The world around us is constantly changing. But we are perplexed by the idea that a geographic object that existed yesterday on the map may suddenly disappear. And yet this is not at all uncommon. And more often the islands appear from oblivion and disappear back …
More recently, the islet of Bermea was located in the Gulf of Mexico, 200 kilometers from the northwestern coast of the Yucatan Peninsula and 150 kilometers from Scorpio Atoll. Its exact geographic coordinates are as follows: 22 degrees 33 minutes north latitude and 91 degrees 22 minutes west longitude. In any case, it is here that the Bermeya islet has been depicted by cartographers since the 16th century.
Now, on the site of the island of Bermea, there is just an empty place
Portuguese sailors map
Portuguese sailors were the first to discover this 80-square-kilometer island. On the Portuguese map of 1535, which is kept in the State Archives of Florence, Bermea is already there. It is also in the report of Alonso de Santa Cruz to the Madrid court from 1539 under the name "Yucatan and adjacent islands." There is a description of the island of Bermea in the book of the Sevillian sailor Alonso de Chavez "The Mirror of Navigation" from 1540.
There is an islet of Bermeya on the map of Sebastian Cabot, printed in 1544 in Antwerp. It depicts the island of Bermeya along with the islands of Trianglo, Arena, Negrillo, Arrecife, Alakrane. Throughout the 17th and most of the 18th century, the image of Bermea did not undergo any changes. In full agreement with the old maps, Mexican cartographers placed Bermea at the indicated address in the 20th century.
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However, in 1997, an incident occurred. A Spanish research vessel found no trace of the island. Moreover, the National University of Mexico has taken up the issue of the loss of Bermea Island. In 2009, another research vessel was sent to the island. Alas! Scientists have not been able to find either the island itself, or even traces of it.
Other missing
Bermeya, of course, is not the only island that suddenly disappeared. A similar story happened to Sandy Island in the Coral Sea, located between New Caledonia and Australia. True, Sandy Island, which was an elongated sand spit, was not present on all maps. It was depicted on almost all old maps, and it was believed that the first to be noticed and described by the famous Captain James Cook in 1774.
After another 100 years, the island was noticed from an English whaling ship. In 1908, with precise geographic coordinates, he was included in the report of the British Admiralty. Since the island was small and uninhabited, few people could be interested in it, but its outline regularly wandered from map to map, until in 2012 Australian marine geologists and oceanographers went to Sandy Island. And they were unpleasantly surprised that the islands were not found. Instead of an island, under the ship lay the depth of the sea 1400 meters!
After that, the researchers asked the question - could the island disappear without a trace or it simply never existed? The fact that it did not exist a couple of decades ago became clear pretty quickly. In 1979, French hydrographers removed Sandy Island from their maps, and in 1985 Australian scientists did the same.
So the island remained only on digital maps, which traditionally were associated with "paper" ones. The island itself disappeared. Or, in general, it could exist only in the imagination of those who watched it.
And off the coast of Japan, near Hiroshima, there was an island of Hoboro. Let's say, small, but quite noticeable: 120 meters long and almost 22 meters high. Fishermen landed on the island, tourists took pictures of it. On photographs half a century ago, you can see two rocky peaks, one of which is covered with vegetation. However, about eight years ago, only a pitiful rock remained from the island - almost all of it went under the water.
If nothing is known about the reason for Sandy's disappearance, then the reason for the disappearance of the Hoboro Island is quite clear: it was … eaten. And this was done by tiny sea crustaceans, isopods, which lay their eggs in cracks in rocks and tirelessly destroy the stone from which the islands are built year after year. Hoboro Island melted and melted until it became just a small pile of stones.
Crustaceans are not the only inhabitants of the underwater world who "eat" the islands. Many coral islands have fallen prey to another ocean dweller - the crown of thorns starfish. Especially many coral reefs and islets perished off the coast of Australia, where these sea stars have firmly established themselves.
But it happens that no one eats the islands, but they themselves float and then sink again. This happened with one island in the Mediterranean. Less than a month after a powerful earthquake off the coast of Sicily, in July 1831, a tiny piece of land appeared at the western promontory "out of smoke and fire", which began to grow by leaps and bounds.
In mid-August, it already rose 65 meters above sea level and had a circumference of more than 3 kilometers. An international hunt immediately began on the newborn land. The first to land on the island was a British captain and hoisted the flag of his country there. In honor of his admiral, the British named the land the island of Graham.
Then a Sicilian professor landed and named the island in honor of the king of both Sicilies Ferdinandia. They were followed by a Frenchman who hoisted a French flag there and gave the island the name Julia - in honor of July. Soon another half-dozen was added to the three names. Disputes began over who rightfully owned this land.
But the disputes were in vain: by the end of the same year, Graham (aka Ferdinandeya, Julia, Hodem, Corrao, Nerita, Shakh) took and went under water! The summit, which was so pleasing to the eye, turned into a sharp treacherous reef.
And today, due to the gradual rise in sea level, the fate of this volcanic island is repeated by the completely stable before and even once inhabited - for example, five of the Solomon Islands: Rapita, Calais, Reana, Zolles, Ka-katina, and six more are in line for disappearance.
Perhaps one of these stories happened to Bermea?
"Eaten" Bermea
Bermeya could have disappeared as well as Sandy. The first eyewitnesses described Bermea as a flaming and red island, that is, it could well be of volcanic origin. And islands of this type are born easily, die easily. Only usually their death does not drag on for centuries …
Bermeya could have been eaten. However, the research ships did not find the slightest trace of the island at the bottom. No rocky remains, no shattered stones, nothing at all. Only the seabed.
Bermeya neither dissolved nor disappeared. The researchers quite seriously say that it never existed at all. The same thing, as you already understood, is said about Sandy Island. However, is there any reason to think so? Yes there is. Even at the end of the 18th century, such an idea struck the cartographers of New Spain, who did not depict anything further north of the Arena island.
The explorer Siriaco Ceballos, conducting cartographic surveys, did not find either Bermea or Ne Grillo. He explained the mistakes of former cartographers simply: the waters in the bay are rough and because of the many reefs, sailing, especially on ships of the 16th century, was very dangerous.
Unsurprisingly, the sailors tried to stay in deep waters and were slow to explore the islands. And it is so easy to be mistaken in testimony and observation. But after Mexico's declaration of independence, this point of view was swept away and forgotten. The maps of Bermea were used to map the bay. And the presence or absence of the island has never been verified by anyone.
However, in addition to obvious explanations, there is also a completely conspiracy one.
Its essence is that Bermea is one of the anchor points along which the sea border between Mexico and the United States is built. According to this version, it is, of course, more profitable for the Americans that no Bermeya existed, because then the oil and gas fields in the Gulf of Mexico would go not to Mexico, but to the United States.
And supposedly the Americans solved the issue with the island, which should not exist, very simply: they blew it up. And they did it not even yesterday, but back in the 70s of the last century, when images from space began to show a continuous water surface in the place of Bermea …
Which version do you prefer ?!
Mikhail ROMASHKO, magazine "Mysteries of History" №48 2016