Em Esber Blog 2: Bermuda Triangle and other Mysteries of the Seas

Bermuda Triangle

Famous incidents of disappearances

Over the past centuries, many ships and air planes have disappeared or met with fatal accidents in the triangular area on Atlantic Ocean known as Bermuda Triangle. In several cases, no trace of the ships and aircraft were found even after thorough search operations were carried out for hundreds and thousands of square miles in the ocean. Such incidents of disappearances have been known since 1499s and have continued even in 21st century. While there are various explanations and theories behind such incidents, in many cases the incidents have remained unexplained.

In a shocking incident of 1945, a whole bunch of five training flights that took off from Florida under the leadership of an experienced captain, never returned to the base. All are clueless as to what may have happened to it. In fact a Martin Mariner flying boat that was sent for the search operation, also went missing.

In another incident of 1918, a large well known cargo ship went missing in the Triangle area without a trace with over 300 crew members onboard. This was probably one of the largest loss of lives on Bermuda Triangle.

And there are many more such incidents. While theories such as methane gas blow out below the ocean causing ships to sink, electronic fog engulfing a flight or ship and then taking it to unknown zones, hurricanes destroying aircraft, and lot more of such theories have come up trying to explain such cases, but nobody has been able to pinpoint which incident of disappearance took place exactly for which cause. And strangely having made hardly any inroads to explain why such incidents took place in Bermuda Triangle area, the US Navy as well as the US Board of Geographic names ( the organization mainly responsible for identifying areas on maps) have decline to recognize Bermuda Triangle as any such physical area on the ocean which causes such deadly incidents of disappearance.

So, are these incidents actually caused by Bermuda Triangle phenomena? Or these are just mere accidents that also take place in other ocean areas as well, and are simply hyped up here by some theorist to draw unnecessary attention. Figure it out yourself. I have arranged them in chronological order so that you can see earlier ones to most recent incidents by year.

1492 - Christopher Columbus reported strange lights and strange compass readings.

1609 - The Sea Venture got wrecked near the eastern end of Bermuda Island. The commander of the fleet Sir George Somers and his crew came ashore and were the first to start human setlement in the islands.

1812 - Theodosia Burr Alston was the daughter of former United States Vice President Aaron Burr. Her disappearance her has been cited at least once in relation to the Triangle. She was a passenger on board the Patriot, which sailed form Charleston, South Carolina to New York City on December 30, 1812 and was never heard of again.

Please read the story on the below link :

http://bermudatrianglecentral.blogspot.com/2010/08/patriot.html

1814 - The USS Epervier and her crew disappeared while carrying the peace treaty to end the war between America and the North African Barbary States.

Please read the story on the below link :

http://bermudatrianglecentral.blogspot.com/2010/08/uss-epervier.html

1855 - The schooner James B. Chester was found floating in the ocean. The crew was missing but there was no sign of struggle, and the lifeboats were still in place.

1872 - Mary Celeste: Known as one of the ghost ships of Bermuda Triangle, Mary Celeste had many misadventures even before her mystery voyage in 1872.

Please read the story on the below link :

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/abandoned-ship-the-mary-celeste-174488104/?no-ist

The Mystery of the Mary Celeste

1881 - The Ellen Austin on its voyage in 1881 came across another ship that was sailing without a single soul on board. Ellen Austin transferred some of its crew onto the other ship and attempted to sail with it to New York. The other ship suddenly disappeared. Later it re-appeared, but again without a person on board. Then it again disappeared without trace.

Please read the story on the below link :
http://www.bermuda-attractions.com/bermuda2_00006f.htm

http://bermuda-triangle-mystery.blogspot.com/2007/01/ghost-ships-and-vanished-crews.html

1909 - S.V. Spray was a derelict fishing boat refitted as an ocean cruiser by Joshua Slocum and used by him to complete the first ever single-handed circumnavigation of the world, between 1895 and 1898. In 1909, Slocum set sail from Vineyard Haven bound for Venezuela. Neither he nor Spray were ever seen again.

Please read the story on the below link :

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spray_(sailing_vessel)

1918 - USS Cyclops: This navy ship disappearance resulted in the single largest loss of life in the history of the US Navy. It went missing without a trace with a crew of 309, sometime after March 4th 1918 and after departing the island of Barbados.

Please read the story on the below link :

http://www.navyhistory.org/2013/06/unanswered-loss-uss-cyclops-march-1918/

1921 - Carrol A. Deering: This was a 5-masted commercial schooner built to carry cargo. On January 31, 1921 while returning home to Maine from Rio de Janeiro of Brazil, it was found wrecked at Diamond Shoals located off Cape Hatteras in North Carolina. While the ship was quite intact, all crew members vanished and never heard of again.

Please read the story on the below link :

http://www.historicmysteries.com/the-mystery-of-the-carroll-a-deering-schooner/

1941 - The USS Proteus and the USS Nereus vanished, just as their sister ship the USS Cyclops previously did along the same route.

Please read the story on the below link :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Proteus_(AC-9)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Nereus_(AC-10)

1945 - Flight 19: They were training aircrafts of TBM Avenger bombers of US Navy that went missing on Dec 5, 1945 while flying over the Atlantic. They were scheduled to go due east from Florida Naval base for 120 miles, then north for 73 miles, and then get back over a final 120-mile route that would return them to the naval base. But strangely they never came back. Adding to the mystery, two rescue Martin Mariner aircraft with 13-man crew were sent to search for the missing flights. But one of the Martin Mariners itself did not return and was never traced again.

Please read the story on the below link :

http://www.bermuda-attractions.com/bermuda2_000063.htm

1945 - PBM Martin Mariner: Two Martin Mariner planes were sent on the 5th of December 1945 to search for the Flight-19. One did not return.

Please read the story on the below link :

http://www.bermuda-attractions.com/bermuda2_000070.htm

1947 - The C-54 Aircraft: Apparently it would seem to be sudden thunderstorm that would have disintegrated the C-54 plane. But there was much more to the story.

Please read the story on the below link :
http://www.bermuda-attractions.com/bermuda2_0000b1.htm

1948 - Tudor Star Tiger: A Tudor Mark IV aircraft disappeared in Bermuda Triangle shortly before it was to land in Bermuda airport in January 1948.

Please read the story on the below link :
http://www.thedailyobserver.ca/2009/02/12/the-mystery-of-the-star-tiger

1948 - Flight DC-3: The flight Douglas DC-3 NC16002 disappeared in Bermuda Triangle when it was only 50 miles south of Florida and about to land in Miami on December 28, 1948.

Please read the story on the below link :

http://www.bermuda-attractions.com/bermuda2_00009f.htm

1954 - Flight 441 Disappearance: The flight 441, a Super Constellation Naval Airliner, disappeared in Bermuda Triangle on October 30, 1954

Please read the story on the below link :

http://www.bermuda-attractions.com/bermuda2_0000a0.htm

1963 - Marine Sulphur Queen: This 524-foot carrier of molten sulphur started sail Feb 2, 1963 from Beaumont, Texas with 39 crew. It was reported lost in Florida Straits on Feb 4.

Please read the story on the below link :

http://www.texasescapes.com/MikeCoxTexasTales/Marine-Sulphur-Queen.htm

1967 - Witchcraft: A 23-foot cabin cruiser went missing for ever in Bermuda Triangle area on the night of December 22, 1967. The owner took it offshore only to watch the lights of Miami shoreline.

Please read the story on the below link :

http://www.bermuda-attractions.com/bermuda2_0000b2.htm

1968 - USS Scorpion: USS Scorpion (SSN-589) was a Nuclear powered submarine of United States Navy that disappeared in Bermuda Triangle in May 1968.

Please read the story on the below link :
http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/tech/science/story/2012-04-11/submarine-scorpion-navy-nuclear/54185216/1

1971 - Sting-27, a USAF Phantom jet, vanished completely without a trace. Official reports indicated it may have suffered an impact, but the details were never revealed.

Please read the story on the below link :

http://www.bermuda-triangle.org/sting_27.html

1976 - The Sylvia L. Ossa, a 590-foot ore carrier with a crew of 37 disappeared 140 miles from Bermuda.

Please read the story on the below link :
http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/news/lost-ship-rises-court-article-1.823349

1980 - S.S. Poet - On October 24, 1980 the S.S. Poet departed Delaware coast bound for Port Said, Egypt. never to be seen again.

Please read the story on the below link :
http://www.bermuda-triangle.org/the_disappearance_of_the_s_s__.html

1991 - The pilot of a Grumman Cougar jet made a routine radio request to increase altitude. While ascending, the aircraft gradually faded from radar and vanished.

1999 - The cargo freighter Genesis sent a radio signal to a nearby vessel, indicating a problem with the bilge pump. Despite extensive searches by the Coast Guard, the ship and crew were never seen or heard from again.

2003 - A newly married couple Frank and Romina Leone went for fishing on their brand new 16-foot boat on June 18, 2003. They left from the Boynton beach inlet in Florida but never returned. The US Coast Guard eventually gave up the search & rescue operation after having combed a large part of the sea area for several days.

2005 & 2007 - On two separate incidents, two Piper-PA planes disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle area. One on June 20, 2005 between Treasure Cay island of Bahamas and Fort Pierce of Florida. There were three persons on board. The second incident took place on April 10, 2007 near Berry Island. Only the pilot was on board and no passengers..

2008 - A Britten-Norman Islander (also known as 3-engine Trislander) took off from Santiago for New York on December 15, 2008 at around 3:30pm with 12 persons on board. After about 35 minutes from take off, the aircraft fell off the radar. A massive search operation was launched by US Coast Guards, but the aircraft was never traced again. Its last known location was about 4 miles west of West Caicos Island. No debris has been found until now.

The above story of Bermuda Triangle was copied from below web link :
http://www.bermuda-attractions.com/bermuda2_000051.ht

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YouTube Videos of Bermuda Triangle

Bermuda Triangle Mystery National Geographic Documentary

Bermuda Triangle Mystery

Bermuda Triangle - The True Story

Flight 19

World of Mysteries - Bermuda Triangle

Bermuda Triangle in Depth Documentary

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Other mysteries of the Sea

Flying Dutchman

The most famous of the phantom vessela supposedly seen in stormy weather off the Cape of Good Hope but now and then reported in other latitudes.

The term "Flying Dutchman refers to the captain, not his ship, Legend has it that this maniacal Dutch sea captain was struggling to round the Cape of Good Hope in the teeth of a terrible gale that threatened to sink his ship and all aboard. The sailors warned him to turn around, the passengers pleaded, but the captain, either mad or drunk, refused to change course. Instead he pressed on, singing loud and obscene songs, before going below to his cabin to drink beer and smoke his pipe. Monstrous waves pummeled the sides of the ship howling winds bent the mast and tore all the sails, but still the captain held his course, challenging the wrath of God Almighty by swearing a blasphemous oath.

Finally, there was a mutiny onboard; the crew and passengers attempted to take control of the ship, but the captain, roused from his drunken stupur, killed the leader of the rebellion and threw him overboard. The moment the body hit the water, the clouds parted, and a shadowy figure materialized on the quarterdeck.

"You're a very stubborn man, " the shadow said, and the captain answered him with an cussword.

"I never asked for a a peaceful passage," the captain went on, "I never asked for anything, So clear off before I shoot you, too."

But the figure didn't move. Drawing his pistol, the captain tried to fire, but the gun exploded in his hand. Now the figure spoke again, and told the captain he was accursed.

"As a result of your actions you are condemned to sail the oceans for eternity with a ghostly crew of

dead men, bringing death to all who sight your spectral ship, and to never make port or know a

moment's peace," the shadows said. "Furthermore, gall shall be your drink, and red hot iron your meat." The captain, reckless to the last, cried , "Amen to that"

And so, for centuries from then on, the Flying Dutchman was seen piloting his spectral vessel, it's canvass spread, its mast creaking in a fearful wind. Sometimes, it was said, he led other ships astray, onto rocky shoals and hidden reefs. Also he was said to be responsible for turning sailor's food supplies sour. Hi ship, looking innocent enough, would sometimes draw along side other vessels and send letters aboard. But if the letters were open and read, the ship would founder. Those who saw the captain himself claimed that he was bareheaded and repentant, clasping the wheel on the quarterdeck, pleading the heavens for mercy at last. In the rigging of his ship, some said, they could see a crew of skeletons, grinning miserably as they put on ever more sail.

The tale of the Flying Dutchman has been elaborated by many writers, but it is more than a piece of fiction. The phantom ship has been seen many time --- and there have been reports even in the 20th century, including the crew of a German submarine boat during World War II.

One of the first recorded sightings was by the captain and crew of a British ship in 1835. They recorded that they saw the phantom ship approaching in the blanket of a terrible storm. It came so close that the British crew feared the two ships might run into each other, but then the ghost ship suddenly vanished.

On 11 July 1881, the Royal Navy ship HMS Bacchante was rounding the tip of Africa, when they sighted the Flying Dutchman. the midshipman a prince who later become King George V, recorded that the lookout man and the officer of the watch had seen the Flying Dutchman.

"A strange red light as of a phantom ship all aglow, in the midst of which light the mast, spars and sails of a brig 200 yards distant stood out in strong relief."

It was a misfortune that the lookout saw the Flying Dutchman, for soon after on the same trip, he accidentally fell from a mast and died. Fortunately for the English royal family, the young midshipman survived the curse.

As recently as March 1939, the ghost ship was seen off the coast of South Africa by dozens of bathers who supplied detailed description of the ship, although most had probably never seen a 17th century merchant vessel. The British South Africa Annual of 1939 included the story, derived from newspaper reports:

"With uncanny volition, the ship sailed steadily on as the Glencairn beach folk stood about keely

discussing the whys and wherefores of the vessel. Just as the excitement reached its climax,

however, the mystery ship vanished into thin air as strangely as it had come."

The last recorded sightings was in 1942 off the coast of Capetown. Four witnesses saw the Flying Dutchman sail into Table Bay .... and vanish.

Many authorities have argued that the story of the Flying Dutchman has its origin in a real event, though there is very little agreement about what the event was. Further confusion is brought into the matter by the fact that are many versions of the tale -- in which the ship skipper is variously named Vanderdecken, Van Demien, Van Straaten, Van der Decken, or Van something else.

Another version of the legend that alledgely originated the whole affair is said to have happened in 1641, when a Dutch ship sank off the coast of the Cape of Good Hope. The story goes that, as the ship approached the tip of Africa, the captain thought that he should make a proposition to the Dutch East India Company (his employer) to start a settlement at the Cape on the tip of Africa, thereby providing a welcome repose to ships at sea.

He was so deep in thought that he did not notice the dark clouds looming and only when he heard the lookout scream out in terror, did he realize that they had sailed straight into a fierce storm. The captain and his crew battled for hours to get out of the storm and at one stage it looked like they would make it. Then they heard a terrible crunch - the ship had crashed into treacherous rocks and started to sink. As the ship plunged downwards, Captain Van der Decken (or whatever) knew that death was approaching. He was not ready to die and screamed out a curse: "I WILL round this Cape even if I have to keep sailing until doomsday! "

And, like in every version of the tale, this one also claims that even today whenever a storm brews off the Cape of Good Hope, if you look into the eye of the storm, you will be able to see the ship and its captain -- The Flying Dutchman. Don't look too carefully, for the old folk claim that whoever sights the ship will die a terrible death.

On yet another version, this one place in the year 1729 (others say 1680), the captain this time swears at the Devil, who then condemns him to sail the spectral seas forever. The Devil left him just one small hope: that only through the love of a woman could he be released from his curse.

So the unfortunate Dutch captain returns to land every seven years in a hopeless search for salvation, because the Flying Dutchman can only find eternal peace in the arms of a faithful woman.

Wagner's opera "Der fligende Hollander" is loosely based on this version of the legend.

Copied from :

Flying Dutchman

http://www.occultopedia.com/f/flying_dutchman.htm

YouTube Videos of Flying Dutchman

The Flying Dutchman

The Flying Dutchman Ghost Ship

Sailor's Chorus - Richard Wagner, The Flying Dutchman

Washington National Opera presents The Flying Dutchman

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Death Ship: The Ourang Medan Mystery

Ominous tales of ghost ships like the Flying Dutchman and the Mary Celeste have been passed down from one generation of seafarer to the next for centuries, but as eerie as these haunted vessels are alleged to be there is another even more disturbing maritime phenomena that deals not with ships that have been abandoned, but those whose crew have mysteriously perished. Arguably the most disturbing of all these legends is the shocking case of the SS Ourang Medan.

According to widely circulated reports, in June of 1947 — or, according to alternate accounts, February of 1948 — multiple ships traversing the trade routes of the straits of Malacca, which is located between the sun drenched shores of Sumatra and Malaysia, claimed to have picked up a series of SOS distress signals. The unknown ship’s message was as simple as it was disturbing:
“All officers including captain are dead, lying in chartroom and bridge. Possibly whole crew dead.” This communication was followed by a burst of indecipherable Morse code, then a final, grim message: “I die.” This cryptic proclamation was followed by tomb-like silence.

THE SILVER STAR COMES TO THE RESCUE

The chilling distress call was picked up by two American ships as well as British and Dutch listening posts. The men manning these posts managed to triangulate the source of these broadcasts and deduced that they were likely emanating from a Dutch freighter known as the SS Ourang Medan, which was navigating the straits of Malacca.

A conscripted American merchant ship called the Silver Star was closest to the presumed location of the Ourang Medan. Originally christened “Santa Cecilia” by the Grace Line (W. R. Grace & Co.), the vessel had been renamed the Silver Star when the United States Maritime Commission “drafted” it in 1946.

Noting the terrified urgency in the message that came over the airwaves, the Captain and crew of the Silver Star wasted no time in changing their course in an effort to assist the apparently incapacitated ship. Within hours, the Silver Star caught sight of the Ourang Medan rising and falling in the choppy waters of the Malacca Strait.

As the merchant craft neared the ill-omened vessel, the crew noticed that there was no sign of life on the deck. The Americans attempted to hail the Dutch crew to no avail. That’s when the Captain of the Silver Star decided to assemble a boarding party. As they left the safe haven of the Silver Star, these unfortunate souls had no idea that they were about to walk into a living nightmare.

As soon as they boarded the Ourang Medan, the men swiftly realized that the distress calls were not an exaggeration. The decks of the vessel were littered with the corpses of the Dutch crew; their eyes wide, their arms grasping at unseen assailants, their faces twisted into revolting visages of agony and horror. Even the ship’s dog was dead; it’s once intimidating snarl frozen into a ghastly grimace.
The boarding party found the Captain’s remains on the bridge, while his officers’ cadavers were strewn about the wheelhouse and chartroom. The communications officer was still at his post, as dead as the rest, his fingertips resting on the telegraph. All of the corpses, according to reports, bore the same terrified, wide-eyed expressions as the crew on deck.

Below deck, search party members found cadres of corpses in the boiler room, but almost as disturbing as this grim find was the fact that the American crew members claimed to have felt an extreme chill in the nadir of the hold, even though the temperature outside was a scorching 110°F. While the search team could see clear evidence that the crew of the Ourang Medan suffered profoundly at the moment of their deaths, they could find no overt evidence of injury or foul play on the swiftly decaying corpses. Nor could they spy any damage to the ship itself.

The Captain of the Silver Star decided that they would tether themselves to the Ourang Medan and tow it back to port, but as soon as the crew attached the tow line to the Dutch ship they noticed ominous billows of smoke pouring up from the lower decks, in specific the Number 4 hold.

The boarding party scarcely had a chance to cut the towline and make it back to the Silver Star before the Ourang Medan exploded with such tremendous force that it “lifted herself from the water and swiftly sank.”

The crew watched the Dutch vessel disappear beneath the briny depths, no doubt breathing deep sighs of relief that the towline had not dragged them into the sea as well.

The watery grave that claimed the Ourang Medan effectively removed the freighter from the face of the Earth and forced it directly into the realm of myths and legends. This, of course, has made it one of the most enduring and intriguing maritime mysterious of the modern age, leaving us to ask the most basic question…

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE OURANG MEDAN?

While rumors about the Silver Star’s grisly discovery circulated wildly along the trade routes of the East Indies, the first official account of the event would not be printed until May of 1952, in the form of the “Proceedings of the Merchant Marine Council,” which was published by the United States Coast Guard. The testimony therein described the alarming state of the Dutch crewmen, even going so far as to state: