THE BERMUDA TRIANGLE.
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The Bermuda Triangle or "Devil's Triangle" is a triangular-shaped area off the coast of Florida that is famous for reports in which strange disappearances occur and magnetic compasses go haywire. The area is situated in the Atlantic Ocean and is generally thought of as having apexes at Miami, Bermuda, and San Juan. This area contains some of the deepest sub-oceanic trenches in the world, encompasses the fast-moving waters of the Gulf Stream, and has frequent strong water spouts and violent storms, making at least some of the reported odd phenomena attributable to human error or mishap.
The US Coast Guard acknowledges the fact that there are definite environmental anomalies in this area, but goes on to say that human error is by far the more bizarre phenomena that happens in these waters. The area sustains heavy traffic, both by air and by sea, and certainly accidents are bound to happen. Inexperienced mariners or pilots who don't take into account variations in compass readings or environmental anomalies in the area can and do get into serious trouble, accounting for many of the unexplained disappearances in the area.
However, even if every one of these stories were found to be attributable to human error or natural phenomena, the area is still fascinating for other reasons, not the least of which includes speculation that it encompasses the lost continent of Atlantis, and that it is a doorway to other dimensions. There is also speculation that the seabed in this area contains huge amounts of methane gas that is released suddenly due to changes in the sea bed, releasing large, unpredictable plumes of gas that have the capability to swallow ships or planes within minutes - without a trace.
One interesting theory is that the Bermuda Triangle is just one of many "vile vortices" that exist in both hemispheres all over the globe, a subject that we are researching and will publish more information on very soon.
Rather than dredging through the reports of disappearances, we are going to attempt to look at the area of the Bermuda Triangle with all it's anomalies and try to make some sense of it all on this page. There are several interesting aspects of the area that warrant a closer look:
Triangular Shape: The triangle has had mystical and magical connotations attached to it since before written history - after all, the Great Pyramid is sitting out there for all to see - and it is a perfect triangle with a whole slew of unknowns surrounding it. Having said that, is the triangular shape of the Bermuda Triangle of any significance? Yes, but not like one might think........it indeed does appear to be on a strong energy line or vortex in addition to all the variations described above, but this appears to be more relevant to its placement on earth than the actual triangular shape made by the 3 reference points by which we identify it.
Electromagnetism: Certainly electromagnetism has played a role in the mystery surrounding the Bermuda Triangle. This is one of only two places in the world where the compass points true north. However, the fact is that as you circumnavigate the earth you find compass variations of up to 22 percent at various locations. At first glance, this does not seem significant in any real sense, but again, if one looked worldwide very closely, this points to a strong vortex of some sort within the Bermuda Triangle area. We are continuing research in this area and will post updates soon.
The Lost Continent of Atlantis: Speculation that Atlantis was located in or very near the area of the Bermuda Triangle is probably the most interesting aspect of the Bermuda Triangle phenomena. Mainly because of psychic Edgar Cayce's revelations, the Bahamas and surrounding sea in particular have been pinpointed as a likely site for this lost continent. Speculation has it that if the water was lowered in the area by 300 feet or so, the dimensions and topology originally described by Plato would match almost exactly. Indeed, a report in 2001 of an underwater city that has been found off the western tip of Cuba may shed some light on this mystery. It could be that the continent encompassed the entire Caribbean area and that the land forms we know today are the highest mountain peaks of that lost civilization.
Unexplained variations in compass readings other than those attributable to normal compass variation discussed above have been reported in the Caribbean area, and most agree that psychic energy is very high here. Some suggest that the Bermuda Triangle phenomena is directly related to sunken batteries or crystals from the lost continent of Atlantis still emitting energies from the ocean floor.
Portal to Another Dimension: Another interesting theory about the Bermuda Triangle area is that certain places there serve as portals to other dimensions. The sheer number of credible eyewitness UFO reports makes this an area warranting serious further study with respect to either permanent or ever-changing possible portal sites. Credible scientists making careful observations in the area have reported anomalies in magnetism and gravitational forces here that cannot be explained by conventional physics, introducing the possibility that there is a dynamic opening and closing of other dimensional doorways in the vicinity.
In summary, the Bermuda Triangle is a fascinating area with a rich history that does seem to be conducive to supernatural phenomena in some respects, though further analytical study is definitely needed. There is speculation that the US government is already conducting covert tests in the Bahamas area, specifically Bimini, though exactly what they are looking for is as much a mystery as the area itself. Indeed, the famous "Bimini Road" is located on this island, where some say portions of the ruins of Atlantis can be seen in the clear shallow water. The National Geographic Society is reportedly investigating the reports of the lost city beneath the waters off Cuba, but they have not made any public announcements about what they have found to date. We will be keeping an eye on this development, so do check back often for further information.
The Bermuda Triangle, also called the Devil's Triangle, is an imaginary area that can be roughly outlined on a map by connecting Miami, Florida; San Juan, Puerto Rico; and the Bahamas, an island chain off the coast of the United States. Within that triangular area of the Atlantic Ocean have occurred a number of unexplained disappearances of boats and planes. Additionally, readings on directional devices do not operate normally inside the triangle.
Unusual events in that area date back in recorded history to 1493 and the first voyage of Christopher Columbus (1451–1506) to the New World. In his log, Columbus noted that his compass readings were askew within the area now called the Bermuda Triangle, and he and his crew were confused by shallow areas of sea with no land nearby.
The term "Bermuda Triangle" was first used in an article written by Vincent H. Gaddis for Argosy magazine in 1964. Gaddis claimed that several ships and planes had disappeared without explanation in that area. The article was expanded and included in his book, Invisible Horizons: True Mysteries of the Sea (1965), where he described nine mysterious incidents and provided extensive detail. Many newspapers carried a story in December of 1967 about strange incidents in the Bermuda Triangle after a National Geographic Society news release brought attention to Gaddis's book. The triangle was featured in a cover story in Argosy in 1968, in a book called Limbo of the Lost (1969) by John Wallace Spencer, and in a documentary film, The Devil's Triangle, in 1971. Charles Berlitz's 1974 bestseller The Bermuda Triangle marked the height of the disaster area legend, but some of its sensationalized claims were quickly proved inaccurate.
As early as 1952, George X. Sands had noted in a report in Fate magazine that an unusually large number of strange accidents had occurred in the region associated with the Bermuda Triangle. That many of the accidents in the area are intriguing, and that the area does have some natural conditions that sailors and pilots need to be aware of, has not been challenged. However, neither statistics nor documented evidence indicates that the number of accidents is unusually high or without explanation.
In March 1918, during World War I, the USS Cyclops vanished in the Bermuda Triangle. That ship may have been a casualty of war, but the December 1945 disappearance of Flight 19, a training squadron of five U.S. Navy torpedo bombers, became the most notorious of disappearances associated with the Bermuda Triangle. The squadron left Fort Lauderdale, Florida, with 14 crewmen and disappeared after radioing in several distress messages. A seaplane sent in search of the squadron also vanished. Those two airplane disappearances were frequently cited as the Bermuda Triangle legend grew during the 1960s and 1970s.
Few of those stories included telling details. All of the crewmen of Flight 19 were in training, for example, except for their patrol leader, who had tried to withdraw from his flight duty that day because he was feeling ill. After his compass malfunctioned soon into the flight, the flight leader decided to navigate by land-marks below on the islands of the Florida Keys, with which he was familiar. Visibility became a problem because of a sudden storm, and the leader became disoriented. Flight 19 was still in radio contact with the Fort Lauderdale air base, but after some mechanical difficulties they failed to switch to an emergency frequency. Radio recordings indicate that some of the crew believed they were heading out over the Atlantic Ocean, instead of the Gulf of Mexico as their leader reported.
A search plane took off and was claimed to have disappeared into the Bermuda Triangle with Flight 19. The plane actually blew up 23 seconds after takeoff. Wreckage from Flight 19 has never been recovered.
Other aircraft that have disappeared in the area include a DC-3 carrying 27 passengers in 1948 and a C-124 Globemaster with 53 passengers in 1951. Among the ships often listed among the mysteriously disappeared are the Mary Celeste (1872), the Marine tankership Sulphur Queen with 39 men aboard (1963), and the nuclear-powered submarine Scorpion with a crew of 99 (1968). The Mary Celeste entered the list of supposed Bermuda Triangle mysteries many decades after its odd tragedy. The ship set sail from New York to Genoa, Italy, but was found sailing unmanned some 400 miles off course, off the coast of Africa. Personal articles of the crew were found and food storage areas showed no sign of upheaval. A tattered sail and a missing lifeboat suggested the boat had encountered a storm, but the ship's log, in which information was recorded as late as nine days before the ship was found, made no mention of any kind of catastrophe.
There is no evidence, however, that the Mary Celeste ever entered the area of the Bermuda Triangle. Still, the eerie, unanswered questions concerning its fate are often cited by those who attribute a malevolent force as being responsible for odd and tragic events of the triangle.
Nevertheless, there are many documented disappearances that occurred within the triangle. They include a four-engine Tudor IV air-plane lost in 1948, with 31 aboard; an American freighter, the SS Sandra (1952), which sunk without a trace; a British York transport plane, disappeared in 1952, with 33 aboard; a U.S. Navy Lockheed Constellation airplane, vanished in 1954 with 42 aboard; a U.S. Navy seaplane, 1956, with a crew of 10; a French freighter in 1970; and a German freighter, Anita, lost in 1972 with a crew of 32.
Theories about why so many air and water ships disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle involve strange magnetic fields, time warps, the lost continent of Atlantis, and alien abduction. Other proposed explanations include physical forces unknown to science, a "hole in the sky," and an unusual chemical component in the region's seawater. Several books have suggested that an intelligent, technologically advanced race living in space or under the sea has been responsible for jamming equipment and leading ships and planes to disaster.
Many books and articles play up mystery angles concerning vanished ships by depicting the disappearances as having occurred in calm weather and daylight. Such particulars of Flight 19 as an inexperienced crew, a faulty compass, a squadron leader who failed to follow instructions, and conditions of deteriorating weather and visibility are often not mentioned. Larry Kusche, a librarian at Arizona State University, examined claims of mysterious disappearances and recorded evidence from each example. The results, published in The Bermuda Triangle—Mystery Solved, showed that many of the accidents happened during raging storms, or were later explained.
The area known as the Bermuda Triangle is one of the two places on Earth where a magnetic compass does point towards true north, a phenomenon called compass variation. Navigators must compensate the amount of variation or the craft they are on will go off course. A region commonly called the "Devil's Sea" in the Pacific Ocean is the other area of compass variation.
The Gulf Stream that runs through the Bermuda Triangle area is swift and turbulent, and can quickly erase evidence of a disaster. The unpredictable Caribbean-Atlantic weather can suddenly change into thunderstorms or create waterspouts. Many short and intense storms build up quickly and dissipate quickly, undetected by satellite surveillance. The ocean floor has shoals around islands as well as some of the deepest marine trenches in the world. The interaction of the strong currents over reefs promotes a constant flux and the development of new, uncharted navigational hazards.
These factors can confuse even experienced sailors. A large number of pleasure boats travel the waters between Florida's coast and the Bahamas. The U.S. Coast Guard receives more than 8,000 distress calls per year, averaging more than 20 per day from that area, often from sailors who have run out of gas.
The Bermuda Triangle claimed more than 1,000 lives during the twentieth century. That averages to about 10 per year, a figure similar to other areas of high water traffic or volatile
DELVING DEEPER
Berlitz, Charles. The Bermuda Triangle. New York: Doubleday and Co., 1974.
Gaddis, Vincent H. Invisible Horizons: True Mysteries of the Sea. Philadelphia: Chilton Books, 1965.
Gordon, Stuart. The Encyclopedia of Myths and Legends. London: Headline Books, 1993.
Kusche, Lawrence D. The Bermuda Triangle Mystery— Solved. New York: Harper and Row, 1975.
Spencer, John Wallace. Limbo of the Lost. New York: Bantam Books, 1973.
The Triangle area
The boundaries of the Triangle vary with the author; some stating its shape is akin to a trapezium covering the Straits of Florida, 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 somewhere on the Atlantic coast of Florida; 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.
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, 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.
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.
History of the Triangle story
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. From his log book, dated October 11, 1492 he wrote:
- The land was first seen by a sailor (Rodrigo de Triana), although the Admiral at ten o'clock that evening standing on the quarter-deck saw a light, but so small a body that he could not affirm it to be land; calling to Pero Gutiérrez, groom of the King's wardrobe, he told him he saw a light, and bid him look that way, which he did and saw it; he did the same to Rodrigo Sánchez of Segovia, whom the King and Queen had sent with the squadron as comptroller, but he was unable to see it from his situation. The Admiral again perceived it once or twice, appearing like the light of a wax candle moving up and down, which some thought an indication of land. But the Admiral held it for certain that land was near...
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 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"; 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.
Natural explanations
Methane hydrates
Source: USGS
An explanation for some of the disappearances has focused on the presence of vast fields of methane hydrates on the continental shelves. Laboratory experiments carried out in Australia have proven that bubbles can, indeed, sink a scale model ship by decreasing the density of the ; 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.
Airplanes may also be susceptible to any freak methane releases. 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]. But although methane is lighter than air, the altimeter of an airplane traveling through it would not, contrary to popular belief, read that the airplane is higher than it really is, causing navigational problems. (Altimeters measure pressure, not the density of air.)
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. However, according to a USGS web page, no large releases of gas hydrates are believed to have occurred in the Bermuda Triangle for the past 15,000 years.
Compass variations
Compass problems are one of the cited phrases in many Triangle incidents. The North Magnetic Pole is not the North Pole; rather it is the north end of the earth's magnetic field. The North Magnetic Pole does wander, but so slowly that the wandering would not be noticeable on time scale of a sea or air voyage. In general, the compass does not point exactly the direction of the North Magnetic Pole, but rather the compass needle aligns itself to the local geomagnetic field, which can vary 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. 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 slowly migrating toward the northwest, some twenty or more years ago the line of zero declination went through the Triangle, giving sailors an alignment of true north with magnetic north.
Some have theorized the possibility of unusual local magnetic anomalies in the area, however these have not been shown to exist.
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.
Famous incidents
Flight 19
Flight 19 was a training flight of TBM Avenger bombers that went missing on December 5, 1945 while over the Atlantic. 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 leadership 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 Charles was 50 km NW from where he thought he was.
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; only Taylor had any significant flying time, but he was not familiar with the south Florida area and had a history of getting lost in flight, having done so three times during World War II, and being forced to ditch his planes twice into the water; 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 Mary Celeste is often but inaccurately connected to the Triangle, the ship having been abandoned off the coast of Portugal. Many theories have been put forth over the years to explain the abandonment, including alcohol fumes from the cargo and 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, which is mentioned in the book Bermuda Shipwrecks by Dan Berg.
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.
