The Bermuda Triangle, which lies off the Southeastern Coast of the United States between Bermuda,
Florida and Puerto Rico, has earned its moniker “Devil’s Triangle” with good reason.
For many decades, ships and airplanes have disappeared from the area along with their
crews; pilots have reported sightings of strange lights and objects in the sky and those who
were unlucky enough to fall prey to the strange phenomenon are typically never seen or heard
from again.
5.
The Ellen Austin
The Ellen Austin was a 1,800-ton, three-mast schooner sailing vessel built in 1854 for
the Tucker family from Wiscasset, Maine.
It was built out of white oak and when completed, it measured 210 feet in length.
The vessel was mainly used as a packet ship, transporting post office packages to and from
London and New York.
During one of these trips in 1880, while under command of Captain Baker, the Ellen Austin
happened upon another schooner north of the Sargasso Sea.
It seemed to be sailing listlessly and on no particularly defined path, prompting the
captain to take a closer look.
He ordered his crew to follow the ship for the next two days, fearing that it may be
a trap set up to catch them unawares.
They kept a close eye on the ship, but for the next two days, they saw no movement or
any sign of activity.
Feeling confident that it was indeed safe to board, Captain Baker then ordered four
of his crewmen to row closer to the ship and they boarded cautiously with their weapons
drawn.
Upon inspection of the ship, it seemed to be in good condition with its rigging intact,
no sign of a struggle, its mahogany shipment still aboard and surprisingly, no sign of
the crew.
They found that the only missing items were the ship’s log and the nameplate which had
been removed from the bow.
Although they found it strange that the ship was adrift, they decided that it would be
an excellent salvaging opportunity and the captain ordered a select few men to take control
of it and to follow him to New York.
For the next two days, all went well until they encountered a violent storm which separated
the two ships.
Two days later, the storm lifted and the sea returned to calm, but the derelict ship was
nowhere to be seen.
Some time later, the ship was spotted once more, sailing as it had when they had come
upon it the first time, without course and seemingly adrift.
Baker changed course and intercepted the ship once again, only to find that his crew had
now also gone missing.
The crew thought it best to leave the ship adrift, but Baker decided to send yet more
men aboard for the salvage.
As they readied the ship to sail, a thick fog settled on the water, reducing visibility
to only a few feet and again, they lost contact.
The Ellen Austin was forced to a standstill and when the fog eventually lifted, the derelict
ship had disappeared along with Baker’s crew.
Baker sailed on to New York but the mysterious schooner and the men on board were never seen
again.
4.
The Star Tiger
By January 28th, 1948, the BSAA Star Tiger passenger aircraft had made 11 transatlantic
flights and had spent a total of 575 hours in the sky.
On that morning, it was carrying 25 passengers and 6 crew members on a flight from Lisbon
to Bermuda with a refueling stopover to be carried out in Santa Maria.
After boarding, Captain Brian McMillan reported that the plane’s inner engine needed attention
and the flight was delayed for 2.5 hours.
After the repairs were done, they took off successfully and travelled to Santa Maria
for the stopover.
However, before they could resume their flight, reports of bad weather caused McMillan to
become concerned and he decided that they should stay in Santa Maria until the next
day.
The following day, despite high winds, the plane took off for its last leg to Bermuda.
McMillan decided to fly below 2,000 feet as this would help him to avoid most of the strong
winds.
Another plane, an Avro Lancastrian, took off an hour earlier and the pilot had agreed to
radio weather information back to McMillan.
But soon after takeoff, Star Tiger flew into heavy rains, causing it to be blown off course,
but the plane’s navigator, Cyril Ellison, adjusted and gave McMillan a new course, which
caused them to fly directly into a gale.
This did not concern McMillan; however, as he was confident that they would still each
Bermuda with at least an hour’s worth of fuel left and that they would land at around
5am.
At 03:15am, Star Tiger’s Radio Officer, Robert Tuck, received a bearing from the Bermuda
operator and Tuck confirmed its receipt 2 minutes later.
At 3:50, the operator tried to contact the plane again, but received no response.
He tried twice more at 04:05 and 14:40, but to no avail and although many receiving stations
were listening on Star Tiger’s frequency, no distress messages were received.
Despite a search lasting for 5 days, the plane was never found and an investigation launched
by the British Aviation Ministry stated: “In closing this report, it may truly be said
that no more baffling problem has ever been presented for investigation”.
3.
The USS Pickering
The USS Pickering, named after the 3rd US Secretary of State, Timothy Pickering, was
a topsail schooner designed for the US Revenue Cutter Service in 1798.
During the Quasi-War with France, it was loaned to the US Navy and it was used during successful
campaigns in the Greater Antilles.
From 1799 to 1800, she made up part of Commodore Barry’s squadron, which served in the West
Indies and was eventually permanently transferred to the US Navy under command of Master Commandant
Benjamin Hillar.
During this time, the ship was involved with a battle against a French privateer, L’Egypte
Conquise and came under heavy fire.
The USS Pickering was not only heavily outgunned, but only had 70 crew aboard as opposed to
the French crew of 250 men.
A ferocious battle ensued and against all odds, after a battle which lasted 9 hours,
the French ship was forced to surrender.
Following the battle, the USS Pickering captured 4 more French privateers and recovered an
American merchant ship called Portland.
On the 20th of August, 1800, the ship was ordered to join Commodore Thomas Truxton’s
squadron on the Guadaloupe Station in the West Indies and set sail from New Castle,
Delaware.
But the ship never arrived in the West Indies and it was never seen again.
It was presumed at the time that the ship had been sunk due to a gale in September while
on route to Truxton’s squadron, but this has never been proven as the ship’s crew
has also never been found.
Another ship, the USS Insurgent, went missing at the same time and it is thought that the
same storm was responsible for its disappearance, but it remains a mystery that may never be
solved.
2.
Flight DC-3
On 28 December, 1948, a Douglas DST Airliner was due to arrive in Miami at 04:03am.
The plane was being captained by Robert Linquist, co-piloted by Ernest Hill and they were being
assisted by stewardess, Mary burke with 29 passengers aboard.
The crew had arrived in San Juan at 7:40pm the previous evening and Linquist had reported
to local repair crewmen that the landing gear warning light was malfunctioning.
He also reported that the plane’s batteries were low on water and had discharged.
He wasn’t willing to delay the next scheduled takeoff to Miami, however, and decided that
the batteries would be recharged by the plane’s generators as they flew.
He taxied to the end of the runway, but couldn’t take off as there was no two-way radio communication,
due to the dead batteries.
He was able to transmit, but not receive and so, he reported to the head of Puerto Rican
Transport that he would fly close to San Juan until the batteries were sufficiently charged.
They eventually took off at 10:03 pm and circled the city for 11 minutes after which they received
confirmation from Civil Aeronautics Administration at San Juan that they could proceed to Miami.
They left in good weather and clear skies, but subsequent calls from San Juan went unanswered.
At 11:23pm, routine transmissions were received by the Overseas Foreign Air Route Traffic
Control Center at Miami when Linquist reported that they were at 8,300 feet and should be
arriving at 04:04am.
Miami would receive more routine transmissions during the flight and all seemed to be in
order.
At 04:13, Linquist reported once again, saying that they were 50 miles south of Miami, though
this transmission wasn’t picked up by Miami, but rather by New Orleans, 600 miles away,
who relayed the information to Miami.
The weather in Miami was clear and the plane was expected to land at any moment, but it
never arrived.
Nothing more was heard from Linquist or his fellow crew members and the plane that they
were travelling in, along with its passengers, have never been found.
A similar plane to the DC-3 was found by divers in the Bermuda Triangle some time later, but
without distinguishing features or registrations being found, it cannot be determined whether
this was, in fact, the ill-fated flight that was bound for Miami.
1.
The Santa Maria
Christopher Columbus is known for the discovery of the “New World” which he set out to
find with a small fleet of three ships called The Nina, The Pinta and The Santa Maria.
Columbus was aboard the Santa Maria on the 11th of October, 1492 when he and his crew
sailed across a 4-mile deep ravine in the Atlantic, through what we know today as the
Bermuda Triangle.
While searching for land, a crew member aboard Columbus’ ship, Pedro Gutierrez, spotted
a strange light in the distance, a sure sign that they were approaching land.
However, as he continued to study the light, he noticed that it wasn’t reflecting off
the surface of the water, but was instead emanating up from the ocean.
They continued to observe the light and started sailing towards it when they were shocked
by an impossibly bright light that suddenly erupted from the sky.
They described it in the ship’s log as a light brighter than anything that they had
ever seen before, causing them to become frightened.
But they weren’t the only ones who observed the phenomenon.
Two other Spanish ships were also in the area and they described the exact same sighting,
reporting that they were also surprised and shocked by the sudden eruption of light.
Columbus wrote in his log that the light appeared to be the same as the light from a flickering
candle, moving up and down during the night.
They would see the light 3 more times following the initial sighting, ruling out speculation
that it was caused by meteors or a comet.
They also concluded that it could not have been caused by a camp fire, not only due to
its brilliance, but because land would have been beyond the horizon from the Spanish ships’
perspective.
The log also contains further entries of strange events that occurred as they sailed on.
On the 11th of September, they encountered a mast floating in the water from a ship that
they estimated to have been at least 120 tons in weight, stating that it was so large that
they were unable to retrieve it for closer examination.
On the 20th of September, an entry in the log describes an event where the entire crew
saw multiple bright lights in the sky that seemed to move in relation to the stars above
them.
5 hours later, Columbus and his crew would make history by discovering the New World.