The Canadian Association of Ufology and  Paranormal Phenomena

The Bermuda Triangle

The Bermuda Triangle Western Atlantic Courtesy of NASA

NASA image of the western Atlantic, showing the popular borders of the Bermuda Triangle.

 

 

 

Description
 

The Bermuda Triangle, also known as the Devil's Triangle, is situated in International waters. It's a region of the northwestern Atlantic Ocean in which a number of aircraft and surface vessels have disappeared. To date, over 1700 ships and planes have been alleged as having disappeared without trace or lost their crews in that particular area of the Atlantic Ocean.
Although many of these disappearances have been explained or solved, others await an explanation. During the past 100 years, more than 20 planes and 50 ships have met their doom in the Bermuda Triangle. The U.S. Coast Guard receives more than 8,000 distress calls per year, averaging more than 20 per day from that area.

First reported as an AP dispatch in 1950 by E.V.W. Jones as a side note to the many ships lost in the area, and reiterated two years later in an Fate magazine article, by George X. Sand. Books on UFOs in the late 50's also spoke of the triangle, suggesting that it was alien in nature. The term "Bermuda Triangle" was not coined until 1964, when it was brought to light as "The Deadly Bermuda Triangle", an article in Argosy magazine by Vincent H. Gaddis. Bermuda Triangle fever peaked in 1974, with a number of books (mostly just re-written versions of the older books) getting national press.

Some people have claimed that these disappearances fall beyond the boundaries of human error or acts of nature but this unexplained phenomena has provided an ample battlefield for a fierce controversy that has raged since the early 1960's. Popular culture has attributed some of these disappearances to the paranormal, a suspension of the laws of physics, or activity by extraterrestrial beings. Though a substantial documentation exists showing numerous incidents to have been inaccurately reported or embellished by later authors, and numerous official agencies have gone on record as stating the number and nature of disappearances to be similar to any other area of ocean, many have remained unexplained despite considerable investigation.

The boundaries of the Triangle vary with the author; some stating its shape is akin to a trapezoid covering the Straits of Florida, the Bahamas, and the entire Caribbean island area and the Atlantic 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 Bermuda Triangle Triangular Boundaries

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.

Some of the reported aircraft Incidents

  1. TBF Avenger, 1942
  2. PBY Catalina, 1942
  3. TBF Avenger, 1943
  4. 4 US Navy Lockheed PV-1 Ventura's, 1943
  5. PB4Y Privateer, 1943
  6. PBY Catalina, 1944
  7. PB4Y Privateer, 1944
  8. SBD-5 Dauntless, 1944
  9. PBY-5A Catalina, 1944
  10. PB4Y Privateer, 1945
  11. B-24 Liberator, 1945
  12. US Navy Flight 19 (5 TBF Avengers), lost with 14 crewmen on December 5, 1945.
  13. US Navy PBM-5 Mariner, lost with 13 crewmen on December 5, 1945.
  14. US Army C-54 lost 100 miles off Bermuda, July 3, 1947.
  15. British South American Airways Avro Tudor IV Star Tiger, lost with 4 crewmen and 25 passengers on January 31, 1948 (aircraft lost near Bermuda.)
  16. Douglas DC-3 NC16002 lost with 3 crewmen and 29 passengers on December 27, 1948.
  17. British South American Airways Avro Tudor IV Star Ariel, lost with 7 crewmen and
  18. 13 passengers on January 17, 1949.
  19. F6F-5 Hellcat, lost in 1950.
  20. F9F-2 Panther, lost in 1950.
  21. US Air Force Globemaster lost (Refute: No C-74 or C-124 aircraft are reported lost
    in 1950 by the USAF.)
  22. British South American Airways Avro York transport, lost with 33 passengers and
    crew on February 2, 1952.
  23. C-46 Commando, lost in 1952.
  24. US Navy T2V SeaStar, lost in 1953.
  25. US Navy R7V-1 Super Constellation, lost with 2 pilots and 42 passengers on October 30, 1954
  26. US Navy P5M Marlin seaplane, lost with 10 crewmen on November 9, 1956.
  27. Beechcraft Bonanza N4952B, lost with 2 pilots on February 8, 1959. Thought to be near 31.25 N 79.45W
  28. US Air Force F-100 Super Sabre, lost with pilot on March 18, 1960.
  29. US Air Force SAC B-52 bomber Pogo 22 lost with 4 crewmen on October 14, 1961.
  30. US Air Force KB-50 Aerial Tanker Tyler 41, lost with 8 crewmen on January 8, 1962.
  31. US Air Force C-133 Cargo master, lost on May 27, 1962 .
  32. 2 US Air Force KC-135 Stratotankers, lost on August 28, 1963
  33. US Air Force C-133 Cargo master, lost on September 22, 1963
  34. US Air Force C-119 Flying Boxcar, lost with 5 crewmen on June 5, 1965.
  35. Privately owned B-25 Mitchell, lost with pilot and 2 passengers on April 5, 1966.
  36. Military Chase YC-122, converted to civilian cargo plane, lost in 1967.
  37. Cessna 172, lost with pilot on June 6, 1969
  38. US Air Force F-4 Phantom II Sting 27, lost with 2 pilots on October 10, 1971 (F-4E of 307 TFS lost on a training mission.
  39. Ryan Navion, lost with 2 pilots on May 25, 1973.
  40. Piper Cherokee, vanished with pilot and 5 passengers on July 13, 1974.
  41. US Navy KA-6D Fighting Tiger 524, lost with 2 pilots on February 22, 1978
  42. Argosy Airlines Douglas DC-3 Flight 902, registration number N407D, lost with 4 crewmen on September 21, 1978; vanished off radar scope.
  43. Caribbean Flight 912, lost on November 3, 1978 (The NTSB records this loss as happening on approach to the airport in St. Croix, US Virgin Islands)
  44. Beechcraft Baron N9027Q, lost with pilot on February 11, 1980
  45. ERCO Ercoupe N3808H, lost with pilot on June 28, 1980
  46. Beechcraft Bonanza N5805C, lost on January 6, 1981.
  47. Piper Cherokee N3527E, lost on March 26, 1986.

Ship/Boat Incidents

  1. 1779, Disappearance of Thomas Lynch, Jr. and wife while sailing to West Indies.
  2. 1780, General Gates; no British warship claimed her sinking, but she had been declared unseaworthy in 1779 and sold.
  3. August 8, 1800, USS Insurgent went missing during cruise to West Indies in search of enemy ships during Quasi-War with France. Insurgent was former French frigate L'Insurgente, captured the year before by USS Constellation.
  4. August 20, 1800, USS Pickering went missing on voyage to West Indies. Both Pickering and Insurgent may have been lost in a severe storm that hit West Indies on September 20, 1800.
  5. December 30, 1812 Patriot, American privateer. Carried as a passenger Theodosia Burr Alston, daughter of former U.S. Vice President Aaron Burr.
  6. October 1814, USS Wasp, sloop-of-war that severely harassed British shipping in the War of 1812; went missing on Caribbean cruise, October 1814.
  7. January/February 1815, USS Epervier, while carrying original peace proposals for War of 1812; left Algiers for Norfolk, and went missing with crew of 134 in 1815, delaying the ending of hostilities (rare instance of maritime disappearance directly connected to international politics). DANFS however says the ship went missing sometime after July 14, 1815, carrying copies of a treaty with the Dey of Algiers back to the US and may have been lost in a known August 1815 hurricane.
  8. January 1820, USS Lynx went missing with crew of 50 in far western Atlantic.
  9. October 1824, USS Wildcat went missing with crew of 31 after leaving Cuba (Navy records indicate she was a storm victim).
  10. 1840, Rosalie; went missing in Sargasso Sea.
  11. March 15, 1843, USS Grampus went missing sailing south of the Carolinas.
  12. December 4, 1872. Mary Celeste, brigantine commanded by Captain Benjamin Briggs, 7 crew plus Briggs' wife and daughter; found abandoned at sea west of the Azores.
  13. January 31, 1880. HMS Atalanta, 26-gun frigate; went missing with crew of 281 after departing Bermuda for Falmouth, England.
  14. November 14, 1909. Spray, ketch, piloted by renowned world-circumnavigator Joshua Slocum, went missing after departing Miami, Florida.
  15. Mar 6-27, 1917. SS Timandra, 1,579-ton steam freighter, Captain Lee commanding; went missing with crew of 21 while bound for Buenos Aires from Norfolk for cargo of coal.
  16. Mar 6-10, 1918. USS Cyclops, collier, LT. CDR. George Worley; went missing with 309 crew and passengers after leaving Barbados for Baltimore, Maryland.
  17. November or December, SS Hewitt, steam freighter. Disappeared.
  18. January 31, 1921, Carroll A. Deering, five-masted schooner, Captain W.B. Wormell, crew of 11. Found aground and abandoned at Diamond Shoals, near Cape Hatteras, North Carolina.
  19. April 1925, Raifuku Maru, a Japanese freighter with a cargo of wheat and a crew of thirty-eight, supposedly went down with all hands in the Triangle after sending out a distress signal which allegedly said "Danger like dagger now. Come quick!" In reality the ship was nowhere near the Triangle, nor was the word "dagger" a part of the ship's distress call.
  20. December 1925, SS Cotopaxi, tramp steamer, Captain Meyers; went missing with crew of 32 after leaving Charleston, South Carolina for Havana, Cuba; reported caught in tropical storm.
  21. March 14, 1926, SS Suduffco, freighter, Captain Thomas J. Turner; went missing with crew of 29 while sailing from New York City to Los Angeles.
  22. March 1938, Anglo Australian, freighter, Captain Parslow; went missing with crew of 38 off Azores on voyage from Cardiff, Wales for British Columbia.
  23. February 18, 1942, FS Surcouf, submarine operated by Free French Navy lost in Caribbean, apparently rammed by freighter Thompson Lykes near Panama Canal; both vessels travelling unlit due to threat of U-boats.
  24. March 6, 1948, Evelyn K.
  25. 1948, SS Samkey (year also given as 1943) last position 41o48' N 24o W (NE of Azores).
  26. 1950, SS Sandra, freighter, lost after passing St. Augustine, Florida for Puerto Cabello, Venezuela
  27. January 13, 1955, Home Sweet Home, pleasure craft.
  28. September 26, 1955, Connemara IV, found abandoned.
  29. January 1, 1958, Revonoc, pleasure craft, captained by business tycoon Harvey Conover.
  30. February 3, 1963, SS Marine Sulphur Queen T-2 tanker, vanishes with crew of 39 off the Florida Keys; carrying molten sulphur.
  31. July 2, 1963, Sno' Boy, pleasure craft, converted ACR (similar to WWII PT boats).
  32. January 13, 1965, Enchantress, pleasure craft.
  33. October 28, 1965, El Gato, pleasure craft.
  34. December 10 1967, Speed Artist, 5 persons; Windward Islands
  35. December 22, 1967, Witchcraft, cabin cruiser, 2 onboard, disappears one mile off Miami; had called Coast Guard requesting a tow, but on their arrival 19 minutes later no trace found; possibly pushed north by Gulf Stream; search involved 1,200 square miles.
  36. 1970: French freighter Milton Latrides disappears; sailing from New Orleans to Cape Town; carrying vegetable oils and caustic soda El Caribe; lost on September 10, 1971
  37. 1973: German freighter Anita (20,000 tons), lost with crew of 32; sister ship Norse Variant (both carrying coal) lost at same time; year sometimes given as 1973; survivor from latter found on raft described loss of ship in stormy weather - waves broke hatch cover and ship sank quickly.
  38. Dawn; lost on April 22, 1975
  39. 1976: SS Sylvia L. Ossa lost in heavy seas 140 miles west of Bermuda.
  40. 1978: SS Hawarden Bridge had previously been found with marijuana residue by USCG
  41. Cape Knox February '78, found abandoned in West Indies a month later; crime might be involved. scuttled November '78.
  42. 1980: SS Poet; carrying grain to Egypt; no survivors.
  43. 1995: Inter-island freighter Jamanic K (built 1943) reported lost after leaving Cap Haitien.
  44. 1997: "Prince Consort" Robert's yacht, Glenda's Feet (owned by "Empress" Shirley Massey), reported lost c. April 27.
  45. 1999: Freighter Genesis Lost after sailing from Port of Spain to St Vincent; cargo included 465 tons of water tanks, concrete slabs and bricks; reported problems with bilge pump before loss of contact. Search of 33,000 square miles of sea is fruitless.

Incidents on land

  1. Chase Vault, island of Barbados; involving mysterious movement of coffins within sealed crypt, early 1800s.
  2. Great Isaac Lighthouse, part of Bimini (Bahamas) was discovered abandoned; two
    keepers not seen again, August 4, 1969.

One of the most famous disappearances involves an entire team of five U.S. Navy TBM Avenger Torpedo Bombers, known as "Flight 19". On December 5th, 1945, Flight 19 departed from the U. S. Naval Air Station, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on a routine training mission. All five planes were well fueled with and in top running condition. Later that same date, all five planes were mysteriously lost at sea. Even the rescue plane with 13 crew members sent after them disappeared. No trace of the planes or of the crew members has ever been found. More detailed information regarding Flight 19 can be found on the by visiting "The Naval Historical Center Home-Page".

Aliens are one possible reason. Anti-gravity technology or other otherworldly energies may be sent off by either a downed UFO, as many of the early reports of the Triangle believed. Also, the Triangle may provide an undersea Earth base for aliens who value privacy, and send out energies to confuse vessels coming a little too close to home.

Others believe that the Bermuda Triangle Phenomena is caused by the Lost City of Atlantis, sunk thousands of feet below the water's surface. The advanced state of Atlantis at the time of it's submersion, relied on the power of energy crystals. It is possible that these crystals are still at the bottom of the ocean, in a somewhat altered state, sending out rays of energy that either confuses the instrumentation of vehicles, or disintegrates them all together.

Lastly, many believe the Bermuda Triangle to be a man-made energy field using Tesla based technologies. A VLF-Resonance transmitter (a technology many believe to be in use by the North American Air Defense Command, or NORAD) would have an antipode directly in the middle of the Bermuda Triangle. This hypothetical system would be capable of recharging speculated secret electric-powered submarine classes, and would definitely provide enough interference to scramble signals that airplanes and boats rely upon.

Generally given less and less credence by experts, it's hard to even get a scholar to mention the Triangle these days, for fear of it dirtying their name. But under the skin of so-called "accepted science" rumbles a scientific underground that will not be put down, logically, or otherwise.

 

SOURCE: The Supernatural Zone, NASA, Wikipedia and SCI-FI.COM.