Bermuda Triangle - Encyclopedia

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:: BERMUDA TRIANGLE

The Bermuda Triangle, also known as the Devil's Triangle, is a geographical area in the Atlantic Ocean which has been made infamous for the many people, aircraft, and surface vessels noted to have disappeared within its bounds. Many of these disappearances involve a level of mystery which are often popularly explained by a variety of theories beyond human error or acts of nature, often involving the paranormal, a suspension of the laws of physics, or activity by extraterrestrial beings. An abundance of documentation for most incidents suggests that the Bermuda Triangle is a mere legend built upon half-truths and tall tales from individuals who sailed the area, then later embellished on by professional writers.

:: THE TRIANGLE AREA

The area of the Triangle varies with the authors.
USS Monitor, the best-known victim of a Cape Hatteras gale.The boundaries of the Triangle vary with the author; some stating its shape is akin to a trapezium covering the Florida Straits, the Bahamas, and the entire Caribbean island area east to the Azores; others add to it the Gulf of Mexico. The more familiar, triangular boundary in most written works has as its points Miami, Florida, San Juan, Puerto Rico, and the mid-Atlantic island of Bermuda, with most of the incidents concentrated along the southern boundary around the Bahamas and the Florida Straits.

The area is one of the most heavily-sailed shipping lanes in the world, with ships crossing through it daily for ports in the Americas and Europe, as well as the Caribbean islands. Cruise ships are also plentiful, and pleasure craft (boats and aircraft) regularly go back and forth between Florida and the islands.

The Gulf Stream ocean current flows through the Triangle after leaving the Gulf of Mexico; its current of five to six knots may have played a part in a number of disappearances. 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.[1]

The "Graveyard of the Atlantic"

Although another title of the Triangle, it is in fact two places in the Atlantic: the area of continental shelf near Sable Island, Canada, and just off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. Of the two, Sable Island is nowhere near the Triangle, but it did claim one alleged Triangle victim: the steamship Raifuku Maru (a more famous case would be the recent loss of the Andrea Gail). Both places are known for the intensity that a severe storm brings to the area, especially in the winter months, with the relatively-shallow water making the waves worse than they would be in the deep ocean. The most famous victim of a Cape Hatteras gale was not a Triangle vanishing: the Civil War ironclad USS Monitor went down in a severe gale while under tow to Charleston, South Carolina on December 31, 1862. A number of alleged Triangle incidents are thought to have went down in this area. [1]


:: HISTORY

February 1964 issue of Argosy Magazine, featuring the first printing of a story bearing the name Bermuda TriangleChristopher 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." On another occasion they observed what was most likely a falling meteor. 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; the compass problems were the result of a false reading based on the movement of a star. [2]

The first article of any kind in which the legend of the Triangle began appeared in the April 1962 issue of American Legion Magazine. The article was titled "The Lost Patrol," by Allen W. Eckert, about the loss of Flight 19, a group of five U.S. Navy TBM Avenger bombers on a training mission. In the story, picked up by various authors since, 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 put Flight 19 together with other mysterious disappearances, coin a new catchy name, and call the whole "The Deadly Bermuda Triangle"[3]; 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. [4]

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 that Crowhurst had fabricated the accounts of his voyage and had probably committed suicide. 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.
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.
The circumstances of confirmed disappearances were frequently misreported in Berlitz's accounts. The numbers of ships disappearing in supposedly calm weather, for instance, did not tally with weather reports published at the time.
Some disappearances had in fact, never happened. One plane crash took place in 1937 off Daytona Beach, Florida, in front of hundreds of witnesses; a simple check of the local papers revealed nothing.
"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.[2]

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 [3].


:: NATURAL EXPLANATIONS

Methane hydrates

Main article: Methane clathrate

Worldwide distribution of confirmed or inferred offshore gas hydrate-bearing sediments, 1996.
Source: USGSAn explanation for some of the disappearances has focused on the presence of vast fields of methane hydrates on the continental shelves. A white paper was published in 1981 by the United States Geological Survey about the appearance of hydrates in the Blake Ridge area, off the southeastern United States coast.[4] Periodic methane eruptions may produce regions of frothy water that are no longer capable of providing adequate buoyancy for ships. If this were the case, such an area forming around a ship could cause it to sink very rapidly and without warning.

Laboratory experiments carried out in the Monash University in Australia have proven that bubbles can, indeed, sink a scale model ship by decreasing the density of the water [7]; any wreckage consequently rising to the surface would be rapidly dispersed by the gulf stream.

Methane also has the ability to cause a piston engine to stall when released into the atmosphere even at an atmospheric concentration as low as 1%[citation needed].

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 wasn't 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. Not knowing the difference could easily result in a false compass reading, and ultimately a vanishing due to getting lost.

Hurricanes

Hurricanes are extremely powerful storms which are spawned in the Atlantic near the equator, and have historically been responsible 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 is an ocean current which flows out of the Gulf of Mexico, then north through the Florida Straits 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 has 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 wasn't there when a Coast Guard cutter arrived.


:: POPULAR THEORIES

The following theories have been used in the past by the Triangle writers to explain a myriad of incidents:

Atlantis

An explanation for some of the disappearances pinned the blame on left-over technology from Atlantis, for example, the activation of a still-operable death ray. It is claimed that evidence for Atlantis was discovered just off Bimini in 1968. This Bimini Road is either a road, wall, or pier meant to service ships bound for Atlantis from Central and South America. Archaeologically speaking, the Bimini Road was not only determined to be a natural formation, but no evidence of structures necessary for a pier to function have been discovered either on Bimini or in the nearby waters.

UFOs

Theorists claim extraterrestrials captured ships and planes, taking them beyond our solar system. This was given a boost when topics like ESP, telekinesis, clairvoyance, and the like flowered in the middle-to-late 1960s, and was used as storylines for popular films like Close Encounters of the Third Kind and The UFO Incident.

USS Memphis (CA-10) in 1916, hard aground in the Dominican Republic, after an encounter with a freak wave. (U.S. Navy)

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. Usually, the ship or aircraft in the story enters this dimension by way of a cloud. This has been a popular subject in television episodes of Star Trek and The Twilight Zone.

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.

Freak Waves

This explanation is not without foundation, as they are caused by deep-water earthquakes or far-away storms; one such wave wrecked the cruiser USS Memphis (CA-10) off the Dominican Republic on August 29, 1916, killing 40 men. [8]


:: FAMOUS INCIDENTS

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)Flight 19 disappeared on December 5, 1945 while on a training mission over the Atlantic. According to the popular Triangle stories, the flight leader reported a number of odd visual effects while lost; i.e. mentions of "white water", the ocean "not looking as it should", and his compass spinning out of control, before simply disappearing. Furthermore, Berlitz in his book claimed that because the TBM Avenger bombers were built to float for long periods, they should have been found the next day considering what were reported as calm seas and a clear sky. However, not only were the planes never found, a Navy search and rescue seaplane that went after them was also lost and never found. Adding to the intrigue is that the Navy's report of the accident was ascribed to "causes or reasons unknown".[5]

While the basic facts of the Triangle version of the story are essentially accurate, some important details are missing. The popular image of a squadron of seasoned combat aviators disappearing on a sunny afternoon did not happen. By the time the last radio transmission was received from Flight 19, stormy weather had moved in. Only the Flight Leader, Lt. Charles Carroll Taylor, had combat experience and any significant flying time, but at the same time he had less than six months of flight experience in the south Florida area, less than the trainees serving under him, and a history of getting lost in flight, having done so three times previously in the Pacific theater during World War II and being forced to ditch his planes twice into the water. Lt. Taylor also has since been depicted as a cool, calm and confident leader. Instead, radio transmissions from Flight 19 revealed Taylor to be disoriented, lacking confidence in his decisions, and completely lost.

Exaggerated claims also often stated that all the planes were having compass problems, however later naval reports and written recordings of the conversations between Lt. Taylor and the other pilots of Flight 19 do not indicate this. As for the Navy's report, it is stated that blame for the loss of the aircraft and men rest upon the flight leader's confusion. However the wording was changed from blaming Taylor to "cause unknown" in a second official report in deference to the wishes of his family. It was this incident as stated in the second, altered report, plus the later losses of the airliners Star Tiger and Star Ariel, which began the legend of the Bermuda Triangle. [5]

Mary Celeste


The mysterious abandonment in 1872 of the Mary Celeste, is often but inaccurately connected to the Triangle, having been abandoned off the coast of Portugal. Many theories have been put forth over the years to explain the abandonment, such as alcohol fumes from the cargo to insurance fraud. The event is possibly confused with the sinking of a ship with a similar name, the Mari Celeste, off the coast of Bermuda on September 13, 1864, and mentioned in the book Bermuda Shipwrecks by Dan Berg.


Ellen Austin

The schooner Ellen Austin supposedly came across an abandoned derelict, placed on board a prize crew, and attempted to sail with it to New York in 1881. According to the stories, the derelict disappeared; others elaborating further that the derelict reappeared minus the prize crew, then disappeared again with a second prize crew on board. A check of Lloyd's of London records proved the existence of the Meta, built in 1854; in 1880 the Meta was renamed Ellen Austin. There are no casualty listings for this vessel, or any vessel at that time, that would suggest a large number of missing men placed on board a derelict which later disappeared. [9]

Teignmouth Electron

Teignmouth Electron, as found on July 10, 1969. (Sunday Times)Donald Crowhurst was one of the entrants to the Sunday Times Golden Globe Race of 1968-69, where sailors competed for a £5,000 prize and the Golden Globe Trophy by circumnavigating the world alone. His boat, a trimaran named Teignmouth Electron, left England on October 31, 1968; it was found abandoned south of the Azores on July 10, 1969. and most writers of the Triangle would stop there, leaving out the evidence recovered from Crowhurst's logbooks which showed deception as to his position in the race and increasing irrationality. His last entry was June 29; it was assumed he jumped over the side a short time later.

USS Cyclops

The incident resulting in the single largest loss of life in the history of the U.S. Navy not related to combat occured when USS Cyclops (AC-4), 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. Some feel that the ship went missing due to the Bermuda Triangle's popular but unproven supernatural features, bringing out the fact that there was no transmission from the ship that there was trouble, and that it seems to have simply disappeared. It must be noted that at the time radio communication was still in its infancy; sending urgent calls for help was not always a simple or quickly accomplished task. Many serious investigators of the incident believe the Cyclops was farther north of the Triangle when it went missing, closer to Norfolk, Virginia. Researcher Larry Kusche argues that the ship, a collier carrying 10,000 tons of manganese, capsized when the cargo suddenly shifted in a heavy gale. Such a gale was recorded in the coastal waters off the Virginia Capes on March 9-10, 1918.[6] [7]

Theodosia Burr Alston

Theodosia Burr Alston, by John Vanderlyn (1802)Theodosia Burr Alston was the daughter of former United States Vice-President Aaron Burr, the wife of South Carolina governor Joseph Alston, and had been mentioned at least once as a Triangle victim, in The Bermuda Triangle by Adi-Kent Thomas Jeffrey (1975). She was a passenger on board the Patriot, which sailed from Charleston, South Carolina to New York City on December 30, 1812, and was never heard from again. It had been conjectured that the Patriot was a victim of pirates, but it should be remembered that the War of 1812 was in full swing, the British conducted a naval blockade of American ports, and the Patriot was registered as a U.S. privateer. Several other theories have been presented to explain Alston's disappearance, including one placing her all the way in Texas, the extreme western terminus of the Gulf of Mexico, well outside the Triangle.


The Spray

Captain Joshua Slocum's skill as a mariner was beyond argument; he was the first man to sail around the world solo. In 1909, in his boat Spray he set out in a course to take him through the Caribbean to Venezuela. He disappeared; there was no evidence he was even in the Triangle when Spray was lost. It was assumed he was run down by a steamer or struck by a whale, the Spray being too sound a craft and Slocum too experienced a mariner for any other cause to be considered likely, and in 1924 he was declared legally dead. While a mystery, there is no known evidence for, or against, paranormal activity.

Carroll A. Deering

Schooner Carroll A. Deering, as seen from the Cape Lookout lightship on January 29, 1921, two days before she was found deserted in North Carolina. (US Coast Guard)A five-masted schooner built in 1919, the Carroll A. Deering was found hard aground and abandoned at Diamond Shoals, near Cape Hatteras, North Carolina on January 31, 1921. Rumors and more at the time indicated the Deering was a victim of piracy, possibly connected with the illegal rum-running trade during Prohibition, and possibly involving another ship, S.S. Hewitt, which disappeared at roughly same time. This final photograph of her underway was taken from the Cape Lookout lightship two days before she was found deserted; it left the men of the lightship wondering why a man who was not an officer was hailing them, and why the Deering's crew were milling about on the foredeck. Just scant hours later, an unknown steamer sailed near the lightship along the track of the Deering, and ignored all calls to relay a message (the lightship's wireless was down); it even ignored the lightship's activation of the distress siren. It is speculation that the Hewitt may have been this mystery ship, and possibly, or directly, involved in the Deering crew's disappearance. [10]

Star Tiger and Star Ariel

A pair of Avro Tudor IV passenger aircraft owned by British South American Airways Corporation, 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. Searches revealed no debris, no oil slicks. While a genuine mystery in itself, a possible clue to their disappearance was found in the mountains of the Andes in 1998: the Star Dust, an Avro Lancastrian airliner also operated by BSAAC, disappeared on a flight from Buenos Aires, Argentina, to Santiago, Chile on August 2, 1947. The plane's mangled remains were discovered at the melt end of a glacier, suggesting that either the crew didn't pay attention to their instruments or had an instrument failure on the decent to Santiago when it slammed head-on into the vertical wall of a mountain peak, with the resulting avalanche burying the remains and incorporating it in the glacier. However, this is mere speculation with regard to the Star Tiger and Star Ariel, pending the recovery of the aircraft. It should be noted that the Star Tiger, based on transcripts of its radio communications, was flying at a height of just 2,000 feet, which would have meant that if the plane was forced down, there would have been no time to send out a distress message. [11]

KC-135 Stratotankers

On August 28, 1963 a pair of U.S. Air Force KC-135 Stratotanker aircraft collided and crashed into the Atlantic. The Triangle version of this story specifies that they did collide and crash, but there were two distinct crash sites, separated by over 170 miles of water.

SS Marine Sulphur Queen

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 sulphur carrier, disappeared in February, 1963 with a crew of 39 near the Florida Keys. The Triangle writers generaly agree with the Coast Guard assessment in that the loss of the ship was attributed to numerous factors such as a possible explosion or hull fatigue, but they leave out the maintenance and repair history of the ship: there were numerous fires related to the sulphur cargo holds since the conversion; there was severe metal fatigue involving the keel; ship's upkeep overall was shoddy at best (one crewman declared it a "floating garbage can"); a badly-needed inspection one month before the sinking was cancelled in favor of catching up with cargo deliveries; and the Coast Guard did ultimately declare in its report that it was an unseaworthy vessel that should never have gone to sea. [12] [13]

USS Scorpion

The nuclear-powered submarine USS Scorpion (SSN-589) 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 has been picked up by numerous writers as a Triangle victim over the years, despite the fact that it did not sink in the Bermuda Triangle; the U.S. Navy believes that a malfunctioning torpedo contributed to her loss, an event actually recorded on the SOSUS microphone network.

Raifuku Maru

One of the more famous incidents in the Triangle took place in 1921 (some say a few years later), when the Japanese vessel Raifuku Maru went down with all hands after sending a distress signal which allegedly said "Danger like dagger now. Come quick!" This has led writers to speculate on what the "dagger" was, with a waterspout being the likely candidate. In reality the ship was nowhere near the Triangle, nor was the word "dagger" a part of the ship's distress call; having left Boston for Hamburg, Germany, she got caught in a severe storm and sank in the North Atlantic with all hands while another ship, RMS Homeric, attempted an unsuccessful rescue.

Connemara IV

A pleasure yacht found adrift in the Atlantic south of Bermuda on September 26, 1955; it is usually stated in the stories that the crew vanished while the yacht survived being at sea during three hurricanes. The 1955 Atlantic hurricane season lists only one storm coming near Bermuda towards the end of August, hurricane "Edith"; of the others, "Flora" was too far to the east, and "Katie" arrived after the yacht was recovered. It was confirmed that the Connemara IV was empty and in port when "Edith" may have caused the yacht to slip her moorings and drift out to sea.



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