In 1950 an article was published in multiple
American newspapers highlighting numerous unexplained disappearances between the coast
of Florida and the island of Bermuda. The article details five separate incidents
over the previous half-decade in which 1 boat, 9 planes, and some 135 civilians and crewmen
vanished without a trace. It was the first time this particular region
of the ocean was suspected of being abnormally prone to nautical vanishments. But as the author failed to provide a cause
for this alleged abnormality, a provocative mystery was born. In 1952 a magazine specializing in the paranormal,
outlined the region of interest as a triangle between the US state of Florida as well as
the two islands of Puerto Rico and Bermuda. If this triangular shape seems almost arbitrarily
selected, it's because it was. The author makes no attempt to justify their
selection of this shape. Once this idea of an enigmatic triangle had
been thrust upon the world its eventual name was inevitable. A 1964 issue of the American pulp fiction
magazine Argosy featured a cover with the caption "Lost in The Bermuda Triangle". The article inside covers many of the same
vanishments as the previous two but with a severely embellished narrative complete with
fictitious quotes and alarming suppositions. Which is exactly what you'd expect from a
magazine predominantly about fiction. Few would suppose a magazine, with a sensational
cover like this, to supply them with a scientifically sound and comprehensively researched analysis. And why would you? Argosy was targeting a very specific crowd. Those who seek to be entertained by mysteries,
not those who seek to understand them. The Bermuda Triangle is, and has always been,
a mystery for mysteries sake. The very definition of a legend. One of the oldest stories said to exemplify
the mysterious qualities of The Bermuda Triangle is that of the first transatlantic voyage
by Christopher Columbus in 1492. Three events are said to be of note. The crew observed a fireball of some kind,
their compasses inexplicably malfunctioned, and a strange light seemed to be suspended
above the ocean surface. The fireball was more
precisely described as: "A marvelous branch of fire
[that fell] from the sky into the sea." While invoking aliens and UFOs would certainly
be more exciting, there's really no need as a meteor would be more than qualified to to
account for that description. In fact shooting stars are the most common
in September due to the orbit and tilt of the Earth and this sighting occurred on September
the 15th. On September the 17th the crew noticed their
compasses misaligned with the North Star. This was certainly alarming at the time but
we've since learned that this is due to an effect known as magnetic declination. In short, the needle in a compass aligns with
magnetic north while the North Star aligns with true north. More importantly however, neither of these two events
occurred anywhere near The Bermuda Triangle but in the middle of the North Atlantic. A fact that many seem to conveniently disregard. However, the strange light was indeed sighted
within the confines of The Triangle. Columbus described the light as:
"A small wax candle that rose and lifted up." But he also believed it to be an indication
of land and never described it as inexplicable. In fact mere hours after observing the light,
a crewman first caught sight of the American continent, supporting Columbus's suspicion
that the light emanated from a nearby landmass. Perhaps a torch or bonfire by the indigenous
population. As should be evident by now, this is all very
mysterious as long as you refrain from looking beneath the surface. Flight 19, featured here in Close Encounters
of the Third Kind, is possibly the most famous disappearance connected to the Bermuda Triangle. Some would argue it is the catalyst for the entire phenomenon. The story goes like this. On the 5th of December, 1945, a squadron of
five planes departed a Naval Air Station in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. It was a routine navigation exercise that
should not have posed a problem for these 14 experienced pilots and crewmen. Some two hours into the exercise the squadron
was supposed to be heading back when the pilot of the leading plane
reported that he'd become disoriented as both of his
compasses were malfunctioning. Multiple stations maintained sporadic contact
with Flight 19 attempting to determine their current location with little to no success. Communications between the five planes were
also intercepted and they could be heard arguing over directions and bearings. As the minutes passed, the signal between
the towers and Flight 19 gradually weakened and it became increasingly difficult to maintain
a stable line of communication. Roughly four hours after takeoff Navy personnel
was able to approximate the flight's current location at some 200 km north of their intended
flight path. A flying boat, with designation ST-49, was
consequently dispatched to this location but after a routine transmission it inexplicably
disappeared. Five hours after takeoff a final transmission
was intercepted. It was simply a failed attempt by one plane
to contact another and Flight 19 was never seen or heard from again. It sure sounds mysterious but I suspect the
devil is not in the ocean but in the details. The five planes were piloted by four students
and one flight instructor named Charles Taylor. Upon departure one of the students assumed
the role of flight leader while Taylor merely acted as a supervisor. After turning North towards the island of
Grand Bahama Taylor believed the student to be guiding them in the wrong direction so
he assumed command of the flight. As you read the radio logs and testimonies
by Navy personnel it becomes evident that Taylor confused the islands in the Bahamas
for the islands in the Florida Keys. He was heard saying: "Both my compasses are out and I am trying
to find Fort Lauderdale, Florida." "I am over land but it's broken." "I'm sure I'm in the Keys but I don't know how far
down and I don't know how to get to Fort Lauderdale." In other words, he confused his actual position
for this position. This may be hard to accept as Taylor was an
experienced pilot but then consider this. Taylor had previously been stationed as a
flight instructor at the Naval Air Station in Miami and training exercises launched from
Miami took place over the Florida Keys. Prior to that, he'd been stationed at Key
West in the Florida Keys. So it's entirely possible that Flight 19 was
Taylor's first time flying this route over the Bahamas. Something that further supports this theory
is that Taylor initially identified himself as MT-28 standing for Miami Torpedo Bomber 28. His correct ID was FT-28 for Fort Lauderdale. This growing confusion of what he knew from
experience and what he saw outside his windows is likely why he came to distrust his instruments
as it's highly unlikely that both his compasses malfunctioned simultaneously. As Taylor thought he was in the Keys he continued
flying north in an attempt to reach land but this had the opposite effect of taking them
further out to sea. He was also disincentivized from turning west
as from Taylors perspective that would've taken them into the Gulf of Mexico. In reality, turning west would've saved their
lives. Meanwhile the weather was getting worse, the
sun was setting, visibility was poor, and the sea grew increasingly violent. The logs reveal how truly desperate the situation
became. At one point Taylor informed his students: "Fly [in] close formation [and] when one plane drops to ten gallons of gas all planes will land together." Suggesting that even in the event of a crash,
they would remain as a group. He later continued: "I suggest we fly due east until we run out of gas. We have a better chance of being picked up close to shore." At this point they're flying away from the
coast out towards the open ocean. Some of the last discernible messages reads: "Have to land on water unless landfall." "We may have to ditch any minute." Then there's the flying boat ST-49. ST-49 was initially scheduled for a night
navigation exercise when, upon getting a fix on the location of Flight 19, it was diverted
into a search and rescue mission. After a routine departure transmission it
was never heard from again. But it was likely seen again. 23 minutes after ST-49 took off, a ship reported
seeing a plane catch fire and explode upon impact with the ocean. The resulting inferno continued for several
minutes with flames rising some 30 meters above the ocean surface. Once the ship reached the location of the
explosion it found debris and a pool of oil but no survivors. Yet another ship equipped with radar observed
as a plane vanished from the screen at the exact same time the explosion was sighted. While an explosion is certainly surprising
given that preflight checks revealed nothing of note, the plane had "went aground" due
to a malfunctioning engine the day before. What exactly "went aground" entails is not
elaborated upon but it did warrant the inspection of the plane's hull. Some Navy personnel immediately presumed the
reported explosion was linked to the missing ST-49. Despite a systematic and week-long search
involving tens of ships and hundreds of planes, nothing and no one was ever found. Though multiple planes and ships did report
sightings of flares and various debris. All available evidence suggest that Flight 19
crashed into the ocean once they ran out of fuel while ST-49 combusted and exploded,
possibly due to a malfunctioning engine. The six planes and all 27 airmen aboard sank
into the ocean, leaving no trace behind. But not every incident can be so thoroughly
explained. On the 17th of January 1949, a plane known as the
Star Ariel departed Bermuda for Kingston, Jamaica. An hour into the flight, the pilot made a
routine transmission with no indication of alarm but the plane was never seen or heard
from again. There was no evidence of a crash and no distress
call had been transceived; the weather was excellent for the entire duration of the flight;
the pilot and his crew was highly experienced and had flown this specific route many times
before; and the plane was in working condition prior to departure. A succeeding investigation failed to determine
a probable cause due to a lack of evidence. What makes this even more mysterious is that
a sister plane known as the Star Tiger had vanished under similar circumstances the year
before. On January the 30th, 1948, the Star Tiger
disappeared while approaching Bermuda from the east. The pilot and the rest of the crew where highly
experienced but the weather was not ideal with strong winds and heavy rain. The strong winds had blown the plane off course
just an hour before their last transmission and they where never seen or heard from again. The succeeding investigation concluded: "In closing this report it may truly be said
that no more baffling problem has ever been presented for investigation." "What happened in this case will never be known and the
fate of Star Tiger must remain an unsolved mystery." But even in information deprived cases like
these natural explanations do exist. For example, the accident report of the Star
Tiger revealed that the plane had been poorly maintained and known defects remained unrectified. Subsequent investigations also found that
this particular type of airplane had a heater in the cabin that was prone to malfunction
and due to poor design there was a chance of combustion and explosion. Two pilots experienced with this type of aircraft
believed this was a real possibility and one of them stated: "My theory is that hydraulic vapor escaped from a leak,
which got on to a hot heater and caused an explosion." Perhaps one of the most mysterious incidents
is that of the five-masted sailing vessel Carroll A. Deering. On January the 9th, 1921, the Deering departed
the island of Barbados and set sail for Norfolk, Virginia. Less than 3 weeks later the ship was sighted
by a lightship near the coast of North Carolina and the lightship's engineer took this photograph
as she passed by. The person at the helm of the Deering hailed
the lightship and used a megaphone to inform them that they had lost both their anchors. The ship then progressed up the coast towards
Norfolk but she never arrived. Two days after the sighting by the lightship
keepers the Deering was located by the Coast Guard. The ship had run aground in an area known
as the Diamond Shoals and appeared to have been abandoned. This was confirmed once the ship was boarded
a few days later and the ship's log, the crew's personal belongings, key navigational equipment, various documents, two life boats, as well as the ship's two anchors where found to be
missing. Furthermore, the steering wheel and other
equipment also appeared to have been intentionally destroyed with a sledgehammer. There was no sign of the 11 crewman and they
have never been seen or heard from since. A few months later, a man named Christopher
Columbus Gray discovered a message in a bottle not far from the wreckage and it reads as
follows: "Deering captured by oil burning ship, something
like a chaser. Taking off everything, handcuffing crew. Crew hiding all over ship. No chance of escape. Finder, please notify headquarters of Deering." The message was perceived to be genuine and
thus it was presumed that the crew of the Carroll A. Deering had fallen victim to piracy. But then a few months after that, handwriting
experts proved that Gray himself had written the message and that the entire thing was
a hoax. But Gray may not have been too far off as
there is evidence to suggest that a mutiny took place. The US State Department issued a statement
at the time in which they wrote: "There is every suspicion of foul play." First of all, the person who hailed the lightship
was not the captain. He was described by the lightship keeper as
a red-headed man with a Scandinavian accent. So me without a soul. While this description could not have been
that of the captain, it was descriptive of the other crewmen, most of which where Danes. Which, of course, only strengthens the possibility
of mutiny. Secondly, later investigations found that
the relationship between the captain and the crew was strenuous at best. Prior to departing Barbados both the captain
and the first mate spoke ill of each other and the captain was concerned that the crew
might turn on him. The first mate had also requested a ship of
his own and when this request was denied he boasted that he would "get the captain" before
they reached their destination. The first mate was subsequently arrested because
of this but was later bailed out by the captain himself who forgave him for what he'd said. So there's plenty of evidence to suspect a
mutiny. Nevertheless, this cannot fully explain why
the ship was subsequently abandoned or why the crew disappeared so completely. But it gets even stranger. Soon after the Deering had passed the lightship,
yet another vessel appeared. It was a large steamship painted black roughly
sailing in the wake of the Deering. When the lightship hailed the vessel, not
only was the hail ignored but the crewmen unfurled a canvas to cover the ship's nameplate
before speeding away. Some have speculated that this could've been
the American steamship SS Hewitt that vanished around the same time but unless further evidence
can be unraveled there is no way to know. So perhaps Gray was unintentionally correct. Perhaps the mysterious vessel was indeed a
pirate ship chasing down the Deering or perhaps the crew conspired to commit mutiny. In either case, numerous elements are at best
difficult to explain. To conclude this video I'd like to
talk about the Triangle itself. If The Bermuda Triangle was anything but a
legend, why is it not marked on publicly available maps and nautical charts? If the US Coast Guard is so concerned with
the safety of others, don't you think they have a responsibility to warn the populous
about this abnormally dangerous region of the ocean? Yet, they and every other relevant authority
willfully allow hundreds of ships and planes to sail and fly through the region every single
day without as much as a warning. If we need a sign for wet floors, a sign for imminent
death by supernatural forces seems justifiable. After all the region that is the Bermuda Triangle
is a highly trafficked region of the ocean. Now one could argue that more traffic equals
more accidents, thus more vanishments, but that would almost make a bit too much sense. One of the articles I showcased at the beginning
of the video concludes with this open-ended question: "Will somebody please come up with
an explanation, or even suggestion as to just where all these planes, ships, and possibly
submarines, did go?" I'm gonna take a wild stab at this and say
the ocean. The ships and planes, and possibly submarines,
sank into the depths of the ocean. Georgie:
Do they float? No, they sink. I don't know what to tell you but a catastrophe
at sea and buoyancy are just not the best of friends. Besides, do you really want to listen to a
clown in a sewer drain over the physical laws of reality itself? Pennywise:
Oh yes! They float, Georgie. They float! Okay, I may be overtly facetious at this point
but the absurdity of this phenomenon is also what makes it so fascinating to me. Despite my best efforts I've been totally
unsuccessful in my attempts to understand what exactly constitutes as a Bermuda Triangle
disappearance. How does one know when to attribute a missing
craft to the Bermuda Triangle? It sounds like, and it truly should be, an
easy question to answer but it is anything but. In some cases, such as in the case of Flight
19, the incident occurred within the general confines of the triangle but Flight 19 is
an exception. Most vanishments occur when the route of a
plane or ship simply overlap the triangle. In 1963 a ship known as the SS Marine Sulphur
Queen departed a harbor in Beaumont, Texas, heading for Norfolk, Virginia. Her last known location was here but then
she just vanished as if sinking into some inexplicable abyss. Her disappearance is blamed on the powers
of the triangle despite the fact that the ship is just as likely to have disappeared
in the Gulf of Mexico. In fact, the Coast Guard believes she disappeared
just before reaching the Florida Keys but what do they know. In 1954 a plane disappeared while traveling
between the US state of Maryland and the Azores. It is said to be a victim of the Bermuda Triangle
despite being outside its boundaries. It's even more embarrassing in the case of
the aforementioned Carroll A. Deering as she safely traversed the entire Bermuda Triangle
only to go all hocus-pocus once she had cleared it. Proponents will often justify these inclusions
by invoking arguments of adjacent regions. In other words, disappearances in close proximity
of the triangle should be considered part of the triangle. Okay but how far do these adjacent regions
extend? Is the Gulf of Mexico an adjacent region? The Caribbean Sea? The coast of Brazil? The coast of Nova Scotia? The entire North Atlantic perhaps? If that's the case, why even bother with a
triangle to begin with? I've compiled a list of some 40 disappearances
said to be connected to the Bermuda Triangle and if they are all to be included, I think
we need a bigger triangle. If anything, the true mystery behind The Bermuda
Triangle is why people so adamantly insist upon it being mysterious. As far as I can tell, there is nothing uniquely
conspicuous about this location as compared to the rest of the ocean. Ships and planes vanishing without a trace
is unfortunately quite common and certainly not limited to a corner of the North Atlantic
Ocean. The amount of vanishments in a given area
is largely dependent on factors such as the amount of traffic, the frequency of adverse
meteorological phenomena, and the presence of powerful oceanic currents. The Bermuda Triangle ticks all three boxes. There's a ton of traffic, it is frequently
invaded by hurricanes and storms, and it is intersected by the Gulf Stream. But I have to say the most crucial flaw of this
alleged enigma is the variation. The fundamental aspect of the Bermuda Triangle
is that these incidents can, somehow, be correlated yet each disappearance could not be more different. Some vanishments occur during a storm, some
when the sky is clear. Some when the sea is turbulent, some when
the sea is clam. Some during the day, some during the night. Probable causes include mechanical failure,
explosions, human error, sabotage, fuel starvation, inexperience, piracy, mutiny, etc. Some ships and planes are brand new, some
are many decades old. Some are extremely large, some are tiny. Bodies, debris, and wreckage can at times
be recovered, other times it can not. A distress signal is sometimes transceived,
sometimes it is not. It involves every type of vessel and every
type of aircraft. They can be traveling at any speed, in any
direction, at any altitude, with any number of passengers, for any amount of time, for
any reason. Whatever this mysterious force is, it is certainly
not selective about what, when, or how it strikes.
This was probably one of the best video I've seen in years. Informative and well structured, can't wait to share it with my family and friends. Thank you for providing this amazing content for free.
Very good video about geometry.
I knew the Bermuda Triangle was bullshit...
haha... I was so sure that you would not make a video on Bermuda triangle because you had already covered this topic in T10F Ocean and you didn't seem very interested in this topic.
So fast
Hey he used my suggestion :D
[edit] Proof: https://www.reddit.com/r/LEMMiNO/comments/69kpe1/comment/dhzds4v?st=J5AG290S&sh=0633b47c
I loved this video (always love your vids tbh), and I'd like to add to it... There's a Documentary on Netflix I once saw, I think it's "The Truth Behind The Bermuda Triangle", by National Geographic. It has many more stories, but also possible explanations. One, that I think is from that documentary (I could be wrong? It's been a while...). But one explanation is that the seafloor in and around the triangle is made of minerals with magnetic properties, which cause navigational systems to go haywire and the ships become lost. I've always attributed this explanation to the phenomena, but it'd be interesting to hear your thoughts on it...? :)
First Vsauce uploaded and now LEMMiNo
All is alright in the world
Why does Lemino not have a Patreon? I want to pay him for this.