Although the Bermuda Triangle looks like just a bucket of water when compared to all the oceans of the world, it does in fact cover approximately 1,500,000 square miles, roughly 500 thousand square leagues of sea. In order to understand and fully evaluate the mystery, it is necessary to go on a journey, a journey not just below but above, through archipelagoes, on islands and over open seas; through time and tempest, from the age of creaking caravels to modern fiberglass yachts, for no other place has had such  a long and mysterious heritage. So let’s put on our Seven League Boots and begin.

   Due to its isolation travel to Bermuda is limited to professional “white water” sailors, as in the famous Bermuda Yacht Race, or charter vessels/cruise ships, freighters and airliners. Aside from these, few amateurs dare to challenge the wild Atlantic.
   Ironically, fewer disappear- ances occur around the Triangle’s namesake than in other parts. Those that have, however, remain some of the most fantastic, for they were these larger

green, with great gashes in their sides, inspected by lazy fish and divers. They groan and creak with the currents and issue streams of bubbles from their gaping wounds.
   But nowhere can be  found  the British airliners Star Tiger or Star Ariel, which vanished in 1948 and

On approach to Bermuda. In like manner several prop liners have seen Bermuda yet vanished before landing, without signaling any distress. (The shadowy mass at the top of the picture is not land but some of Bermuda’s dangerous surrounding reefs).

   But the sea is rough for anyone... and the waters off Bermuda are particularly treacherous, with seas and winds colliding with shallow reefs. Below lie countless wrecks of sailing ships and the Spanish treasure fleets. Curious spars and beams stick up from the sea floor concealing tales and treasure. Lying with equal grace are the silent hulks of hapless

A side paddle wheeler, sunk about 1860 on Bermuda’s reefs.

  Given this, the disappearance of such  huge aircraft like a Super Constellation in 1954 with 42 passengers aboard, or an Air Force KB-50 tanker, with 8 crew, (1962) or a huge 8 engine B-52 bomber  (1961) seem all the more unexplainable. The Super Connie was, furthermore, carrying a particularly floatable cargo: cases of pillows, paper cups, and even a cargo of life rafts (!) In 1969 a big cargo DC-4 left the Azores and disappeared as well, its messages indicating all went well in the flight until it reached, coincidentally, the area delineated as the Bermuda Triangle.

Hamilton Harbour

  Although Bermuda seems isolated, in reality it is in the middle of an ocean swept with radio signals. Several stations ring the Atlantic, studious in their scrutiny of the air waves. Dozens of ears listen for any hint of distress. Such as Baltimore, Maryland Gander, Newfoundland, Nassau, Bahamas, San Juan, Puerto Rico, the Azores, Balbao, Miami, and Kingston (Jamaica).
   Should any trouble arise, aircraft are fitted with life rafts with automatic transmitters, life cushions and jackets. Floating Coast Guard stations are manned year around, plus several cutters cruise the waters. There are instances, though few, where a plane was able to ditch by such a cutter or station and the survivors were fed breakfast immediately afterward.
   In 1947, the CGC Bibb rescued all of the 69 crew and passengers of the clipper Bermuda Sky Queen, which ditched near Bermuda. Later that year a C-47 ditched near Station Delta. All were saved. So were all the crew of a Navy P2V when rescued by the CGC Coos Bay.

  All of them disappeared without one peep, in fair weather, with no remains, except for the Ossa which passed into oblivion leaving behind her, among other things, a  dramatic clue: her tattered wood sign reading  “L. Ossa.” Every aspect of  their investigations points to the fact they should have been able to send a Mayday.

   The first leg of our journey is to Bermuda. To give you an idea of its isolation, the closest landfall are the Carolina coasts, about 650 miles to the northwest. By charter plane one sees nothing but hours of ocean, of winds rippling the sea and churning the swells into white caps and streamers. Bermuda finally becomes visible much like an oasis would in a desert of sand. Main Island, commonly referred to as Bermuda by non islanders, is surrounded by a myriad of small islets which form the tips of the Bermuda seamount.

Map of Bermuda, her reefs, and the known wreck sites. National Geographic.

A Tudor IV, like Star Ariel

A Super Constellation

The next corner of the Triangle is

 . . .For a taste of many aspects of Bermuda. It is owned and operated by Bermuda’s daily newspaper since 1828, the Royal Gazette. There are over 115 links to other Bermuda related topics! Recommended for anybody wishing to know more about the places and peoples of the Triangle.

what life they could. But where are the SOS calls from those that have vanished?

500 Leagues of Sea

freighters and airliners, manned by expert crews familiar with the seas and skies of the Atlantic, not by amateur bunglers.

freighters, dispatched to the bottom as the result of the reefs, a storm, or the carnage of war. They rot below, a putrid color

1949 respectively, likewise for the 590-foot freighter Sylvia L. Ossa which vanished in 1976.  

  Before dying and slipping below ships have screamed their death knells. SOS calls told of the foundering of the Israeli freighter Mezada in 1982, as with the 450-foot Elma Tres. These calls enabled  rescuers to save