INTO THE DEVIL'S TRIANGLE

TRACING THE LOCATION OF THE 'DEVIL'S TRIANGLE'

To figure out the exact location of Bermuda Triangle, sometimes called the ‘Devil’s Triangle’, the marine triangle which is allegedly supposed to account for the disappearance of a number of aircrafts and ships, is rather labyrinthine. Its boundaries are more or less identified with an area covering some 2,500,000 square kilometres somewhere between Miami (Florida Peninsula), San Juan (Puerto Rico) and the mid-Atlantic Island of Bermuda. However, different writers are of different opinions; the U.S Navy denies its existence. Keeping track of the earliest suggestions of ‘Bermuda Triangle’ with mysterious disappearances of ships or planes crossing its vicinity, we can refer back to an article by Edward Van Winkle Jones, published in ‘The Miami Herald’ on September17, 1950 which was to be followed subsequently by ‘Sea Mystery at our Back Door’ by George X Sand who was the first to characterise the disappearance of Flight-19 to be a supernatural occurrence. Author Allan W Eckert in the April 1962 issue of ‘American Legion Magazine’ recorded that the leader of Flight-19 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.’ In the article ‘The Deadly Bermuda Triangle’ Vincent Gaddis argued that Flight-19 and other disappearances constituted part of a pattern of strange events in that region.

SOME NOTABLE INCIDENTS  

The USS Cyclops: 

One of the earliest stories connected with the marine mystery of the Bermuda Triangle is traceable back to the early twentieth century when the famous ship USS Cyclops, which served as a collier for the US Navy during World War Ι, went missing on the way from Salvador to Baltimore after an unscheduled stop at Barbados to take an additional supplies. It was in 1910, but no wreckage of it has been found since. The death of the 306 crew and passengers represent the single largest loss of life in the US Naval history without military purposes. The unreliable wireless communication in 1918 from a vessel sinking may have been an impotent means avoiding such a risk.

A NEW-BUILT SHIP LAUNCHED INTO WATER

The SS Marine Sulphur Queen:

It was in 1963,a famous tanker ship called ‘The SS Marine Sulphur Queen’ disappeared off the southern coast of Florida, resulting in the death of 39 members of the crew, who along with the wreckage or remains of the vessel were lost for ever and none of them have been found till date. A parallel contention attributed the fatal incident to the vessel’s deplorable shape with a weak back that accounted for the possible split in the keel, causing the ship to break into two parts.

NC16002:

The weather was fine with high visibility on the night of December28, 1948 when NC16002, a passenger plane was scheduled to fly somewhere over the vicinity of the triangle. The plane, however, disappeared with its three crew members and twenty-nine passengers on board, during its flight from San Juan, Puerto Rico to Miami, Florida. According to the official the pilot might have missed the message from Miami regarding the change in the direction of the strong wind blowing there, causing him to fly it fifty miles off.

Ground-breaking aviator Amelia Mary Earhart:

Amelia Earhart, daughter of Samuel “Edwin” Stanton Earhart, who earned distinction as the first woman to fly solo nonstop across the Atlantic. Graduated from Hyde Park High School in 1916, Amelia kept a scrapbook of newspaper clippings depicting stories of successful women in predominantly male-oriented fields: film direction, law, advertising, management and mechanical engineering, as she had aspired to a future career throughout her troubled childhood. She visited her sister in Toronto in 1917 against the backdrop of World War Ι. The gruesome sight of wounded soldiers left an indelible impression on her mind, and after receiving training as a nurse’s aide from the Red Cross, she began working with the Volunteer Aid Detachment at Spadina Military Hospital. When she had tried her hand at a number of unusual ventures, Amelia set out in a new direction. She had been living at Metford, when she showed interest in aviation, becoming a member of the American Aeronautical Society’s Boston Chapter and was eventually elected its vice president. Her fame grew after her historic solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic; she came in touch with many persons in high offices, including Roosevelt, who shared many of her interests and passions. Amelia made several other solo flights as a woman hereafter. It was in 1937 she was ready once again to accomplish her mission of ‘the first circumnavigating flight by a woman’. On March17, 1937 Amelia took off with Federick Noonan (her navigator) and Harry Manning (her co-pilot) as they would be travelling some 29000 miles following the equatorial route. The aircraft, however, developed a few problems when the trio attempted to resume their flight after resting and refuelling in Honolulu. In May, Earhart flew the newly rebuilt plane to Miami’ from where Noonan and she would make a new around-the world attempt, this time from west to east. They left Miami the first day of June, and after stops in South America, Africa, India, and Southeast Asia, they arrived at New Guinea, on June29. About22000 miles have been completed and the remaining 7000 miles-all over the Pacific Ocean. Their next destination was Howland island; the U.S Navy was ready to aide them. They took off, but the two-way communication was disturbed. The last message from Amelia was “One half hour fuel and no landfall.” After this neither Amelia nor the plane was ever found, much in the way as the other unusual disappearances in the vicinity of the Bermuda Triangle.

AN ARTIST'S IMPRESSION OF THE 'BERMUDA OR DEVIL'S TRIANGLE'

The Flight-19:

On December 5, 1945 five avenger torpedo bombers lifted off into the tranquil air from the Naval Air Station at Fort Lauderable, Florida at2:10 in the afternoon on a practice mission. The mission required them to fly due west 56 miles to Hens and Chicken Sholes to conduct jettisoning of bombs. This having done the flight plan called for them to fly an additional 67 miles east and then turn northwards 73 miles to base, following a triangular route over the sea. About one hour and a half after the flight had left; Lt. Robert Cox at the base received a radio transmission from Taylor, complaining about the compasses not in working order as he believed to be flying somewhere over the Florida Keys. Cox urged him to fly due north to Miami, at this stage there was another transmission picked up when a trainee student urged “If we would just fly west, we would get home.” But the leader might have been stubborn. At about 4:45pm it was clear that Taylor was hopefully lost. At 5:50 pm the Com Gulf centre somehow managed to trace the Flight19 avenger at the east of New Smyrna Beach, Florida, but the communications had become so poor that this information couldn’t be passed on to the lost planes. It was getting dark and the last transmission from Flight19 was heard at 7:04pm. Search operations continued throughout the night and the next day, but to no effect. The disappearance of Flight19 remained a mystery.

Alton Glenn Miller:

In 1944 Anton Glenn Miller, born in 1904 and the world’s most popular band leader, was on board a little single-engine plane, scheduled to fly across the English Channel to France as patriot miller was on a mission to cheer up the US soldiers in Paris. His plane didn’t reach its destination and, what is more, no trace either of Miller or any of the three persons on board the plane was ever found, making it one of the unsolved mysteries of the world.

AN AERIAL IMAGE OF THE DEVIL'S TRIANGLE

EXPLANATIONS: Gulf Stream, Violent weather, Methane hydrates, Air bombs in the area, and Human errors usually stand as possible explanations for these traumatic experiences.