Luciana Oliveira EN102-112
17 April 2008 1,586
Major Paper #3

The Bermuda Triangle Mysteries

Strange events seem to have taken place in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of the United States. In and around an area formed by an imaginary line connecting Bermuda, Florida, and Puerto Rico, a significant number of ships and planes have disappeared under mysterious circumstances. The Bermuda Triangle is a place where more than 100 planes and ships vanished into thin air, and more than 1,000 lives have been lost without a single body or even a piece of wreckage from the vanishing planes or ships have been found. Besides the Bermuda Triangle, it is also popularly known as the Devil’s Triangle, Limbo of the Lost, the Hoodoo Sea, the Twilight Zone, and the Port of Missing Ships (Without a Trace). Even though in the Bermuda Triangle a substantial documentation shows numerous incidents to have been inaccurately reported, a number of aircraft and surface vessels have mysteriously disappeared. There are many theories that try to explain the disappearances of ships and air planes. One prophet has predicted that one day the space warp will free all the vessels and they will return to their home ports with the skeleton of the crews. Another speculates that the crew may be alive, the same age as when they left, and they will be able to reveal the secret of what lies beyond the shadowy edge of the Bermuda Triangle. In the other hand, accident investigators suspect that atmospheric aberrations and electromagnetic gravitational disturbances may be responsible. Some such force may have affected the compasses and silenced the radios of the ships and planes (Experoing the Unexplained). One recent, compelling theory about the Triangle relates to little understood gas compounds known as clathrates, which is similar in appearance and chemical structure to ice. These large solids form when gas is released underwater at just the right temperature and pressure; although they are usually stable, rising temperatures can cause them to dissolve, releasing the gas trapped inside which then rises to the water’s surface. Geochemist Richard McIver theorizes that when the deposits of clathrate beneath the Triangle’s floor dissolve, the water above fizzes like champagne as the gas is released. Ships passing overhead at that moment could sink, because the water supporting them becomes temporarily less dense. Even airplanes could be affected, as large bubbles of gas create turbulence, perhaps asphyxiating pilots, or bursting into flames on contact with hot engines (Exploring the Unexplained). Flight 19 was a flight of Navy TBM avengers on a mission from the Fort Lauderdale Naval Air Station on 5 December 1945. It became the strangest aviation drama of all times because it should have been only a short routine patrol; however, it ended in confusion, tragedy and apparent deaths of 27 men. Each plane had been carefully pre-flew and held a full load of fuel. Next day searches began, 300 planes and 21 ships crossed sea and sky, but nothing was found (Without a Trace). Even though it is stated that Flight 19 was the biggest mystery of the Bermuda Triangle, substantial documentation shows that it was only human error. All pilots, except one and all crewmen, were students in training. The weather was nice when they left, it soon changed because search planes reported extreme turbulence and unsafe flying conditions. The planes’ position had been calculated, it was over the Atlantic Ocean somewhat north of the Bahamas and east of New Smyrna, Florida, but help was sent after a long period of time. The crew became disoriented because of the leader, Lieutenant Taylor, who had just transferred to Fort Lauderdale not long before the flight. His unfamiliarity with the Bahamas could account for his erroneous assumptions that he was over Florida Keys, as he reported. As a result, he changed direction a number of times, soon causing their loss (The Bermuda Triangle). Also, Taylor’s refusal to change his radio to the emergency radio was a major factor that prevented the flight from being saved. He feared that if all the five planes were not able to get together on the new frequency, they would be out of communication because they would not find each other. If they had changed the channel, they would be undisturbed by interference from other planes. It also would have permitted stations closer to the flight to have contacted them (The Bermuda Triangle). Since all radio stations were equipped with emergency channel, and only very few could transmit or receive on the training frequency, it was necessary to change their channel to emergency frequency, which they did not. The report stated that none of the planes had clocks, because of Taylor’s frequent questions about the time. It also appeared that they did not have wristwatches. There is not better way to become disoriented than to fly for an unknown amount of time in an unknown direction. According to the official report, they flew around lost for more than four hours, then they ran out of fuel (The Bermuda Triangle). The Douglas Dakota, or DC-3, is considered the most reliable aircraft ever built. More than 10,000 were built and hundreds remain in service today. During World War II and Korea war, the DC-3 was the main cargo transport and parachute plane. These same aircraft flew over Normandy, or supplied Berlin during the cold-war airlift. On December 28, 1948 a DC-3 passenger plane called NC16002 left for a flight from San Juan, Puerto Rico, to Miami. The plane vanished within the sight of its destination (The Bermuda Triangle). In contrary to the Flight 19, the weather was excellent, the pilots were experienced and there had been no signs of mechanical problems. After a short period of time, a massive search began within a few hours. Hundreds of ships and planes searched the ocean from San Juan to Florida, covering the Caribbean, the Everglades, Florida Bay, the Gulf of Mexico, the Keys, Cuba, Hispaniola, and the Bahamas. Not a trace of evidence was found; not even a life jacket, a bid of debris, an oil slick, or any of the packs of barracudas and sharks that always appear at the scene of a disaster. The plane was 20 minutes from the Miami airport, where there was plenty of opportunity for anybody in the Keys to either see or hear an explosion in the sky which is the most logical excuse for sudden destruction (Quasar). This was just another example of a plane that, seemingly, was disintegrated close to land, so that no trace could be found in the shallow water. The weather around Miami was perfect, clear with a slight headwind, a warm tropic Yule time. There seems no explanation for the disappearance of this aircraft and all those on board. There was only about 20 minutes left in the flight. So whatever it was it struck quickly and was completely destructive. Civil Aeronautics Board issued six months later “sufficient information is lacking in this case to determine the probable cause.” (The Bermuda Triangle). To this day nothing has turned up to solve this mystery. On March 4, 1918, the USS Cyclops, a 19,600 ton Navy collier, sailed from Barbados, West Indies with a crew of 309 men and a cargo of manganese ore. The 542-foot ship, one of the largest vessels afloat, failed to arrive at its destination. The ship did not send an SOS, therefore, the Cyclops was the first radio-equipped ship ever to vanish (The Bermuda Triangle). In spite of a massive search, no trace was found. It was first thought that the Cyclops had been torpedoed, but a search of German records after the war proved that submarines had not been operating in the area at the time. The Germans made a practice broadcasting the destruction of large enemy ships, and no such announcement was made for the Cyclops. It was also suggested that the ship might have struck a mine, however it was later shown that none had been in the area. A mine strike normally allowed time to send an SOS, and at least some of the men would have been able to escape in life rafts (Quasar). Some felt that the ship had simply gone wrong and broke down, but others, including the Navy emphasized that the weather had not been bad, certainly not bad enough to sink the large, sea-worthy eight years old ship. The captain, George W. Worley, had been in the Navy for 28 years and had been the Cyclops’ commanding officer since the Cyclops’ maiden voyage in 1910. After a lengthy investigation the Navy stated “The disappearance of this ship has been one of the most baffling mysteries in the annals of the Navy, all attempts to locate her having proved unsuccessful. Many theories have been advanced but none satisfactorily accounts for her disappearance.” (Kusche). No trace was ever found. Ships and planes have been mistakenly said to have disappeared without reason; however, many were just human errors, such as Flight 19. Besides many disappearances being caused by errors and judged as a mystery, many planes and ships indeed vanished inexplicably, as did the Cyclops and NC16002. The story was always the same, good weather conditions, no mechanical problems, routine radio reports, and then silence. So rarely is anything found in the vast, intensive search that follows that it comes as a surprise when any debris is recovered or a message is received. They left their ports on normal routine voyages and all sailed the same ghostly path. Although their destinations were officially listed as Bermuda, Jamaica, Miami, and other such locations, they all arrived at the Port of Missing Ships, also known as the Bermuda Triangle.
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Works Cited Berlitz, Charles. The Bermuda Triangle. New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc, 1974.

Berlitz, Charles. Without a Trace. New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc, 1977.

Exploring the Unexplained. Editors of the Time. Time Books, 2006.

Kusche, Lawrence D. The Bermuda Triangle Mystery. Harper & Row, 1975.

Quasar, Gian. "Introduction." The Bermuda Triangle Mystery, Your Online Source. 23 Apr. 2008 .