shore to misdirect ships, which would then founder on the shore; the wreckers would then help themselves to the cargo. It is possible that these wreckers also killed any crew who protested. Nags Head, North Carolina, was named for the wreckers' practice of hanging a lantern on the head of a hobbled horse as it walked along the beach.

Kusche's explanation

Lawrence David Kusche, a research librarian from Arizona State University and author of The Bermuda Triangle Mystery: Solved (1975) has challenged this trend. Kusche's research revealed a number of inaccuracies and inconsistencies between Berlitz's accounts and statements from eyewitnesses, participants, and others involved in the initial incidents. He noted cases where pertinent information went unreported, such as the disappearance of round-the-world yachtsman Donald Crowhurst, which Berlitz had presented as a mystery, despite clear evidence to the contrary. Another example was the ore-carrier Berlitz recounted as lost without trace three days out of an Atlantic port when it had been lost three days out of a port with the same name in the Pacific Ocean. Kusche also argued that a large percentage of the incidents which have sparked the Triangle's mysterious influence actually occurred well outside it. Often his research was surprisingly simple: he would go over period newspapers and see items like weather reports that were never mentioned in the stories.

Kusche came to several conclusions:

• The number of ships and aircraft reported missing in the area was not significantly greater, proportionally speaking, than in any other part of the ocean.

• In an area frequented by tropical storms, the number of disappearances that did occur were, for the most part, neither disproportionate, unlikely, nor mysterious; furthermore, Berlitz and other writers would often fail to mention such storms.

• The numbers themselves had been exaggerated by sloppy research. A boat listed as missing would be reported, but its eventual (if belated) return to port may not be reported.

• Some disappearances had in fact, never happened. One plane crash was said to have taken place in 1937 off Daytona Beach, Florida, in front of hundreds of witnesses; a check of the local papers revealed nothing.

Kusche concluded that:

"The Legend of the Bermuda Triangle is a manufactured mystery... perpetuated by writers who either purposely or unknowingly made use of misconceptions, faulty reasoning, and sensationalism." (Epilogue, p. 277)

In recent years, however, several authors, most notably Gian J. Quasar, have raised several questions as to the veracity of Kusche's findings, including, but not limited to, why Kusche so often brought up as evidence for his claims cases that were already well-known before the writing of his work as not being Triangle incidents; his misidentification and mislocation of several ship and aircraft incidents that are well-documented, but then using that inability to properly identify the craft as "proof" that they never existed; and in other examples openly claiming possibilities for foul weather for certain disappearances where it can be verified that none existed.

Other responses

The marine insurer Lloyd's of London has determined the Triangle to be no more dangerous than any other area of ocean, and does not charge unusual rates for passage through the region. United States Coast Guard records confirm their conclusion. In fact, the number of supposed disappearances is relatively insignificant considering the number of ships and aircraft which pass through on a regular basis.

The Coast Guard is also officially skeptical of the Triangle, noting that they collect and publish, through their inquiries, much documentation[5] contradicting many of the incidents written about by the Triangle authors. In one such incident involving the 1972 explosion and sinking of the tanker V.A. Fogg in the Gulf of Mexico, the Coast Guard photographed the wreck and recovered several bodies[6], despite one Triangle author stating that all the bodies had vanished, with the exception of the captain, who was found sitting in his cabin at his desk, clutching a coffee cup (Limbo of the Lost by John Wallace Spencer, 1973 edition).

Skeptical researchers, such as Ernest Taves and Barry Singer, have noted how mysteries and the paranormal are very popular and profitable. This has led to the production of vast amounts of material on topics such as the Bermuda Triangle. They were able to show that some of the pro-paranormal material is often misleading or not accurate, but its producers continue to market it. They have therefore claimed that the market is biased in favour of books, TV specials, etc. which support the Triangle mystery and against well-researched material if it espouses a skeptical viewpoint .

The Bermuda Triangle in Popular Culture

The first article of any kind in which the legend of the Triangle began appeared in newspapers by E.V.W. Jones on September 16, 1950, through the Associated Press. Two years later, Fate magazine published "Sea Mystery At Our Back Door," a short article by George X. Sand in the October 1952 issue covering the loss of several planes and ships, including the loss of Flight 19, a group of five U.S. Navy TBM Avenger bombers on a training mission. Sand's article was the first to lay out the now-familiar triangular area where the losses took place. Flight 19 alone would be covered in the April 1962 issue of American Legion Magazine. The article was titled "The Lost Patrol," by Allen W. Eckert, and in his story it was claimed that the flight leader had been heard saying "We are entering white water, nothing seems right. We don't know where we are, the water is green, no white." It was also claimed that officials at the Navy board of inquiry stated that the planes "flew off to Mars." "The Lost Patrol" was the first to connect the supernatural to Flight 19, but it would take another author, Vincent Gaddis, writing in the February 1964 Argosy Magazine to take Flight 19 together with other mysterious disappearances and place it under the umbrella of a new catchy name: "The Deadly Bermuda Triangle"[7]; he would build on that article with a more detailed book, Invisible Horizons, the next year. Others would follow with their own works: John Wallace Spencer (Limbo of the Lost, 1969); Charles Berlitz (The Bermuda Triangle, 1974); Richard Winer (The Devil's Triangle, 1974), and many others, all keeping to some of the same supernatural elements outlined by Eckert.[8]

The Triangle authors

The popular Triangle incidents cited above, apart from the official documentation, come from the following works. It should be noted that some incidents mentioned as having taken place within the Triangle are only found in these sources:

• Into the Bermuda Triangle: Pursuing the Truth Behind the World's Greatest Mystery by Gian J. Quasar, International Marine/Ragged Mountain Press (2003) ISBN 0-07-142640-X. (Reprinted in paperback (2005) ISBN 0-07-145217-6).
• The Bermuda Triangle, Charles Berlitz (ISBN 0-385-04114-4).
• The Bermuda Triangle Mystery Solved (1975). Lawrence David Kusche (ISBN 0-87975-971-2).
• Limbo Of The Lost, John Wallace Spencer (ISBN 0-686-10658-X).
• The Evidence for the Bermuda Triangle, (1984), David Group (ISBN 0-85030-413-X).
• Bermuda Shipwrecks, (2000), Daniel Berg(ISBN 0-9616167-4-1).
• The Devil's Triangle, (1974), Richard Winer (ISBN 0553106880).
• The Devil's Triangle 2 (1975), Richard Winer (ISBN 0553024647).
• The Bermuda Triangle (1975) by Adi-Kent Thomas Jeffrey (ISBN 0446599611).

For additional listings, including newspaper references used, see Bermuda Triangle source page.

External links

• Excerpts from Christopher Columbus' Log
• Text of Feb, 1964 Argosy Magazine article by Vincent Gaddis
• United States Coast Guard database of selected reports and inquiries
• Website of historian & Bermuda Triangle researcher Gian Quasar
• U.S. Navy Historical Center Bermuda Triangle FAQ
• U.S. Navy Historical Center (Selective Bibliography)
• The Bermuda Triangle: Startling New Secrets, Sci Fi Channel documentary (November 2005)
• Bermuda Triangle & Bermuda links
• Navy Historical Center: The Loss Of Flight 19
• On losses of heavy ships at sea
• Bermuda Shipwrecks
• Association of Underwater Explorers shipwreck listings page
• Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships

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