The sky is blue and the sun is shining on me and my fellow friends. We began to sit down at the table which shook a lot. I wasn’t feeling too good at the time. It was around 1 at noon and I was pretty tired. The Night had been long because the waves were very big and water was invading the ship. The creak of the wood made me feel as if I would fall into the floor below me. We were on the deck and having a fun time, drinking beer, and gambling. Time was flying by so quickly that I noticed it was 4 already into the day. I stood up and went into a room where I found the sailor driving the ship. I walked to the compass and began to review it. I began to notice strange activity from the compass, it began to go all over the place. I asked the sailor what was wrong, he shrugged and continued to drive the ship. I looked outside and saw that the clouds from the northside of the boat were dark. I shrugged and carried on. I began to notice the boat moving from left to right quicklier. I came out to the deck and told the men to prepare for the storm. It was only 10 minutes until we were engulfed by the clouds. The waves were coming hard on the ship. The ship didn’t have long until they arrived at their destination from Florida, United States to Puerto Rico. It began to pour hard on the ship, the storm had begun, but what I didn’t understand is the fact that I knew it wasn’t going to storm after yesterday. The men were ready and all inside of the ship. The storm only got worse by the minute. They boat soon began to unstabilize and began to lean to the right side. The sailors began to add weight to the left side. It wasn’t enough, the boat was sinking. The men began to run and began to fall into the ocean. I just stood and saw everything. I began to run to the side that wasn’t sinking yet. Men were pushing and shoving. Lightning strook and the sky was pitch black. I checked the time, it read 5 pm. It wasn’t supposed to be pitch black at this time, even if it was raining. I was so scared and planned to give up. “BOOM!” The engine had exploded and the ship was on fire with men too, burning. The ship was at its tip and I stood there for I knew I would die one way. I soon jumped into the sea and everything turned black.
The Bermuda Triangle has been an urban legend dating back to the times Christopher Columbus was traveling to the “New World”. The Triangle expands to 500,000 square miles on the Atlantic coast of Florida. Descriptions of the border vary but most people say there are 3 points(Miami, Puerto Rico, Bermuda Island). Christopher Columbus himself reported weird things happening to his compass during his expedition near the area. The region earned its bad reputation as the“Dead Zone” for planes and ships disappearing without any reasoning or trace.
In 1945, five U.S. Navy aircraft known as “Flight 19” got lost and vanished in the Bermuda Triangle during simple training. A famous shipwreck took place in 1963, SS Marine Sulphur Queen sank near Key West, FL. Many items of the wreck camp up to shore later on. The cause is still unknown. Many theories have been developed throughout such as intergalactic portals and time vortexes or paranormal phenomena and even the lost city of Atlantis. People blame the triangle on UFOs too. Sailors have also said there are huge krakens around the area that swallow the small ships. It is also known as the “Devil’s Triangle”. Willaim Shakesphere ever wrote a story about the triangle which shows how people back then knew about the mystery of the triangle.
With all of the history told to us about The Bermuda Triangle we have to come to a conclusion that it isn’t true. There are some explanations of why the The Bermuda triangle may have strange activity. Here are some of the reasons. There are frequent tropical storms happening in the area or very very strong storms happening. Some people blame the news because in one case according to “Science That Matters’ ‘ there was one plane crash near a beach and hundreds of people witnessed it, but the local newspaper said nothing about it, why might that be? Some have come to the conclusion that there are strong magnetic fields around the area which mess with the north and south poles.
The Bermuda Triangle contains lots of ships and planes coming back and forth to and out of the triangle which makes the Bermuda triangle more prone to have accidents. Government and shipping companies don’ts show the triangle in official maps, why might that be? Scientists have said that large bubbles that come up from below the sea are caused by methane deposits which may be another reason boats sink. Large Rogue waves exist and are more active on the Triangle and without warning and can go to three or two times the height of surrounding waves. Researchers have proved that rogue waves more than 100 feet with two peaks surrounding the ship on both sides snaps the ship in half.
So, If there is more science behind the facts above, why do people believe the triangle is cursed. It is because it is in our heads and we make it “cursed”. People only mention the bad things that happen without explanation but what about the ones that do have one. Our minds want interesting information so we are called more to mystery than explanation. Once we get these explanations of weird things going on we don’t really question it. Not one certain region in the globe is more dangerous than the other, all places are dangerous. Feel free to not worry when you are leaving Miami Florida to Puerto Rico, in a ship or a plane, just wear some protective gear because you want to be safe, everyone knows that.
Oscar Zamudio – St. Laurence High School – DMSF Class of 2026
Image: Science That Matter/Wikipedia