Maggie S. Hart

Maggie S. Hart, December 18, 1909.

The schooner Maggie S. Hart was lost (vanished?) east of Jacksonville, Florida, with a company of eight. (Berlitz, Without a Trace, p. 22.)

The Martha S. Bement, the Maggie S. Hart, the Auburn, and the Anna R. Bishop — the great Charles Berlitz Jacksonville Christmas schooner bash of 1909. Four more for the Bermuda Triangle.

Well, either the Martians/Atlanteans were swarming, or there was a storm. Looks like Berlitz happened upon four schooners that sailed straight into the Christmas Day Blizzard of 1909.

Martha S. Bement

Martha S. Bement, December 16, 1909.

The schooner Martha S. Bement was lost (vanished?) east of Jacksonville, Florida, with a company of seven. (Berlitz, Without a Trace, p. 22.)

Group lists her as a derelict and cites the The New York Times, but without any particulars. (Group, p. 139.) He must have meant this article, though.

ROTTERDAM, March 23. — The British steamer St. Nicholas, arriving from Savannah, reports having passed on March 12 in latitude 41 degrees north, longitude 46 degrees west, the American schooner Martha S. Bement, dismasted and with her decks awash. The derelict is in the path of transatlantic steamers and is a dangerous obstruction to navigation.

* * *

The Martha S. Bement, a three-masted wooden schooner, sailed from Jacksonville on December 16 for New York, and had been many weeks overdue. She carried a crew of seven men, and was owned by F. & A.L. Heidritter of Newark, NJ. She was built at Bath, ME, in 1881, and registered 375 tons net. ("American Ship a Derelict," The New York Times, March 24, 1910.)

The Martha S. Bement, the Maggie S. Hart, the Auburn, and the Anna R. Bishop — the great Charles Berlitz Jacksonville Christmas schooner bash of 1909. Four more for the Bermuda Triangle.

Well, either the Martians/Atlanteans were swarming, or there was a storm. Looks like Berlitz happened upon four schooners that sailed straight into the Christmas Day Blizzard of 1909.

Martha S. Dement, more like.

Spray

Spray, November 14, 1909.

In 1892, unemployed veteran sailing-ship captain Joshua Slocum was given a ship that "wants some repairs." Slocum found that that "ship" was the wreck of an old oyster sloop named the Spray, rotting in a field. This old salt took that prank as a challenge and totally rebuilt her.

Then, between 1895 and 1898, he proceeded to sail the Spray around the world, to become the first person to circumnavigate the world single-handed. (He re-rigged her as a yawl along the way.)

In November 1909, Slocum sailed in the Spray from Vineyard Haven, Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, for South America via the West Indies. He may have been on his way to explore Orinoco, Rio Negro, and Amazon.

Slocum stopped in Miami for supplies, from where he set sail on November 14. (Sources disagree on whether that was the day he sailed from Martha's Vineyard or from Miami.)

After that, neither he nor his trusty boat were ever heard from again. Along with the Spray, he vanished in the Bermuda Triangle. (Winer, Devil's Triangle, pp. 124.)

Slocum was the best sailor who ever lived or shall live, and his Spray was the best sailboat ever built or conceivably possible to build. Therefore it's unthinkable that he could have fallen victim to any ordinary accident.

As nothing short of supernatural powers could have defeated a superman like Slocum, the fact that he vanished with his Spray in the Bermuda Triangle proves beyond any reasonable doubt that there are supernatural powers at work in said Bermuda Triangle. That's at least the mystics' line.

Winer gets extra points for including the story how Slocum passed out sick on his voyage around the world and awoke to find at the helm, holding the Spray steady in the storm, a ghost in old-fashioned clothes that introduced himself as the pilot of the Pinta. You know, Pinta as in Columbus.

Nothing to do with the Bermuda Triangle, but some added mystery at no charge. Oh, I forget, it was between the Azores and Gibraltar, so it was "on the fringe of the 'Devil's Triangle,' " Winer's enlargement of the Bermuda Triangle, a trapezium four times the size of the Bermuda Triangle conveniently running to Cape Hatteras, the "Graveyard of the Atlantic," including half the Caribbean, and stretching almost all the way to the Azores. Silly me.

Winer truly got all bases covered. The fringe of that Devil's Triangle takes us well-nigh to Africa, and the fringe of the fringe no doubt to China, in case anything mysterious has been going on there. I'm sure we can fit The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor somewhere in here. Then of course, sailing single-handed, Slocum is the only witness that it ever happened.

Opinions are divided on whether the Spray was a terrific or a terrible design. Some say Slocum completed his voyage around the world not because of, but in spite of the Spray. (Kusche, Bermuda Triangle Mystery, p. 52.) Maybe a bit of both is true:

Iconoclast designer John G. Hanna, known as the sage of Dunedin but perhaps better known as the designer of the Tahiti ketch, said of Spray, "I hold that her peculiar merit as a single-hander was in her remarkable balance of all effective centers of effort and resistance on her midship section line." Hanna nevertheless felt it necessary to warn prospective circumnavigators looking for a suitable vessel that "Spray is the worst possible boat for anyone lacking the experience and resourcefulness of Slocum to take offshore.

Slocum was sixty-five years old when he vanished, and some felt he was getting old. So he may not have been up to the demands of this peculiar vessel anymore, no longer able to by his skills keep her from turning from a dreamboat into a deathtrap:

Slocum's mental health deteriorated during his later years. Visiting Riverton, New Jersey, in May 1906, Slocum was charged with raping a 12-year-old girl. After further investigation and questioning, it became apparent that the crime was indecent exposure, but Slocum claimed to have no memory of any wrong-doing and that, if anything had happened, it must have occurred during one of his mental lapses. Slocum spent 42 days in jail awaiting trial. At his trial he pleaded "no contest" and was released for time-served. The judge at his trial told him, "upon request of the family, I can deal leniently with you."

The Spray, too, was going downhill:

A few weeks after his conviction in New Jersey, Slocum and the Spray visited Sagamore Hill, the estate of US President Theodore Roosevelt on the north shore of Long Island, New York. Roosevelt and his family were interested in the tales of Slocum's solo circumnavigation. The President's young son, Archie, along with a guardian, spent the next few days sailing with Slocum up to Newport aboard the Spray, which, by then, was a decrepit, weather-worn vessel.

So the Spray may simply have rotted away from under Slocum. Which would have been no good at all: "Despite being an experienced mariner, Slocum never learned to swim and considered learning it to be useless."

Or Slocum may finally have found a storm that could defeat him. He may have died of old age or blacked out again and fallen overboard, with the pilotless Spray foundering later, self-steering into a storm or onto some rocks. His oil-burning lamp may have set the Spray on fire. (Group, p. 35.) He may have fled his wife to spend his final years on some island in the sun.

Or the Spray was run down by a big ship at night. A sailboat's already dim lights were sometimes obscured by its own sails, and the crew of a big steamer would not even have felt a bump from that tiny tub. (Kusche, Bermuda Triangle Mystery, pp. 50.)

According to Edward Rowe Snow, that is exactly what happened. Slocum was indeed seen one last time after he sailed from Miami, when he visited Turtle Island in the Lesser Antilles and its owner, planter Felix Meinickheim. Meinickheim later told the story to one "Captain Charles H. Bond of Wollaston, Massachusetts, a master mariner whose statements are unimpeachable," in Snow's opinion, at least.

Before Slocum sailed from Turtle Island, he told Meinickheim of his plans to sail to South America, up the Orinoco River, into the Rio Negro, all the way into the Amazon, and down that river.

It is indeed possible to sail from the Orinoco into the Rio Negro / Amazon, via the Casiquiare Canal or Casiquiare River:

The Casiquiare river is a distributary of the upper Orinoco, which flows southward into the Rio Negro, in South America. As such, it forms a unique natural canal between the Orinoco and Amazon river systems. It is the largest river on the planet that links two major river systems, a so-called bifurcation.

Two nights after Slocum's departure, Meinickheim was about to board a 500-ton, 125-foot mail steamer. Then and there, "he noticed a deep cut in her stem, just above the water line." The captain told him that the ship "had run down a native boatman the night before." The captain felt sure it had been a native: "Who else could it be?"

Meinickheim now had a terrible, ominous feeling. He inquired as to when the incident had taken place. He was told it had been during the graveyard watch, the midnight to four AM watch always taken by the second mate.

Meinickheim then interviewed the second mate, who admitted that it had been an unusually dark night, overcast, and at the moment of contact with the other craft, there definitely was no one at the wheel of the other vessel. As for the Captain's claim that they had run down a native boatman, the second mate made the following statement:

"In the few seconds when I saw the other craft, I made out that she was not a native of this area."

As Slocum "was the only outsider anywhere in the immediate vicinity," everybody, including Snow, jumped to the conclusion that it was Slocum who had been run down. (Snow, Mysterious Tales of the New England Coast, pp. 182.)

Now, obviously this assumption is not much better than what you get to hear from the mystics, even though it is used to propose as rational explanation. Did all the outsiders have to sign in before they entered those waters? How can they know there was not another? Thus, this solution far from solves the case, although it remains a possibility, though unproven.

Anyway, there are plenty of reasonable explanations possible for the vanishing of the Spray. Unfortunately, Kusche feeds the mystics by concluding his relevant chapter: "The fate of Joshua Slocum and the Spray is truly a mystery of the sea." Of course the mystics latch onto that: "See, it's a mystery after all, so the Bermuda Triangle mystery is not in fact solved." One should add that it's another "we don't know which one of the many possible rational solutions is true" mystery, not a "no rational explanation is possible, so we got to drag in the Martians or the Atlanteans" mystery.

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.