How we Got the Legend of the Bermuda Triangle
While reports of unusual weather phenomena within the unofficial bounds of the Bermuda Triangle date all the way back to the 15th century voyages of Christopher Columbus, the term itself wasn’t coined until 1964, when author and paranormal investigator Vincent Gaddis wrote a lengthy article about its history for Argosy magazine called ‘The Deadly Bermuda Triangle.’
Despite the provocative title, it was more historical than it was conspiratorial, and primarily covered, over several dozen paragraphs and thousands of words, the stories behind some of the most infamous disappearances in that part of the Atlantic dating back to the beginning of the 20th century. He also defined what are generally considered to be its boundaries: a stretch of ~500,000 square miles in between the tip of south Florida, the northern coast of Puerto Rico, and obviously Bermuda.
In his own words:
‘This area is by no means isolated. The coasts of Florida and the Carolinas are well populated, as well as the islands involved. Sea distances are relatively short. Day and night, there is traffic over the sea and air lanes. The waters are well patrolled by the Coast Guard, the Navy and the Air Force. And yet this relatively limited area is the scene of disappearances that total far beyond the laws of chance.‘
The Bermuda Triangle underlines the fact that despite swift wings and the voice of radio, we still have a world large enough so that men and their machines and ships can disappear without a trace. Whatever this menace that lurks within a triangle of tradgedy [sic] so close to home, it was responsible for the most incredible mystery in the history of aviation -- the lost patrol.’
The three ‘vanishments’ he commits the most time to in the piece are the sudden and as yet unexplained disappearances of:
The U.S. Navy supply ship the USS Cyclops (1918)
Five U.S. Navy torpedo bombers and that passed through the Triangle on the Flight 19 training mission (1945)
And the tanker ship the SS Marine Sulphur Queen (1963)
To briefly summarize each:
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