Transcript

10.3.25 · History Hour

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Speaker 1: Hello and welcome. This is Radioized History Show and I'm
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your reader for today, Joseph Bolt, so happy to be
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with you. And before we begin today's show, as you know,
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I'll cite the sources as we go along today's program.
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So today I thought we would talk about a mysterious
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patch of land in the world for a long time
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now and still a lot of questions about it, and
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that is the Bermuda Triangle. So let me read first
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from a article and this is from all That's Interesting
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dot com and the articles entitled what is the Bermuda Triangle?
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Inside the mysterious patch of the Atlantic where dozens of ships,
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planes and people have disappeared. It's written by Colleena Fraga
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and it's edited by John Kurowski. And this was originally
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done in December of twenty three and updated in May
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of this year, twenty twenty five. So let me get
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the reading discover the real stories of calamities, disappearances, and
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other inexplicable events that have unfolded inside the Bermuda Triangle,
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the infamous section of the western North Atlantic that's left
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experts baffled for decades. According to legend, in eighteen eighty one,
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a ship called the Ellen Austin was sailing from Liverpool
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to the United States when it encountered an abandoned vessel.
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While opting to salvage the ship and its cargo, the
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captains sent over a small band of men to commandeer it,
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but during the night the ships were separated, and in
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the morning the captain found the vessel abandoned anew with
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no trace of his men. This was just one of
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the many strange stories to emerge from a swatch of
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ocean known as the Bermuda Triangle. The legend of the
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Bermuda Triangle has captivated the world since the nineteen sixties,
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when the term was first coined in Argosy magazine, but
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its history of puzzling disappearances and other odd phenomenon is
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far older. In fact, even Christopher Columbus reported some unsettling
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occurrences as he passed through the Bermuda Triangle en route
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to the Americus. So what is the Bermuda Triangle exactly?
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Is the Bermuda Triangle real, and if so, is it dangerous? Well,
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let's read on to find out about its history. The
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answer to what is the Bermuda Triangle must start with
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where is the Bermuda Triangle? But like many things about
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this strange stretch of ocean, the area's exact parameters are
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somewhat murky. Writer Vincent Gaddis, who coined the term in
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his article the Deadly Bermuda Triangle for Argasy Magazine in
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February of nineteen sixty four, offered the first definition. Gaddis
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explained that the triangle itself is formed between points in Bermuda,
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Florida and San Juan, Puerto Rico, in area covering and
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sweeping five hundred thousand square miles in the Atlantic Ocean.
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That said, others have described the Bermuda Triangle as being
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much larger, perhaps encompassing as much as one and a
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half million square miles according to the Naval History and
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Heritage Command. This area is by no means isolated, Gaddis
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wrote in his nineteen sixty four article, the coasts of
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Florida and the Carolinas are well populated, as well as
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the islands involved. Sea distances are relatively short day and night.
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There is traffic over the sea and air lanes. The
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waters are well patrolled by the Coast Guard, the Navy,
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and the Air Force. And yet this relatively limited area
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is the scene of disappearances that total far beyond the
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laws of chance. Gaddis added, the Bermuda Triangle underlines the
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fact that the spike, swift wings, and the voice of radio,
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we still have a world large enough so that men
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in their machines and ships can disappear without a trace. Indeed,
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within this stretch of sea, whether five hundred thousand square
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miles or or more more than fifty ships and twenty
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airplanes have vanished, many disappeared under truly bizarre circumstances, and
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those Gaddis coined the term Bermuda Triangle in the nineteen sixties.
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The history of odd Events in this part of the
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Atlantic Ocean stretches back as far as Christopher Columbus. He
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described seeing a strange fireball crash into the sea while
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he was traveling through the Bermuda Triangle in the fifteenth century,
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and wrote in his ship's log about erratic compass readings
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in the area. Since then, scores of people have fared
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far worse than that. Many have disappeared along with their
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ships or planes while in the Bermuda Triangle, which, according
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to The New York Times, has also come to be
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known as Devil's Triangle, or Limbo of the Lost, or
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the Twilight Zone, and finally, maybe the whodoo See. Of
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all the ships that disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle, one
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has long captured the public imagination, the USS Cyclops, which
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vanished in nineteen eighteen. I'm going to read an article
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about that in just a little bit, so i'll skip
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over this current article about the Cyclops, and then we'll
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read later about it. But it's not only ships that
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have disappeared. In December of nineteen forty five, five Navy
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planes flew from Fort Lauderdale into the Bermuda Triangle for
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a training mission known as flight nineteen, they promptly vanished.
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To make things even stranger, one of the rescue planes
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sent to search for them vanished as well. We'll talk
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more about that later as well. In another haunting case,
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a schooner called the Carol a Deering ran aground in
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North Carolina in nineteen twenty one without its crew Eerily.
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They'd reportedly left behind a fully prepared meal in the galley,
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as if they'd been about to sit down to eat.
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Perhaps one of the strangest disappearances in the Bermuda Triangle
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happened in nineteen sixty nine, when two keepers at Great
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Isaac Lighthouse in the Bahamas suddenly vanished without a trace.
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Though some have attributed their disappearance to a storm that
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passed through the area, other think that the supposedly mystical
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forces of the Bermuda Triangle had something to do with it,
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making this paranormal vortex a focal point for philosophobes around
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the world for decades. Over the years, many theories have
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been put forward to explain why so many ships and planes,
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and even lighthouse keepers have disappeared in this part of
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the Atlantic Ocean in the past five hundred years. As
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the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration or NOAHAA, notes most
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tropical storms and hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean pass through
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the Bermuda Triangle, which makes it a particularly treacherous part
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of the ocean for ships, especially before modern weather forecasting.
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What's more, the volatile Gulf Stream can cause violent changes
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in weather conditions. Another theory posits that rogue waves, or
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massive swells that can grow up to one hundred feet,
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could have easily swallowed ships like the cyclops and as
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Encyclopedia Britannica reports, storms in the Bermuda Triangle come from
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multiple directions, which makes these waves even more likely. Yet
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another theory suggests that the cause of all the disappearances
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can be found much deeper in the ocean. The New
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York Times reported that some scientists believe huge deposits of
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methane gas could be behind the Bermuda Triangle phenomenon. Eruptions
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of the gas could displace water, causing ships to sink,
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and because the gas is flammable, it could even collide
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with an airplane mid air and cause it to explode.
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Then again, the disappearances could be due to something else
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entirely given the strange number of disappearances in the Bermuda Triangle,
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it's perhaps unsurprising that some have suggested that there may
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be a supernatural explanation for this phenomenon. Some believe that
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aliens might have abducted the missing sailors and pilots well.
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This theory states that aliens have used the Bermuda Triangle
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as some kind of portal to Earth, and that they
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use the abducted people in ships to better understand humankind. Indeed,
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a similar theory suggests that this part of the ocean
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could be some kind of wormhole. Other have postulated that
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a sea monster could account for the inexplicable disappearances of
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ships and planes. Usually, a wooden bucket or a cork
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life preserver identified as belonging to a lost ship is
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picked up after a wreck, but not so with the Cyclops.
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Santa Fe magazine reported after the ship's disappearance. According to history,
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she thus disappeared as though some gigantic monster of the
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sea had grabbed her men and all and sent her
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into the depths of the ocean. But perhaps the strangest
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theory is that the lost city of Atlantis might have
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something to do with the Bermuda Triangle. But this theory
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suggests that the sunken city uses crystal energies to bring
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down ships and planes. Experts, however, have dismissed ideas like
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these as nonsense. According to Noah in OAA, there's nothing
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supernatural about the Bermuda Triangle. In fact, in OAA points
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out that the Bermuda Triangle doesn't officially exists. No official
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maps exist that delineate the boundaries of the Bermuda Triangle.
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Noah explains the u S Board of Geographic Names does
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not recognize the Bermuda Triangle as an official name and
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does not maintain an official file on the area. What's more,
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the mysteries of some ships said to have disappeared in
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the area, like the s S Katopaxi, have been solved.
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The wreck of the Kotopaxi was found nearly a century
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after it mysteriously vanished outside of the Bermuda Triangle. Experts
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say that it simply sank during a storm. No sea
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monsters or aliens were involved. So what is the Bermuda Triangle?
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At the end of the day, it seems to be
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nothing more than a stretch of sea, no more treacherous
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than any other. The ocean has always been a mysterious
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place to humans, and when foul weather or poor navigation
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is involved, it can be a very deadly place. Noah explains,
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there is no evidence that mysterious disappearances occur with any
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greater frequency in the Bermuda Triangle than in any other large,
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well traveled area of the ocean. The next article I'd
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like to read about the Bermuda Triangle is from history
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dot com and it's entitled Bermuda Triangle Mystery, What happened
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to the USS Cyclops? And This article was written by
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na Natasha Frost and originally in July of eighteen, updated
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in May of this year, twenty twenty five. How could
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the biggest ship in the US Navy vanish without a trace?
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This was the question on many people's minds in March
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of nineteen eighteen, when an enormous collier, the USS Cyclops,
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disappeared on a voyage between the West Indies to Baltimore.
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A century on, it's no closer to being answered. The
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Cyclops was nearly five hundred and fifty feet long, with
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a crew of three hundred and six people and around
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eleven thousand tons of manganese aboard. She had been sailing
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successfully since nineteen ten, traveling between the Baltic Sea, the
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Caribbean and Mexico and assisting with moving coal around the
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world and helping refugees. But in nineteen seventeen, when America
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entered World War One, Cyclops became a key naval asset,
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transporting troops and coal to fuel other ships all over
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the world. In March of nineteen eighteen, the ship was
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given a new cargo, tons and tons of dense manganese
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ore used in steel making. She left Brazil loaded up
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with the brittle metal, then voyaged to Barbados or Barbadoes
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rather to resupply for the long journey home to Baltimore.
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The last known message from the ship said simply quote
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weather fair all well end quote. But on the nine
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day journey something went awry and no one from the
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ship was ever seen or heard from again, vanishing without
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even an s O s. In a feature published a
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couple of years after the ship's disappearance, Santa Fe magazine
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described the strangeness of the disappearance. Usually a wooden bucket
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or a cork life preserver identified as belonging to a
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lost ships picked up after a wreck, but not so
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with the Cyclops. They reported. She thus disappeared as though
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some gigantic monster of the sea grabbed her men and
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all and sent her into the depths of the ocean,
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and the suddenness of her destruction is amplified by the
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absence of any wireless calls for help being picked up
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by any ship along the route. Throughout the decade, there
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have been a flurry of sometimes sensational theories about the
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ship's disappearance, but as but rather as one among more
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than a hundred ships and planes to have mysteriously disappeared
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in the so called Bermuda Triangle, the region roughly bounded
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by Bermuda, Miami and Puerto Rico. Was the ship eaten
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by some beast of the deep, carried off as evidence
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by UFOs, or simply scuppered by a storm. At the time,
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people wondered whether the ship and crew had been the
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victim of a German submarine. It was barely a year
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into the war, and the Cyclops would have made a
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strategic target. Yet nothing materialized, and as time went on
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it has become less and less likely the German crafts
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had been in the area at all others have pointed
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fingers at the Captain George W. Whirly. Months earlier, some
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members of the crew claimed Whorley was a drunk unsuitable
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to steer a ship. There were even reports of a
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minor mutiny staged on board the ship. The Navy defended
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Worley of these charges, and he returned to his command
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with apparently little fanfare. The US Navy says in its
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official statement about the Cyclops quote, the disappearance of this
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ship has been one of the most baffling mysteries in
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the annals of the Navy. All attempts to locate her
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have proved unsuccessful end quote, but some still cling to investigations,
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particularly those with a personal connection to the ship. Marvin
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Barrash is the descendant of one of the firefighters aboard
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the ship. He has spent more than a decade researching
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its history, painsakenly gathering Navy records in ship logs, and
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any ephemeral that might come in useful, including a blackened
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bag of manganese ore. The whole existence of the ship
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has been swept under a rug, he told the Baltimore Sun.
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It wasn't like it was lost in a glorious battle.
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It just kind of fell off the face of the earth.
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Varash had his own suspicions about what happened to this
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lost colossus. A series of mechanical failures, a crew unused
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unused rather to the new heavy cargo, and a final
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great rolling wave that tipped the ship and her passengers
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into the ocean forever. All of this, he thinks may
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have coincided with the ship passing over the Puerto Rico Trench,
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the deepest part of the Atlantic, where she would be
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nearly irretrievable. Despite his misgivings, Brash retains some hope that
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the ship will be discovered, especially as undersea exploration technology improves.
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There are fewer and fewer lost shipwrecks every year with
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high tech devices spotting vessels believed to be gone for good.
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The Cyclops may be next on the list. I just
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want her to be found, Barrash said, I want the
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three to nine to be at rest, as well as
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the families. It's something everybody needs some resolution. And finally,
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let me finish with the disappearance of Flight nineteen, which
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comes from his street hit dot com written by Amy
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Irvin in February of twenty twenty three. To this day,
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there's no explanation of what happened to Flight nineteen, and
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a popular theory is that it became disoriented and was
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lost in the Bermuda Triangle supernatural element. An equally wild
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theory is that the planes were abducted by aliens, with
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some believing that extraterrestrial beings are responsible for the disappearance
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of many planes and ships in the Bermuda Triangle. Witnesses
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claim that Lieutenant Taylor arrived to Flight nineteen's pre exercise
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briefing late and had requested to be excused from leading
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the mission due to a bad feeling. Was this a premonition?
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Others attribute the disappearance to enormous sea monsters, giant squids,
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or ocean flatulence the ocean spewing out great qualities of
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trap methane, but a more plausible theory is that the
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plan plane experienced mechanical failure or equipment malfunction that caused
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it to crash. However, no debris was ever found despite
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extensive naval searches of the area. Some think that a
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fog bank disrupted the planes instruments and navigation systems, yet
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there was no mention of fog in any of the
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flight transcripts. GPS technology had not yet arrived in nineteen
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forty five, so pilots flying over water had to rely
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on compasses and knowing how long they'd been flying in
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a particular direction and at what speed. Both of the
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compasses on Taylor's plane were apparently malfunctioning, and transcripts of
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his in flight communications suggest he wasn't wearing a watch
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with no landmarks for a reference in the middle of
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the ocean. Yet, what are the chances of two compasses
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malfunctioning at the same time. The plane may simply have
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run out of petro. Alternatively, mother nature, human era bad
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craftsmanshipperd as plain bad luck could have played a role. Furthermore,
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Lieutenant Taylor, although an experienced pilot, had a history of
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getting lost three times during World War II, two of
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which he ditched in the sea for rescue. He didn't
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know the area around Florida very well and did not
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hand over control to one of his trainee pilots when
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instructed to do so, clearly being hopelessly lost. A report
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by Navy investigators concluded that flight leader Lieutenant Taylor mistook
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small islands off shore for the Florida Keys after his
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compasses stopped working, resulting in the flight heading over open
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sea away from land. The report was later amended to
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read cause unknown to avoid blaming Taylor for the loss
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of five aircraft and fourteen men. Presumably the planes eventually
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ran out of fuel and ditched in the ocean, leaving
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any survivors at the mercy of rough seas and deep water. Nevertheless,
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Flight nineteen remains one of the greatest mysteries in aviation history. Well,
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that about does it for this chapter of Radio Eye History.
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I guess it's time to close now. I hope you
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enjoyed today's program. I'm your host, Joseph Bolt, and I'll
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be back with another chapter of Radio Eye history. Until then,
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happy trails.