Essay on The Bermuda Triangle

Submitted By jondaman
Words: 932
Pages: 4

Jonathan Sherwood
Mrs. Crane
English IV
5 April 2013
The Bermuda Triangle

The Bermuda Triangle, also known as the Devil's Triangle, is an undefined region in the western part of the North Atlantic Ocean where a number of aircraft and ships are said to have disappeared under mysterious circumstances. The first written boundaries date from a 1964 issue of pulp magazine Argosy, triangle’s three vertices are in Miami, Florida peninsula; in San Juan, Puerto Rico; and in the mid-Atlantic island of Bermuda. But subsequent writers didn't follow this definition. Every writer gives different boundaries and vertices to the triangle, with the total area changing to and from 500,000 to 1.5 million square miles (Brown 227). The mysteries of the Bermuda triangle have been puzzling scientists since 1945. The United States Board on Geographic Names does not recognize The Bermuda Triangle name, and it's not located on any map drawn by US government agencies, even though the government had one of the first problems with it. In 1945 five TBM Avengers disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle during a routine training mission named flight 19. Different from most accounts of Flight 19, it was not a patrol but a training flight. The men would leave Fort Lauderdale and fly a course of 091 degrees for 56 miles, then practice low-level bombing at Hens and Chicken Shoals. Afterward, they would continue on the same course another 67 miles to complete the first leg. The second leg of the flight would take them 73 miles northwest, on a heading of 346 degrees. Finally, they would turn left to 241 degrees, a course that would bring them 120 miles back to the air station.
It was a routine pattern, to be flown within the mysterious area known as the Bermuda Triangle (Miles). Many reasons were given for these occurrences, such as aliens, monsters, and forces of nature. But none have lived to tell the tale. Flight 19 was supposed to be the final training exercise for the four pilots, who had already completed two similar exercises in the same area. Although they were students, all were qualified naval aviators, each with an average of 300 hours' flight time (Miles). When they took off from the naval base everything was going as according to plans. They soon picked up some radio transmission from an unknown source. The unidentified speaker was in need of help but once the pilots tried to make contact with the speaker the radio went silent. Soon after that the planes entered into what is known as the Bermuda triangle. They radioed back to base and told them that both their compasses were not functioning right, and they were all soon lost (Miles). They exchanged radio contact for a while and then the radio went silent the five planes were never seen or heard from again.
There are many theories about the Bermuda Triangle and why so many odd things happen there. Some like Human error/Pilot disorientation, Crazy weather patterns, Magnetic fields askew, Atlantis, UFOs/Aliens, Government testing, Time vortex, aka "electronic fog", Methane hydrates, Pirates, and A downed 11,000-year-old comet. The “Magnetic Fields askew” is one of the most renowned theories. Legend has held that the Bermuda Triangle is one of only two places on the planet where compass points true north, as opposed to the magnetic north. Now, navigators know that a compass must be calibrated to compensate for the deviation depending on the location on the globe. While the Bermuda Triangle was once, during the 19th century, a place where a compass pointed true north with no variation, the Earth's magnetic field is constantly