Bermuda Triangle

Bermuda Triangle - Fact or Imagination?

So, looking for the facts behind the mystery of the Bermuda Triangle? More than 1000 ships and planes have disappeared in the triangle area over the past five centuries and continue to do so.

And all these happen when apparently there are no human errors, equipment failures, or even natural disasters. Strangely, the ships and aircraft just vanish when everything seems to be okay.

Many believe that Devil is at play here and therefore call the area also Devil's Triangle.

The facts however are quite far from what is generally known or believed to be true. There are many stories and myths created through the sheer imagination of writers who have used them rampantly to draw publicity to their books. In many cases, the facts got blurred.

Well, I have been digging deep into the incidents and analyzing the facts and evidence to bring out the truth. This section is an account of those findings.

So where is Bermuda Triangle located and how large is the area? Is there a map? And do you get to know when exactly you cross the line and enter the area?

By the simplest of all definitions, Bermuda Triangle is located off the South-Eastern coast of the United States and in the Atlantic Ocean. The three corners of the triangle are Miami (Florida); San Juan (Puerto Rico); and Bermuda (the north-Atlantic Island).

The accidents have mostly taken place near the southern boundary of the triangle between Florida and Puerto Rico. You can always argue that's obvious because that's where the area of the triangle is widest and therefore such possibilities should be more anyway!

But the area is not as simple as it appears in the picture above. If you want to know more about its location and the map, then check out Bermuda Triangle Location & Map.

So, the next question is why the name "Bermuda Triangle"? At the time of coining the term, the first name that came up was "Miami Triangle".

But Florida objected saying that they would lose visitors to Miami with such a name as people would fear to come there. So, the next name taken up was "Puerto Rico Triangle".

Puerto Rico too raised objections. Then it was the turn for the 21 square miles tiny island of Bermuda which forms the third corner of the triangle.

And no one seems to have bothered. Bermuda was then also known as the "Isle of the Devils" which fitted the triangle concept quite well therefore the final name "Bermuda Triangle" was coined.

Lost Planes & Ships in Bermuda Triangle

Here are some of the most amazing stories of planes and ships that disappeared while crossing the triangle area. As you visit the links, you will also see my findings behind such great mysteries of all times.

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 was a training flight of TBM Avenger bombers that went missing on December 5, 1945, while over the Atlantic. The squadron's flight path was scheduled to take them due east for 120 miles, north for 73 miles, and then back over a final 120-mile leg that would return them to the naval base, but they never returned. The impression is given that the flight encountered unusual phenomena and anomalous compass readings and that the flight took place on a calm day under the supervision of an experienced pilot, Lt. Charles Carroll Taylor. Adding to the intrigue is that the Navy's report of the accident was ascribed to "causes or reasons unknown." It is believed that Taylor's mother wanted to save her son's reputation, so she made them write "reasons unknown" when actually Taylor was 50 km NW from where he thought he was.

Adding to the mystery, a search and rescue Mariner aircraft with a 13-man crew was dispatched to aid the missing squadron, but the Mariner itself was never heard from again. Later, there was a report from a tanker cruising off the coast of Florida of a visible explosion at about the time the Mariner would have been on patrol.

While the basic facts of this version of the story are essentially accurate, some important details are missing. The weather was becoming stormy by the end of the incident, and naval reports and written recordings of the conversations between Taylor and the other pilots of Flight 19 do not indicate magnetic problems.

Mary Celeste

The mysterious abandonment in 1872 of the 282-ton brigantine Mary Celeste is often but inaccurately connected to the Triangle, the ship having been abandoned off the coast of Portugal. The event is possibly confused with the loss of a ship with a similar name, the Mari Celeste, a 207-ton paddle steamer that hit a reef and quickly sank off the coast of Bermuda on September 13, 1864. Kusche noted that many of the "facts" about this incident were actually about the Marie Celeste, the fictional ship from Arthur Conan Doyle's short story "J. Habakuk Jephson's Statement" (based on the real Mary Celeste incident, but fictionalised).

Ellen Austin

The 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.

USS Cyclops

The incident resulting in the single largest loss of life in the history of the US Navy not related to combat occurred when USS Cyclops, under the command of Lt Cdr G. W. Worley, went missing without a trace with a crew of 309 sometime after March 4, 1918, after departing the island of Barbados. Although there is no strong evidence for any single theory, many independent theories exist, some blaming storms, some capsizing, and some suggesting that wartime enemy activity was to blame for the loss.

Theodosia Burr Alston

Theodosia Burr Alston was the daughter of former United States Vice President Aaron Burr. Her disappearance has been cited at least once in relation to the Triangle. 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. Both piracy and the War of 1812 have been posited as explanations, as well as a theory placing her in Texas, well outside the Triangle.

Spray

S.V. Spray was a derelict fishing boat refitted as an ocean cruiser by Joshua Slocum and used by him to complete the first ever single-handed circumnavigation of the world, between 1895 and 1898.

In 1909, Slocum set sail from Vineyard Haven bound for Venezuela. Neither he nor Spray was ever seen again.

There is no evidence they were in the Bermuda Triangle when they disappeared, nor is there any evidence of paranormal activity.

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)

Carroll A. Deering

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 that 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 the same time. Just hours later, an unknown steamer sailed near the lightship along the track of the Deering and ignored all signals from the lightship. It is speculated that the Hewitt may have been this mystery ship, and possibly involved in the Deering crew's disappearance.

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 spark to their cylinders rather than a battery-powered ignition coil system, this theory is not strongly convincing.

Star Tiger and Star Ariel

G-AHNP Star Tiger disappeared on January 30, 1948, on a flight from the Azores to Bermuda; G-AGRE Star Ariel disappeared on January 17, 1949, on a flight from Bermuda to Kingston, Jamaica. Both were Avro Tudor IV passenger aircraft operated by British South American Airways.

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 (Winer, Berlitz, Gaddis) of this story specifies that they did collide and crash, but there were two distinct crash sites, separated by over 160 miles (260 km) of water. However, Kusche's research showed that the unclassified version of the Air Force investigation report stated that the debris field defining the second "crash site" was examined by a search and rescue ship, and found to be a mass of seaweed and driftwood tangled in an old buoy.

SS Marine Sulphur Queen

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.

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 (sometimes misidentified as Raikuke Maru) went down with all hands after sending a distress signal which allegedly said "Danger like dagger now. Come quick!", or "It's like a dagger, come quick!" This has led writers to speculate on what the "dagger" was, with a waterspout being the likely candidate (Winer). In reality the ship was nowhere near the Triangle, nor was the word "dagger" a part of the ship's distress call ("Now very danger. Come quick."); having left Boston for Hamburg, Germany, on April 21, 1925, 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 was found adrift in the Atlantic south of Bermuda on September 26, 1955; it is usually stated in the stories (Berlitz, Winer) 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.

Popular theories solving the mystery

So, what caused the ships and aircraft to disappear mysteriously? There have been many research and explorations done to uncover the mystery. There is no single theory that can explain all the incidents of disappearances. The ships and aircraft have been victims of different circumstances and situations. Things happened quickly and unexpectedly. While many theories have come out, there are few that come close to solving the Bermuda Triangle Mystery.

Methane Gas trapped under the sea floor can erupt, as a result, can lower the water density and cause ships to sink. Even planes flying over it, can catch fire and get completely destroyed during such gas blowout.

Sargasso Sea is a strange area that has no shores and bounded only by water currents on all sides. Many ships passing through it have been stranded and made motionless.

Electronic Fog, a strange thick cloud appears from nowhere and engulfs a ship or a plane. Instruments begin to malfunction, and finally, the ship or the aircraft vanishes without a trace.