G’day! You didn’t get stomped by a kangaroo, attacked by a swarm of killer bees or beset upon by a hoard of cackling geese on your way here did you? What’s this world coming to when a poor old 94 year old woman can’t even hang her laundry out without some angry ‘roo trying to beat the cr*p out of her, eh? Anyway, pour some fresh coffee into that mug you’re holding and snag a treat. Then, I want to bend your ear about one of my favourite mysteries – The Bermuda Triangle. First time I ever went to Bermuda was on Air Canada and we sat 4 ½ hours at Mirabel Airport in Montreal with the rear door open in February at -22F …but that’s another story!
The Bermuda Triangle is infamous for making everything from cargo ships to airplanes disappear. The mysterious body of water is clouded with rumors of suspicious — if not supernatural — activity. Over the past century, the Bermuda Triangle has been "swallowing" vessels and is blamed for the loss of hundreds of lives. I’ll recap some of its strangest disappearances.
Also sinisterly known as the Devil's Triangle, the Bermuda Triangle consists of a region in the western part of the North Atlantic Ocean, and is defined by points in Bermuda, Florida and Puerto Rico. It stretches across less than a thousand miles on any one side.
The Bermuda Triangle's eerie reputation began on Dec. 5, 1945, when flight 19, a squadron of five U.S. Navy torpedo bombers, vanished into thin air during a routine training exercise. The planes were fully equipped and had been thoroughly checked before they departed from the Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale in Florida. What made the disappearance even more mysterious is that it occurred during peacetime, making it less likely that they were shot down.
Before losing radio contact off the coast of southern Florida, Flight 19's flight leader was reportedly heard saying: "Everything looks strange, even the ocean," and "We are entering white water, nothing seems right." The aircrafts and 14 crew members were never found, despite a lengthy investigation by the government. In fact, a search-and-rescue aircraft with 13 men onboard was dispatched to locate the missing planes, but that aircraft and its passengers also inexplicably disappeared. And thus, the Bermuda Triangle's spooky reputation was solidified.
The Bermuda Triangle is believed to be responsible for the mysterious disappearance of more than 50 ships and 20 airplanes over the past century, according to the U.S. Navy. The Star Ariel, a passenger aircraft owned by British South American Airways, went missing on Jan. 17, 1949. The plane had been flying over the Bermuda Triangle while making its way from Kindley Field in Bermuda to Kingston, Jamaica. Weather conditions at the time of the disappearance had been calm and fair, and no wreckage was ever found. All seven crew members and 13 passengers were lost.
The SS Marine Sulphur Queen, a converted T2 tanker ship carrying molten sulphur and 39 crew members, disappeared near the southern coast of Florida. It was last heard from on Feb. 4, 1963, when it sent a routine radio message. When it failed to make further communication, search crews were dispatched to locate it. After more than two weeks of looking, the rescue team only found a few shards of debris and life preservers, shown above. It's a bit unsettling that the Sulphur Queen vanished into "the Devil's Triangle," since folklore says that the king of the underworld reeks of sulphur.
U.S.S. Cyclops, a massive collier ship was lost at sea in 1918. After leaving Barbados for Baltimore, Md., on March 4, the vessel vanished without a trace, taking 306 crew members and passengers with it. It remains the single largest loss of life in U.S. Naval history that was not the result of combat.
The USS Nereus was one of four Proteus-class colliers built for the U.S. Navy during World War I. The craft was named after the mythological Greek sea god Nereus, protector of sailors. The USS Nereus was lost at sea sometime after Dec. 10, 1941, as it made its way towards Portland, Maine, from St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands. It disappeared with a crew of 61 along the same route as its sister-ship, the USS Proteus, had vanished from the previous month.
The USS Proteus was a Navy collier that had been converted into a merchant ship. It was never heard from again after Nov. 23, 1941, when it left port from St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands, bound for an East Coast port in the United States. The approximately 540-foot-long (165 meters) ship was carrying 58 men and a cargo of bauxite ore to be made into aluminum.
Several bizarre theories have been presented in attempts to explain the disappearances. UFO abductions, time warps, portals leading to other dimensions (I like that one!), magnetic field anomalies, geophysical phenomena and massive methane gas bubbles have all been blamed for the triangle's unsolved mysteries. A popular theory is that the legendary lost city of Atlantis rests at the bottom of the Bermuda Triangle, and its advanced technology interferes with nearby vessels. (I like that one, too!)
Retrieving sunken planes and ships from the Bermuda Triangle is especially difficult because it is home to the Puerto Rico Trench, which reaches depths of about 30,100 feet (9,200 meters) and is the deepest part of the Atlantic Ocean. Crafts that sink to such low points are seldom seen again.
Hey…a couple days ago, I mentioned a sinkhole that almost swallowed somebody's granny. Could there be sinkholes under the ocean, I wonder? That wouldn’t explain the disappearing aircrart though, would it? I think that ‘other dimension’ theory should be looked into.
See ya!
Bob
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