Essay, Research Paper: Bermuda Triangle

On the afternoon of December 5, 1945, five Navy Avenger torpedo bombers took off from Ft. Lauderdale Naval Air Station on a routine flight. Less than two hours later, the flight leader radioed the control tower that they were lost and unable to tell in which direction they were flying. As communications faded, a rescue plane was sent out to the plane's last location. It too was never heard from again (Wings Of Mystery, Titler Dale, 1966). The search for the missing bomber pilots lasted days, but no trace of the six aircraft was ever found. They had vanished in the Bermuda Triangle.
From the island of Bermuda to the city of Miami then to the Puerto Rico back to Bermuda lies the Bermuda Triangle. What can explain the many disappearances in this area of the Atlantic Ocean? In good weather, without warning, without a trace, can ships and planes continually disappear? Is this a region of electromagnetic forces, a space-time warp in which unfortunate vessels and planes can be forever trapped in another dimension? Could this be one of those spots where UFOs pick up earthlings and their vessels for study? Or is it a domain of a sea monster or an evil spirit seeking some very grim revenge?
Bermuda Triangle, region in the western Atlantic Ocean that has become associated in popular imagination with mysterious disasters. The triangle-shaped area covers about 1,140,000-sq. km. (about 440,000 sq. miles) between the island of Bermuda, the coast of southern Florida, and Puerto Rico.
During the past 100 years, more than 20 planes and 50 ships have met their doom in the Bermuda Triangle, and the area of the Caribbean that boasts corners at Bermuda, Miami, and San Juan, Puerto Rico. Also known as the "Devils Triangle", this unexplained phenomena has provided an ample battlefield for fierce controversy that has raged since the early 60's.
One of the greatest mysteries of the sea is the strange disappearance of the Atlanta in 1880 (The Deadly Bermuda Triangle, Gladdis, Vincent H., 1964). She left Bermuda for England with a crew of 300 cadets and officers and was never seen again. Despite a massive sweep, a mass army of ships sailing across the ocean within sight of each other, not a scrap or a lifeboat from the Atlanta was ever found. Puzzling disappearance continued. In 1965 an Air Force C-119 vanished while on a flight in good weather from Homestead Air Force base to Grand Turk Island. The Grand Turk Tower, operator just about time the plane should have been touching down received a strange, garbled message. No one will ever know what desperate, last minute message or information was the pilot attempting to relate before he crossed over into the unknown. An Airforce KB50 headed for Azores, Japan with a crew of nine also disappeared without a trace (The Spreading Mysteries Of The Bermuda Triangle, Sanderson, Ivan, 1969).
One of the most baffling aspects of the disappearances has always been the failure of researcher's to find bodies. It would generally be expected that one or more will be washed ashore after a shipwreck, but this has never happened in the Bermuda Triangle. It is possible for an airplane warship to go occasionally down without leaving a trace, but not very likely (The Devil's Triangle, Winer, Richards, 1973). There is almost always something, some debris or oil slick to mark the spot. During the last century and a half, more than forty ships and twenty airplanes have carried almost one thousand beings into the misty limbo lost, too many vessels were vanishing under finishing circumstances in such a small patch of ocean (The Triangle Of Death, Gladdis, Vincent, 1964).
Investigators were not easily convinced and it was a long time before they accepted that there was some phenomenon of the region, rather than coincidental mishaps.
Some scientists feel that seaquakes (an earthquake beneath the sea), sudden shifting of the ocean floor, are capable of causing waves up to two-hundred feet high, which may be the most logical answer. Such waves could easily swallow a ship and would account for these mishaps (Stronger Than Science, Goodwin, John, 1971). Although not much is known what causes such waves, it is suspected that powerful ocean currents and waterspouts might be the factors. But the explanation is not good enough for some. Surely there are many places in the world with dangerous currents and directional difficulties. However the question still remains, why is the Bermuda Triangle host to so many unfortunate accidents.
Others believe that the Bermuda Triangle phenomenon is caused by the lost city of Atlantis sunk thousands of feet below the water's surface. The Advance State of the Atlantis, at the time of its submersion, relied on the power of energy crystals. It is possible that these crystals are still at the bottom of the ocean, in a somewhat altered state, sending out rays of energy that either confuses the instrumentation of vehicles, or disintegrates them all together.
Lastly, many believe the Bermuda Triangle to be a man-made energy field using Tela Based Technologies. A VLF-Resonance transmitter (a technology many believe to be in use by the North American Air Defense Command, or NORAD) would have an antipode directly in the middle of the Bermuda Triangle. This hypothetical system would be capable of recharging speculated secret Electro-powered submarine classes, and would definitely provide enough interference to scramble signals that airplanes and boats rely upon.
Even the famous Christopher Columbus had written descriptions in his log about the Sargasso Sea, an area known now as the Bermuda Triangle. In his logs he had written reports down on an "erratic compass, a great flame of fire, and the appearance of a strange light at sea."(Christopher Columbus's Log). Later he went further west into the Atlantic, he noticed that the compass needle was acting up. The compass North was not lining up with true (celestial) north. Again he made a note of it, but didn't tell his superstitious crew. When others noticed the difference, Columbus informed them that he had made note of it, but it was not a major problem. He reasoned that the compass probably pointed to something other than True North.Columbus and his crew also spotted a meteor hitting the water. The crew was not puzzled by it, however, as it was not uncommon to see shooting stars. The meteor was noted in Columbus' log mainly because of its size that occurs outside the boundaries of the Triangle. Columbus also logged a report of seeing lights in the distance. He called on one of his men, who also saw the light. When a third man finally came, the light had vanished. The Bermuda Triangle frightened an already jittery crew and thought it was a warning for them to turn back (Invisible Horizon, Lieber, Leslie, 1968).

There is two places on the earth's surface where the compass does not point the true north: the Bermuda Triangle, and an area of the coast of Japan known as the Devil's Sea, which has also a high rate of disappearance. The Bermuda Triangle continues to baffle officials while new theories are tried and discarded almost as quickly as vessels disappear. The only link that seems to exist between the missing vessels is that they were all crowded into the same small geographical area. All explanations fail to explain why wreckage or bodies are never found and why the disappearance always occurs during grim weather. Perhaps we're not yet advanced to be able to understand the forces that exist in the Bermuda Triangle (Lieber, Leslie. Limbo of the Lost Shipwrecks).
My research began as a curious search to find as much information as I could about the Bermuda Triangle. I, like a lot of people, like a good mystery. Although the disappearances that occurred in the Triangle are the ones that that have been widely publicized there were many other disappearances between Bermuda and England that were not publicized. Many incidences were not considered mysterious when they occurred, but became so, many years later when writers were seeking something to write about.
Disappearances occur in all parts of the ocean and even over land. There are more than 200 vessels that disappeared or even found abandoned between New England and Northern Europe since 1850 (Mysteries of The Ocean, (Gunther, 1967).
The legend of the Bermuda Triangle is a manufactured mystery in my opinion that began as a careless research and was elaborated by writers.