Chapter 1 – The Mystery:
Chapter 2 – What is in a name?
In the Miami Herald dated on 17th September, 1950, an article titled ‘It’s not such a small world’ was published. The article was written by E.V.W Jones and it contained information on how more than a hundred people are being ‘Swallowed up’ by the Atlantic Ocean on the coast of Miami, Florida. This was one of the earliest works describing the unusual disappearances in the Bermuda area.
Two years later, in October 1952, George X Sand wrote an article in the Fate magazine entitled ‘Sea Mystery at Our Back Door’ depicting the story of disappearances of multiple flights and ships. It introduced the idea of a triangular area between Bermuda and Miami to be the mysterious water section to watch out for. Although the author does not have a valid explanation to the particular shape in question, The Triangle remained a colloquial expression throughout the 1950s, employed by locals when another disappearance or unexplained crash happened.
Then in February 1964 a journalist named Vincent Gaddis wrote an article for Argosy magazine. The article was little different from others, though it added a few more recent cases like the disappearance of the 504-foot Marine Sulphur Queen. However, it was his title that finally clicked with the public: “The Deadly Bermuda Triangle.” Adding “Bermuda” finally materialized the location for everybody. He also provided the three vertices of the triangle to be at Florida and the islands of Bermuda and Puerto Rico. The article was filled with fictitious quotes and alarming suppositions, which was natural because the magazine was targeting a specific set of audience who seek to be entertained by mysteries and not who seek to understand them. Albeit it did not take long for the popularity of the Bermuda Triangle to spread beyond the Atlantic seaboard. Multiple theories and speculations began to be developed and numerous authors took to publishing books accounting their own versions which went on to become bestsellers.
Chapter 3 – Natural Explanations:
Not surprisingly, every supernatural or mysterious event that has happened over the Bermuda Triangle has a natural explanation. The great flame of fire crashing into the sea that Christopher Columbus saw could have very well been a meteor. The compass misalignment, although alarming at the time, can be explained today to be the effect of magnetic declination. A phenomenon that causes the needle to point to the magnetic north while the North Star aligns with the true north. The description of the strange light provided matches any sighting of light from land. The British South American Airways’ Star Tiger had reported a failure of the cabin heating system and compass problems the day before it went missing. The DC 3 that was lost on 28th December, 1948 was reported to have electrical problems in the cabin.
In 1969, two keepers of the Great Isaac Lighthouse in the Bahamas went missing overnight. This too is included in the long list of the results of the mystical forces of the Bermuda Triangle. The fact that a huge hurricane passed at the time of the disappearance was conveniently ignored!
Unfortunately for mankind, ships and planes vanishing without a trace is quite common. Even with the most recent advanced technology, it is impossible for mankind to locate with certainty the exact position of its loss. Some of the most technologically advanced planes with multiple safety equipment have dropped out of the sky in recent past and vanished without a trace for a long time. Air France 447, Malaysian MH 370 and Air Asia 8501 are some of the widely known examples. The Bermuda Triangle is an area that experiences a ton of traffic, it is frequently invaded by hurricanes and storms and it intersects the Gulf Stream (a warm and swift Atlantic Ocean current that originates in the Gulf of Mexico and stretches to the tip of Florida). These factors have been responsible to most of the accidents than happen all over the world. If anything, Bermuda Triangle is a dangerous place to be due to natural reasons and not mystical ones!
Chapter 4 – Flight 19:
Flight 19 is possibly the most famous disappearance connected to the Bermuda Triangle. As mentioned before, in December 1945, five Navy bombers carrying 14 men took off from a Fort Lauderdale, Florida in order to conduct practice bombing runs over some nearby shoals. The five planes were piloted by 4 students and 1 instructor named Charles Taylor. Upon departure, one of the students was leading the planes while Taylor was acting merely as a supervisor. Two hours into the flight, the planes had to turn north to maintain their intended flight path. On the way, Taylor noticed that the navigational instruments weren’t working. After turning north though, Taylor thought the student was guiding them in the wrong direction so he assumed command of the flight. Radio logs indicate that Taylor confused the islands in the Bahamas with the Islands in the Florida Keys. It’s difficult to say exactly why this happened but it makes sense in a way because Taylor used to conduct most of his training sessions above Florida Keys and it was his first time flying over the Bahamas. This fact combined with the situation that he did not trust his instruments let Taylor to believe that he was above the Keys and hence, he continued flying north to find land. While in reality, going north means to continue going into the deep Atlantic Ocean. If he had turned west, this mystery would probably never exist! Taylor also had a history of getting lost while flying. He had twice needed to be rescued in the Pacific Ocean.
A search and rescue operation was launched in a flying boat named ST 49 on the same day. But this flight too went missing without a trace. But the important point is that 23 minutes after the ST 49 took off, a ship reported seeing a plane catch fire and explode before it hit the water. Another ship equipped with radar reported seeing a plane vanish from its radar the exact minute the explosion was sighted. This is not a complete surprise as the plane was reported having a malfunctioning engine the day before.
Experts believe these two incidents happening in the same day formed the catalyst in glorifying the mysterious nature of the Bermuda Triangle. In fact, most of the articles and books written have a very impressive account of this incident.
Chapter 5 – For the sake of it:
How does one know to attribute a missing craft to the Bermuda Triangle? Most disappearance occurs when the ship or plane has a route that overlaps the Triangle. The catastrophe does not occur in the realms of the triangle. For example, the Marine Sulpher Queen was lost before it entered the Triangle. Despite the fact that she was probably lost in the Gulf of Mexico, her disappearance was blamed as the power of the Triangle. Two out of the three sightings of Christopher Columbus was before he reached the triangle. The before mentioned Carrol Deering on the other hand was confirmed to have safely passed the Triangle region! So are the disappearances that occur near the Triangle a part of the Triangle? If yes, what is the boundary in that scenario? Then what is a triangle even doing here? Is it a bigger triangle? How big? Does it include the Caribbean sea and Gulf of Mexico? Maybe the whole of Atlantic Ocean?
According to scientists and geologists across the globe, there is nothing different about this part of the ocean with respect to any other part of the ocean. More than a 100 ships and planes pass through the Bermuda Triangle every single day. The Bermuda Triangle is a mystery just for the sake of it – the very definition of a Legend.
References:
Vincent H. Gaddis (February 1964). "The Deadly Bermuda Triangle". Argosy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Bermuda_Triangle_incidents
https://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19451205-0
https://www.sky.com/watch/title/series/1126f2d7-e561-4a63-a2ea-535d38b7876c
George X. San (October 1952). "Sea Mystery at Our Back Door". Fate
Naked Science Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uiLmyZncOqs&t=2069s
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