The Bermuda Triangle is an (seen left) imaginary triangle stretching from Norfolk to the island of Bermuda and back to Puerto Rico. Ever since the passage of Columbus through these lime green waters countless stories have been told (and re-told) of curses, balls of fire, swooping dragons, methane gas, sea monsters, and deadly tides. What is true? No one knows for sure. No one. But, we can speculate, we can hypothesize, and we can eat corn flakes all at the same time.
Yes, I am being slightly ironic because I'm a bit tired of all the tales surrounding the Bermuda Triangle. But I have to admit being enchanted by it (yes, I love the X-Files, and no, I hate Star Trek) so this site is my debut, my tribune to 20th century's grandest mystery.
So let's get back to that Bermuda Triangle. Columbus was the first to record strange occurrences in the area of the Bermuda Triangle. Specifically he saw a ball of fire in the sky. Later these islands were stalked by pirates and even in the oldest maps you will se them referred to as "the Devil's Islands". Lovely place for vacation, eh?
Many disappearances have been recorded ever since and the Bermuda Triangle has spawned many (fictional?) stories and plays. Off the top of my head I can remember Shakespear's (excellent) play The Tempest.
Let's take them one at time, first off, Columbus!
As the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria sailed through the area in 1492, it is reported that Columbus's compass went haywire and that he and his crew saw weird lights in the sky, but these events have mundane explanations. From the account in Columbus's journal, it is thought that his compass's slight inaccuracy stemmed from nothing more than the discrepancy between true north and magnetic north. As for the lights, Columbus wrote of seeing "a great flame of fire" that crashed into the ocean -- probably a meteor. He saw lights in the sky again on October 11, which, of course, was the day before his famous landing. The lights, brief flashes near the horizon, were spotted in the area where dry land turned out to be.
Another historical event retroactively attributed to the Bermuda Triangle is the discovery of the Mary Celeste. The vessel was found abandoned on the high seas in 1892, about 400 miles off its intended course from New York to Genoa. There was no sign of its crew of ten or what had happened to them. Since the lifeboat was also missing, it is quite possible that they abandoned the Mary Celeste during a storm that they wrongly guessed the ship could not weather. But what makes it even harder to call this a Bermuda Triangle mystery is that it the ship was nowhere near the Triangle -- it was found off the coast of Portugal. But of course this means it might have sailed that far alone (even, though it's not likely).
The Bermuda Triangle legend really began in earnest on December 5, 1945, with the famed disappearance of Flight 19. Five Navy Avenger bombers mysteriously vanished while on a routine training mission, as did a rescue plane sent to search for them -- six aircraft and 27 men, gone without a trace. Or so the story goes.
When all the facts are laid out, the tale of Flight 19 becomes far less puzzling. All of the crewmen of the five Avengers were inexperienced trainees, with the exception of their patrol leader, Lt. Charles Taylor. Taylor was perhaps not at the height of his abilities that day, as some reports indicate that he had a hangover and failed in his attempts to pass off this flight duty to someone else. With the four rookie pilots entirely dependent on his guidance, Taylor found that his compass malfunctioned soon into the flight. Taylor chose to continue the run on dead reckoning, navigating by sighting landmarks below. Being familiar with the islands of the Florida Keys where he lived, Taylor had reason to feel confident in flying by sight. But visibility became poor due to a brewing storm, and he quickly became disoriented. Flight 19 was still in radio contact with the Fort Lauderdale air base, although the weather and a bad receiver in one of the Avengers made communication very spotty. They may have been guided safely home if Taylor had switched to an emergency frequency with less radio traffic, but he refused for fear they would be unable to reestablish contact under these conditions. Taylor ended up thinking they were over the Gulf of Mexico, and ordered the patrol east in search of land. But in reality, they had been heading up the Atlantic coastline, and Taylor was mistakenly leading his hapless trainees much further out to sea. Radio recordings indicate that some of them suggested to Taylor that Florida was actually to the west. A search party was dispatched, which included the Martin Mariner that many claim disappeared into the Bermuda Triangle along with Flight 19. While it is true that it never returned, the Mariner did not vanish; it blew up 23 seconds after takeoff, in an explosion that was witnessed by several at the base. This was unfortunately not an uncommon occurrence, because Mariners were known for their faulty gas tanks. No known wreckage from Flight 19 has ever been recovered.
| SHIPS | YEAR | LOCATION |
| The Sea Venture, sailing ship | 1609 | Right off Bermuda |
| Its rescue boat | 1609 | Right off Bermuda |
| Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe's three accompanying galleons | 1750 | North Carolina coast |
| Patriot, packet ship carrying aaron Burr's daughter | 1812 | In Gulf Stream |
| Wasp, US warship | 1814 | Off coast of S. Carolina |
| The Spray, sloop | 1909 | |
| The Cyclops, USN fuel ship | 1918 | On way from Barbados to Norfolk, Va |
| Porta Noca, passenger ship | 1926 | Took off from Isle of Pines near Cuba |
| Sandra, freighter | 1957 | Out from Savannah |
| Renovoc, yacht | 1958 | Took off from Key West |
| The Enchantress | 1965 | 50 miles southwest of Charleston, S. Carolina |
| Witchcraft | 1967 | Off Miami |
| Scorpion, nuclear powered sub | 1968 | Off the Azores |
| AIRCRAFT | YEAR | LOCATION |
| Flight 19, 5 avenger bombers | 1945 | Coming back from Bimini |
| Martin Mariner, PBM flying boat in search | 1945 | From Patrick AFB |
| Star Tiger, commercial airliner | 1948 | En route from Azores to Bermuda |
| DC-3 charter flight | 1949 | |
| Star Ariel, commercial airliner | 1950 | En route to Kingston |
| Air Force Tender | 1962 | En route Va. to Azores |
| Private plane | 1962 | Off Nassau |
| U.S. Superfortress | since | |
| British Army Transport | since | |
| Two US Navy Patrol planes | since |
