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The
Bermuda Triangle, sometimes called the
Devil's Triangle, is reputedly an area in the western part of the North
Atlantic Ocean. The triangle doesn't exist according to the
US Navy and is not recognized by the
US Board on Geographic Names.
[1]
However, a number of
aircraft and
surface vessels
are said to have disappeared in the triangle under unknown
circumstances. Popular culture has attributed various disappearances to
the
paranormal or activity by
extraterrestrial beings.
[2]
Documented evidence indicates that a significant percentage of the
incidents were spurious, inaccurately reported, or embellished by later
authors.
[3][4][5] Contrary to popular belief, insurance companies do not charge higher premiums for shipping in this area.
[3]
Triangle area
Writers give different boundaries to the triangle, with the total area varying from 500,000 to 1.5 million square miles.
[4] This means that different accidents happen inside the triangle depending on which writer reports them.
[4] The first written boundaries date from a 1964 issue of pulp magazine
Argosy,
[6] where the triangle's three
vertices are in
Miami, Florida peninsula; in
San Juan,
Puerto Rico; and in the mid-Atlantic island of
Bermuda.
[4] The
United States Board on Geographic Names does not recognize this name, and it's not delimited in any map drawn by US government agencies.
[4]
The area is one of the most heavily traveled shipping lanes in the
world, with ships crossing through it daily for ports in the Americas,
Europe,
and 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 Caribbean, and
South America from points north.
History
Origins
The earliest allegation of unusual disappearances in the Bermuda area appeared in a September 16, 1950
Associated Press article by Edward Van Winkle Jones.
[7] Two years later,
Fate magazine published "Sea Mystery at Our Back Door",
[8] a short article by George X. Sand 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.
[9]
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." Sand's
article was the first to suggest a supernatural element to the Flight
19 incident. In the February 1964 issue of
Argosy,
Vincent Gaddis's
article "The Deadly Bermuda Triangle" argued that Flight 19 and other
disappearances were part of a pattern of strange events in the region.
[6] The next year, Gaddis expanded this article into a book,
Invisible Horizons.
[10]
Others would follow with their own works, elaborating on Gaddis's ideas: John Wallace Spencer (
Limbo of the Lost, 1969, repr. 1973);
[11] Charles Berlitz (The Bermuda Triangle, 1974);
[12] Richard Winer (
The Devil's Triangle, 1974),
[13] and many others, all keeping to some of the same supernatural elements outlined by Eckert.
[14]
Larry Kusche
Lawrence David Kusche, a research librarian from
Arizona State University and author of
The Bermuda Triangle Mystery: Solved (1975)
[15]
argued that many claims of Gaddis and subsequent writers were often
exaggerated, dubious or unverifiable. 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. Kusche 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 recounted by Berlitz 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 that
sparked allegations of the Triangle's mysterious influence actually
occurred well outside it. Often his research was simple: he would review
period newspapers of the dates of reported incidents and find reports
on possibly relevant events like unusual weather, that were never
mentioned in the disappearance stories.
Kusche concluded that:
- 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 or even represent the disappearance as having happened in
calm conditions when meteorological records clearly contradict this.
- The numbers themselves had been exaggerated by sloppy research. A
boat's disappearance, for example, would be reported, but its eventual
(if belated) return to port may not have been.
- 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.
- 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.[15]
Further responses
When the UK Channel 4 television program
The Bermuda Triangle (1992)
[16] was being produced by John Simmons of Geofilms for the
Equinox series, the marine insurance market
Lloyd's of London
was asked if an unusually large number of ships had sunk in the Bermuda
Triangle area. Lloyd's of London determined that large numbers of ships
had not sunk there.
[17] Lloyd's does not charge higher rates for passing through this area.
[3]
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 that pass through on a regular basis.
[15]
The Coast Guard is also officially skeptical of the Triangle, noting
that they collect and publish, through their inquiries, much
documentation contradicting many of the incidents written about by the
Triangle authors. In one such incident involving the 1972 explosion and
sinking of the tanker
SS V. A. Fogg, the Coast Guard photographed the wreck and recovered several bodies,
[18]
in contrast with one Triangle author's claim 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.
[11] In addition,
V. A. Fogg sank off the coast of Texas, nowhere near the commonly accepted boundaries of the Triangle.
The
NOVA/
Horizon episode
The Case of the Bermuda Triangle,
aired on June 27, 1976, was highly critical, stating that "When we've
gone back to the original sources or the people involved, the mystery
evaporates. Science does not have to answer questions about the Triangle
because those questions are not valid in the first place... Ships and
planes behave in the Triangle the same way they behave everywhere else
in the world."
[19]
David Kusche pointed out a common problem with many of the Bermuda
Triangle stories and theories: "Say I claim that a parrot has been
kidnapped to teach aliens human language and I challenge you to prove
that is
not true. You can even use Einstein's Theory of
Relativity if you like. There is simply no way to prove such a claim
untrue. The burden of proof should be on the people who make these
statements, to show where they got their information from, to see if
their conclusions and interpretations are valid, and if they have left
anything out."
[19]
Skeptical researchers, such as Ernest Taves
[20] and Barry Singer,
[21]
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 inaccurate, but
its producers continue to market it. Accordingly, they have claimed that
the market is biased in favor of books, TV specials, and other media
that support the Triangle mystery, and against well-researched material
if it espouses a skeptical viewpoint.
Finally, if the Triangle is assumed to cross land, such as parts of Puerto Rico, the
Bahamas, or Bermuda itself, there is no evidence for the disappearance of any land-based vehicles or persons.
[citation needed] The city of
Freeport,
located inside the Triangle, operates a major shipyard and an airport
that handles 50,000 flights annually and is visited by over a million
tourists a year.
[22]
Supernatural explanations
Triangle writers have used a number of supernatural concepts to
explain the events. One explanation pins the blame on leftover
technology from the mythical lost continent of
Atlantis. Sometimes connected to the Atlantis story is the submerged rock formation known as the
Bimini Road off the island of
Bimini in the Bahamas, which is in the Triangle by some definitions. Followers of the purported psychic
Edgar Cayce
take his prediction that evidence of Atlantis would be found in 1968 as
referring to the discovery of the Bimini Road. Believers describe the
formation as a road, wall, or other structure, though geologists
consider it to be of natural origin.
[23]
Other writers attribute the events to
UFOs.
[24] This idea was used by
Steven Spielberg for his
science fiction film Close Encounters of the Third Kind, which features the lost Flight 19 aircrews as
alien abductees.
Charles Berlitz,
author of various books on anomalous phenomena, lists several theories
attributing the losses in the Triangle to anomalous or unexplained
forces.
[12]
Natural explanations
Compass variations
Compass
problems are one of the cited phrases in many Triangle incidents. While
some have theorized that unusual local magnetic anomalies may exist in
the area,
[25] such anomalies have not been found. Compasses have natural
magnetic variations in relation to the
magnetic poles, a fact which navigators have known for centuries.
Magnetic (compass) north and
geographic (true) north
are only exactly the same for a small number of places – for example,
as of 2000 in the United States only those places on a line running from
Wisconsin to the
Gulf of Mexico.
[26]
But the public may not be as informed, and think there is something
mysterious about a compass "changing" across an area as large as the
Triangle, which it naturally will.
[15]
False-color image of the Gulf Stream flowing north through the western Atlantic Ocean. (NASA)
Gulf Stream
The
Gulf Stream is a deep ocean current that originates in the
Gulf of Mexico and then flows through the
Straits of Florida
into the North Atlantic. In essence, it is a river within an ocean,
and, like a river, it can and does carry floating objects. It has a
surface velocity of up to about 2.5 metres per second (5.6 mi/h).
[27] A small plane making a
water landing or a boat having engine trouble can be carried away from its reported position by the current.
Human error
One of the most cited explanations in official inquiries as to the loss of any aircraft or vessel is human error.
[28] 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.
[29]
Violent weather
Hurricanes
are powerful storms, which form in tropical waters and have
historically cost thousands of lives lost and caused 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. These storms have in the past caused a number of incidents
related to the Triangle.
A powerful
downdraft of cold air was suspected to be a cause in the sinking of the
Pride of Baltimore
on May 14, 1986. The crew of the sunken vessel noted the wind suddenly
shifted and increased velocity from 20 mph to 60–90 mph. A National
Hurricane Center satellite specialist, James Lushine, stated "during
very unstable weather conditions the downburst of cold air from aloft
can hit the surface like a bomb, exploding outward like a giant squall
line of wind and water."
[30] A similar event occurred to the
Concordia in 2010 off the coast of Brazil.
Methane hydrates
Worldwide distribution of confirmed or inferred offshore gas hydrate-bearing sediments, 1996.
Source:
USGS
An explanation for some of the disappearances has focused on the presence of large fields of
methane hydrates (a form of natural gas) on the
continental shelves.
[31]
Laboratory experiments carried out in Australia have proven that
bubbles can, indeed, sink a scale model ship by decreasing the density
of the water;
[32][33][34] any wreckage consequently rising to the surface would be rapidly dispersed by the
Gulf Stream. It has been hypothesized that periodic methane
eruptions (sometimes called "
mud volcanoes") 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.
Publications by the
USGS describe large stores of undersea hydrates worldwide, including the
Blake Ridge area, off the southeastern
United States coast.
[35]
However, according to another of their papers, no large releases of gas
hydrates are believed to have occurred in the Bermuda Triangle for the
past 15,000 years.
[17]
Rogue waves
In various oceans around the world,
rogue waves have caused ships to sink
[36] and oil platforms to topple.
[37] These waves, until 1995, were considered to be a mystery and/or a myth.
[38][39]
Notable incidents
Ellen Austin
The
Ellen Austin supposedly came across a derelict ship, 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 from
Lloyd's of London records proved the existence of the
Meta, built in 1854 and that 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 were placed on
board a derelict that later disappeared.
[40]
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.
[41][42] In addition, two of
Cyclops's sister ships,
Proteus and
Nereus were subsequently lost in the North Atlantic during
World War II. Both ships were transporting heavy loads of metallic ore similar to that which was loaded on
Cyclops
during her fatal voyage. In all three cases structural failure due to
overloading with a much denser cargo than designed is considered the
most likely cause of sinking.
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 the
Deering was a victim of piracy, possibly connected with the illegal rum-running trade during
Prohibition, and possibly involving another ship,
SS 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
Hewitt may have been this mystery ship, and possibly involved in the
Deering crew's disappearance.
[43]
Flight 19
US Navy Avengers, similar to those of Flight 19.
Flight 19 was a training flight of five
TBM Avenger
torpedo bombers that disappeared on December 5, 1945, while over the
Atlantic. The squadron's flight plan was scheduled to take them due east
from
Fort Lauderdale
for 141 miles, north for 73 miles, and then back over a final 140-mile
leg to complete the exercise. The flight never returned to base. The
disappearance is attributed by Navy investigators to navigational error
leading to the aircraft running out of fuel.
One of the search and rescue aircraft deployed to look for them, a
PBM Mariner with a 13-man crew, also disappeared. A tanker off the coast of Florida reported seeing an explosion
[44]
and observing a widespread oil slick when fruitlessly searching for
survivors. The weather was becoming stormy by the end of the incident.
[45]
According to contemporaneous sources the Mariner had a history of
explosions due to vapour leaks when heavily loaded with fuel, as for a
potentially long search and rescue operation.
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.
[46]
Both planes were operating at the very limits of their range and the
slightest error or fault in the equipment could keep them from reaching
the small island. One plane was not heard from long before it would have
entered the Triangle.
[15]
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.
[47]
KC-135 Stratotankers
On August 28, 1963, a pair of
US Air Force KC-135 Stratotanker aircraft collided and crashed into the Atlantic. The Triangle version (Winer, Berlitz, Gaddis
[6][12][13])
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
[15]
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.
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
[12][13]) that the crew vanished while the yacht survived being at sea during three hurricanes. The
1955 Atlantic hurricane season shows
Hurricane Ione passing nearby between the 14th and 18th of that month, with Bermuda being affected by winds of almost gale force.
[15]
Influence on culture
