BERMUDA Triangle ( DEVILS SEA )

 

The Bermuda Triangle, also known as the Devil's Triangle, is an urban legend focused on a loosely defined region in the western part of the North Atlantic Ocean where a number of aircraft and ships are said to have disappeared under mysterious circumstances. The idea of the area as uniquely prone to disappearances arose in the mid-20th century, but most reputable sources dismiss the idea that there is any mystery.

MYSTERIES OF BERMUDA TRIANGLE

Bermuda Triangle, section of the North Atlantic Ocean off North America in which more than 50 ships and 20 airplanes are said to have mysteriously disappeared. The area, whose boundaries are not universally agreed upon, has a triangular shape that reaches approximately from the Atlantic coast of Florida to Bermuda to the islands known as the Greater Antilles.

Reports of unexplained occurrences in the region date to the mid-19th century. Some ships were discovered completely abandoned for no apparent reason; others transmitted no distress signals and were never seen or heard from again. Aircraft have been reported and then vanished, and rescue missions are said to have vanished when flying in the area. However, wreckage has not been found, and some of the theories advanced to explain the repeated mysteries have been fanciful.

Also, this Devil’s Triangle has been blamed for the disappearance of thousands of people in the past decades.

   FAMOUS BERMUDA TRIANGLE STORIES

1. Mary Celeste

Possibly one of the most mysterious stories of shipwrecks, this ship is a tale of its own. Despite being found adrift in some other location in the Atlantic Ocean, the connection to the Bermuda triangle had been somehow invoked to find an answer to the mystery of its fate.

Discovered on 4th December 1872 with everything right in the place except for the entire crew, the ship was found stranded on the sea days after starting its journey from New York to Genoa, Italy.

There were seven crew members and Captain Benjamin Briggs, his wife, and their two-year-old daughter aboard the vessel, loaded with raw alcohol.

But, days after, when a passing British ship called Dei Gratia found Mary Celeste under partial sail in the Atlantic, off the Azores Islands, the ship was unmanned with no crew abroad, and the lifeboat was also missing.

It was also found that nine of the barrels in the cargo were empty, and there was a sword on the deck. No trace of the people abroad the vessel or the missing lifeboat has ever been found.

Studies of the ship clearly ruled out the possibility of a pirate attack since everything on this ship, including the barrels of alcohol it was transporting and the crew’s valuable belongings, were intact.

Theories surrounding the mystery of the Mary Celeste also included the chances of a criminal conspiracy, alien abduction, and even an attack by a giant squid.

The possibility of a natural disaster was also on the list. Many suggested the role of an undersea earthquake behind the accident, while few proposed an accidental foraying of the vessel into the Bermuda Triangle.

However, as much as these speculations seem reasonable, they clearly don’t fit. After all, why would a perfectly skilled crew on a good weather day, with their ship entirely uncompromised, abandon it and then never surface again?

2. Ellen Austin

It is an unnerving triangle mystery associated with the American white oak schooner Ellen Austin. In 1881, the 210 feet long Ellen Austin was going to New York from London when she stumbled upon a derelict near the Bermuda Triangle. Everything seemed fine with the unidentified schooner drifting just north of the Sargasso Sea, but the missing crew.

Captain Baker of the Ellen Austin asked to observe the derelict for two days to make sure it’s not a trap. After two days with no response from the ship, the captain entered the abandoned vessel with his crew to find the well-packed shipment and no sign of the crew.

To tow it back with Ellen Austin, the captain placed a prize crew on the ship, set to sail together. However, after two days of sail on calm waters, a squall separated the path of the two ships, following which the derelict vanished.

Days after the storm, according to the stories, Captain Baker’s lookout could spot the vessel through his spyglass only to realise the vessel drifting far away aimlessly once again. Finally, after hours of effort, Ellen Austin could catch up with the vessel.

But, strangely, no one was on board. However, another version of the story suggests a second attempt by Baker to bring her back to land but ended with the same fate before Ellen Austin before abandoning the cursed vessel.

Other reports suggest that the derelict was once more spotted but this time had a separate crew than the prize crew placed on it by Ellen Austin.

The ship’s disappearance, reappearance, and the prize crew’s absence is an intriguing story. It is more like a secret of the Bermuda triangle, one that has seemingly no chances of being unravelled anytime soon.

3. USS Cyclops

The disappearance of USS Cyclops, one of the Navy’s biggest fuel ships, marks the largest loss of life in the history of the US Navy in a single incident.

In March 1918, this massive ship set out to sail from Brazil to Baltimore through the Bermuda region carrying 10,800 tons of manganese ore with about 309 crew members on board. Setting off on a fairly good day, this ship’s first and only message indicated no sort of troubles.

However, the ship was never heard from again. An entire search of the area was put into action, but nothing was ever found. No remains of the ship or any crew members aboard have ever been found. The captain of the USS Cyclops never sent a distress signal, and no one aboard responded to radio calls from other vessels in the vicinity.

The naval investigators also failed to find a definite cause for its disappearance though there were a number of theories suggesting various reasons.

Due to its mysterious disappearance, Cyclops has become part of the list of more than 100 ships and planes to have vanished under strange circumstances in the Bermuda triangle.

4. Carroll A. Deering

Carroll A. Deering, a five-masted commercial schooner, is one of the most written-about maritime mysteries of the 20th century due to the complete mystery around its abandonment.

On January 31, 1921, Carroll A. Deering was found hard aground on the treacherous rocks of Hatteras Diamond Shoals, North Carolina. There were speculations that the vessel was involved in rum-running.

However, when the investigation team from Barbados reached the vessel after days of effort in the rough sea, what they found was a deserted ship with all crew members missing along with the crew’s personal belongings, ships navigational equipment,logbooks, and life rafts, among others.

Often knows as “Ghost Ship of the Outer Banks”, the disappearance of Carroll A. Deering along with few other vessels during the same time period in the Bermuda triangle area has been valuable information on the mysterious waters, but nothing could bring anyone any closer to solving this mystery.

Reports suggest that as many as nine vessels disappeared during this period from the same region- none of which was ever heard from again.

5. Witchcraft

On December 22, 1967, a cabin cruiser named witchcraft left Miami with her captain Dan Burack and his friend, Father Patrick Horgan.

The two gentlemen’s journey on the 23-foot luxury yacht was to enjoy the wonderful view of Miami’s Christmas lights. However, after reaching just one mile from offshore, the coast guard received a call from the captain stating that his ship had hit something, but there was no substantial damage.

Indicating help to be towed to the shore, the coast guard set off immediately reaching witchcraft in as many as 19 minutes alone but to nothing.

The area indicating the ship’s location was completely deserted, with no signs of any ship having been stranded or even present there previously.

What’s most intriguing about this story is that this particular cruiser was virtually unsinkable, not to mention numerous life-saving devices present aboard, including life jackets, lifeboats, flares, distress signal devices etc.

None of them was used, and the ship was gone. The coast guard officials searched hundreds of square miles of the ocean over the next few days but were unsuccessful. Nothing of this ship has been found until this day. The ship is gone and what remains is only the speculation that can be done now.

Disclaimer: The authors’ views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of Marine Insight. Data and charts, if used, in the article have been sourced from available information and have not been authenticated by any statutory authority. The author and Marine Insight do not claim it to be accurate nor accept any responsibility for the same. The views constitute only the opinions and do not constitute any guidelines or recommendation on any course of action to be followed by the reader.