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Vanished! Lost in The Bermuda Triangle
Many unexplained incidents have taken place in The Bermuda Triangle area, way too many to cover all of them! Here we have covered the major and most interesting cases and unsolved mysteries that have taken place around Bermuda. Hopefully they will give you a good understanding of exactly why The Bermuda Triangle has the reputation of being the "Limbo of the Lost"!
Mary CelesteAt 9am on what just happened to be Friday 13th of November 1872, an abandoned ship, The Mary Celeste, found 600 miles from Gibraltar in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, was towed into port by the British vessel Dei Grata. She had been found abandoned, no sign of her crew of eight or two passengers, and the crew estimated the abandonment had taken place weeks before. Now critics claim that this is not a Bermuda Triangle incident as the Mary Celeste had been found closer to Portugal in the eastern Atlantic rather than near Bermuda in the west. They choose to ignore that the ship had been abandoned for weeks, which would have given the Gulf Stream ample time to carry her to the location off of the Portuguese coast. The original abandonment would have taken place in the Bermuda Triangle. The Mary Celeste had left Boston on October 16th headed for Lisbon, Portugal with a cargo of alcohol to be used in the fortification of wine. Again critics use this to suggest a pirate attack, however the precious and valuable cargo (can you imagine a bunch of pirates discovering a ship full of alcohol!) was left untouched. The ships log made no mention of rough weather, in fact it hardly mentioned anything at all as it was irregularly kept. There was though evidence that the ship had encountered no rough weather at all. A sowing machine found on board and most likely belonging to the captain's wife was found with a spool of silk thread sitting on top, which would surely have been thrown to the floor if any rough weather had been encountered. Investigations were made, watches were kept for the appearance of the missing crew, but to this day what happened to the Mary Celeste and those on board remains one of the greatest unsolved mysteries of the Bermuda Triangle.
The Ellen AustinThe Ellen Austin was a large ship, over 1800 tons and 210ft long. Her regular route was between New York and London, and it was on one of her regular trips that she came across an abandoned vessel drifting near the Sargasso Sea in the Bermuda Triangle. The Ellen Austin's captain ordered his crew to pull alongside and sent a small party to investigate. Reporting that the unnamed vessel was abandoned, the investigating crew members were ordered to stay on board and sail the ship to London, as she was in good condition. Shortly thereafter the two vessels were separated in a storm, and when the weather finally cleared, there was no sign of the previously abandoned vessel and her crew. The crew of the Ellen Austinwere spooked and sailed hastily to London, hoping their comrades and the salvaged schooner would either be there waiting for them, or would arrive shortly thereafter. The former crewmembers of the Ellen Austin and their prized schooner were never seen or heard from again, another casualty of the Bermuda Triangle.
Carroll A. DeeringOn the 21st of January, 1921, the Carroll A. Deering a five masted schooner built in 1919, was found hard aground on Diamond shoals off the coast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, the closest point of land to Bermuda. Speculation has it that she was involved in the rum-running trade, a highly lucrative venture during those times of prohibition. The Coast Guard was sent to investigate, and once boarding the vessel found an interesting set of circumstances. The ship was still at full sail yet fully deserted, though her log, ship's papers, chronometer and all navigational equipment was gone. Interestingly enough, there were still some items of food soaking in the galley in preparation for the following day's meal. Further mysterious circumstances developed when another ship went missing in the same area a few days later. The SS Hewitt en-route to Portland, Maine from Texas disappeared January 25th and over the course of the next two weeks, a further nine vessels went missing in the area. All remember, without a trace! This if course gave rise to reports of piracy, the Soviet Union was even blamed for pirating the ships and whisking them off to Russia for their precious cargos. No satisfactory answers have ever been given, for any of the ships, and the fate of the Carroll A. Deering, the SS Hewitt,and nine other vessels and their crews remains a mystery till this day.
USS CyclopsThis is one of the earliest documented disappearances attributed to the Bermuda Triangle and perhaps one of it's most intriguing unsolved mysteries. The USS Cyclops carried 306 passengers and crew into the Bermuda Triangle in March of 1918 and never returned. The Cyclops was built for the U.S.Navy during the First World War and named after the Giant of Greek mythology, a fitting tribute to her size. She was a Proteus-class collier; a class of ships built for refueling and designed to keep a mobile fleet supplied with fuel. She weighed in at 19,360 tons and supported the eastern Atlantic and Caribbean fleets. Cyclops left the island of Barbados on the 4th of March, 1918. After clearing port she sent a message, "Weather Fair. All well". She was never seen or heard of again. When she failed to arrive in Baltimore the Navy pulled out all stops and every ship in the vicinity from Cuba to Puerto Rico and around Bermuda was called into a massive search. Initially it was thought that she had been torpedoed by a German submarine, but no SOS was ever received and there would have been plenty of time to send one. The Navy, unsure of what to report, withheld information of her disappearance until April 15th when a full investigation was launched. Many theories arose, including mutiny and mass murder, as the skipper of the Cyclops, Captain Worley was said to much resemble Captain Bligh of The Bounty in the way that he handled his crew. But there were over 300 people on board; there would have been survivors and reports. All said and done, the Uss Cyclops remains yet another mystery of the Bermuda Triangle.
Flight 19Not only ships have disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle, but aircraft have vanished as well. Definitely the most famous and most baffling of all was the disappearance of Flight 19, a group of five TBM Avenger Bombers that went missing on a training mission in the Bermuda Triangle. Reports from the leader, Lt. Charles C. Taylor, an experienced instructor, indicate that the group of airplanes encountered unusual compass behavior and other phenomena.
They left Fort Lauderdale, Florida on the afternoon of December 5th, 1945 on a routine training mission; the weather was fair with only a few showers reported.
At 4pm that afternoon, a radio message between Lt. Taylor and another pilot in the formation was intercepted, indicating that the instructor was lost and unsure of where the Florida coast was. The other aircraft could be of no help, as they too were experiencing compass problems.
No radio contact was made by the flight to base, and consequently a PBM patrol plane was sent out to search for them. That aircraft and the 13 men aboard her were never heard from again.
No wreckage was ever found of any of the planes, and the mystery of Flight 19 and the PBM rescue flight sent to save them remains unsolved till this day.
Star Tiger and Star ArielThese Avro Tudor IV passenger aircraft disappeared without trace en route to Bermuda and Jamaica, respectively. Star Tiger was lost on January 30, 1948 on a flight from the Azores to Bermuda. Star Ariel was lost on January 17, 1949, on a flight from Bermuda to Kingston, Jamaica. Neither aircraft gave out a distress call; in fact, their last messages were routine. After departing England, bound for Bermuda, The Star Tiger stopped for refueling in the Azores, a group of islands off the coast of Portugal. at 3:15pm an the afternoon of January 30th, the airlines captain requested a bearing for Bermuda. After receiving his bearings the captain estimated his arrival time in Bermuda would be 5pm. They are still waiting. an alert went out immediately when the aircraft didn't arrive on time and didn't respond to radio messages and a vast search was conducted along her flight path. Again, as is so often the case in these incidents, not a trace was found. The Star Ariel left Bermuda headed for Kingston, Jamaica on January 17, 1949, carrying seven crewmembers and thirteen passengers. Shortly after take-off, her pilot, Capt. J. C. McPhee, radioed in that his ETA (estimated time of arrival) for Kingston would be 2:10pm.he reported that the weather and visibility were good. Later he updated his position and reported that he would be changing radio frequencies. Those were the last transmissions from the Star Ariel, and she was never heard from again. Over 70 aircraft and many ships were involved in a search between one hundred and five hundred miles south of Bermuda, search vessels including two aircraft carriers and the battleship USS Missouri, involving upwards of 13,000 men. No sign of debris, oil slicks, or wreckage were ever found.The Bermuda Triangle strikes again! Whether you choose to believe that these disappearances can be explained logically, or that supernatural forces are at work in the Bermuda Triangle, one thing remains for certain. There have been some very unusual events in this area. The Bermuda Triangle would not be the mystery it is if these happenings had all been logically explained. Logical theories and explanations have been offered, that do make sense and have some credibility. There are however many things that can't be explained, or at least haven't been yet, and probably never will, and they also should be given their due honor!
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