The Bermuda Triangle's Family of Mystery

The Bermuda Triangle has been quite the mystery for a number of years now, but new developments and experiences are surfacing even to this day.  I have been an inquiring mind of the phenomenon since junior high school when I did my first book report on it.  And since then, I have learned as much as I thought possible but find myself amazed because I find something new on the subject every time I research it.  There are many skeptics and conspiracies, of course, but what good mystery doesn’t have a conspiracy in its shadow and skeptics under its wings?  

The Triangle, also known as the “Devil’s Triangle”, is the assumed phenomenon responsible for the disappearances of numerous vessels for unexplainable reasons. Coincidentally, off the east coast of Japan, there is an area of the Pacific Ocean in the Philippine Sea called the “Devil’s Sea” (also the Formosa Triangle, “Dragon’s Triangle” or the “Pacific Bermuda Triangle”) that is in essence the Bermuda Triangle’s twin. Japanese newspapers have documented the same types of occurrences since the early 1940s and the Japanese people have come to know it as the Ma-no Umi, the Sea of the Devil. And to add to curiosity…the oddities are exactly opposite each other on a map. Yet, neither one of the Triangles have shown any hard evidence of being positioned in or on any sort of magnetic line, anomaly, etc. The only speculation that ties these two together from what I have found is the theory that they are among the twelve vile vortices that are found around the world. But, it is still a theory. So, all we are left with to decipher the grand mystery of it all is reports from eyewitnesses (if we are lucky enough), scientists, authors, and folklores to decide for ourselves what the big picture really looks like.

In the North Atlantic Ocean, imaginary lines from Miami, Florida to San Juan to Puerto Rico back to Miami creates the borders for the Bermuda Triangle.  But, the borders aren’t an exact start and end for the Triangle.  Accounts have been publicized stating the affects have extended out to include the Straits of Florida, the Bahamas and the Caribbean Islands.  The incredible history of the “Devil’s Triangle” holds stories dating as early as the 1400s, if not before but yet to be exposed.  According to some researchers, there are reports from Christopher Columbus in 1492 of strange occurrences such as fireballs falling into the sea and compass malfunctions while traveling through the Triangle.  This is believed to be the first recorded incident for the region and the beginning of a long line of tales to date.  Among the many, in 1813, the schooner Patriot disappeared and was carrying former Vice President Alan Burr’s daughter, Theodosia Alston-Burr.  In 1824, the U.S.S. Wildcat, carrying fourteen people, vanished en route from Cuba to Tompson’s Island.  And of course, we shouldn’t forget Flight 19.  December 5, 1945 started out as a typical day of training but soon unfolded to a ghastly ending.  That afternoon, the five-plane formation left the U.S. Naval Air Station in Fort Lauderdale, Florida on a training flight.  A few hours into training, about 4:00 p.m., it has been said that the instructor said over the radio to one of his pilots that he was unsure about his position and in what direction the Florida coast was located.  Navigation equipment malfunctions were also reported from the pilots.  Radio contact was lost and sadly enough, so was Flight 19.  There has never been any remnants of the flight found to explain exactly what happened that December afternoon.  The following evening, a PBM patrol plane was sent on a search mission for Flight 19 and disappeared without a trace as well shortly after take-off.  No evidence was ever found.  Many more stories like these have been documented, even to date.  The mystery still remains…

The Dragon’s Triangle…yes, it has the same characteristics as the Bermuda Triangle, but there are some characteristics that they do not share.  For instance, there have been many claims of lapses in time, UFO and ghost ship sightings within the Dragon’s Triangle.  And, the approximate location of this mystery lies from Western Japan, north of Tokyo, to a point in the Pacific at approximate latitude of 145 degrees east. It turns southwest, past the Bonin Islands, then down to Guam and Yap, west towards Taiwan, before heading back to Japan in a northeasterly direction.  For the most part, the legends mirror each other tremendously.  As indicated by folklore, the Japanese people have been experiencing strange happenings for thousands of years.  In the past, they attributed the wonder to an undersea dragon god that was causing ships to disappear and the volcanoes to erupt and make new islands appear and disappear.  Some authors claim that the Dragon’s Triangle is responsible for the disappearance of Amelia Earhart in 1937.  And, in the 1950s, there were several reports of ships going missing for unexplained reasons, prompting the Japanese government to label the area a danger zone.  Soon after, the government formed a team of  scientists to investigate the “Devil‘s Sea”.  The crew of a hundred left out on the mission aboard the Kaiyo Maru No.5 and sadly, never returned home.  Because of such a tragedy, the Japanese government terminated any future missions to study the Dragon’s Triangle.   

Throughout all of the facts and fiction, folklore and fantasy, theories have been comprised and publicized for our consideration.  One theory in particular suggests that the Triangle twins are in fact part in a family of anomalies all over the globe.  This theory was formed by Ivan Sanderson, biologist and founder of the Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in Columbia, New Jersey ,and was featured in a magazine article authored by Sanderson titled “The Twelve Devil’s Graveyards Around the World” in 1972.  Two of the points are the north and south poles, five in the Tropic of Cancer and five in the Tropic of Capricorn:

Tropic of Cancer

• 12. Mohenjo Daro, site of the Rama Empire
• 14. The Devil’s Sea (Dragon’s Triangle)
• 16. Hamakulia, near Hawaii, the scene of high volcanic activity
• 18. The Bermuda Triangle
• 20. The Algerian megalithic ruins
• 61. The North Pole 

 Tropic of Capricorn

• 41. The Zimbabwe Megaliths
• 43. Wharton Basin, the site of the Wallaby Fracture Zone, 
• 45. The edge of the Hebrides Trench near the Fiji Islands
• 47. Easter Island Colossi
• 49. The South Atlantic Anomaly
• 62. The South Pole 

Sanderson speculated that the cold and hot air along with sea currents in these areas produced the electromagnetic abnormalities found in these hot spots.

Considering all these things raises the question of what is truly happening out there being that there is obvious concrete evidence that something IS going on out there, but no solid answers to the question “WHY DOES THIS HAPPEN?”.  I assume this must be an absolute unknown until someone actually attempts to go to the area and verify for themselves and return to tell the tale.  If there is someone that I overlooked in doing my research that has accomplished this feat, please let me know!  I look forward to any comments, questions, additional info and anything else anyone would like to share.  These legends are quite the focus for countless controversialists, conspiracy theorists, scientists, and curious minds alike and will be for years to come.  What do you think?