Mystical disappearances of ships. Mysterious disappearances: secrets of missing ships

The Bermuda Triangle is a large area of the Atlantic Ocean over one million square kilometers. Its borders are marked by Bermuda, Miami and Puerto Rico. Mysterious stories about this part of the ocean have been circulating since the time of the Great Geographical Discoveries, when Columbus first reached the island archipelagos near America. For the last one hundred and fifty years, scientists have not taken their eyes off Bermuda Triangle, recording all the strange events associated with him. More than two hundred ships and planes have already disappeared near Bermuda, and their number increases every year. Today we will talk about several of the most unusual and mysterious disappearances in the Bermuda Triangle…

Disappearance of the Cyclops

The last radio signals from the USS Cyclops were heard from the area of Barbados, where the ship was forced to make an unscheduled stop. His final destination was Norfolk, but the Cyclops was not destined to sail there. After reports from the radio room, the ship simply disappeared, leaving not a single trace. On board the ship there were more than ten thousand tons of manganese ore, which sinking of the Cyclops would definitely leave a mark on the sea.

Several ships were sent to search for the warship, but they were unable to find a single trace of the Cyclops' route. For a long time there was an opinion that the ship was sunk by one of the German boats, but no evidence was ever found. Among other things, not a single German military archive from the First World War confirmed this hypothesis. Everything was aggravated by the fact that on the day disappearance of "Cyclops" there was complete calm and the warship simply could not sink to the bottom on its own due to the “whims” of nature.

Already in 1969, a theory emerged that the ship sank due to improper loading, which was refuted the very next day by data from the archives of the port in Rio de Janeiro. To date disappearance of the Cyclops still remains one of the most difficult mysteries in the history of the US Air Force. Even the top command admitted that it would be easier to attribute everything to the mysteries of the Bermuda Triangle, since no one could find a single logical explanation.

The mystery of the frigate "Atlanta"

At the end of January 1880, the frigate Atlanta, in the service of the British fleet, was in the Bermuda area. There were almost three hundred sailors on board the ship, most of whom were just beginning their service. The Atlanta's final destination was Portsmouth, but the ship did not arrive at the port at the appointed time. After waiting a little, the media began to sound the alarm, albeit restrainedly, indicating that the ship’s holds had enough supplies for several more months of voyage. In the end, everyone realized that frigate Atlanta lost. For three months, the ships of the British fleet searched for the frigate, the place of its sinking, or any traces of the crew of three hundred people, but the search did not yield any results.

Soon, however, the Atlanta appeared in the port of Falmouth, but it was a completely different ship. On June 10, 1880, it was officially announced that the ship and its entire crew were missing in the waters of the Bermuda Triangle, where eyewitnesses last saw it. On the same day frigate "Atlanta" was removed from the lists of the British Navy.

Loss of US Navy Squadron Nineteen

In 1945, on December 5, a squadron of five bombers of the " Evenje r, owned by the US Navy, flew as part of a training mission to the region over the Atlantic Ocean. The flight took off from Fort Lauderdale. Five planes, fourteen pilots. In one unit they set off for the Bahamas at about three o'clock in the afternoon local time, but soon sent a message in which they claimed that the instruments had failed and they had lost their orientation - they did not know how to return to the shore. Latest signals from US Navy Squadron 19 dispatchers were able to detect about nineteen hours, after which all traces of the aircraft disappeared.

More than forty ships and aircraft participated in the search mission, combing a huge perimeter from the takeoff site of the aircraft to all possible crash sites based on weather conditions and the amount of fuel in the tanks of the aircraft. However, nothing was found. Moreover, during the rescue operation in Bermuda Triangle the seaplane disappeared " Martin Mariner", which carried thirteen crew members.

Deceased "Scorpio"

Nuclear submarine "Scorpion"- one of the best American boats of that time with a crew of one hundred people disappeared in the spring of 1968 near the Azores. Displacing more than 3,100 tons, the mighty submarine, which was considered virtually invulnerable, simply disappeared at a depth of three kilometers. The Scorpion submarine did not return to base on time, after which all the ships of the Atlantic Fleet were sent to search.

The search was carried out for ten days, but submarine "Scorpion" was never found. The command declared her "presumably sunk" and called off the entire rescue mission. Six months later, a mangled hull of the submarine was found a hundred miles from where the Scorpion went missing. It was never possible to establish the cause of the accident or even the weapon that destroyed the submarine.

Ghost ships in the waters of the Bermuda Triangle

Often, it was not the ships themselves that disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle, but only their crew. These disappearances are even more mysterious, because the reasons for the disappearance of the team could not be explained in any of the cases.

In 1840, a drifting ship was found near Nassau Island. ship "Rosalie". There was no one on board except the ship's live mascot, the canary. All supplies of water and food were safe and sound. Not a single lifeboat was launched.

There have been many cases in history when large and reliable ships disappeared in the seas and oceans without a trace. They simply disappeared and were never found again. Is it any wonder that a South Korean passenger airliner recently disappeared and no one can find it? Look how many sea vessels have disappeared, even today no one knows where they all went.

Mysterious disappearances. Missing ships. Even today, no one knows where they are now.

1. USS Wasp - missing escort

There were actually several ships that were named USS Wasp, but the strangest was the Wasp, which disappeared in 1814. Built in 1813 for the war with England, Wasp was a fast sloop with a square sail, 22 guns and a crew of 170 men. Wasp participated in 13 successful operations. On September 22, 1814, the ship captured the British merchant brig Atalanta. Typically, the Wasp's crew would simply burn enemy ships, but Atalanta was deemed too valuable to destroy. As a result, an order was received to escort Atalanta to the allied harbor, and Wasp set off towards the Caribbean Sea. He was never seen again.

2. SS Marine Sulfur Queen - a victim of the Bermuda Triangle

The ship was a 160-meter tanker that was originally used to transport oil during World War II. The ship was later rebuilt to carry molten sulfur. Marine Sulfur Queen was in excellent condition. In February 1963, two days after leaving Texas with a cargo of sulfur, a routine radio message was received from the ship saying that everything was in order. After that the ship disappeared. Many speculate that it simply exploded, while others blame the “magic” of the Bermuda Triangle for its disappearance. The bodies of 39 crew members were not found, although a life jacket and a piece of board with a piece of the inscription "arine SULPH" were recovered.

3. USS Porpoise - lost in typhoon

Built during the golden age of sailing ships, the Porpoise was originally known as a "hermaphrodite brig" because its two masts used two different types of sails. She was later converted to a traditional brigantine with square sails on both masts. The ship was first used to chase pirates, and in 1838 it was sent on an exploration expedition. The team managed to travel around the world and confirm the existence of Antarctica. After exploring a number of islands in the South Pacific, the Porpoise sailed from China in September 1854, after which no one heard from her. It is likely that the crew encountered a typhoon, but there is no evidence of this.

4. FV Andrea Gail – victim of the “perfect storm”

The fishing trawler Andrea Gai was built in Florida in 1978 and subsequently purchased by a company in Massachusetts. With a crew of six, Andrea Gail sailed successfully for 13 years and disappeared during a voyage to Newfoundland. The Coast Guard launched a search, but were only able to find the ship's distress beacon and some debris. After a week of searching, the ship and its crew were declared missing. Andrea Gail is believed to have been doomed when a high-pressure front crashed into a massive area of low-pressure air, causing the nascent typhoon to merge with the remnants of Hurricane Grace. This rare combination of three separate weather systems eventually became known as the "perfect storm." According to experts, Andrea Gail could have encountered waves more than 30 meters high.

5. SS Poet - the ship that did not send a distress signal

The ship was originally called the Omar Bundy and was used to transport troops during World War II. It was later used to transport steel. In 1979, the ship was purchased by the Hawaiian corporation Eugenia Corporation of Hawaii, which named it "Poet". In 1979, the ship left Philadelphia for Port Said with a cargo of 13,500 tons of corn, but never reached its destination. The last communication with the Poet occurred just six hours after leaving the port of Philadelphia, when one of the crew members spoke with his wife. After this, the ship did not make a scheduled 48-hour communication session, and the ship did not issue a distress signal. Eugenia Corporation did not report the ship's loss for six days, and the Coast Guard did not respond for another 5 days after that. No traces of the ship were ever found.

6. USS Conestoga - the missing minesweeper

USS Conestoga was built in 1917 and served as a minesweeper. After the end of the First World War it was converted into a tugboat. In 1921, the ship was transferred to Samoa, where it was to become a floating station. On March 25, 1921, the ship set sail, nothing more is known about it.

7. Witchcraft - a pleasure boat that disappeared at Christmas

In December 1967, Miami hotelier Dan Burak decided to admire the city's Christmas lights from his personal luxury boat, Witchcraft. Accompanied by his father Patrick Hogan, he went about 1.5 km out to sea. It is known that the boat was in perfect order. Around 9 p.m., Burak radioed to request a tow back to the pier, reporting that his boat had been struck by an unknown object. He confirmed his coordinates to the coast guard and specified that he would launch a flare. Rescuers reached the scene within 20 minutes, but Witchcraft had disappeared. The Coast Guard combed more than 3,100 square kilometers of ocean, but neither Dan Burak, nor Patrick Hogan, nor Witchcraft were ever found.

8. USS Insurgent: the mysterious disappearance of a warship

The US Navy frigate Insurgent was captured by the Americans in battle with the French in 1799. The ship served in the Caribbean, where she won many glorious victories. But on August 8, 1800, the ship sailed from Virginia Hampton Roads and mysteriously disappeared.

9. SS Awahou: lifeboats didn't help

Built in 1912, the 44-metre freighter Awahou went through many owners before eventually being purchased by Australia's Carr Shipping & Trading Company. On September 8, 1952, the ship sailed from Sydney with a crew of 18 people and set sail for the private island of Lord Howe. The ship was in good shape when it left Australia, but within 48 hours an unclear, "crispy" radio signal was received from the ship. The speech was almost impossible to understand, but it sounded like Awahou was caught in bad weather. Although the ship had enough lifeboats for the entire crew, no traces of the wreck or bodies were found.

10. SS Baychimo - Arctic ghost ship

Some call it a ghost ship, but Baychimo was actually a real ship. Built in 1911, Baychimo was a huge steam freighter owned by the Hudson's Bay Company. The ship was primarily used to transport furs from northern Canada. The first nine flights were relatively calm. But during the ship's last voyage, in 1931, winter came very early. Completely unprepared for bad weather, the ship found itself trapped in the ice. Most of the crew were rescued by plane, but the captain and several Baychimo crew members decided to wait out the bad weather by setting up camp on the ship. A severe snowstorm began, which completely hid the ship from sight. When the storm subsided, Baychimo disappeared. However, over the course of several decades, Baychimo was allegedly seen more than once drifting aimlessly in Arctic waters.

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Many of them disappeared without a trace, and some were found, but not a single living soul remained on board. All crew members seemed to have disappeared into thin air or were dead. The reasons for the disappearance or death of the team still remain a mystery. The only version is that the missing ships became victims of terrible supernatural phenomena. There is no other rational explanation yet.

"Seabird"

An unusual discovery was made at the end of the 19th century by residents of the coastal regions of Rhode Island (USA) - the ship Seabird, which crashed into the rocks. When eyewitnesses of the incident decided to inspect the ship, they were amazed: despite the fact that there were traces of the recent presence of people on board (food boiling on a fire, fresh food leftovers on plates), none of the crew members were found on the sailing ship. The only living creature is a frightened dog. It seemed that the sailors left the ship in a hurry. But what made them flee and where they disappeared is not clear.

"Mary Celeste"

The ship, previously called the “Amazon,” was considered cursed from the first days of its existence. Tragic events haunted the sailors working on the ship. For example, the first captain of the Amazon died after accidentally falling overboard. In order not to tempt fate, the ship was renamed. However, the ship, which now became the Mary Celeste, was doomed. In 1872 he mysteriously disappeared. The missing ship was found a month later, but there was not a soul on board. All the sailors' belongings remained in place. But where did their owners go?

"Beychimo"

The history of the cargo ship is reminiscent of the story of the mystical Flying Dutchman. From 1911 to 1931, the ship made nine very successful voyages. But one day he got stuck in the Arctic ice. The team decided to wait out the bad weather in the nearest Eskimo settlement. Having left the ship, the captain hoped to return there as soon as the situation returned to normal. But after another winter storm, the ship was not there. Assuming that the Beichimo sank, the command stopped searching for it. However, there were eyewitnesses who claimed that they not only saw a mysterious ship in the waters of the Arctic, but even boarded it. Their testimony was very plausible, because they could quite accurately describe what “Beichimo” looked like. Over the course of many decades, the ship disappeared and then reappeared in the sight of sailors. No one can explain how a ship without control could navigate the ocean waters for so many years.

An Australian fishing yacht that set off for the high seas in the spring of 2007 was found abandoned a week later. There was no damage to the ship, but all three crew members were missing. Objects found on board (a radio on, a working computer, a set table) indicated that no one intended to leave the yacht. The team's search did not bring any results. According to the official version, one of the fishermen suddenly began to drown, and his two friends rushed to the aid of their drowning comrade. All three died. But no direct evidence of this version was found. Any explanation for the incident has no evidence.

There is one incredibly mysterious place in the Atlantic Ocean with the terrifying name “Devil’s Triangle” (“Bermuda Triangle”) - there, under a strange set of circumstances, people, planes and ships disappear without a trace. In the article we will look at several cases of loss of transport and aircraft, and also try to explain the reason for this phenomenon.

This mysterious zone is bounded by a triangle whose vertices are the southern cape of Florida in the southeastern United States, the island of Puerto Rico in the Caribbean Sea and Bermuda in the northwestern Atlantic Ocean.

Mysterious disappearances in the Bermuda Triangle

It’s not without reason that sailors call this place the “triangle of death” and the “cemetery of the Atlantic”: for several hundred years, travelers who find themselves here find themselves in suddenly formed fierce storms, unpredictable whirlpools, unexpected calms and a strange yellow fog.

According to eyewitnesses, in this place of the Atlantic Ocean, light spots covered with foam sometimes form on the water, emitting a glow. Sometimes the glow is so bright that astronauts can observe it from space. Even Christopher Columbus, crossing this part of the ocean, wrote in his ship's log about this unusual glow.

Supporters of the existence of anomalous phenomena in the Bermuda Triangle area claim that over the last hundred years, about 100 ships and aircraft have disappeared in this area. They also report on other features of this territory: here you can find serviceable ships abandoned by the crew or move in space and time.

According to some reports, about a thousand people disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle area - their corpses were never found.

Disappearance of the Avengers flight aircraft

The disappearance of the Avengers flight on December 5, 1945 is often associated with the Bermuda Triangle phenomenon. The squadron consisted of four torpedo bombers, whose pilots were undergoing a retraining program for this type of aircraft, as well as a fifth torpedo bomber, piloted by experienced instructor pilot Charles Taylor - it was this pilot, who flew about 2,500 hours on the Avengers, who became the leader of the entire flight.

Five torpedo bombers were to make a standard training flight over the ocean: a typical exercise included two turns and practical bombing. The route was well studied, the weather forecast was favorable, the cars were perfectly equipped for those times.

On board the planes there were life jackets, inflatable boats with food supplies, flares and emergency radios; The fuel reserve on the vehicles was enough for five and a half hours of operation, while the duration of the training flight, according to all calculations, should not have exceeded two hours.

Information about what happened to the cars after takeoff is quite contradictory. It is known that the problems for the Avengers began about an hour and a half after takeoff: the leading torpedo bomber, piloted by Taylor, had both compasses out of order, and the entire “five” strayed from the intended route.

The flight wandered over the Bahamas for several hours in search of the right direction, and when fuel supplies ran out, it was forced to land on water. Communication with the pilots was unstable, and by the time they splashed down, it had completely broken off.

Nothing is known about the further fate of the squadron; the wreckage of the aircraft was never found. During the hearing of the case of the disappearance of the Avengers, one of the speakers said: “They disappeared, as if they had flown to Mars!”

Disappearance of the Martin Mariner seaplane

That same night, two Martin Mariner aircraft were sent to search for the Avengers, and communication with one of them, aircraft No. 49, was lost in the area of the approximate location of the missing torpedo bombers.

The coast guard team saw an explosion in the air (presumably from this same plane), after which they observed a column of fire over the water for about 10 minutes.

Aircraft No. 32, sent to the area of the explosion due to difficult weather conditions, arrived at the site of the alleged crash only 3 hours later; Several coast guard ships were also sent to search. However, the search operation was unsuccessful: no traces of the plane that crashed into the ocean could be found.

On the morning of December 6, 300 aircraft and 21 ships were sent to search for the missing Evegers and Martin Mariner; A group of volunteers searching the coast also joined the large-scale search and rescue operation. 5 days after the planes went missing, the active phase of the search was stopped, and the crew members were officially declared missing.

Disappearance of S-119

20 years later, in June 1965, approximately 400 kilometers from Miami, the C-119 plane disappeared under unknown circumstances; there were ten crew members on board.

The investigation was unable to establish the exact cause of the disappearance of the C-119, which gave rise to several versions of what happened among researchers, journalists and ordinary people, the most unusual of which is the theory of the abduction of the plane by aliens.

The fact is that during the same period, a spaceship was in orbital flight over the Bahamas with astronaut James McDivitt on board, who, in the disappearance square of the C-119, saw and photographed an unidentified flying object with something like hands.

Some sources claim that McDivitt subsequently retracted his UFO claims and also said that he had nothing to do with the pictures.

Perhaps the media simply made up this whole flying saucer story, but perhaps the reason lies elsewhere: NASA simply forbade the astronaut to talk about this topic.

Possible causes of mysterious incidents

There are dozens of different hypotheses explaining the mysterious incidents in the area of the devil's triangle.

Some experts put forward a version about the influence of unusual weather phenomena, others talk about the abduction of ships and aircraft by aliens or inhabitants of the mythical Atlantis, others are confident in the existence of so-called holes in time and faults in space.

There are also many people who are confident that the mystery of the Bermuda Triangle does not exist, since according to their calculations, disappearances in this territory occur with the same frequency as in other places of the World Ocean. And searching for debris at sea is not an easy task, especially in the Bermuda Triangle, where there are many shoals and storms and cyclones often form.

So why does this place inspire so much horror in pilots and sailors? Why do navigation devices fail here? How can we scientifically explain the disappearances of people, planes and ships?

Causes of extinction in the Bermuda Triangle:

Some scientists suggest that the so-called wandering waves are “to blame” for the mysterious incidents. These lonely 20-30-meter rogue waves arise completely suddenly and have nothing to do with tsunamis: their appearance in the ocean is not associated with underwater earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, landslides, and in general does not depend in any way on catastrophic geophysical processes.

For a long time, scientists did not believe in the existence of abnormally high waves, because according to science, waves higher than 20.7 meters cannot form in the oceans. Only in 1995 was the first wave recorded in the North Sea, the height of which reached 25 meters.

This fact contributed to the emergence of a project called “Wave Atlas”, the main task of which is to monitor the ocean surface, compile a worldwide atlas of wandering waves and statistically process the data obtained.

After the research, some experts began to argue that rogue waves could well have caused the death of large ships in the area of the terrifying triangle and throughout the World Ocean.

According to one version, a possible reason for the appearance of so-called ghost ships (i.e., abandoned by the crew of ships) on the high seas is infrasound generated on the water under certain conditions.

There are natural and man-made sources of infrasound.

Natural ones include:

earthquakes
hurricanes,
storms,
lightning strikes.

And the work of various equipment is considered man-made:

heavy machines,
fans,
turbines,
jet and ship engines, etc.

Infrasound has a depressing effect on the nervous system and can harm the organs of the endocrine system and the internal organs of a living creature. According to research, infrasound waves cause dry mouth, dizziness, coughing, choking, ringing in the ears and other signs of problems in the body.

Many scientists are convinced that under the influence of infrasound, the crew, succumbing to panic, can leave the ship, which is not in physical danger.

3. Human factor

It is quite easy to lose your course in the Bermuda Triangle area, especially considering the fast currents, frequently changing weather and the huge number of islands scattered throughout the area, similar to each other like twin brothers.

For the disappearance of the Avengers, for example, many blame Lieutenant Taylor: having gotten lost, he mistakenly determined that the flight was flying over the Florida Keys, so the center advised him to steer north, guided by the sun.

But it is quite possible that the Avengers were much east of the Keys and therefore, moving north, they flew parallel to the coast for some time. The decision to fly west was made by Taylor too late: fuel supplies were running low and darkness was creeping up. The “Five” was forced to splash down, and the sea that evening was extremely rough.

4. Imperfect technology

Presumably, many incidents in the Bermuda Triangle are associated with imperfect ships and aircraft.

For example, the mysterious disappearance of the Martin Mariner is usually explained as follows: fuel vapors from this type of aircraft penetrated into the cockpit, and it was enough to simply light a match for an explosion to occur; Rumor has it that the pilots of these planes called them “flying tanks” among themselves.

One of the hypotheses explaining the disappearances in the “triangle of death” is the formation of bubbles filled with methane hydrate in the depths of the ocean; The “ripe” bubble rises to the surface of the water and, bursting, forms a funnel into which the ship is drawn.

Methane rising into the air can also contribute to plane crashes: its interaction with a hot engine leads to an explosion.

6. Comet on the ocean floor

According to this hypothesis, 11 thousand years ago in a place that is now called the Bermuda Triangle, a comet fell to the bottom of the ocean. According to some experts, the electromagnetic properties of this celestial body can distort the data of navigation instruments and even disable aircraft engines.

For centuries, pirates have terrorized sailors crossing the Atlantic Ocean. This theory can explain many mysterious incidents in the Bermuda Triangle area, but not the disappearance of planes.

In the 70s of the last century, pilot Bruce Gernon from Florida, flying over the Bermuda Triangle, fell into a strange, rapidly growing cloud, gradually transforming into a tunnel.

According to the pilot, he had to fly into a tunnel that was rotating counterclockwise. A few minutes later, the plane emerged from the cloud and found itself in the Miami area. It is noteworthy that the flight took 28 minutes less time than usual.

9. Compass malfunctions

In the Bermuda Triangle area, the compass needle points not to the magnetic north of the planet, but to the true (geographical) one, so ships can, without even knowing it, start moving in the wrong direction. But usually the difference in compass performance is taken into account by sailors when plotting a course in this area.

Warm and cold air masses colliding with each other, the fast flow of the Gulf Stream, tropical cyclones in summer and sudden storms in winter all create difficult conditions for the movement of aircraft and ships.

Bermuda Triangle: an insoluble phenomenon or a great hoax?

Disputes between supporters of the existence of anomalous phenomena in the Bermuda Triangle area and skeptics have not subsided for many years. Some of the events that happened there remain a mystery without a solution to this day, but most of them are still either amenable to logical explanation or are fiction.

Science fiction writers and hoaxers (this includes some writers, as well as journalists) love to embellish and modify information: they confuse dates, places, names of ships, and deliberately suppress any facts that could easily explain the tragedies in the Bermuda Triangle. There was a case when information appeared in the media about one missing ship, which in fact did not disappear anywhere, but was calmly plowing the expanses of the Atlantic Ocean.

We, ordinary people with our inherent curiosity, have one weakness: a love for all sorts of mysterious, terrifying stories. This is probably why we so like to believe that the Bermuda Triangle hides something mysterious and fantastic.

The Bermuda Triangle - an area in the Atlantic Ocean bounded by Florida and Bermuda, Puerto Rico and the Bahamas - is famous for the mysterious, mystical disappearances of ships and aircraft. For many years, it has brought real horror to the world's population - after all, stories about inexplicable disasters and ghost ships are on everyone's lips.

Numerous researchers are trying to explain the Bermuda Triangle anomaly. These are mainly theories of ship abductions by aliens from outer space or inhabitants of Atlantis, movement through holes in time or rifts in space and other paranormal reasons. None of these hypotheses have yet been confirmed.

Opponents of the “otherworldly” versions argue that reports of mysterious events in the Bermuda Triangle are greatly exaggerated. Ships and aircraft disappear in other areas of the globe, sometimes without a trace. A radio malfunction or the suddenness of the disaster may prevent the crew from transmitting a distress signal.

In addition, searching for debris at sea is a very difficult task. Also, the Bermuda Triangle area is very difficult to navigate: there are a large number of shoals, and cyclones and storms often form.

A hypothesis has been proposed to explain the sudden death of ships and aircraft by gas emissions - for example, as a result of the disintegration of methane hydrate at the bottom of the sea, when the density is so low that the ships cannot stay afloat. Some suggest that methane rising into the air could also cause plane crashes - for example, due to a decrease in air density.

It was suggested that the cause of the death of some ships, including in the Bermuda Triangle, could be so-called wandering waves, which can reach a height of 30 meters. It is also believed that infrasound may be generated at sea, which affects the crew of a ship or aircraft, causing panic, causing people to abandon the ship.

Let's consider the natural features of this region - truly extremely interesting and unusual.

The area of the Bermuda Triangle is just over a million square kilometers. There are huge shallows and deep-sea trenches, a shelf with shallow banks, a continental slope, marginal and median plateaus, deep straits, abyssal plains, deep-sea trenches, a complex system of sea currents and intricate atmospheric circulation.

There are several seamounts and hills in the Bermuda Triangle. The mountains are covered with powerful coral reefs. Some seamounts rise alone on the ocean floor, while others form groups. In the Atlantic Ocean, by the way, there are significantly fewer of them than in the Pacific.

Here is the Puerto Rico Trench, the deepest part of the Atlantic Ocean. Its depth is 8742 meters.

Under the bottom of the Bermuda Triangle there are mainly sedimentary rocks - limestones, sandstones, clays. The thickness of their layer ranges from 1-2 to 5-6 kilometers.

The smaller (southern) part of the triangle belongs to the tropical seas, the larger (northern) to the subtropical. The water temperature on the surface here ranges from 22 to 26 ° C, but in shallow water, and so

in bays and lagoons it can be significantly higher. The salinity of the waters is only slightly above average - except, again, in shallow waters, bays and lagoons, where salinity can increase. The waters here are noticeably warmer than in other parts of the ocean at the same latitudes, since this is where the warm Gulf Stream flows.

The current in the Bermuda Triangle is fast, complicating or slowing down the movement of ships sailing against it; it pulsates, changes speed and location, and the changes are absolutely impossible to predict; it creates irregular vortices that affect the weather, some of them of considerable strength. There is frequent fog at the border between its warm waters and the colder surrounding waters.

The trade winds blow over the triangle - constant winds blowing in the Northern Hemisphere in a south-westerly direction, at an altitude of up to 3 kilometers. At high altitudes, anti-trade winds blow in the opposite direction.

In the southern part of the triangle, roughly between Florida and the Bahamas, there are approximately 60 storm days per year. In fact, every fifth or sixth day there is a storm. If you move north, towards Bermuda, the number of stormy days per year increases, that is, there is a storm every fourth day. Destructive cyclones, hurricanes, and tornadoes are very frequent.

All this contributes to the fact that many ships and aircraft disappear in the Bermuda Triangle. Maybe the reason is not so mystical? But this cannot be said with certainty, since many unexplained mysteries remain.

A LOT of ships and even planes disappear in the Bermuda Triangle, although the weather is almost always good at the time of the disaster. Ships and planes die suddenly, crews do not report problems, and no distress signals are sent. The wreckage of aircraft and ships is usually not found, although intensive searches are carried out, with the involvement of all relevant services.

The Bermuda Triangle is often credited with disasters that actually happened far beyond its borders. We have selected the most famous confirmed victims of the Bermuda Triangle among ships.

"Rosalie"
In August 1840, near the capital of the Bahamas, Nassau, the French ship Rosalie was discovered drifting with sails raised without a crew. The ship had no damage and was quite seaworthy. It looked as if the team had left Rosalie hours ago.

"Atalanta"
On January 31, 1880, the British training sailing ship Atalanta departed from Bermuda, carrying 290 officers and cadets. On the way to England it disappeared, leaving no trace.

"Atalanta"

This case was in the center of public attention, the Times wrote about it daily, even many months after the disappearance of the sailboat.

The Times (London), April 20, 1880, p. 12: “The Avon gunboat arrived in Portsmouth yesterday.” The captain reported that near the Azores he noticed a huge amount of floating debris... The sea was literally teeming with them. The harbor of Faial Island was filled with ships that had lost their masts. And during the entire five days that the Avon remained in the Fayal roadstead, the wreckage became more and more numerous.

However, there was no evidence that any ship sank or was broken up by a storm... Some of the Avon's officers believe that the Atalanta may have struck an iceberg, but they categorically deny that the ship could have capsized."
Lawrence D. Cousche published in his book excerpts from newspaper articles, official reports from the British Admiralty, and even the testimony of two sailors, according to which the Atalanta was a very unstable ship and, with its 109 tons of water and 43 tons of ballast on board, could easily capsize and drown even during a mild storm.

It was rumored that there were only two more or less experienced officers in the crew, who were forced to remain in Barbados because they fell ill with yellow fever. Consequently, 288 inexperienced sailors sailed on the ship.

Analysis of meteorological data confirmed that severe storms had been raging in the Atlantic Ocean between Bermuda and Europe since early February. Perhaps the ship sank somewhere very far from the Bermuda Triangle, since out of the 3,000 miles of travel that awaited it, only 500 passed through the “triangle.” And yet, Atalanta is considered one of the confirmed victims of the “triangle”.

Unidentified abandoned schooner
In 1881, the English ship Ellen Austin encountered an abandoned schooner in the open ocean, which had fully retained its seaworthiness and was only slightly damaged. Several sailors boarded the schooner, and both ships headed for St. John's, located on the island of Newfoundland.

Soon the fog fell and the ships lost sight of each other. A few days later they met again, and again there was not a single living soul on the schooner. The captain of the Ellen Austin wanted to land another small rescue crew on the schooner, but the sailors categorically refused, claiming that the schooner was cursed.

This story has two sequels with different versions. In the first version, the captain of the Ellen Austin tried to transfer another rescue crew onto the schooner, but the sailors did not want to take any more risks, and the schooner was left in the ocean.

According to another version, the second rescue crew was nevertheless transferred to the schooner, but then a squall hit, the ships dispersed a considerable distance from each other, and neither the schooner nor its second crew was ever seen again.

Joshua Slocum and his yacht
Joshua Slocum, who was the first in the history of mankind to sail around the globe alone, disappeared without a trace in November 1909, making a relatively short journey from the island of Martha's Vineyard to the shores of South America - through the Bermuda Triangle.

Sailing yacht "Spray"

On November 14, 1909, he left the island of Martha's Vineyard and from that day there was no news of him. In the opinion of those who knew Captain Slocum, he was too good a sailor, and the Spray too good a yacht, for them to be unable to cope with any of the usual difficulties that the ocean can throw at them.

No one knows for sure what happened to him, although there was no shortage of guesses and versions. There are “reliable” testimonies of some sailors who, even after the fateful date, saw Slocum alive and unharmed in various ports of the world.

Over the years, many hypotheses have been proposed to explain its disappearance. After all, there might have been a hurricane so powerful that it sank his yacht. The "spray" could burn. He could go down if he collided with some ship at night.

In coastal waters, a collision between a small boat and a large ship is not that uncommon. The lights on a sailing yacht are usually quite dim, sometimes not visible due to its own sails. A large vessel could easily smash a 37-foot floor into splinters, and no one would even feel a shock.

Edward Rowe Snow, in his book “Mysterious Events Off the Coast of New England,” claims that a mail steamer with a displacement of about 500 tons ran into the yacht. Even the court, which examined a variety of evidence, was involved in Slocum’s “case.” According to the testimony of Victor Slocum's son, his father was in excellent shape, and the yacht was practically unsinkable.

It was even suggested, unconditionally accepted by some “experts,” that Joshua Slocum was allegedly not happy in his marriage and therefore staged a disaster in order to hide and spend the rest of his days in solitude.

March 1918 "Cyclops"
On March 4, 1918, the cargo ship Cyclops with a displacement of 19,600 tons departed from the island of Barbados, carrying 309 people and a cargo of manganese ore. The ship was 180 meters long and was one of the largest in the US Navy.

"Cyclops" on the Hudson River, 1911

It was headed to Baltimore, but never arrived there. It never sent an SOS signal and left no trace. At first it was assumed that the ship could have been torpedoed by a German submarine, but at that time there were no German submarines there. According to another version, the ship hit a mine. However, there were no minefields here either.

The US Department of the Navy, after a thorough investigation, released a statement: “The disappearance of the Cyclops is one of the largest and most intractable cases in the annals of the Navy. Even the exact location of the disaster has not been established, the causes of the disaster are unknown, and not the slightest trace of the ship has been found.

None of the proposed versions of the disaster provides a satisfactory explanation of the circumstances under which it disappeared.” President Woodrow Wilson said that “only God and the sea know what happened to the ship.” And one magazine wrote an article about how a huge squid emerged from the sea waters and carried the ship into the depths of the sea.

In 1968, Navy diver Dean Haves, part of a team searching for the missing nuclear submarine Scorpion, discovered the wreck of a ship at a depth of 60 meters, 100 kilometers east of Norfolk. Later looking at a photograph of the Cyclops, he assured that it was this ship that lay at the bottom.

“Cyclops” still appears on the pages of print and not only as one of the characters in the Legend of the Bermuda Triangle. It was the first major ship equipped with a radio transmitter to disappear without sending an SOS signal, and the largest US Navy vessel to disappear without leaving any trace.

Every year, in March, when the next anniversary of his disappearance is celebrated, articles are written again about this mysterious event, old theories are updated and new theories are put forward, and, probably for the hundredth time, the already famous photograph of the “Cyclops” is published. His disappearance continues to this day, not without reason, to be called “the most insoluble mystery in the annals of the navy.”

"Carroll A. Deering"
The five-masted schooner Carroll A. Deering was discovered in January 1921 on Diamond Shoals. She had no damage, the sails were raised, there was food on the tables, but there was not a single living soul on board, except for two cats.

The Deering crew consisted of 12 people. None of them were found, and it is still unknown what happened to them. On June 21, 1921, a bottle with a note was caught in the sea, which presumably could have been thrown by one of the crew members:

“We are prisoners, we are in the hold and handcuffed. Report this to the company board as soon as possible.”
Passions flared up even more when the captain's wife allegedly recognized the handwriting of the ship's mechanic Henry Bates, and graphologists confirmed the identity of the handwriting on the note and on his papers. But after some time it was discovered that the note was forged, and the author himself even admitted this.

The forensic investigation, however, revealed important facts: on January 29, the schooner passed the lighthouse at Cape Lookout, North Carolina, and gave signals that it was in a dangerous position, having lost both ship's anchors.

Then the schooner was seen north of the lighthouse from another ship, and it behaved rather strangely. Weather reports for early February indicate a severe storm off the coast of North Carolina with winds reaching 80 mph.

"Cotopaxi"
On November 29, 1925, the Cotopaxi left Charleston with a cargo of coal and headed for Havana. Passing through the center of the Bermuda Triangle, it disappeared without leaving the slightest trace and without having time to send an SOS signal. Neither the wreckage of the ship nor the crew were found.

"Suduffco"
The cargo ship "Suduffco" left Port Newark, New Jersey, and, heading south, disappeared without a trace in the Bermuda Triangle. A company spokesman said it disappeared as if swallowed by a giant sea monster.

The ship sailed from Port Newark on March 13, 1926, heading for the Panama Canal. His port of destination was Los Angeles. It carried a crew of 29 and a cargo weighing approximately 4,000 tons, including a large shipment of steel pipes.

The ship moved along the coast, but already on the second day after sailing, contact with it was lost. The search for the vessel continued for a month, but not the slightest trace was found. True, meteorological reports and testimony from the captain of the Aquitaine liner, which was heading the same course towards the Suduffco, confirm that a tropical cyclone passed through this area on March 14-15.

"John & Mary"
In April 1932, 50 miles south of Bermuda, the Greek schooner Embyrkos discovered the two-masted ship John and Mary. The ship was abandoned, its crew mysteriously disappeared.

"Proteus" and "Nereus"
"Proteus"

At the end of November 1941, the Proteus sailed from the Virgin Islands, followed by the Nereus a few weeks later. Both ships were heading to Norfolk, but neither of them arrived at their destination, both disappeared under mysterious circumstances.

The US was preoccupied with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the declaration of war on Japan, so the disappearance of the ships did not cause a response. A post-war study of the German naval archives showed that the Proteus and Nereus could not have been sunk by submarines.

"Rubicon"
On October 22, 1944, a ship without a crew was discovered off the coast of Florida. The only living creature on board was a dog. The ship was in excellent condition, except for the missing lifeboats and a broken tow rope hanging from the bow of the ship.

Personal belongings of the crew members also remained on board. The last entry in the ship's log was made on September 26, when the ship was still in the port of Havana. The Rubicon apparently sailed along the coast of Cuba.

"City Bell"
On December 5, 1946, a schooner without a crew was discovered at sea. She followed a course from the capital of the Bahamas, Nassau, to one of the islands of the archipelago - Grand Turk. Everything was in order on the ship, the lifeboats were in their places, only the crew disappeared without a trace.

"Sandra"
In June 1950, the 120-meter cargo ship Sandra, loaded with 300 tons of insecticides, left Savannah (Georgia) for Puerto Cabello (Venezuela) and disappeared without a trace. The search operation began only after it was established that he was six days late to his place of arrival.

By the way, an article about this case, written by journalist E. Jones and published on September 16, 1950, aroused great interest in the Bermuda Triangle. Jones noted that the Sandra is not the only ship that has disappeared here. The legend of the deadly triangle began to spread with incredible speed.

"Southern District"
In December 1954, the tank landing ship Southern District, converted into a cargo ship for transporting sulfur, disappeared in the Straits of Florida. No distress signals were detected either by ships at sea or by coastal stations. Only a life preserver was found.

The Southern District vessel, displacing 3,337 tons, was sailing from Port Sulfur, Louisiana, with a cargo of sulfur to Bucksport, Maine. The destination was Portland.

The captain made contact on December 3 and then on December 5, already off the coast of Florida. Everything was in order on the ship. On December 7 he was seen in storm surges off Charleston.

The investigative commission found that the ship apparently sank in a northeast wind. In areas where the Gulf Stream dominates, this wind has a bad reputation because it blows directly against the current, turning the Gulf Stream into a turbulent gurgling current, and even large ships are in a hurry to get out of its path.

"Snow Boy"
In July 1963, a 20-meter fishing vessel disappeared while sailing from Kingston, Jamaica, to the Pedro Keys in clear weather. There were forty people on the ship, no one heard anything more about them. It was reported that wreckage of the ship and items belonging to crew members were found.

"Whichcraft"
A mysterious disappearance occurred during the Christmas holidays of 1967. Two people on a small yacht left Miami Beach for a walk along the coast. They say they wanted to admire the festive illumination of the city from the sea.

Soon they reported on the radio that they had encountered a reef and damaged the propeller, they were not in danger, but they asked to be towed to the pier, and indicated their coordinates: at buoy No. 7.

A rescue boat arrived at the site 15 minutes later but did not find anyone. An alarm was declared, but the search did not yield any results; neither people, nor the yacht, nor the wreckage were found - everything disappeared without a trace.

"El Carib"
On October 15, 1971, the captain of the cargo ship El Carib, sailing from Colombia to the Dominican Republic, announced that they would arrive at their destination port at 7 a.m. the next day. After this, the ship disappeared. It was a fairly large cargo ship, the flagship of the Dominican merchant fleet, its length was 113 meters.

The ship was heading to the port of Santo Domingo with a crew of thirty people. It was equipped with an automatic alarm system, which in the event of an accident automatically sends a distress signal over the air. Judging by the latest report, the ship was in the Caribbean Sea at the time of its disappearance, at a considerable distance from Santo Domingo.