This "mysterious" area is traditionally difficult to navigate due to the large number of shoals and regularly occurring cyclones. The sea storms from 60 to 100 days a year.
Find identification
35 years ago, off the coast of St. Augustine, Florida, an unnamed ship was found, which sank for unknown reasons. Recently, a group of marine archaeologists, examining the archival records of the insurance company Lloyd's of London, discovered information that no one had paid attention to before. Researchers have found that the bulk carrier SS Cotopaxi, allegedly lost in 1925 in the so-called Bermuda Triangle after sailing on November 29 from Charleston, South Carolina, sent a distress signal on December 1, which was received in Jacksonville, Florida.
Apparently, the ship at that moment sailed in the Bear Rivers area off the coast of Florida, near the port of St. Augustine. Researchers studied the wreck of a ship lying on the bottom in the Bear Rek region, and concluded that it was the same size as SS Cotopaxi, named after the Ecuadorian volcano Cotopaxi. "After discussions and consideration of all the evidence obtained, it became clear that we have found the last refuge of SS Cotopaxi," Science channel quotes an official statement.
"Cotopaxes" have already "found"
A fairly well-known fake, dated 2015, is associated with this ship, which was bought, among other things, by the Russian media. It was reported that the Cuban Coast Guard found a deserted SS Cotopaxi in the Caribbean. It was alleged that the ship's captain's diary was found on board. Nevertheless, the notes made in it did not help explain how the ship sank and why it suddenly appeared on the surface. Even a photo of him on the waves was given, but it was this that immediately indicated that the news about the appearance of the "victim" of the Bermuda Triangle was not true.
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The image was taken from Steven Spielberg's film "Close Encounters of the Third Degree" about the paranormal, in which the ship appeared in the Gobi Desert, being transported there by extraterrestrial forces. The filmmakers had previously noted that their ship is not a copy of the missing SS Cotopaxi. Yes, and it is basically impossible to create one, since there are no real photographs of the vessel, and it was possible to navigate only by the pictures of the ship of the same name, released by the American shipping company Pacific Steam Navigation much later.
It quickly became clear that the source of the shocking "news" about the return of SS Cotopaxi was the World News Daily website, which openly states that the information on the resource is frivolous.
Devil's triangle
The controversy over the Bermuda Triangle and its supposedly mystical nature has been going on for about the last half century. Recall that this is the name of the conditional territory of more than a million square kilometers in the Sargasso Sea (Atlantic Ocean), located inside a triangle with corners in Miami, Bermuda and the Puerto Rican city of San Juan.
The Bermuda Triangle is a conditional territory with an area of over a million square kilometers in the Sargasso Sea.
Directly the phrase "Bermuda Triangle" with the addition of the word "fatal" was first used by the writer Vincent Gaddis in 1964. Argosi magazine published his article about the mysterious disappearance of Link 19 of five Avenger-class bombers.
The American linguist Charles Berlitz developed this theme, making it even more popular, who collected several mysterious disappearances in this part of the ocean in his book "The Bermuda Triangle". He was an ardent supporter of the theory of the existence of anomalies in the area, and his book became a bestseller, launching a wave of interest in the Bermuda Triangle in a wide variety of arts, from literature to cinema. Unsurprisingly, the aforementioned Spielberg film was shot in 1977.
Interest in the mysterious area was not diminished even by the book of the skeptic-realist Lawrence David Kouchet, published in 1975, who argued that nothing supernatural happens in the Bermuda Triangle. He cited eyewitness accounts that refuted many of the facts from Berlitz's book. However, his works did not gain the same popularity, and people to this day continue to study the "phenomenon" of the mysterious territory in the Sargasso Sea, which is also called the "Devil's Triangle".
The Secret of Link 19
As for the disappearance of Link 19, here we are talking about a squadron that disappeared, as Berlitz claimed, "during a scheduled flight in cloudless weather over a calm sea." In radio communications with the ground, the pilots allegedly talked about non-explainable malfunctions in navigation equipment and unusual visual effects.
In radio communications with the ground, the pilots allegedly talked about non-explainable malfunctions in navigation equipment and unusual visual effects.
The latter boiled down to the fact that "the ocean does not look the same as usual." After Flight 19 disappeared, other planes were sent to search for the bombers, including two Martin Mariner seaplanes - one of which also disappeared without a trace.
USS Cyclops
The most famous ship that disappeared without a trace in the Bermuda Triangle is perhaps the largest military transport of the American Navy, the USS Cyclops, “lost” in March 1918. At the beginning of its voyage, the ship, almost 170 meters long, was loaded with 11 thousand tons of manganese, and there were more than 300 people on board. Most of them are military personnel who have just received leave or have just retired.
After stopping in Argentina "Cyclops" entered the intermediate port in Barbados, then its course lay in Baltimore. The vessel did not give any distress signals, and the last message stated that there were no problems. The ship's crew did not get in touch anymore, and it is this moment that is the most mysterious in this story. What could suddenly happen to the ship and to the people on it, which prevented the sending of a radio message?
The search was unsuccessful. Moreover, the rescuers could not find any debris, no traces of fuel, or the bodies of sailors. For some time it was believed that the Cyclops could have been destroyed by a German submarine torpedoing the ship, but a subsequent study of the archives showed that this version had nothing to do with reality - there could be no German submarines in that area. Other highly contradictory guesses were also put forward. From bloody ship riot and ship hijacking to killer waves and manganese explosion.
However, one of these versions is worth taking a closer look at. In August 2018, scientists from Southampton (UK) announced that it is the 30-meter oceanic "killer waves" that sink ships in the Bermuda Triangle. They are also called "wandering waves". The researchers carried out a computer simulation using both geographic and meteorological data. In addition, they used the US Cyclops model as a "guinea pig". The results showed that the ship was sunk as predicted - a huge wave.
Riddle "Atalanta"
The tragic incidents that were later associated with the Bermuda Triangle also occurred in the nineteenth century. So, on January 31, 1880, the British training sailing ship Atalanta departed from Bermuda, with 290 officers and cadets on board. It was supposed to sail to England, but disappeared without a trace. And although only a sixth of its way ran along the part of the ocean, conventionally considered the Bermuda Triangle, lovers of conspiracy theories and everything mystical consider the ship its "victim".
According to the testimonies of two sailors, Atalanta it was difficult to call a stable vessel, and therefore with its more than 150 tons of water and ballast, it could easily capsize.
In the book we mentioned, Kusche cited excerpts from newspaper articles and official reports of the British Admiralty, which he backed up with the testimonies of two sailors, according to which the Atalanta could hardly be called a stable vessel, and therefore, with its more than 150 tons of water and ballast, it could easily capsize. In addition, according to some reports, two experienced officers fell ill and stayed in Barbados, and the ship set off with 288 inexperienced sailors. In turn, based on the analysis of meteorological data, it was confirmed that severe storms raged in this area of the Atlantic Ocean since the beginning of February.
Was there a triangle?
Of course, the mystery of the Bermuda Triangle remains one of the main mysteries of the last century. Over the years, a variety of versions of unexplained incidents have been put forward, including abduction of people by aliens or inhabitants of Atlantis, the attack of giant squids, movement through holes in time and space, and so on. However, it is very difficult to give an unambiguous answer what exactly is happening in this part of the Atlantic Ocean. As soon as mankind became seriously interested in this topic, the strange disappearances of ships and aircraft practically stopped. But for lovers of mysticism, this fact is just a new portion of oil on the fire.
Meanwhile, skeptics argue that, according to statistics, no more ships and aircraft were wrecked in the Bermuda Triangle than in many other parts of the Earth, especially since some of the cases, in their opinion, are attributed to it by mistake. From this they conclude that the Bermuda Triangle is nothing more than a soap bubble inflated for a certain benefit and supported by interested people.
Author: Kurganov Dmitry
