Bermuda Triangle Mystery: The Myths & Stories

By Shannon Couillard

Bermuda Triangle Mystery: The Myths & Stories thegearhunt.com

The Bermuda Triangle is actually a mysterious triangular area in the Atlantic Ocean. Many planes that have flown over it and ships that have sailed through it have disappeared, never to be heard from or seen again. There were a few instances where wreckage has been found, but the crew was never found. These things have been happening for decades.

In the past 50 years, there have been more than 1,000 strange disappearances of people in the area, and they are still happening now.

Are you interested yet? In all actuality, the facts might be far from what is believed to be reality. Many myths and stories have been embellished by writers in order to draw attention to their works. In many instances, facts have become a bit blurred. There have also been quite a few counter-arguments, controversies, and theories that have popped up through the years that have challenged the mysteries and created fear among those who hear them.

How do you know what is fact and what is nonsense? Let’s take a bit of a closer look to find out. Keep in mind that there have been way too many mysterious disappearances in this area to think that there is nothing at all happening.

How It All Began

The hype surrounding the area began with authors of novels. Don’t go jumping to any conclusions though. We all know that a major requirement for writing a novel is a fantastic imagination. However, many of these authors were actually quite well-respected.

The strangeness of this area was first brought to the public’s attention in 1950 by a man named Edward Jones. He printed a story about it in the Miami Herald newspaper. Then, in 1952, Fate magazine published an article by Frank Sands regarding incidents such as Flight 19, which was a training exercise involving 5 torpedo bomber planes in 1945, where all 5 planes disappeared.

After that, there were many writers who wrote about other mysterious disappearances in the same area. Some of these reports may not have had much substance, but quite a few of them did happen and still can’t be explained. Word about this mysterious area spread quickly, and soon, the Bermuda Triangle legend gained ground. It is now known throughout the world as one of the most enigmatic places on the planet.

Where Is It?

This area is located near the southeastern coast of the US and actually does form a triangle in the Atlantic. There are three corners of the area: San Juan Puerto Rico, Bermuda, and Miami, Florida. An American author by the name of Vincent Gaddis first defined the boundaries in a magazine called Argosy back in 1964, when he called it “The Deadly Bermuda Triangle”.

Throughout the years, many other authors kept trying to extend the area’s boundaries because of other mysterious incidents that occurred in areas nearby.

Disappearances

The following is a short list of some of the ships and planes that have disappeared or were involved in disasters while they were crossing the Triangle. Bear in mind that this list is by no means one that is all-inclusive, but rather just a short sampling.

Flight 19 – Already touched on above, these planes left from a US Naval base located in Florida for what was supposed to be just a routine training flight in December of 1945. They were never seen again.
PBM Martin Mariner – When the hopes of Flight 19 success were fading, the US Navy sent out a pair of Martin Mariner (flying boats) planes on a search and rescue mission. They searched extensively and then one of the Martin Mariners returned, while the other one was never seen or heard from again.
Tudor Star Tiger – The Star Tiger, which was a Tudor Mark-IV airplane disappeared from radar while it was flying across the Triangle. This was just shortly before it had been scheduled to land at the airport in Bermuda.

Flight DC-3 – This was an airplane that disappeared 50 miles south of the coast of Florida. It had been scheduled to land in Miami.
Flight 441 – In October of 1954 this Super Constellation Navy Airplane vanished.
C-54 Skymaster – While it seems as if a thunderstorm caused the end of this airplane, there is so much more to the story of it disintegrating.

The Ghost Ship Mary Celeste – The Mary Celeste’s last voyage was back in 1872. That being said, she had quite a few misadventures before that final one. The ship was actually found in this instance, but there wasn’t a trace of any of the crew or passengers.
Carroll A. Deering – Yet another ghost ship, this one was at the heart of one of the greatest maritime enigmas ever. The ship was returning to Portland, Maine from Rio de Janeiro Brazil in January of 1921. It was actually found derelict and abandoned at Diamond Shoals, which is located off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. However, the entire crew of 11 were missing. No one ever saw or heard from them again.
Marine Sulphur Queen – The Queen was a 524-foot-long carrier and it was loaded with molten sulfur. It set sail in February of 1963 from a place called Beaumont, TX with a crew of 39. The ship was reported as being lost 2 days after it set sail and was gone forever.

Ellen Austin – This American schooner came across another ship in the Triangle. This other ship was traveling at full speed, yet no one was aboard it.
USS Cyclops – The disappearance of this carrier in the Triangle has been called one of the biggest mysteries on the seas. It had been scheduled to dock in Baltimore in March of 1918, but it never made it there.
USS Scorpion – Not a ship or a plane, this US Navy submarine disappeared in the Triangle in May of 1968.

Again, there are many more arcane disappearances. These were just a few of them.

Theories Behind the Unexplained

What was the actual reason for the disappearance of all these crafts? There have been numerous explorations and research trips to uncover the answers. To this day, there isn’t a single theory that explains all of these incidents. The aircraft and ships might have been the victims of a variety of circumstances, and the events may have unfolded unexpectedly and quickly. There have been many theories that have been posited by different scientists and researchers that try to explain away the enigma that is the Bermuda Triangle. Here is a quick look at some of them.

Methane – This gas can get trapped under the floor of the sea, and can then erupt, rather like a volcano. A result of this can be a lowering of the density of the water and this can actually cause ships to sink like a stone. Even if there are planes flying over the eruptions, they can catch fire and be completely destroyed.
Sargasso Sea – This is a strange area in the ocean that doesn’t have any shores and its only boundaries are water currents on every side. Many of the ships that have passed through it may have been stranded. Many of those that were found had no sign of life or clues as to what happened.
Electronic fog – This is when a strange cloud forms from out of nowhere and it can engulf planes and ships. When this happens, it can cause instruments to malfunction and the vessel can vanish without a trace.

Air bombs and a hexagonal cloud – Meteorologists have recently discovered from satellite images, strange hexagonal shaped clouds that have the capability of blasting winds at the oceans at massive speeds. Such storms on the ocean can actually create mega waves that can reach 45 feet. Ships and planes under clouds like this can sink at an extreme rate.

Conclusion

Since the term Bermuda Triangle was coined back in the 1950s, this area has continued to garner attention. It seems that repeated enigmatic incidents that happen in close proximity to each other, make it an easy thing for rumor and facts to spread like wildfire. It draws the interest of a wide range of people, from researchers and scientists to conspiracy theorists, and even just regular Joes like you and me. The Bermuda Triangle has become the quintessential living legend. How do you separate the fact from the fiction though?

First of all, it is a fact that many of the reported incidents have actually happened. There have actually been hundreds of incidents that have been recorded by official agencies that include the US Coast Guard and the US Navy. In a few of the cases, there have been things like wrecks found, floats found, or evidence of oil leakage. In most of them though, there has never been anything found. This is factual.

The actual question isn’t about whether these incidents occurred but is about how they occurred. This is the area where the explanations get fuzzy, and where facts and speculation get mixed up. That being said, there are some facts that no one doubts.

One of these facts has to do with the water around Bermuda, one of the Triangle’s corners. This island is 650 miles from the eastern coast of the US. It is a fact that more than 300 shipwrecks lie on the floor of the sea in that area. These include famous ones like the Xingda, Montana, Mary Celestia, the Cristobal Colon, and the Constellation, and many more. In fact, many of these have turned into popular spots for scuba diving.

What do you think might be the reason that so many ships have sunk here? In all actuality, the reason here is one that is pretty simple. Around 200 square miles of the water that surrounds Bermuda is populated with dangerous reefs. These reefs created hazards when the navigators had to depend on the moon, charts, and compasses to navigate their ships. These reefs rise from the floor of the sea yet remain hidden below the surface of the water where they can tear the hulls apart on unsuspecting ships.

At this point, you can see that many of these disastrous disappearances are real. Some of them might have a plausible explanation while others just don’t. That being said, there are still quite a few questions to be answered. Some of them include:

Are there any other areas of the Atlantic or other oceans where things like this happen?
If so, are the numbers there similar to those of the Bermuda Triangle?

Until there are factual answers to all of the questions, what are your theories?