5 Famous Mysterious Stories of the Bermuda Triangle

Bermuda triangle, also known as the Devil’s Triangle, happens to be one of the most mysterious places on this planet. Located off the southeastern coast of the US in the Atlantic Ocean, between Bermuda, Florida and Puerto Rico, the region has become the Centre of unresolved mysteries.

Covering an area of 440,000 miles of sea, the Bermuda triangle is part of a busy shipping route, with several vessels heading to America, Europe and the Caribbean crossing through every day.

It is more due to the inexplicable outcomes that make it a highly studied yet enigmatic component of the earth’s surface.

Over the centuries, many ships and planes have been reported to have mysteriously disappeared in the region.

Also, this Devil’s Triangle has been blamed for the disappearance of thousands of people in the past decades.

The term “Bermuda Triangle” was first used by Vincent Gaddis in 1964 in his article published in Argosy magazine.

Bermuda triangle
Representation image

The stories around the Bermuda triangle begin in Christopher Columbus’s time when he reportedly saw a flame of fire crashing into the sea in the triangle during his first voyage to the New World.

However, the mysterious behaviour of the region came to the public attention only in the 20th century when the Navy cargo ship, USS Cyclops, with more than 300 people on board, went missing in the Bermuda triangle. The latest incident in the region is the disappearance of a small twin-engine plane in May this year.

With four people on board, the plane suddenly disappeared from the radar when it was flying from Puerto Rico to Florida, and the debris from the missing plane was found later.

The recent incident that involved a ship was the sinking of a cargo vessel in the Bermuda Triangle during a deadly hurricane in October 2015.

As the accidents, often mysterious, continue to happen in the Bermuda Triangle region, many have offered a number of explanations for the mystery behind them.

The role of paranormal activities and the presence of aliens have been strongly suggested by those who believe something odd is happening, while many with scientific views disputed this argument offering rational explanations to the phenomenon.

Among the few proposed scientific explanation, the more popular is the theory of electromagnetic interference that causes compass problems.

This theory claims that there is a very high pull of the earth’s natural magnet, which redirects the compass and other sophisticated equipment, and disallows them to take their intended route through the waters.

However, as no single theory could offer a concrete explanation, many still believe there is nothing strange with the region as most of the incidents were inaccurately reported or fictionalised versions of the accidents.

Notwithstanding that there is no proven theory for the exact reason behind the mystery of the Bermuda Triangle, the accidents continue to happen in the region every year.

And, the legends of the Bermuda Triangle consists of a number of the mysterious disappearance of vessels in the region; most of them remain least clueless still. Here is a list of the most noted stories of disappearance or the unresolved mysteries of ship accidents in the Devil’s Triangle.

Bermuda triangle shipwreck
Representation image

Famous Bermuda Triangle Stories 

1. Mary Celeste

Possibly one of the most mysterious stories of shipwrecks, this ship is a tale of its own. Despite being found adrift in some other location in the Atlantic Ocean, the connection to the Bermuda triangle had been somehow invoked to find an answer to the mystery of its fate.

Discovered on 4th December 1872 with everything right in the place except for the entire crew, the ship was found stranded on the sea days after starting its journey from New York to Genoa, Italy.

There were seven crew members and Captain Benjamin Briggs, his wife, and their two-year-old daughter aboard the vessel, loaded with raw alcohol.

But, days after, when a passing British ship called Dei Gratia found Mary Celeste under partial sail in the Atlantic, off the Azores Islands, the ship was unmanned with no crew abroad, and the lifeboat was also missing.

It was also found that nine of the barrels in the cargo were empty, and there was a sword on the deck. No trace of the people abroad the vessel or the missing lifeboat has ever been found.

Studies of the ship clearly ruled out the possibility of a pirate attack since everything on this ship, including the barrels of alcohol it was transporting and the crew’s valuable belongings, were intact.

Theories surrounding the mystery of the Mary Celeste also included the chances of a criminal conspiracy, alien abduction, and even an attack by a giant squid.

The possibility of a natural disaster was also on the list. Many suggested the role of an undersea earthquake behind the accident, while few proposed an accidental foraying of the vessel into the Bermuda Triangle.

However, as much as these speculations seem reasonable, they clearly don’t fit. After all, why would a perfectly skilled crew on a good weather day, with their ship entirely uncompromised, abandon it and then never surface again?

2. Ellen Austin

It is an unnerving triangle mystery associated with the American white oak schooner Ellen Austin. In 1881, the 210 feet long Ellen Austin was going to New York from London when she stumbled upon a derelict near the Bermuda Triangle. Everything seemed fine with the unidentified schooner drifting just north of the Sargasso Sea, but the missing crew.

Captain Baker of the Ellen Austin asked to observe the derelict for two days to make sure it’s not a trap. After two days with no response from the ship, the captain entered the abandoned vessel with his crew to find the well-packed shipment and no sign of the crew.

To tow it back with Ellen Austin, the captain placed a prize crew on the ship, set to sail together. However, after two days of sail on calm waters, a squall separated the path of the two ships, following which the derelict vanished.

Days after the storm, according to the stories, Captain Baker’s lookout could spot the vessel through his spyglass only to realise the vessel drifting far away aimlessly once again. Finally, after hours of effort, Ellen Austin could catch up with the vessel.

But, strangely, no one was on board. However, another version of the story suggests a second attempt by Baker to bring her back to land but ended with the same fate before Ellen Austin before abandoning the cursed vessel.

Other reports suggest that the derelict was once more spotted but this time had a separate crew than the prize crew placed on it by Ellen Austin.

The ship’s disappearance, reappearance, and the prize crew’s absence is an intriguing story. It is more like a secret of the Bermuda triangle, one that has seemingly no chances of being unravelled anytime soon.

3. USS Cyclops

The disappearance of USS Cyclops, one of the Navy’s biggest fuel ships, marks the largest loss of life in the history of the US Navy in a single incident.

In March 1918, this massive ship set out to sail from Brazil to Baltimore through the Bermuda region carrying 10,800 tons of manganese ore with about 309 crew members on board. Setting off on a fairly good day, this ship’s first and only message indicated no sort of troubles.

However, the ship was never heard from again. An entire search of the area was put into action, but nothing was ever found. No remains of the ship or any crew members aboard have ever been found. The captain of the USS Cyclops never sent a distress signal, and no one aboard responded to radio calls from other vessels in the vicinity.

The naval investigators also failed to find a definite cause for its disappearance though there were a number of theories suggesting various reasons.

Due to its mysterious disappearance, Cyclops has become part of the list of more than 100 ships and planes to have vanished under strange circumstances in the Bermuda triangle.

4. Carroll A. Deering

Carroll A. Deering, a five-masted commercial schooner, is one of the most written-about maritime mysteries of the 20th century due to the complete mystery around its abandonment.

On January 31, 1921, Carroll A. Deering was found hard aground on the treacherous rocks of Hatteras Diamond Shoals, North Carolina. There were speculations that the vessel was involved in rum-running.

However, when the investigation team from Barbados reached the vessel after days of effort in the rough sea, what they found was a deserted ship with all crew members missing along with the crew’s personal belongings, ships navigational equipment, logbooks, and life rafts, among others.

Often knows as “Ghost Ship of the Outer Banks”, the disappearance of Carroll A. Deering along with few other vessels during the same time period in the Bermuda triangle area has been valuable information on the mysterious waters, but nothing could bring anyone any closer to solving this mystery.

Reports suggest that as many as nine vessels disappeared during this period from the same region- none of which was ever heard from again.

5. Witchcraft

On December 22, 1967, a cabin cruiser named witchcraft left Miami with her captain Dan Burack and his friend, Father Patrick Horgan.

The two gentlemen’s journey on the 23-foot luxury yacht was to enjoy the wonderful view of Miami’s Christmas lights. However, after reaching just one mile from offshore, the coast guard received a call from the captain stating that his ship had hit something, but there was no substantial damage.

Indicating help to be towed to the shore, the coast guard set off immediately reaching witchcraft in as many as 19 minutes alone but to nothing.

The area indicating the ship’s location was completely deserted, with no signs of any ship having been stranded or even present there previously.

What’s most intriguing about this story is that this particular cruiser was virtually unsinkable, not to mention numerous life-saving devices present aboard, including life jackets, lifeboats, flares, distress signal devices etc.

None of them was used, and the ship was gone. The coast guard officials searched hundreds of square miles of the ocean over the next few days but were unsuccessful. Nothing of this ship has been found until this day. The ship is gone and what remains is only the speculation that can be done now.

Over to you…

Do you know any other mystery that can be added to this list?

Let’s know in the comments below.

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Disclaimer: The authors’ views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of Marine Insight. Data and charts, if used, in the article have been sourced from available information and have not been authenticated by any statutory authority. The author and Marine Insight do not claim it to be accurate nor accept any responsibility for the same. The views constitute only the opinions and do not constitute any guidelines or recommendation on any course of action to be followed by the reader.

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53 Comments

  1. I have a theory on the Bermuda Triangle ,have you ever thought that on every plane or boat there was metal? And that Columbus on his voyage in 1492 saw a flash in the sky. Maybe that flash was an asteroid. Also it could have been magnetic! Therefore causing the metal to sink to the very bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.

  2. Considering the hundreds of ships you could have used as examples you went with the Mary celeste which was found in European waters and the deering was outside the triangle…… Why?

  3. This is just because of diffrent oceanic currents which have their flow in north atlantic region or bermuda triangle. Actualy what happens, these currents flows in clockwise & anticlock wise in an area ofaround 5000 sq. km. They creates creates a large whirl in this region due to various georaphical & climetological phenomena.Reason of disappearences is this .
    For deep understanding see atlas & any reserch paper on this

  4. there izz h big nd scary story about this mistoury I think that there were a king nd he made this triangle 4 his shap aur this triangle was a shapit triangle so that no one can become stronger than this triangle nd no one can challenge this mysterious place that he can stay out if it
    aftr going this place!

  5. Besides the unfounded discrediting of the best scientific evidence of the Bermuda triangle ;

    the under the ocean sand methane hydrates are the best reliable proven phenomenon

    observed in various places around world.

  6. That’s what I think aliens as when a boat is found no humans are found we are not alone

  7. The Bermuda Triangle has an island in the middle of it. On this island, people or aliens live. These people/aliens want to get back to their own planet, and they need to get materials. As it states, most things that went missing are significant in the military or science. For example, the USS Scorpion was a Nuclear Powered Submarine that went missing in 1968. My theory? Whatever lives there stripped the sub of its valuable material—Nuclear energy. They then kill the crew (or kidnap them to help them identify valuable and non-valuable materials. That is what is going on, and the reason certain people do make it out is that they aren’t always NOTICED. It is an island, islands are small. This could also be a research facility of some kind, that is researching magnetic power and teleportation. For example, people often experience strange compass readings when going by the Triangle. I think that the teleportation aspect is not going well, which is causing the reappearance of certain planes of boats many years later. This could also be why Columbus wrote about strange compass readings and strange lights over Bermuda. That or aliens. Time Travel, Magnets, Aliens, Teleportation research. All of these are quite possible I believe yet not all can be proved. This was just to get my OWN theories out there. I thought these up and wanted somebody to hear them. I’m sorry, but waves and “Wind Bombs” do not explain the time differences, magnetic power, and strange lights seen by Columbus in 1492.

  8. I think I have a nice idea can a good scientist lunch a good atomic bomb to the bemudia triangle or nuclear bomb. Lets see the result it might bring.

  9. Nice article, and good writing skills. You have provided very useful information in your article, keep up the Good Work!!!

  10. I don’t know maybe its idk maybe there is something but what we don’t know what is true and not

  11. I can agree that it can be due to the magnetic field but what about the incident happened in 1969 it was a land incident so how that can be possible as that was hurricane but if there is hurricane then is the air incidents would be possible..
    Oh! It’s too mysterious
    What is true about this…

  12. I agree with jaden because every plane and boats were metal and what if there was a ginormous magnetic field that was so strong it pulled in boats and grabbed planes out of the sky thats why they haven’t found Amelia air hearts plane!!!!!

  13. i think that the asteroids are magnetic and the plane is made out of metal so if any incident happens in the air and the plane falls it’ll sink cause its pure metal thats why they couldn’t find about it
    if they want to find the missing boats and planes they may have to send a diving team to the bottom of the sea

  14. Paranormal Activity and straight alien abduction between the devil and the earth’s atmosphere One or two of those things might be part of it Idk

  15. It is scary but sad that many people have never been found I think that what happened to the realtives of those who went missing on Bermuda Triangle

  16. I think that there is some sort of force or creature we have not learned about yet doing this stuff because I like like to believe in the impossible but I also think this because we have only seen about 5% of the oceans.

  17. Have you ever had a thought of using a non magnetic metal? maybe you can find a solution,or what is in there,my opinion though.

  18. this happens to be mysterious
    when I was thinking about all this, it was as if to me that this Bermuda triangle leads to another place,it possible,a robot that cannot been toast be sent into that Bermuda triangle.
    I don’t think it will be a good idea boobing the triangle,what if all this is caused by a mysterious creation which travel In a flash.
    but the storm going on there is another thing mysterious. what I will also have that should be done their is to trick the devil’s training,programming a ship with clues in it in Bermuda,and leaving a video camera that can’t be magnet by any force or field. if by so doing if the mystery is been indicate,we know how to solve it. but this will take sacrifice of live to do so.
    in God we look on

  19. don’t you also think that God want to prove himself so mighty that scientist can’t know or do more than him,he know the future so possible want to prove his is mighty
    it’s only by his help will mystery be reviewed,because he himself is a mysterious God

  20. In great holy book Ramayana it was mentioned when Lord Hanuman was flying over the sea to Srilanka was once stopped by some force and caught him by his shadow.and Lord Hanuman killed that force before he left to his destination. Another similar force must be here.

  21. A THEORY CAN BE :- A HUGE MAGNET WAS STOLEN FROM ODISHA (INDIA) IN THE1800’S BY THE EAST INDIA COMPANY OF THE BRITISH SHIPS AND HEARD TO HAVE DROWNED ON WAY NEAR AMERICAS DUE TO BAD WEATHER AS TOLD BY GRANNIES OF TRIBALS ON COASTAL AREAS OF ODISHA ….. MAYBE THE MAGNET HAS BEEN DROWNED THERE….. SCIENTIFIC PEOPLE SHOULD RESEARCH ON THIS POINT OF VIEW TO MAY SOLVE THIS FAKE MYSTERY….

  22. I suggest is the result of African slaves life, that were dumped mercilessly over there are seeking revenge.believe me or not, a single consult will reveal whole truth,a word to a wise ……..,

  23. UFO’S use a portal that takes some time to open or close.Unsuspecting ships and planes lost in different time or space. The generated portal energy has lightning arc like unpredictability around it that throw planes and ships from their current space or time.

  24. Many people have thought that currents can disappear entire large vessels and boeing planes just like that ?

    There are interdimensional doorways all around the world, like saying that ghosts do not exist, supernatural does not exist, when energy just takes another form and cannot die. To suppose that nothing bizarre could EVER be the reason !!!

    Stuns me the lack of thought people apply to such gigantic forces which regularly disappear 20 ships and numerous plane every year ?!

    How do UFO’s turn up all over Earth — through interdimensional doorways. Make SO much sense to me , this idea. I have seen UFO’s and know this fact of life is REAL.

  25. I think it is real and I also believe there are some strange creatures living in the Bermuda Triangle.

  26. Mysterys can never remain a mystery forever.l think the crews were not found because,their compass was said to be rotating both clock- wise and anti-clockwise due to electromagnetic force. By this the crews may have lost,die of hunger,and their bodies being rotten and swept away by the ocean. After some time, the waves pushes the ship to different directions, that’s why people keeps on finding the ship and says that it appears and disappears. As for the planes,the electromagnetic force makes the appliances begin to malfunction just like the compass began to malfunction, and thereby making the plane to crash and people drowned into the ocean. This is my suggestion.

  27. the Bermuda triangle is a portal to a parallel world or maybe something that sends people to the future this explains why those people can’t be found anywhere…

  28. It’s certainly an interesting theory! While there is no scientific evidence to support the idea that the Bermuda Triangle is a portal to a parallel world or a time machine, it’s always fun to speculate about the possibilities.

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