The Bermuda Triangle

Introduction:

The "Bermuda Triangle" or "Devil's Triangle" is an imaginary area located off the
southeastern Atlantic coast of the United States of America, which is noted for a supposedly
high incidence of unexplained disappearances of ships and aircraft. The apexes of the triangle
are generally believed to be Bermuda; Miami, Florida; and San Juan, Puerto Rico. The US
Board of Geographic Names does not recognize the Bermuda Triangle as an official name. The
US Navy does not believe the Bermuda Triangle exists. It is reported that Lloyd's of London,
the world's leading market for specialist insurance, does not charge higher premiums for
vessels transiting this heavily traveled area.

Origins:

The earliest allegation of unusual disappearances in the Bermuda area appeared in a September
16, 1950 Associated Press article by Edward Van Winkle Jones. Two years later, Fate
magazine published "Sea Mystery At Our Back Door", a short article by George X. Sand
covering the loss of several planes and ships, including the loss of Flight 19, a group of five
U.S. Navy TBM Avenger bombers on a training mission. Sand's article was the first to lay out
the now-familiar triangular area where the losses took place. Flight 19 alone would be covered
in the April 1962 issue of American Legion Magazine. It was claimed that the flight leader had
been heard saying "We are entering white water, nothing seems right. We don't know where we
are, the water is green, no white." It was also claimed that officials at the Navy board of inquiry
stated that the planes "flew off to Mars." Sand's article was the first to suggest a supernatural
element to the Flight 19 incident. In the February 1964 issue of Argosy, Vincent Gaddis's
article "The Deadly Bermuda Triangle" argued that Flight 19 and other disappearances were
part of a pattern of strange events in the region. The next year, Gaddis expanded this article into
a book, Invisible Horizons.

Since the days of early civilization many thousands of ships have sunk and/or disappeared in
waters around the world due to navigational and other human errors, storms, piracy, fires, and
structural/mechanical failures. Aircraft are subject to the same problems, and many of them
have crashed at sea around the globe. Often, there were no living witnesses to the sinking or
crash, and hence the exact cause of the loss and the location of the lost ship or aircraft are
unknown. A large number of pleasure boats travel the waters between Florida and the
Bahamas. All too often, crossings are attempted with too small a boat, insufficient knowledge
of the area's hazards, and a lack of good seamanship.

To see how common accidents are at sea, you can examine some of the recent accident reports
of the National Transportation Safety Board for ships and aircraft. One of the aircraft accident
reports concerns an in-flight engine failure and subsequent ditching of a Cessna aircraft near
Great Abaco Island in the Bahamas on 13 July 2003. This is the type of accident that would
likely have been attributed to mysterious causes in the Bermuda Triangle if there had been no
survivors or other eyewitnesses of the crash.
A significant factor with regard to missing vessels in the Bermuda Triangle is a strong ocean
current called the Gulf Stream. It is extremely swift and turbulent and can quickly erase
evidence of a disaster. The weather also plays its role. Prior to the development of telegraph,
radio and radar, sailors did not know a storm or hurricane was nearby until it appeared on the
horizon. For example, the Continental Navy sloop Saratoga was lost off the Bahamas in such a
storm with all her crew on 18 March 1781. Many other US Navy ships have been lost at sea in
storms around the world. Sudden local thunder storms and water spouts can sometimes spell
disaster for mariners and air crews. Finally, the topography of the ocean floor varies from
extensive shoals around the islands to some of the deepest marine trenches in the world. With
the interaction of the strong currents over the many reefs the topography of the ocean bottom is
in a state of flux and the development of new navigational hazards can sometimes be swift.

Compass variations:

It has been inaccurately claimed that the Bermuda Triangle is one of the two places on earth at
which a magnetic compass points towards true north. Normally a compass will point toward
magnetic north. The difference between the two is known as compass variation. The amount of
variation changes by as much as 60 degrees at various locations around the World. If this
compass variation or error is not compensated for, navigators can find themselves far off course
and in deep trouble. Although in the past this compass variation did affect the "Bermuda
Triangle" region, due to fluctuations in the Earth's magnetic field this has apparently not been
the case since the nineteenth century.

We know of no US Government-issued maps that delineate the boundaries of the Bermuda

Triangle. However, general maps as well as nautical and aviation charts of the general area are
widely available in libraries and from commercial map dealers.

Hurricanes:

Hurricanes are powerful storms, which form in tropical waters and have historically cost
thousands of lives lost and caused billions of dollars in damage. The sinking of Francisco de
Bobadilla's Spanish fleet in 1502 was the first recorded instance of a destructive hurricane.
These storms have in the past caused a number of incidents related to the Triangle.

Gulf Stream:

The Gulf Stream is an ocean current that originates in the Gulf of Mexico and then flows
through the Straits of Florida into the North Atlantic. In essence, it is a river within an ocean,
and, like a river, it can and does carry floating objects. It has a surface velocity of up to about
2.5 metres per second (5.6 mi/h). A small plane making a water landing or a boat having engine
trouble can be carried away from its reported position by the current.