By: Nick Swafford

The Bermuda Triangle. We’ve all heard of it. It’s supernatural connection with culture sparks everyone’s attention. Also known as the Devil’s Triangle, this part of sea is about 500,000 miles in area and is blamed for countless tragedies, including the disappearance of USS Cyclops in 1918. The USS Cyclops was a 542-foot long Navy ship that sailed from Barbadoes to Baltimore, mysteriously vanishing along the way. It has still yet to be found. The USS Cyclops was returning to America after resupplying British troops in Brazil during World War I but never made it home. It’s believed that the cargo ship went down somewhere in between Cape Hatteras and Cape Charles. The mystery didn’t end there. Two of Cyclops’ sister ships followed the original path, and both disappeared without a trace, as well.

There are several theories as to why the Bermuda Triangle brings disaster to everything that enters its deathly grasp. But the truth is, the terror and mysticality of the Bermuda Triangle doesn’t exist; it’s just modern lore; however, here’s the catch; it’s not even modern. The whole ideology was created by Shakespeare. His play, The Tempest, was first performed in 1611, and, in the story, a ship crashed due to mystical occurrences where the Bermuda Triangle is located. The play implied that the area in between Miami, Bermuda, and Puerto Rico is a place of no return. This concept of terrors in the deep, has been inherited by our modern lore.

But that doesn’t explain why there are so many reports of boat disappearances and airplane crashes in the area. The truth of the matter is that all of the crashes were coincidences. Geographically, the triangle is in the middle of Hurricane Alley, where most of the major hurricanes in the northern hemisphere form. The mass amount of storms that are created Hurricane Alley could be a part of why some ships and airplanes crash there. The wrecks were never recovered as the depth of the ocean reaches 27,500 feet below sea level in the Bermuda Triangle. With sea currents in the area reaching above five knots, almost six miles per hour, the wreckage could’ve easily been swept away and pulled to the depths. Six miles per hour may not seem fast, but in water, gravity has less control over objects, so they would go much quicker and with much less control. Additionally, in the 19th century, parts of the Bermuda Triangle lined up with both magnetic north and true north, which caused compasses to malfunction. This might’ve led to increased mysticality of the seas. However, compasses within the Bermuda Triangle no longer have this disposition because the magnetic fields of Earth are always changing.

Every day, lots of people navigate the Bermuda Triangle with no issue at all. It’s all just a myth. Maybe that’s why we love believing in it–to entertain our imaginations. Without these “mysteries”, many of the stories we take interest in would be non-existent. A world without stories of Bigfoot, Vampires, the Lochness Monster, and other legends would be a world without the shows, movies, and books we have today. As for the Bermuda Triangle, there are tons of other theories as to why things happen the way they do, but I found these to be the most likely and best-supported causations. All in all, let your imagination take you away in fascination with the fictitious and evil Bermuda Triangle, but remember that it is just that–fiction.