The Bermuda Triangle:

Reasoning of the Unknown

David Deese

What *is* the Bermuda

Triangle?
The vast three-sided

segment of the Atlantic

Ocean bordered by
Bermuda, Puerto Rico
and Fort Lauderdale,
Florida.
Spans an area of
around 500,000 square
miles, but some
estimates are up to
three times larger.

What *is* the Bermuda

Triangle?
Reports of strange

occurrences have been

recorded as early as the
days of Columbus.
Sometimes the Coast
Guard answers more
than 5,000 distress calls
within the Triangle per
year.
Also Known As:
The Devils Triangle

What *is* the Bermuda

Triangle?
First dubbed The Bermuda

Triangle by writer V.
Gaddis in a 1964 issue of
Argosy, a magazine
devoted to fiction.
Public interest in the
Bermuda Triangle
increased exponentially
with the publication of
Charles Berlitzs 1974
bestseller The Bermuda
Triangle.

Who the heck started this?!

1492 Columbuss compass went haywire
and its reported that he and his crew
saw weird lights in the sky.
1892 The Mary Celeste is discovered
abandoned on the high seas about 400
miles off its intended course from New
York to Genoa. There was no sign of its
crew of ten or what happened to them.

Why do we still believe this?

In a study of related material, Larry Kushe found that

few people do any investigation into the mystery

whatsoever. They simply passed on the speculations
of their predecessors as if they were passing on the
mantle of truth. (AKA Word of Mouth & Tell A Friend)
In short, the mystery of the Bermuda Triangle
became a mystery by a kind of communal
reinforcement among uncritical authors and a willing
mass media to uncritically pass on the speculation
that something mysterious is going on in the Atlantic.

Who the heck started this?!

-The *REAL* Humdinger December 5, 1945 Flight 19
Five Navy planes vanished without a trace
on a training mission during a severe
storm. A rescue plane was dispatched to
find them and it too never returned. (27
men in all)
An official Navy report of the incident
insinuated that the planes disappeared...
as if they had flown to Mars.

Common Ailments of the

Triangle

Strange Magnetic Fields

Oceanic Flatulence
Atlantis
Sporadic Interdimensional Travel
Time Warps
Alien Abduction

What have *you* heard?

Why do we still believe this?

The current truth is so widely and easily

circulated and believed that the only way to

eliminate it would be for the Navy to make an
announcement to the Nation about it, but as
that costs lots of money, its doubtful theyll do
it even *if* they had the inclination to do so.
Many people have been exposed to the myth
of the Bermuda Triangle before they learn the
facts about the incidents in the Bermuda
Triangle, which arent widely circulated to
begin with.

The fairest thing to do...

Correlation Investigate past incidents
within the Bermuda Triangle, searching for
authentic/government-issued reports.
Statistics Construct a timeline of
incidents that occurred and compare this
distribution with that of other treacherous
areas of the worlds oceans to see if this
areas is significantly higher than that of
other areas.

The fairest thing to do...

Conduct a study Select a sizable number

of ships (to be determined by researchers)

that will be passing through the Bermuda
Triangle in a single year (or multiple years)
and survey the Captain and some of the
crew about the voyage across the Triangle.

What they *dont* tell you...

Flight 19: Nothing but the facts...
The rescue plane dispatched never returned.

Only because it blew up 23 seconds after takeoff.

And this particular design, the Mariner, was well
known for its faulty gas tanks.
No wreckage was ever found The planes were
possibly so far out in the Atlantic that they passed
the continental shelf; which would mean the planes
sank into several thousand feet of water. (The
deepest point in the Atlantic, at 30,100 feet deep, is
also located in the Puerto Rico Trench *within* the
Bermuda Triangle.)

The Major holes we overlook...

Most of the associated incidents can be explained by

rational means.
Most of these same incidents blamed on the Bermuda
Triangle didnt occur anywhere *near* the Triangle. (The
Mary Celeste was discovered off the coast of Portugal.)
Some incidents recorded as far away as the Pacific are
blamed on the Bermuda Triangle without reason.
The facts do not support the legend; there is no mystery
to be solved and nothing that needs explaining. The
number of wrecks in this area is not extraordinary given
its size, location, and the amount of traffic it receives.