THE SECRET OF THE BERMUDA TRIANGLE

The Secret Of The Bermuda Triangle
Inspired: ???

Writen by NotShadow

Myths and Legends

The mysteries of the Bermuda Triangle are revealed through the analytical eye of science
An area of roughly half a million miles between Bermuda, Miami and Puerto Rico form the infamous Bermuda Triangle
where countless ships and planes have vanished without a trace. Secrets of the Bermuda Triangle attempts to solve
the mystery behind the disappearance of massive naval cargo ships and torpedo bombers. This three-part
documentary hosted by Rick Edwards and Ortis Deley eschews the sensational for the sensible and is no less thrilling
for it.

The brilliantly blue waters of the Atlantic teeming with life and colour form a spectacular backdrop as Edwards and
Deley meet sailors (including a foolhardy one who packed for a day trip and was lost at sea for 16 days), physicists,
meteorologists, academics and coastguards among other experts to uncover the secrets of the triangle.

The first episode looks at the disappearance of the USS Cyclops with 309 souls on board. In 1918, this American
naval cargo ship carrying 10,000 tonnes of manganese ore left Barbados for Baltimore on March 4 and was never
heard of again. While there are several theories including one involving a giant squid (a personal favourite) the show
posits the theory of a rogue wave that could cause the heavily-loaded ship to snap in two and sink in minutes.

The fact that one does not need a license to sail a leisure craft has caused many inexperienced sailors to come to
grief on the open ocean which “is a terrifying adversary.” The sea does not suffer fools gladly as the documentary
makes clear. As one old salt explains, one should never underestimate Mother Nature. Another experienced sailor lists
out signs of a storm from mare-tail clouds and warning squalls to the smell of a storm, which he describes as “earthy
and dank.”

While the first episode looks at the water, the second episode looks at disappearances in the air focusing on the
disappearance of Flight 19. On December 5, 1945, five Avenger torpedo bombers led by Lieutenant Charles Taylor set
off on a routine mission never to return. Hearing Taylor’s last recorded message, “We all go down together,” is
especially poignant. Deley reveals how easy it is to get disorientated in a flight simulator under controlled conditions. It
is not difficult to imagine the doomed pilots going off course in inclement weather and running out of fuel to crash into
the sea.

Deley and Edwards talk to scientists and weather people about micro bursts (rain bombs), which plague the area
making navigation even more difficult. The show details the history of the notorious area from Christopher Columbus
finding his compass acting strange in 1493 to journalist Edward Van Winkle Jones’ article in 1950 about the
disappearances in the triangle and Charles Berlitz 1974 bestseller The Bermuda Triangle. While the mind-bending
sighting of ghost ships has a pretty name—Fata Morgana, it is explained by physics and the bending of light. The story
behind Morgan’s cloud in Bermuda gets a mention as do UFO enthusiasts who blame visiting aliens for the
disappearances.

The second episode ends with Edwards visiting a plane wreck site from 1963. Seeing the ocean floor strewn with the
wreckage of the ill-fated B50 bomber is emblematic of our constant efforts to best Nature and her inexorable and
inevitable push back.

What Is Known (and Not Known) About the Bermuda Triangle

People have been trying to solve the “mystery” of the Bermuda Triangle for years.
Here’s what we know (and don’t know) about the Bermuda Triangle.

What is known about the Bermuda Triangle:
The Bermuda Triangle is a region of the North Atlantic Ocean (roughly) bounded by the southeastern coast of the U.S.,
Bermuda, and the islands of the Greater Antilles (Cuba, Hispaniola, Jamaica, and Puerto Rico).
The exact boundaries of the Bermuda Triangle are not universally agreed upon. Approximations of the total area
range between 500,000 and 1,510,000 square miles (1,300,000 and 3,900,000 square kilometers). By all
approximations, the region has a vaguely triangular shape.
The Bermuda Triangle does not appear on any world maps, and the U.S. Board on Geographic Names does not
recognize the Bermuda Triangle as an official region of the Atlantic Ocean.
Although reports of unexplained occurrences in the region date to the mid-19th century, the phrase “Bermuda Triangle”
didn’t come into use until 1964. The phrase first appeared in print in a pulp magazine article by Vincent Gaddis, who
used the phrase to describe a triangular region “that has destroyed hundreds of ships and planes without a trace.”
Despite its reputation, the Bermuda Triangle does not have a high incidence of disappearances. Disappearances do
not occur with greater frequency in the Bermuda Triangle than in any other comparable region of the Atlantic Ocean.

At least two incidents in the region involved U.S. military craft. In March 1918 the collier USS Cyclops, en route to
Baltimore, Maryland, from Brazil, disappeared inside the Bermuda Triangle. No explanation was given for its
disappearance, and no wreckage was found. Some 27 years later, a squadron of bombers (collectively known as
Flight 19) under American Lieut. Charles Carroll Taylor disappeared in the airspace above the Bermuda Triangle. As in
the Cyclops incident, no explanation was given and no wreckage was found.
Charles Berlitz popularized the legend of the Bermuda Triangle in his best-selling book The Bermuda Triangle (1974).
In the book, Berlitz claimed that the fabled lost island of Atlantis was involved in the disappearances.
In 2013 the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) conducted an exhaustive study of maritime shipping lanes and determined
that the Bermuda Triangle is not one of the world’s 10 most dangerous bodies of water for shipping.
The Bermuda Triangle sustains heavy daily traffic, both by sea and by air.
The Bermuda Triangle is one of the most heavily traveled shipping lanes in the world.
The agonic line sometimes passes through the Bermuda Triangle, including a period in the early 20th century. The
agonic line is a place on Earth’s surface where true north and magnetic north align, and there is no need to account
for magnetic declination on a compass.
The Bermuda Triangle is subject to frequent tropical storms and hurricanes.
The Gulf Stream—a strong ocean current known to cause sharp changes in local weather—passes through the
Bermuda Triangle.
The deepest point in the Atlantic Ocean, the Milwaukee Depth, is located in the Bermuda Triangle. The Puerto Rico
Trench reaches a depth of 27,493 feet (8,380 meters) at the Milwaukee Depth.

What is not known about the Bermuda Triangle:
The exact number of ships and airplanes that have disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle is not known. The most
common estimate is about 50 ships and 20 airplanes.
The wreckage of many ships and airplanes reported missing in the region has not been recovered.
It is not known whether disappearances in the Bermuda Triangle have been the result of human error or weather
phenomena.

The Bermuda Triangle, also known as the Devil's Triangle, is a loosely defined region in the western part of the North
Atlantic Ocean where a number of aircraft and ships are said to have disappeared under mysterious circumstances.
Most reputable sources dismiss the idea that there is any mystery.

Origins

The earliest suggestion of unusual disappearances in the Bermuda area appeared in a September 17, 1950, article
published in The Miami Herald (Associated Press) by Edward Van Winkle Jones.[4] Two years later, Fate magazine
published "Sea Mystery at Our Back Door",[5][6] a short article by George Sand covering the loss of several planes
and ships, including the loss of Flight 19, a group of five US Navy Grumman TBM Avenger torpedo bombers on a
training mission. Sand's article was the first to lay out the now-familiar triangular area where the losses took place, as
well as the first to suggest a supernatural element to the Flight 19 incident. Flight 19 alone would be covered again in
the April 1962 issue of American Legion magazine.[7] In it, author Allan W. Eckert wrote 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." He also wrote that officials at the Navy board of inquiry stated that the planes "flew off to Mars."[8]
In February 1964, Vincent Gaddis wrote an article called "The Deadly Bermuda Triangle" in the pulp magazine Argosy
saying Flight 19 and other disappearances were part of a pattern of strange events in the region.[9] The next year,
Gaddis expanded this article into a book, Invisible Horizons.[10]
Other writers elaborated on Gaddis' 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]

Triangle area

The Gaddis Argosy article delineated the boundaries of the
triangle,[9] giving its vertices as Miami; San Juan, Puerto
Rico; and Bermuda. Subsequent writers did not necessarily
follow this definition.[15] Some writers gave different
boundaries and vertices to the triangle, with the total area
varying from 1,300,000 to 3,900,000 km2 (500,000 to
1,510,000 sq mi).[15] "Indeed, some writers even stretch it
as far as the Irish coast."[2] Consequently, the
determination of which accidents occurred inside the
triangle depends on which writer reported them.[15]

Criticism of the concept

Larry Kusche

Larry Kusche, author of The Bermuda Triangle Mystery: Solved (1975)[1] argued that many claims of Gaddis and
subsequent writers were 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 cyclones, 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.[1]
In a 2013 study, the World Wide Fund for Nature identified the world's 10 most dangerous waters for shipping, but the
Bermuda Triangle was not among them.[16][17]

Further responses
When the UK Channel 4 television program The Bermuda Triangle (1992)[18] 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 determined that large numbers of ships had not sunk
there.[3] Lloyd's does not charge higher rates for passing through this area. 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.[1]

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 V. A. Fogg, the Coast Guard photographed the wreck and
recovered several bodies,[19] 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."[2]

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.

Benjamin Radford, an author and scientific paranormal investigator, noted in an interview on the Bermuda Triangle that
it could be very difficult locating an aircraft lost at sea due to the vast search area, and although the disappearance
might be mysterious, that did not make it paranormal or unexplainable. Radford further noted the importance of double-
checking information as the mystery surrounding the Bermuda Triangle had been created by people who had
neglected to do so.[22]

Hypothetical explanation attempts

Persons accepting the Bermuda Triangle as a real phenomenon have offered a number of explanatory approaches.

Paranormal 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, but the Bimini Road is of natural origin.[23]

Other writers attribute the events to UFOs.[24][25] 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,[26] 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 exactly the same only 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.[27] 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.[1]

Gulf Stream

The Gulf Stream is a major surface current, primarily driven by thermohaline circulation 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 maximum surface velocity of about 2 m/s (6.6 ft/s).[28]
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.[29]
Human stubbornness may have caused businessman Harvey Conover to lose his sailing yacht, Revonoc, as he
sailed into the teeth of a storm south of Florida on January 1, 1958.[30]

Violent weather
Hurricanes are powerful storms that form in tropical waters and have historically cost thousands of lives 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. Many Atlantic hurricanes pass through the Triangle as they recurve off the Eastern Seaboard, and, before
the advent of weather satellite, ships often had little to no warning of a hurricane's approach.

A powerful downdraft of cold air was suspected to be a cause in the sinking of Pride of Baltimore on May 14, 1986.
The crew of the sunken vessel noted the wind suddenly shifted and increased velocity from 32 km/h (20 mph) to
97–145 km/h (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."[31] A similar event occurred to Concordia in 2010, off the coast of Brazil.
Scientists are currently investigating whether "hexagonal" clouds may be the source of these up-to-170 mph (270
km/h) "air bombs".[32]

Methane hydrates
Further information: Methane clathrate

Worldwide distribution of confirmed or inferred offshore gas hydrate-bearing sediments, 1996.
Source: United States Geological Survey
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.[33] Laboratory experiments carried out in Australia have proven that
bubbles can, indeed, sink a scale model ship by decreasing the density of the water;[34][35][36] 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.

WELP THAT’S
IT, THAT’S
ALL