15 Bermuda Triangle Disappearances

Joshua Slocum, the first man to sail solo around the world in 1895, was considered one of the best sailors of his time. His boat, the Spray, was an old fishing boat that he had rebuilt, and the story of his circumnavigation, "Sailing Alone around the World", remains a classic in sea literature. He never should have been lost at sea, but it appears that's exactly what happened. In 1909, Slocum left the East Coast of the United States and headed to Grand Cayman for the winter. Slocum was never heard from or seen again. He wasn't declared legally dead until 1924. No one knows for sure that Slocum disappeared within Triangle waters, but Bermuda buffs claim Slocum's story as part of the legacy of the Devil's Triangle.

If Bermuda Triangle swallows up ships and planes, could it also make a man go mad? Perhaps that's what happened on the Teignmouth Electron in 1969. Businessman Donald Crowhurst set sail from London on October 31, 1968 in a triple-hulled boat design featuring his own safety innovations and grand intentions to win the Sunday Times Golden Globe Race, an event that requires each contestant to sail solo around the world.

A relatively inexperienced sailor, Crowhurst obtained the backing of a demanding investor and hired an aggressive publicist. With his fortune and pride riding on a successful voyage, Crowhurst got off to a slow start and his boat was plagued with problems, and he considered turning back. Instead, he reported incredible times and progress to his publicist while floating around in the Atlantic.

When Crowhurst began his journey home, he found out his closest competitor had sunk. Fearing that the truth about his deceptions would be discovered, Crowhurst apparently jumped overboard with his fraudulent logbook and drowned himself. The Electron was found abandoned in the middle of the Bermuda Triangle in July 1969, with the last entry of his accurate logbook dated June 29.

On January 30, 1948, a British South American Airways Tudor IV plane flying from England to Bermuda disappeared without a trace. The Star Tiger, commanded by Capt. B. W. McMillan, was flying from England to Bermuda. On January 30, McMillan reported he expected to arrive in Bermuda at 5:00 a.m., but neither he nor any of the 31 people onboard the Star Tiger were ever heard from again.

The official accident report suggests that the aircraft's heater was unreliable and may have failed en route and a compass was at fault. To keep the temperatures warmer, the pilot may have chosen to fly the route at a lower altitude, burning fuel faster. Flying so low would have left the pilot little time to maneuver or signal for help in the case of a catastrophe; the flight would have lost its height quickly and fallen into the sea.

A Tudor IV aircraft, like the Star Tiger, left Bermuda on January 17, 1949, with seven crew members and 13 passengers en route to Jamaica. That morning, Capt. J. C. McPhee reported that the flight was going smoothly. Shortly afterward, another more cryptic message came from the captain, when he reported that he was changing his frequency, and then nothing more was heard.

A search party was deployed to look for the Star Ariel, but not even a hint of debris or wreckage was ever found. After the Ariel disappeared, British South American Airways stopped production on the Tudor IV.

During World War I, the USS Cyclops, commanded by Lt. G. W. Worley, carried coal for the U.S. Navy and stayed mostly on the East Coast of the United States until 1918 when it was sent to Brazil to refuel Allied ships. With 309 people onboard, the ship left Rio de Janeiro in February and reached Barbados in March.

After that, the Cyclops was never heard from again. The Navy says in its official statement, "The disappearance of this ship has been one of the most baffling mysteries in the annals of the Navy, all attempts to locate her having proved unsuccessful. There were no enemy submarines in the western Atlantic at that time, and in December 1918 every effort was made to obtain from German sources information regarding the disappearance of the vessel."

This tragedy stands as the single largest loss of life in U.S. Naval history not involving combat.

This Cessna left Fort Lauderdale, Fla. on March 31, 1984, en route for Bimini Island in the Bahamas, but it never made it. The passengers were all Cessna employees, including the pilot and co-pilots. Despite the experience of the crew, something went wrong. Not quite midway to its destination, the plane slowed its airspeed significantly, but no radio signals were made from the plane to indicate distress. Suddenly, the plane dropped from the air into the water, completely vanishing from the radar. A woman on Bimini Island reported seeing a plane plunge into the sea about a mile (1.61 kilometers) offshore, but no wreckage has ever been found.

On November 3, 1978, Irving Rivers left St. Croix (part of the U.S. Virgin Islands) in a Piper Navajo he was piloting for Eastern Caribbean Airways. The experienced pilot was making a solo flight to position the plane in St. Thomas to pick up passengers. Visibility was good and temperatures were warm.

During the flight, the control tower operator radioed a flight suggestion to avoid a small shower, and Rivers radioed his acknowledgment and made the adjustment. As he neared the airport in St. Thomas, the plane was cleared for landing and the controller saw the plane's red and green lights blinking as it made the approach. Soon after another plane made a planned departure, the controller found he could no longer see the plane's lights -- it had disappeared from the radar. An emergency search effort was launched, but nothing was ever found -- even though the flight was only one mile (1.61 kilometers) from landing.

A tanker carrying a load of molten sulphur, the SS Marine Sulphur Queen, disappeared off the southern coast of Florida in February 1963. As a result, the wreckage and 39-member crew were lost without a trace.

According to the U.S. Coast Guard's investigation, the ship was in questionable condition and probably wasn't seaworthy to start: Fires were commonplace and the ship was known to have a "weak back," meaning that the keel was likely to split when weakened by corrosion. When the ship was converted from its original purpose as an oil tanker to carry molten sulphur, a high center of gravity resulted that might have caused the vessel to capsize.

No one knows for certain what happened to the Sulphur Queen, but its demise was probably a result of its poor condition rather than a mysterious force.

An Airborne Transport DC-3 airliner carrying 29 passengers and three crew members disappeared near the end of a scheduled flight from San Juan, Puerto Rico to Miami, Fla. on December 28, 1948. Pilot Robert Linquist had told local repair crew that a landing gear warning light was not functioning and the aircraft batteries were discharged, but he was unwilling to delay the scheduled takeoff for repairs.

Air traffic controllers in Miami heard transmissions from the flight during the night, including a report that the flight was 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Miami. Since the transmission was reported from New Orleans, it is possible that the aircraft may have drifted off course. Nothing else was heard from the doomed flight, and the aircraft has never been found.

On the afternoon of December 5, 1945, five Avenger torpedo bombers left the Naval Air Station at Fort Lauderdale, Fla., with Lt. Charles Taylor in command of a crew of 13 student pilots. About an hour and a half into the flight, Taylor radioed the base to say that his experienced pilot, Taylor got horribly turned around, and the more he tried to get out of the Keys, the further out to sea he and his crew traveled.

As night fell, the reception of radio signals worsened, until, finally, there was nothing at all from Flight 19. A U.S. Navy investigation reported that Taylor's confusion caused the disaster, but his mother convinced them to change the official report to read that the planes went down for "causes unknown." The planes have never been recovered.

In 1881, the Ellen Austin was on a routine voyage from London to New York when it encountered a mysterious derelict ship in the Bermuda Triangle. The Ellen Austin sent over a small crew to the abandoned ship to sail it back to port, but soon afterwards the derelict disappeared.

Captain Baker of the Ellen Austin searched for days trying to relocate the lost ship, and was shocked when it reappeared sailing towards them. The captain sent another crew to board the ship again, but once they boarded, the derelict disappeared again. The Ellen Austin and its crew continued to search but never saw the mysterious ghost ship again.

What strange force caused the derelict to vanish and reappear? The Ellen Austin's eerie experience remains one of the most puzzling mysteries of the Bermuda Triangle.

In December 1925, the steam-powered bulk carrier SS Cotopaxi set sail from Charleston, South Carolina bound for Havana, Cuba. With a cargo of coal and a crew of 32 men, the ship headed into the infamous Bermuda Triangle waters.

On December 1st, the Cotopaxi wirelessed its position about halfway through its voyage, and then it vanished. No Mayday calls were heard. No debris was ever found. The ship didn't arrive in Havana and was never seen again.

Multiple extensive searches found no trace of the Cotopaxi or its crew. The lack of any wreckage and the total disappearance of the large ship and its crew remain one of the most inexplicable and eerie Bermuda Triangle mysteries. Some speculate the Cotopaxi was destroyed by the hexagonal clouds and compass malfunctions said to haunt the Devil's Triangle.

But what truly happened to the doomed ship? After 95 years, the SS Cotopaxi's fate remains unknown.

In February 1983, the US cargo ship Marine Electric was caught in a winter storm off the coast of Virginia. The WWII-era ship battled waves up to 35 feet high and winds topping 80 mph. Despite the treacherous conditions, the Marine Electric continued its voyage rather than seeking safe harbor. The aging ship began taking on water through corroded hatches and slowly sank. Only 3 of the 34 crew members survived the wreck.

The Marine Electric's undoing was likely its old age and poor maintenance rather than any Bermuda Triangle mysteries. However, the ship's demise so near to the boundaries of the Devil's Triangle still raises eerie questions. Did the legendary forces of the Bermuda Triangle overpower the Marine Electric as it struggled against the storm? Or was it simply an aging vessel navigating perilous waters? The Marine Electric tragedy remains one of the Triangle's most debated incidents.

In 1937, famous aviator Amelia Earhart attempted to fly around the world along with her navigator Fred Noonan. On July 2nd, Earhart departed Papua New Guinea headed for Howland Island in the central Pacific Ocean. As she entered the outskirts of the Bermuda Triangle region, Earhart radioed that she was unable to locate Howland Island due to clouds and fading light. Those were her last known words. Neither Earhart nor Noonan were ever seen again despite massive sea and air searches.

Many theories attempt to explain Earhart's vanishing, including that she crashed and sank into the Pacific Ocean. But the fact that no wreckage from Earhart's plane was ever found in Bermuda Triangle territory still raises disturbing questions. Did Earhart's Lockheed Electra fall prey to the bizarre forces within the Devil's Triangle? Or did she become disoriented and run out of fuel? Amelia Earhart's perplexing disappearance remains one of the most legendary riddles linked to the elusive Bermuda Triangle.

On a remote Scottish island group called the Flannan Isles, a lighthouse was constructed in 1899 to warn ships away from the area's treacherous cliffs. The lighthouse required three keepers to maintain its upkeep. But in December 1900, a supply ship arrived at the lighthouse and found it abandoned - all three keepers had vanished without a trace. The men's coats and oilskins were still hung up and an overturned chair suggested they had left in a panic. No bodies were ever discovered and the keepers' logbook ended mid-sentence on December 15.

What happened to the Flannan Isles lighthouse keepers? Their unexplained disappearance occurred just outside the fringes of the Bermuda Triangle, leading many to speculate if the men fell victim to the same unknown forces plaguing the Devil's Triangle. But perhaps the harsh weather and seas simply swept the men away, leaving behind an eternal mystery. The 1900 Flannan Isles vanishing remains one of the eeriest disappearances ever recorded near the boundaries of the enigmatic Bermuda Triangle.