Mystery Of The Great Bermuda Triangle example essay topic

The Bermuda triangle, or the devil's triangle, is an imaginary area located off the southeastern Atlantic coast of the United States. It is the greatest modern mystery of our supposedly well understood world. It is noted for a very high incidence of unexplained losses of ships, small boats, and aircraft. The tips of the triangle are generally thought to be Bermuda, Miami, Fla., and San Juan, Puerto Rico. Many theories attempting to explain the many disappearances have been offered throughout the history of the area. The most practical seem to be environmental and those that involve human error.

Some reports even go as far as to saying that there are UFO's kidnapping ships and planes, and that the lost city of Atlantis is below the Bermuda triangle. Weird disappearances and sightings in the Bermuda triangle date back to 1492, when the first voyage to America took place. Christopher Columbus when sailing through the imaginary place called the Bermuda triangle wrote of weird sightings in the ship log. He recorded that he and his crew had observed a large ball of fire fall into the sea and that the ship's compass was behaving differently. On October 11, which is the day Columbus landed on Cuba, Columbus and another man saw a light over the water, which disappeared suddenly. Within hours land was sighted.

These incidents have been thought to be the first known indications that the Bermuda Triangle is filled with bizarre happenings, Columbus himself was not apparently bothered by what he had seen. The ball of fire might have been a meteor, a fire on the shore, a torch in an Indian's boat or even a hallucination. Whatever it was, Chris Columbus provided the Bermuda Triangle with a five hundred-year story. (3) Many ships and planes have been lost in the triangle. Of unexplained stories, the most famous of them all is of flight 19. The mission called for the thirteen men to fly due east fifty-six miles to Hens and Chicken Shoals to conduct practice-bombing runs.

When they had completed that objective, the flight plan called for them to fly an additional sixty-seven miles east, then turn north for seventy-three miles and finally straight back to base, a distance of 120 miles. This course would take them on a triangular path over the sea. About an hour and a half into the mission Lt. Taylor reported that his compass was not working. Planes today have a number of ways that they can check their current position, including listening to a set of GPS (Global Positioning Satellites) in orbit around the Earth. Apparently Taylor had become confused at some point in the flight. He was an experienced pilot, but hadn't spent a lot of time flying east toward the Bahamas, which was where he was going on that day.

For some reason Taylor thought the flight had started out in the wrong direction and had headed south toward the Keys, instead of east. By 4: 45 p.m. it was obvious to the people on the ground that Taylor was hopelessly lost. He was urged to turn control of the flight over to one of his students, but apparently he didn't. As it grew dark, communications disappeared.

From the few words that did get through it was apparent Taylor was still flying north and east, the wrong directions. Later on a Dumbo Flying Boat was dispatched to try and find Flight 19 and guide it back. Within the hour two more planes, Martin Mariners, joined the search. Not only was Flight 19 never found the Two Martin Mariners were never found either. (2) Another mysterious disappearance that is strange to researchers is the SS Marine Sulphur Queen. Heading for Norfolk, Va. from Beaumont, Texas, the tanker was last heard from on Feb. 3, 1963, the ship routinely radioed their position.

The messages said that they were near Key West in the Florida Straits. Three days later, Coast Guard searchers found one life jacket floating in the see forty miles southwest of the tanker's last reported position. Another sign of the missing tanker or her thirty nine-man crew has ever been found. The loss of bodies might be because the waters are infested with sharks and barracuda. The tanker was carrying fifteen thousand long tons of molten sulphur contained in four metal tanks; each heated to two hundred seventy five degrees Fahrenheit by a network of coils connected to two boilers. No one knows for sure whether she blew up, but it is possible.

If gas escaped from the tanks and poisoned the crew, the radio officer may have not had time to send a distress call before being killed. The slightest spark could have set the sulphur a fire in an instant. (3) There are many theories to these unexplained losses of ships and planes. A lot of disappearances can be because the area's unique environmental features. First, the "Devil's Triangle' is one of the two places on earth that a magnetic compass does point towards true north. Normally it points toward magnetic north.

The difference between the two is known as compass variation. The amount of variation changes by as much as twenty degrees as one circumnavigates the earth. If this compass difference is not compensated for, a navigator could find himself far off course and maybe even lost. Compass variation does not mean that the compass needle points somewhere else. The compass always points to Magnetic North. The problem with this is Magnetic North is not at the North Pole, the absolute geographic northern spot on this planet; it is fifteen hundred miles away.

As far as the compass is concerned, the absolute north of this planet is at Prince of Wales Island in the Northwest Territories of Canada. (1) The environmental factor is the ways of the Gulf Stream. It is extremely fast and dangerous and can destroy any evidence of a disaster. The unpredictable Caribbean-Atlantic weather pattern also plays it's a factor. Sudden thunder storms and waterspouts are often in the triangle causing problems for ships and planes. The Ocean floor is different from the shoals around the islands to some of the deepest marine trenches in the world.

(2 & 3) Not to be under estimated is the human error factor. A large number of boats travel the waters between Florida's Gold Coast and the Bahamas. Many people try to sail across the Bermuda in too small of boat, with lack of knowing area's hazards, and a lack of good seamanship. (2) A certain psychic named Ed Snedeker has his own theory. He believes that our atmosphere is filled with tunnels that are invisible to the human eye, but they do exist.

He has seen them physically and says they look like tornado funnels. These funnels have sucked in the aircraft, the ships, and, of course, the people. These funnels move in from North to south, and finally let go of their prey in the Atlantic Ocean or beyond. (Ed Snedeker) The last and most crazy theory is the UFO theory. In a span of less than two years, two of the most bizarre aircraft disappearances occurred. Each was a world away from the other.

One was off Australia, the other off Puerto Rico in the Bermuda Triangle, yet both were very similar. Both pilots were sober, one was a US Marine. Both reported a strange object harassing or, at the very least, very interested in their aircraft. Both could not describe exactly what it was. But in both cases, when it came in closer, it apparently caused a disruption of radio communication and cut out electro-magnetic power, causing the engine to sputter. Neither aircraft left any trace.

Both carried E LTs, automatic alarms that are jettisoned when the aircraft impacts. This triggers them to send their electronic SOS signals, guiding rescuers to the point of the incident. Yet in both these incidents they were hushed, for no signal was ever picked up. (2) The Great Bermuda Triangle is one of the biggest mysteries still alive today.

It has created many stories, some true, some untrue; there have been many unexplained disappearances in this imaginary place. Peoples lives have been lost, and ships and planes seemed to enter and never come out. Whatever it is, it will always be a mystery, a mystery of the Great Bermuda Triangle.