The legend about the Bermuda Triangle has fascinated both conspiracy theorists and scientists for centuries. But, what exactly is the Bermuda Triangle? And is its name “the Devil’s triangle” even suitable?
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The Bermuda Triangle is a triangular area in the North Atlantic Ocean, reaching from Miami, Florida to San Juan, Puerto Rico, and Bermuda. Many ships, aircraft, and crewmembers have mysteriously disappeared while crossing this notorious region. So much so that the legend of the Devil’s Triangle grew out to be a conspiracy theory, unexplainable for even the most outstanding marine scientists.
The Famous Disappearances in the Bermuda Triangle
Reportedly, “8127 people have already disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle”. Of all those disappearances, only a few stick with the public, mostly because they emphasize the urban legend. Let’s look at some amazingly interesting stories.
The HMS Atlanta
The training ship, HMS Atlanta, set sail for England from Bermuda on January 31, 1880. Not long after, the ship and its 281 crew members disappeared. Although there is no real evidence, many historians think that the ship sank in a powerful storm.
A former crew member of the HMS Atlanta said that the ship was overweight and very vulnerable in extreme weather situations. The crew aboard the ship consisted of only trainees, and therefore the news of their disappearance caused a lot of commotion. Brothers, husbands, fathers, and friends lost their lives too soon, starting up an enormous search for the lost ship.
The disappearance could have been caused by a combination of the weight, heavy storm, and young, inexperienced crew members; and even though the public looked for many years, they were never found again.
The USS Cyclops
What makes the disappearance of the USS Cyclops so interesting is that it resulted in the largest non-war-related loss of life in the U.S. Navy. The ship departed from Barbados on March 4, 1918. Soon after, the crew of 309 and its full load of manganese ore disappeared.
The Cyclops was nearly 550 feet long and had been sailing successfully since 1910. What could have caused the sinking of the ship, was possibly the around 11,000 tons of manganese ore aboard. What adds strength to this theory, is that the Cyclops’ two sister ships sank in the North Atlantic during World War II while carrying the same substance.
Flight 19
Flight 19 gave the Bermuda Triangle urban legend a real boost. In 1950, 5 years after the 5 aircraft went missing, Jones Van Winkle wrote an article about the mysterious disappearance of Flight 19 that started many conspiracy theories regarding the triangle.
Flight 19 was a U.S. Navy training flight made up of five torpedo bombers based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
On December 5, 1945, the 14 crew members flew out for a training exercise in which they would fly 140 miles east into the Atlantic, before heading back home. The planes, and the search and rescue plane trying to find Flight 19, were never seen again.
At first, the Navy concluded the disappearances as, “If the aircraft had flown to Mars”. Later they investigated the disappearances and concluded that the leader of the flight might have mistakenly identified a small cluster of islands off Florida’s coast as the Florida Keys, eventually messing up the navigation and leading them further out to sea. The rescue plane probably malfunctioned mid-flight.
The Many Legends of the Bermuda Triangle
Most of the famous disappearances in the Bermuda Triangle happened before they were explicable using today’s technology or knowledge. As we all know and experience ourselves, human beings do not like to leave something in the unknown and long for explanations for the inexplicable. The mysterious Bermuda Triangle disappearances are a great example of this, which resulted in many of these legends.
We will talk about some of the craziest or biggest conspiracy theories, but feel free to make up your own.
The Lost City of Atlantis
In 1974, paranormal enthusiast Charles Berlitz sold 14 million copies of his best-selling book The Bermuda Triangle, creating the conspiracy theory that the lost city of Atlantis might have been the cause of so many shipwrecks and plane crashes.
According to Berlitz, the Atlanteans once developed a technology including “crystal energies”. Those crystals are supposedly still in the seafloor, causing mechanical malfunctions. Of course, an obvious counter-argument to this theory is that the lost city of Atlantis doesn’t exist.
Aliens and Abductions
When talking about conspiracy theories, aliens often come to mind. And with the Bermuda Triangle, this is no different.
The story goes that aliens have a portal into our world, located in the Bermuda Triangle, to abduct people. Many ‘alien theorists’ believe that aliens want to learn all about human beings and abduct people to perform tests on them. The alien theory might explain why most of the disappeared ships, aircraft, and people were never found, but that is about all the credibility that can be found in this conspiracy theory.
Wormholes
Pilot Bruce Gernon believes the Bermuda Triangle is filled with wormholes, messing with space and time. Out of his own experience, he wrote a book about how his aircraft got surrounded by fog and leaped ahead 100 miles. He recorded the experience and can tell you more about it in his 2017 book.
Bruce Gernon is not the only one who believes in wormholes, or “glitches in the system”, but the fog that surrounded him might have been the reason why he believes he leaped ahead 100 miles. Just imagine it. You are flying over a sea, anywhere you look you see the same blue water and grey sky; and all of a sudden you fly into a cloud. When you get out of that cloud, you see the same blue water and grey sky again. It might feel like you went through a wormhole, while in reality you just couldn't see where you were going.
Scientific Explanations for the Bermuda Triangle
After the more dramatical and supernatural theories, let’s dive into the scientific explanations. Scientists have been trying to figure out the working of nature since the beginning of humanity, and have been breaking their brains over the Bermuda Triangle in the last few decades.
Using modern technology, scientists came up with a few theories, that we will look into. If you would rather stick with the aliens and the Lost City of Atlantis, I would recommend skipping to the conclusion, since the next part contains the outcome of some groundbreaking research.
The Theory of the Crazy Compass
In the mid-20th century and way before that time, sailors relied on hand-drawn maps and compasses. A compass, although it is a very helpful tool in a sailor’s life, is not as reliable as we think…
Compasses are more complicated than a magnet on a stick, unlike what many may think. The True North, the North we indicate on a world map, is not the Magnetic North. The Magnetic North is actually our South. This means that compasses work the opposite way of what we expect them to do. Not only is the magnetic North in the South, but it also shifts a little bit every year.
This might not seem like a big deal while looking at the map of the world, but for sailors, this little change made a very big difference. Mostly, because it meant that their hand-drawn maps and compasses did not accord anymore.
The Theory of the Ocean Farts
On the bottom of the ocean, and especially in the Bermuda Triangle, we can find methane gas. This methane gas is stuck in ice or underneath the surface of the seafloor. After an earthquake or when the ice melts, this methane gas can escape, causing bubbles to rise to the surface. In theory, the bubbles could sink a whole ship that happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Although there are sailors who reported having seen mysterious bubbles while sailing in the open sea, the phenomenon has never been recorded and therefore scientifically investigated.
The Ocean Farts, or flatulence, was a very popular theory in the ’90s but has lost most of its credibility. Ocean Farts are highly unlikely the reason for the Bermuda Triangle's disappearance, but at least now you have an interesting ocean fact you can show off at a party.
The Theory of the Dangerous Waters
The Bermuda Triangle is a very interesting location for weather specialists. Almost all Atlantic storms, including tornadoes and tsunamis, pass through this region. And because of the lack of weather predictions in the mid-20th century, storms were almost inevitable.
The strongest water stream, “The Gulf Stream” passes through the Bermuda Triangle.
The Gulf Stream pushes water at a speed of 5.6 miles per hour from one side of the Atlantic Ocean to the other. It also controls and balances the temperatures of the water. Fighting The Gulf Stream is impossible.
It is well known that South of Miami, you can find some of the most impressive ocean riffs. This also means that the waters in the Bermuda Triangle are very shallow. Therefore, a ship, in combination with the storms and the Gulf Stream, can easily lose control and get stuck.
Finally, because of the craziness in these waters, waves can come from any direction. At the point where all of these waves meet, the creation of a monster wave or “rogue wave” can be formed. Rogue waves are up to 99 feet monster waves that could surprise any ship or even low-flying airplanes.
Human mistakes
“Human mistakes” might not sound like a scientific explanation for the disappearances in the Bermuda Triangle, but it is mentionable. We have been discovering new technologies or techniques since the beginning of mankind, mainly through learning from our mistakes. Most shipwrecks or plane crashes, in or out of the Bermuda Triangle, were and are to this day caused because of human mistakes. A wrong turn, different measurements, a leakage, or a loose screw; all of these can lead to the greatest dramas.
A Combination of Circumstances
The Bermuda Triangle is one of the busiest waters in the world, because many ships and aircraft pass through the area. This means that the chances of a shipwreck are way higher than anywhere else in the world. And in reality, the amount of plane crashes and shipwrecks is not that exceptional.
The urban legend only started because of the public, the people. And every mysterious disappearance only thickens the conspiracy theories…
The Bermuda Triangle has been a very interesting place for centuries and probably will continue to do so. Yes, most disappearances are scientifically explicable, but that doesn’t mean that conspiracy theories have to be forgotten. Mostly, it shows us something about human nature and our talent for storytelling.
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