BERMUDA TRIANGLE: MYTHS AND MYSTERIES

                                           BERMUDA TRIANGLE: MYTHS AND MYSTERIES

Nikunja Bihari Sahu

                                  

         Notoriously known as the ‘The Devil’s Triangle’ for its strange and bizarre reputation as happening of mysterious events,   the Bermuda Triangle is a large stretch of sea between Florida, Puerto Rico, and Bermuda in the  North Atlantic ocean. Over the last few centuries, it is thought that dozens of ships and planes have disappeared under mysterious circumstances in the area.  To most people, it is an area of bad luck and extra-terrestrial activity!

                                                                               

  HISTORY OF BAD REPUTATION

   The Bermuda Triangle’s bad reputation started with an account of the famous Italian explorer Christopher Columbus. According to his ship’s log on October 8, 1492, his Compass was giving weird readings and didn’t point to the magnetic North. However, he deliberately didn’t alert his crew members at first, as it would grip the already agitated crew with panic. 

       The modern Bermuda Triangle legend didn’t get started until 1950 when an article written by Edward Van Winkle Jones was published by the Associated Press. Jones reported several incidents of disappearing ships and planes in the Bermuda Triangle including the  five US Navy torpedo bombers (vanished on December 5, 1945) and the commercial airliners ‘Star Tiger’ and ‘Star Ariel’ ( disappeared on January 30, 1948 and January 17, 1949 respectively). About 135 individuals were unaccounted for and gone missing in all these strange events around the Bermuda Triangle. Most surprisingly, no human body or wreckage had yet been discovered in the aftermath of all these tragic events. As Jones said, “They were swallowed without a trace.”

     By 1964, Vincent H. Gaddis (who coined the term Bermuda Triangle) wrote an article saying that over 1000 lives had been claimed by the area. The Bermuda Triangle obsession hit its peak in the early 1970s with the publication of several paperback titles on the topic including the bestseller by Charles Berlitz.

 

        

MYSTERY EXPLODED

      In 1970 the U.S. Coast Guard, attempted to explain the reasons for the malfunctioning of the Compass (as first reported by Columbus) that accounted for the disappearances of many ships in the area.

   According to it, the Bermuda Triangle is one of the places on Earth that a Magnetic Compass does point toward the true North (Geographic North) Pole. Normally, it points toward the magnetic North Pole. The difference between the two (the Magnetic North and the Geographic North) directions is known as the Compass Variation. The amount of this Variation varies by as much as 20 degrees as one circumnavigates the Earth. If this compass variation (or error) is not compensated for, a navigator could find himself far off the course and in deep trouble.

             Many explanations have been cited about the unusual magnetic properties within the limits of the Triangle. Although the world’s magnetic fields are in constant flux, the Bermuda Triangle area has remained relatively undisturbed.  It is true that some exceptional magnetic values have been reported within the Triangle, but none to make the Triangle more unusual than any other place on Earth.

 

              However, critic Larry Kusche, who published ‘The Bermuda Triangle Mystery: Solved’ in 1975, argued that other authors had exaggerated their numbers and hadn’t done enough research. They presented some disappearance cases as ‘mysteries’ when they were not mysteries at all and some reported cases hadn’t even happened within the Bermuda Triangle region.

 \    After extensively researching the issue, Kusche concluded that the number of disappearances that occurred within the Bermuda Triangle area was not actually greater than in any other similarly trafficking area of the ocean and that other writers presented incomplete information—such as not reporting the storms that occurred on the day of the disappearance and sometimes even reporting calm sea conditions for the purposes of creating a sensational story. 

    The book did such a thorough job of debunking the myth that it effectively ended most of the Bermuda Triangle hype. However, the Bermuda triangle issue continues to be sensational and many magazine articles, TV shows, and movies continued to feature sensational stories on the issue.

       The majority of disappearances can be attributed to the area’s unique natural features. The Gulf Stream, a warm ocean current flowing from the Gulf of Mexico around the Florida Straits northeastward toward Europe, is extremely swift and turbulent. It can quickly erase any evidence or reminiscence of a disaster.

          The unpredictable Caribbean-Atlantic storms that produce waves of great height as well as waterspouts often spell disaster for pilots and mariners. (Not to mention that the area is in “hurricane alley.”) The topography of the ocean floor varies from extensive shoals to some of the deepest marine trenches of the world. With the interaction of strong currents over reefs, the topography is in a constant state of flux and breeds the development of new navigational hazards.

         Not to be underestimated is the human factor. A large number of pleasure boats travel the waters between Florida’s Gold Coast (the most densely populated area of the world) and the Bahamas. Above all, crossings are often attempted with neglecting all the safety conditions like too small a boat, insufficient knowledge of the area’s hazards and the lack of good seamanship.

     It is concluded that the number of disappearances in the Bermuda Triangle is no greater than any other similarly trafficked area of the world’s oceans.

 

Education Officer

                                                                                                    Regional Science Centre

                                                                                                       Bhopal

                                                                                                       Phone :8018708858