The HMS Atalanta was built in 1844 as the 26-gun frigate HMS Juno. She was converted into a training ship and on January 10, 1878, renamed HMS Mariner and on January 22, 1878, HMS Atalanta. On January 31, 1880, she sailed from Bermuda to Portsmouth, only to vanish in the Atlantic with 290 cadets and officers. She is presumed lost in a storm.
Your friendly neighborhood mystic would try to mystify the vanishing like this:
The report of the investigating committee on the loss of the British training ship Atalanta was published on December 29, 1880, and stated no reliable trace had been found. The committee said they considered the Atalanta a very stable ship, except at the large angles of the heel, and that the alterations in her rig only tended to increase her safety. The committee spoke favorably of her officers and crew, and pointed out that at the time of her loss exceptional storms proved fatal to a number of merchant vessels. The only exception was that survivors or debris in the other cases were always found.
Experts agreed that the Atalanta must have encountered stormy weather, but so did scores of other vessels that crossed the Atlantic Ocean at the same time; yet the other vessels met with no mishaps other than slight delays. They pointed out that a British naval vessel was much safer than a merchant ship.
If military men could not manage a well-equipped sailing vessel in storm, what would happen to them if they found themselves in mid-ocean on board a disabled ironclad? (Spencer, pp. 91.)
Kusche quotes extensively from the coverage of the London Times (Kusche, Bermuda Triangle Mystery, pp. 36.):
April 13, p.6: First the store ship Wye and then the whole Channel Squadron were sent to search the Atalanta.
April 14, p. 2:
When the Atalanta left Bermuda there were 109 tons of water on board, and an ample supply of provisions. The ship was in all respects sound, possessed of unusual stability, and commanded by an officer of good judgment and high professional qualifications; but the unexpected delay in her arrival affords cause for anxiety for her safety, bearing in mind the many disasters which have occurred during the past two months, consequent on the very severe weather which has been experienced in the Atlantic.
The easterly gales had been blowing for nearly a month. The Tamar is rumored to have seen a capsized copper-bottomed ship. This, however, cannot have been the Atalanta, as the weight of her water tanks and her forty-three tons of ballast would not have allowed her to float once capsized.
April 15, p. 10: The captain of the Tamar sent a telegram saying he did not pass a ship bottom upwards. Great excitement in Portsmouth because the Atalanta docked in Falmouth. It was, however, the merchant vessel Atalanta, not the HMS Atalanta.
April 19, p. 6:
On Saturday a report was bruited abroad to the effect that a lifeboat had been found, with the name Atalanta painted on the stern. This was not confirmed, and even if it had been the boat could not have belonged to the missing ship, as it is not a custom in the navy to paint the names of the men-of-war to which they belong on the stern or anywhere else.
April 20, p. 12: The gunboat Avon arrived in Portsmouth and reported immense quantities of floating wreckage in the vicinity of the Azores.
April 21, p. 8:
There can be no question of the criminal folly of sending some 300 lads who have never been to sea before in a training ship without a sufficient number of trained and experienced seamen to take charge of her in exceptional circumstances. The ship's company of the Atalanta numbered only about 11 able seamen, and when we consider that young lads are often afraid to go aloft in a gale to take down sail… a special danger attaching to the Atalanta becomes apparent.
April 26, p. 8: The Channel Squadron found nothing in the Azores.
April 27, p. 10: The crew of the Tamar arrived in Portsmouth. Among the passengers was an able seaman, John Varling, who had been invalidated from the Atalanta on January 3.
Varling's account of the performance of the training ship is far from reassuring, though the question will, of course, arise as to the value of his opinion. She is reported as exceedingly crank, as being overweight… and as having aroused the distrust of Captain Stirling… She rolled 32 degrees, and Captain Stirling is reported as having been heard to remark that had she rolled one degree more she must have gone over and foundered. During the trying situation the peculiar weaknesses of the ship's company were brought prominently into notice. As, with the exception of two, the officers were almost as much out for training as the crew, Captain Stirling scarcely ever left the deck, and the work of shortening sail and sending down the spars was left to the able seamen on board, who, including marines (mostly servants) petty officers, and cooks, only numbered about 50 in a crew of 250… The young sailors were either too timid to go aloft or were incapacitated by sea-sickness… Varling states that they hid themselves away, and could not be found when wanted by the boatswain's mate. It took the ship 31 days to go to Barbados from Tenerife… or about nine days [extra]…
May 10, p. 8: The Channel Squadron arrived in Bantry Bay and still had heard or picked up nothing from the Atalanta.
May 18, p. 10: A letter from a master mariner by the name of Allen Young recounts captains reporting "a storm of unusual violence… in the probable track of the Atalanta" and lists a litany of ships that were wrecked or missing on account of that storm.
There continued to be sightings of capsized wrecks and finds of messages in bottles and on barrels staves, which were discounted as inauthentic.
So where does that leave us?
"The committee said they considered the Atalanta a very stable ship" — how stable she really was is disputed.
"The committee spoke favorably of her officers and crew" — how many of them deserved to be so spoken of is disputed.
"The only exception was that survivors or debris in the other cases were always found." It is dishonest to say that no wreckage of the Atalanta was found. There was plenty of debris, and some of it was very possibly from the Atalanta. It's just that all of it was unmarked, including Royal Navy lifeboats, so one can't be sure either way.
"Experts agreed that the Atalanta must have encountered stormy weather, but so did scores of other vessels that crossed the Atlantic Ocean at the same time; yet the other vessels met with no mishaps other than slight delays." If Allen Young is to be believed, this is a barefaced lie.
Plus, "pointed out that at the time of her loss exceptional storms proved fatal to a number of merchant vessels" flies straight in the face of "the Atalanta must have encountered stormy weather, but so did scores of other vessels that crossed the Atlantic Ocean at the same time; yet the other vessels met with no mishaps other than slight delays." Did those vessels meet with no mishaps other than slight delays or did exceptional storms prove fatal to them? You can't have both, and particularly not in back-to-back paragraphs.
They pointed out that a British naval vessel was much safer than a merchant ship.
If military men could not manage a well-equipped sailing vessel in storm, what would happen to them if they found themselves in mid-ocean on board a disabled ironclad?
Well…
The young sailors were either too timid to go aloft or were incapacitated by sea-sickness… Varling states that they hid themselves away, and could not be found when wanted by the boatswain's mate.
Duh.
And again, only a short part of the course of the Atalanta was in the Bermuda Triangle. She may have been lost far outside it, yet she is inevitably chalked up as a victim of the Triangle.
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