What exactly is the Bermuda Triangle?
The area near our luxury condo in Miami, South Florida, forms one corner of the Bermuda Triangle, a mysterious phenomenon that has baffled scientists and sailors for decades.
But what exactly is this terrifying myth? Is there any credibility to claims of paranormal activity? Let’s find out!
Where and what is the Bermuda Triangle?
The Bermuda Triangle has long been a marine legend that has baffled and frightened locals, creating enough mystery that this loosely defined area is also known as the Devil’s Triangle.
In short, the Bermuda Triangle is an area of 500,000 to 1.5 million square miles off the east coast of Florida. There isn’t a generally agreed-upon boundary, and because it’s technically not an officially recognized area, you won’t see this triangle on any world map. However, if you know where to look, you can roughly trace the ominous shape on a map.
Draw a line from Miami to Bermuda, a small island about a thousand miles northeast in the mid-Atlantic Ocean. Draw a straight line from there to San Juan, Puerto Rico, then back to Miami. The remaining triangle is known as the Bermuda Triangle, but many of the borders cover a much larger area.
Stories of lost ships, disturbing storms, missing planes, and lost communications within the triangle have fueled a sense of mystery that is now part of popular culture and modern storytelling, but what are the stories behind the infamous Bermuda Triangle?
Origins of the Myth
Amazingly, the myths surrounding the Bermuda Triangle did not emerge until the mid-20th century.
On September 17, 1950, the Miami Herald published an article detailing several mysterious disappearances in the murky waters surrounding Bermuda. Author Edward Van Winkle Jones reported on the unknown fate of a ship, three planes, a convoy of five torpedo planes, and a rescue boat that disappeared over five years, with a total of 135 people who never reached their final destination.
A few years later, in 1952, another article appeared in the paranormal magazine Destiny that expanded the list of missing vehicles and detailed a convoy of five planes that disappeared during a training mission in 1945. This was the first time the triangle area was described, and a paranormal element was suggested. The term “Bermuda Triangle” was first coined in 1964 by writer Vincent Gaddis in Argosy magazine.
Over the years, more and more writers have written about the strange disappearances and mysterious legends surrounding the Bermuda Triangle. Theories about the disappearances vary from person to person and case to case, but they make for interesting stories.
Is the Bermuda Triangle a mystery?
The truth behind the disappearances of ships and planes in the Bermuda Triangle is undeniable, but the reasons behind these mysteries are as varied as the people who tell them. There is no single story behind all the accidents, just as there is no single reason behind all the car accidents in Florida.
Some claim that the paranormal activities in the triangle are because the legendary lost city of Atlantis is located within the triangle, while others say that UFOs are involved. The list goes on.
There are at least five natural explanations for these disappearances, though they may not be as dramatic as a vanished underwater civilization.
Weather
If you know anything about Florida’s propensity to hurricanes and tropical storms, it may not be surprising that violent weather patterns play a big role in the disappearances.
Compass Discrepancies
If you follow a compass needle over the Bermuda Triangle, you’ll notice that the compass needle changes slightly. This phenomenon occurs worldwide, not just in the Bermuda Triangle, because magnetic north and true north are different. There are only a few places where a compass needle can accurately indicate both magnetic north and true north simultaneously, and the Bermuda Triangle is not one of them. So, this theory is basically untenable.
Gulf Stream
The Gulf Stream is an extremely powerful surface ocean current that circles the Atlantic Ocean in the Northern Hemisphere. This powerful current can quickly move debris and scatter it over the ocean, making it very difficult to find sunken planes and ships.
Human Error
Whether it’s stubbornness, inexperience, hubris, fear, or just plain mistakes, human error is the most commonly cited explanation for sailors’ disappearances.
Disappearances and Famous Incidents
Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus is said to have seen a pillar of fire in the waters around the territory of Bermuda (although he did not know it yet). Perhaps it was a meteorite. He also wrote about unusual compass readings.
ATLANTA
On January 31, 1880, the Atlanta departed Bermuda for England and soon after disappeared. All 281 crew members and passengers were declared missing, but it is impossible to determine exactly what happened. Historians believe the accident may have been caused by severe storms and the crew’s inexperience, which consisted almost entirely of trainees.
10 Myths About The Lost City Of Atlantis
Seawise Giant: World’s Biggest Ship
USS Cyclops
The loss of the USS Cyclops and her crew caused the largest non-combat casualties in the U.S. Navy shortly after March 4, 1918, when the ship, its 309 crew members and its entire cargo of manganese ore were lost after abandoning the ship. . Barbados. The prevailing theory is that the ship was not designed to carry such a dense mass and, therefore, sank. During World War II, a sister ship of this giant sank in the North Atlantic while carrying the same material, which strengthened this theory.
Carol Deering
On January 31, 1921, the five-masted sailing ship was found completely abandoned off the coast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. The ship ran aground, and there is no evidence of what happened to the crew. Some theorists believe that the waters off the coast of North Carolina are part of the Bermuda Triangle.
Flight 19
The story that started it all: The mysterious story of Flight 19 was written by Edward Van Winkle Jones in his 1950 article on the Bermuda Triangle. It began a series of investigations into this area of apparent paranormal activity.
Flight 19 was a training flight of five torpedo bombers for the United States Navy based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. On December 5, 1945, the five planes left the continent for a training exercise with 14 crew members, and they would fly 140 miles east into the Atlantic Ocean before turning around and heading back. The planes never returned to base. Even the search and rescue planes dispatched for the missing planes were lost at sea.
The Navy investigated the disappearances and determined that the flight’s captain had misidentified a small group of islands off the coast of Florida as the Florida Keys, thus altering his navigation and taking him out to sea. The rescue plane is believed to have crashed mid-flight.
We may never know how many ships and planes have disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle over the centuries. We may never know how, when, or all the circumstances surrounding their disappearance. We may never know if Atlantis is located on the ocean floor, just off the coast of Miami (although it would be nice if it were).
Final Thoughts
We know that the Bermuda Triangle is not at all the most dangerous area in the ocean, but it is one of the most visited by tourists. Just as the New Jersey Turnpike region has a high rate of traffic accidents, it’s no surprise that disappearances are even more concentrated along the 1.5 million square miles of busy waterway.
The moral of the story: Don’t be too scared or take any Bermuda Triangle cruise lightly. Everything will be fine!
