George Taulane, Jr.

George Taulane, Jr., September 18, 1909.

The schooner George Taulane, Jr. was lost (vanished?) east of the coast of Georgia with a company of seven. (Berlitz, Without a Trace, p. 22.)

She wasn't by any chance bound for the Gulf of Mexico?

LOUISVILLE, KY, Sept. 20. — A Gulf hurricane, which, beginning early to-day, swept along the Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida coast, has inflicted heavy damage, and tonight is continuing unabated.

…

At 3 PM the Weather Bureau there reported that the piling up of the Gulf waters at the mouth of the Mississippi already had caused a rise of three feet in the waters of the river at New Orleans, a thing unprecedented at that point from such a source.

…

So strong was the force of the wind at New Orleans that the neighboring lakes were agitated till they overflowed, covering the adjacent lowlands.

…

Fragmentary reports from points in Southern Louisiana and Mississippi show that the hurricane is sweeping along the Mississippi and Louisiana Gulf coast, damaging shipping, ruining the more frail structures, and seriously impeding railroad traffic. ("Gulf States Swept by Ruinous Storm," The New York Times, September 21, 1909.)

Then again, storm may have found her on the near side of the Florida peninsula just as well:

WASHINGTON, Sept. 20. — The tropical storm now raging will move northward, and merge with the disturbance in the Northwest over the central valleys Tuesday night, causing rain over a considerable part of the country east of the Rockies. The rain will reach the North Atlantic States Wednesday night. ("Tropical Storm Headed This Way," The New York Times, September 21, 1909.)

Sky Plover

Sky Plover, 1908.

The Sky Plover vanished without a trace in the Bermuda Triangle in 1908.

In 1906, off Miami, she had fallen in with four or more barnacle-encrusted, floating coffins. The crew did not try to recover them.

Encountering the coffins was considered a bad omen. It was also mysterious why the coffins had not drifted apart, if they had been in the water long enough to be overgrown with several years' worth of marine growth. (Winer, Devil's Triangle 2, pp. 46.)

George R. Vreeland

George R. Vreeland, January 27, 1908.

The schooner George R. Vreeland was lost (vanished?) east of Hampton Roads, Virginia, with a company of seven. (Berlitz, Without a Trace, p. 22.)

When I noticed these two vanishings, of the Baltimore and the George R. Vreeland, in the same neck of the seas, so close after each other, I immediately thought, storm.

Guess who was right?

The American liner Philadelphia, from Southampton, and the French liner Savoie, from Havre, got in yesterday with tales of gales and terrific seas. The worst day, according to Capt. Poirot of the Savoie, was on Saturday, when the vessel was deluged with the seas and rolled so badly that the steel foremast cracked just below the crow's-nest.

…

("Storm Cracks Liner's Mast," The New York Times, February 3, 1908.)

Saturday was February 1.

She may have been this wreck:

News of another disaster attributed to the recent storm off the coast was contained in a wireless message received here last night from the tug Astro, bound from New York to Port Arthur, Texas. The tug's message said:

"At 2:17 PM Tuesday, in latitude 34 degrees 7 minutes north, longitude 76 degrees, 45 minutes west passed a sunken vessel, either a four-masted schooner or barge. Her masts were sticking 25 feet out of water; shredded sails, having appearance of having been quickly abandoned. Fore, main, and spanker top-masts still standing; mizzenmast gone.

"Derelict lies in dangerous position in line of lightships." ("Tells of Another Wreck," The New York Times, February 5, 1908.)

Then again, the Vreeland may have been done in by the same storm that likely sank the Baltimore. We don't know what Berlitz meant when he gave the date January 27, 1908, for the Vreeland incident. Did she sail that day? Or was she reported missing that day? In the latter case, she might even be the schooner seen sinking by the Manna Hata.

…

The report of a sea tragedy was brought in yesterday by the steamer Manna Hata from Baltimore. A three-masted schooner was seen on Thursday evening struggling in the trough of the sea off the Delaware Capes. The Manna Hata had been blown some miles off her course, and when she got near the locality where the vessel had been last seen she was gone and many pieces of wreckage were floating in the water. ("Sloop's Crew near Death," The New York Times, January 27, 1908.)

Thursday was January 23.

Baltimore

Baltimore, January 22, 1908.

The bark Baltimore was lost (vanished?) east of Hampton Roads, Virginia, with a company of nine. (Berlitz, Without a Trace, p. 21.)

When I noticed these two vanishings, of the Baltimore and the George R. Vreeland, in the same neck of the seas, so close after each other, I immediately thought, storm.

Guess who was right?

NORFOLK, Va., Jan. 25. — The overdue Old Dominion liner Jamestown, which left New York Thursday afternoon, and which was caught in yesterday's severe coast storm, arrived at her Norfolk pier at 2:30 o'clock this morning.

The Jamestown was blown many miles seaward and labored heavily in the fiercest of the gale until she was able to make the Virginia Capes at midnight. Heavy seas washed the decks of the steamer, the severity of these being shown by the fact that the vessel's crew, when able to venture out, picked from the meshes of the three-foot rope netting beneath the ship's deck rail more than a score of fish, which had been caught therein as the seas receded from the vessel.

…

("Catch Fish on Ship's Deck," The New York Times, January 26, 1908.)

The Old Dominion liner Princess Anne, due at this port on Friday afternoon, got in from Norfolk last night. She had been delayed by the storms off the cost. All her thirty passengers were safe.

Capt. Tapley said that on Friday morning the vessel ran into a fierce squall and snowstorm. The wind blew at the rate of ninety miles an hour, and it was so thick that it was impossible to see a half ship's length ahead. So terrific was the hurricane that the Princess Anne was forced fifteen miles out of her course. She ran to the eastward before the storm to avoid going ashore.

All this time the vessel was going at less than half speed, and she could make but little headway against the storm. ("Coaster Had Rough Trip," The New York Times, January 26, 1908.)

ATLANTIC CITY, NJ, Jan. 26. — The fishing sloop Pittsburg and her crew of eight men under command of Capt. George Jeffries came into port to-day after a three-day battle with the elements in which crew and boat fared badly. They had snow, rain, and gales, and fire in the hold of their sloop added to their peril. The roll of the billows overturned the stove in the galley. The men were nearly famished. Their fingers and noses were frozen. When the storm had blown itself out, the crew rigged up a jury mast and small sail, by aid of which they made their way home.

* * *

The report of a sea tragedy was brought in yesterday by the steamer Manna Hata from Baltimore. A three-masted schooner was seen on Thursday evening struggling in the trough of the sea off the Delaware Capes. The Manna Hata had been blown some miles off her course, and when she got near the locality where the vessel had been last seen she was gone and many pieces of wreckage were floating in the water. ("Sloop's Crew near Death," The New York Times, January 27, 1908.)

Thursday was January 23.

Theodor

Theodor, March 17, 1906.

On March 17, 1906, the steamer Virginian, skippered by Captain J. M'Donald, was steaming through the Bermuda Triangle from Liverpool to New Orleans. Captain M'Donald sighted another vessel, and made the following entry in his log:

Passed Norwegian four-masted barque Theodor, steering east, showing signals WDCP; light wind and clear weather; latitude 29 32 N, longitude 69 10 W.

The signals referred to in the log were signal flags flown to identify the vessel. The Theodor's actual signal letters were HDCP, so that the entry of WDCP in the log means that there must have been a mistake either in hoisting the flags on the Theodor, or in reading them from the Virginian.

The "Theodor, a Norwegian steamer-barkentine of 2,638 tons, … sailed from Tampa, Florida, to Yokohama, Japan, on March 2, 1906." (Quasar, p. 57.)

And was lost somewhere along the way, a tiny fraction of which led through the Bermuda Triangle.

By the way, the Theodor was the former China of the Cunard Line, which had been converted into a four-masted bark when she became uneconomical as a steamer and a liner.

Freya

Freya, October 4, 1902.

On October 3, 1902, the German bark Freya left Manzanillo, Cuba, for Punta Arenas, Chile. On October 23, the Freya was discovered partly dismasted, lying on her side, and derelict. Her anchor was still hanging free at her bow, so whatever had struck the ship had struck soon after the ship left port, before the crew had time to secure the anchor. The date on the calendar in the captain's cabin confirmed this; it still showed October 4. Weather reports show that there were only light winds at that time. (Berlitz, Bermuda Triangle, p. 55.)

This case is well documented in Nature. It really did, it happened just this way — give or take a lie or two. (Kusche, Bermuda Triangle Mystery, pp. 47.)

The Freya did not depart Manzanillo, Cuba. She departed Manzanillo, Mexico, which is located on the Pacific coast of Mexico.

So whatever mystery it is, it is not a Bermuda Triangle mystery. Not even close. Not even the right ocean.

The Bermuda Triangle sensationalists simply and disingenuously omitted the "Mexico" from "Manzanillo, Mexico," or even replaced it with "West Indies" or "Cuba."

As for the solution, that's where the other lie or omission comes in. The Nature article is titled "The Mexican Earthquake" and mentions the Freya as the victim of a seaquake. ("The Mexican Earthquake," Nature, April 25, 1907, p. 610.)

Taking Stock

We've been looking at four centuries of Bermuda Triangle history now, from 1492 to 1900. We've seen some fascinating mysteries.

Yet for the well-documented cases, like the Mary Celeste, there are naturalistic explanations. And for the truly mystical cases that would seem to require or at least to invite a supernatural explanation, like the Ellen Austin, there is no evidence that they ever happened.

However, the most case-rich century is still to come. Some of the cases from the twentieth century are spine-tingling ghost (ship) stories and convoluted brain teasers. But are there mysteries out there that cannot be rationally explained?

We will see, here at Bermuda Triangle Central. Where else? Stay tuned for the most famous and notorious Bermuda Triangle cases.

Arbutus

Arbutus, January 1, 1899.

The "385-ton Canadian brigantine Arbutus… disappeared January 1, 1899, on a voyage between Jamaica and New York." (Quasar, p. 56.)

Practically no details are given. Where was she on January 1? Did she depart that day? Was she seen in mid-voyage by another ship?

Thus, we do not know if she was in the vicinity of one of the vicious winter storms that swept the Eastern Seaboard that year.

"NEW ROCHELLE, NY, Jan. 1. — During the storm this morning the fourmasted schooner Gypsum Emperor, Capt. Morrison, from Bangor, Me., for Jersey City, went ashore on the rocks near Gutt Rock, off Rye Beach…" ("Schooner Ashore, but Floats Off," The New York Times, January 2, 1899.)

"BOSTON, Jan. 2. — The heavy northeast snow storm of yesterday, which prevailed throughout New England…" ("Cold Weather in New England," The New York Times, January 3, 1899.)

If a ship, a small sailing ship in particular, is lost in the path of a storm, the onus is on the sensationalists to show that she is not a storm victim. Occam's razor.

Mountain Girl

Mountain Girl, May 5, 1896.

The "steamer Mountain Girl, last reported in the Gulf on May 5, 1896," allegedly vanished in the Bermuda Triangle. (Quasar, p. 57.)

To the day, 115 years ago.

There are reports of a storm in Virginia on May 12 ("Disastrous Storm in Virginia," The New York Times, May 13, 1896.) and a storm with "cyclones" (apparently they meant tornadoes) in Texas, Kansas, and another, unnamed, state on May 13 ("Cyclones in Three States," The New York Times, May 14, 1896.). Yet we don't know anything about the course of the Mountain Girl, whether she was bound for Texas or Virginia or some place away from the storms.