The
Bermuda triangle is allegedly responsible for the mysterious disappearance of
at least 75 planes and hundreds of ships, among them flight 19 led by Charles
Carrol Taylor in 1945. Does that sound like a coincidence? “The Bermuda
Triangle (also known as the Devil's Triangle) is an area bounded by points in
Bermuda, Florida and Puerto Rico where ships and planes are said to
mysteriously vanish into thin air — or deep water” (Radford 1). This mysterious
vanishing and disappearing of ships is perfect territory for a conspiracy, and
humans being humans, tons have been made to solve this mystery.
 |
| Location of the Bermuda Triangle |
People
have come up with theory after theory in an effort to solve this so-called
mystery, but there really is no mystery to be solved. Some theories have taken
the more bizarre and wild stances, such as the theory proposed by Charles
Berlitz, claiming “not only that Atlantis was real, but also that it was
connected to the triangle in some way” (Radford 1), which is trying to say that
the lost City of Atlantis is the cause of these disappearances. Others have
tried for more logical and scientific explanations, such as H.J. Gruy, a
petroleum engineer who argues that “The unexplained disappearances of ships and
aircraft along with their crews and passengers in the Bermuda Triangle may be
tied to the natural venting of gas hydrates” (Gruy 1). However, the mysterious
disappearances of ships and planes in the Bermuda Triangle are not really
bizarre mysteries at all, because the Bermuda Triangle is no more mysterious
than any other body of water.
 |
| Charles Carrol Taylor |
Charles
Carrol Taylor was a careless pilot and a careless man because he cost the life
of himself as well as the lives of others among Flight 19. A person’s actions
determine their traits, and Charles Carrol Taylor made some pretty careless
actions. As stated by Allan McElhiney, of the Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale
Museum, “Lt. Charles C. Taylor reported that he was lost. By this time, the
weather and sea conditions got worse, as the evening wore on. Over the next
three hours Lt. Taylor mistakenly led Flight 19 far out to sea, where the
planes apparently ran out of fuel and Crashed” (McElhiney 1). This shows how
prone to mistakes Charles Carrol Taylor was, and how careless he acted that
day. He led his flight incorrectly and after getting way off course, he ran out
of fuel showing he did not stock up on fuel nor did he ever refill the fuel
completely before the flight. He was the main squadron commander of Flight 19,
a high position that comes with high responsibility. As John Ausink and Miriam
Matthews illustrated, “Squadron commanders have four primary responsibilities:
Execute the mission, lead people, manage resources and improve the unit.
Commanders said they believe leading and managing people to be their most
important responsibility” (Ausink 1). This means that part of the squadron
commander’s job is to lead people, but the job title requires this leadership
to lead them well. The key word is well, as Charles Carrol Taylor certainly did
not lead his squadron well; hence, incorrectly doing his job, which is always
careless any way one looks at it. He made plenty of mistakes to warrant calling
him careless. For example, as he was leading his squadron, “the tower operator
learns to his surprise that the leader has handed over his command to another
pilot for no apparent reason” (“Shadow Box” 1). Randomly giving over his
command to another pilot with less training as a squadron leader than himself
is both foolish and careless. Almost anyone could recognize that this is a
horrible idea and proves that Charles Carrol Taylor incorrectly did his job as
a squadron leader when it mattered because when push came to shove, he
relinquished his command to a man less capable and practical than himself.
 |
| One of Carrol's squadrons during WWII |
Not
to mention that the squadron he was primarily responsible for (in which he
failed at leading and got completely lost) “launched one of the largest air and
sea searches in history, and began the legend of the Bermuda Triangle”
(McElhiney 1). Causing America to go to such measures in an effort to fix his
mistakes is careless, plus the conclusion that he is also responsible for the
myth of the Bermuda Triangle shows just how much his careless actions affected
others. He is responsible for the incorrect spreading of myths and false
information, fooling people all over the world, and, on top of that, he still
led his squadron into the abyss of the ocean, causing him to also be
responsible for every member of the team he led being now lost forever in the
void of the Bermuda Triangle, never to be found again...all for a mere training
mission that his careless actions ruined.
 |
| This is a similar model to the plane Carrol flew during Flight 19 |
Charles
Carrol Taylor may have been an exceptionally careless man, but he also happened
to be very dedicated to his craft. The reason that incorrectly leading a
squadron is careless for Mr. Taylor is that he was trained to do otherwise. If
we were talking about a person with no training or experience, it would be a
different story. Obviously, it is not as careless for somebody to mess up
flying if they never learned how to fly; it would be rude and immoral to assume
as such. With the dedication and time Charles Carrol Taylor’s spent towards
piloting, however, this was not the case. This is because “Taylor was a
qualified senior flight instructor with 2,500 flying hours under his belt” (“Ghost
Patrol: The Strange Disappearance of Flight 19"
1). 2,500 hours is enough to make anyone practically an expert in most fields.
It takes a lot of dedication to devote that much time to one part of one’s life
or hobby/career. 2,500 hours is almost fourteen weeks spent just flying
airplanes as a flight instructor, which includes absolutely no time for breaks,
eating, drinking, sleeping, or socializing of any matter. This plus all of the
time flying planes when he was not a flight instructor is pure dedication. He
went from 1941-1945 just flying planes and serving for World War II. That alone
is four years of time spent on his career of flying aircraft, in which he was
part of the NAS Corpus Christi/Truax Field, the VS-62, the VT-7 Strike Eagles,
the USS Hancock(CV/CVA-19), the NAS Miami Fl, and the NAS Fort Lauderdale
(“Shadow Box” 1). With this much time spent, it is safe to say he was an
experienced WWII fighter pilot as well. He put tons of time and effort into his
job and went through a lot of training and spent tons of effort to get to the
point he was before his death. He went to school and after he finished school,
he wasted no time pursuing his passion in the air, becoming a flight instructor
within a year of his graduation. He graduated from NAS Corpus Christi, Texas,
February 1942 (McElhiney). Throughout his life, he jumped back and forth in
between operations and careers all in his field. By the point he was at in his
life prior to his death, he had already been in a squadron (Squadron 7) as a
torpedo pilot, been a part of Task Force 38, contributed to Acorn 36, and
partook in Squadron 79, plus Flight 19, although that was his last flight (“Find
a Grave” 1). The definition of dedication is to be given over to a particular
purpose (“Dedicated” 1), and Charles Carrol Taylor was dedicated by definition.
He definitely gave over most of his life to his passion and career, over 2,500
hours of time just spent flying aircraft, not counting the time it took to
learn how and go to school and get jobs. He fought in wars, taught others,
joined squadrons, and by the time of his death he had spent the majority of his
life flying and was a very experienced combat pilot.
|
| One of Carrol's Squadrons |
The
Bermuda Triangle, although known for many disappearances, is not mysterious in
the slightest, at least not to the degree of the public eye. The average person
believes something is up with the Bermuda Triangle, even if they are not
entirely sure what that something may be. When surveyed, a total of twenty-one
out of twenty-five people say that they believe something is mysterious about
the Bermuda Triangle. When presented with two options, fourteen of these people
say the disappearances are more likely due to a scientific reason such as the
natural venting of destructive gas hydrates, even if they have never even heard
of the conspiracy! Seven of these people believe the disappearances are more
likely due to the lost City of Atlantis. Only four out of twenty-five people,
the minority in this case, believe the Bermuda Triangle to be no more
mysterious than any other body of water. These shocking results are due to the
spreading of theories and controversy in the media, influencing the majority of
people. However, this information that is being spread is often misleading,
only giving parts of the story, or just made-up fiction. In other words, some
of these disappearances going around the media are lies being passed off and/or
perceived as facts.
 |
| A depiction of the Lost City of Atlantis |
A
popular theory regarding the Bermuda Triangle is that the disappearances of
planes and ships are due to the lost City of Atlantis underneath the surface,
deep in the ocean. Some people, expanding on Charles Berlitz’s ideas, the
creator of the Atlantis theory, claim that the reputed crystal energies of the
mythical city are to blame, sinking the ships and planes that dare cross its
path in the Bermuda Triangle (Radford, “Bermuda Triangle: Where Facts
Disappear” 1). This is a stretch to say the least and is simply not true. To
start, this theory requires the City of Atlantis to be real, which is an entire
conspiracy in itself. One bizarre theory is enough, but doubling it with
another? That is going too far. Secondly, there is not even proof that the City
of Atlantis would be in the Bermuda Triangle to begin with (if it were even
real.) In fact, “Countless Atlantis ‘experts’ have located the lost continent
all around the world based on the same set of facts. Candidates — each
accompanied by its own peculiar sets of evidence and arguments — include the
Atlantic Ocean, Antarctica, Bolivia, Turkey, Germany, Malta and the Caribbean”
(Radford, “Lost’ City of Atlantis: Fact & Fable” 1). Lastly, the likelihood
of there being “energy crystals” is slim to none, and there is no explanation
whatsoever of how they cause the disappearances and sink the ships/aircraft;
the theory simply states it does without any explanation, just like every other
story that is fooling the media and creating an enormous ordeal out of nothing.
For these reasons, this theory is false and should be disregarded and forgotten
by the thousands of people it has wrongly informed. All of the people fallen
subject to this misinformation should be made aware that their sources are not
true. The media is full of scandalous claims meant purely for views and
publicity. But, alas, the chances of this happening are very unlikely and
people will unfortunately still fall prey to these sham journalists.
 |
Another
theory, not as widely known but still embraced when presented with it by those
surveyed, is that the disappearances of the Bermuda Triangle are due to the
natural venting of gas hydrates. This theory is more widely embraced because it
is easier to choose this theory than its counterpart. It sounds more believable
at first glance, and is easier to pass off as fact because it sounds fancy and
scientifically proven. It is easier to defend because most do not actually look
into it, and as a result of it simply sounding real and being passable as fact
without research, it goes uncontested. This compared to the other theory, which
sounds much more bizarre, and requires proof when defending it as people are
more likely to doubt it, makes for a much more believable /embraceable theory
because it causes more people to jump on the bandwagon and mindlessly follow
the theory without any true evidence of it. The gas hydrates in this conspiracy
are hydrates that “occur on the ocean floor in such great volumes that they
contain twice as much carbon as all known coal, oil and conventional gas
hydrates" (Gruy 1). The theory claims that the disappearances of hundreds
of ships and aircraft are all solely due to these gas hydrates. This cannot be
true, namely because most of these disappearances, assuming they even happened
and were not made up for a journalist’s publicity stunt, have a legitimate,
proven reason for disappearing, such as a crash. The media, however, seems to
ignore this fact whenever it is convenient to them, especially when it happens
to get them attention from the public. They feed people false information and
confuse them, creating blown up conspiracies such as this one.
There
is also the matter that these gases are typically caused by sediment slides and
other natural events, creating slugs of gas saturated water with “density too
low to float a ship” and “enough localized atmospheric contamination to choke
air aspirated aircraft engines” (Gruy 1). This constitutes the conspiracy to be
fictitious, as there are sediment slides and natural events occurring all over
the world, and not solely in the Bermuda Triangle. If they are all over the
world, why would these mysteries just be centered around the Bermuda Triangle,
and how come theorists do not associate this with any other disappearances out
there? This theory may be appealing on the surface, as it sounds like a fact
really gives a false sense of security because it is seemingly professional,
but it is just as much as a publicity stunt as any other theory. If the gas
hydrate theory was not a publicity stunt, then the basis of it would be
expanded to places other than the Bermuda Triangle. It is not true, yet it is
still believed by most who come across it, and after they spread it to others,
this single publicity stunt will continue to cause the Bermuda Triangle to
appear more and more mysterious.
Conspiracies
about the Bermuda Triangle vary from outlandish claims about a lost City of
Atlantis sinking ships and planes alike with magic energy crystals to deceptive
scientific claims such as destructive gas hydrates as the culprit for the
disappearances. Whatever the theory, both theories share the common grounds of
being false. They are both just publicity stunts in the end and not true in the
slightest. The theorists who add to these theories are just riding the coat
tails of the entirety of the Bermuda Triangle conspiracy, spreading it more and
more while increasing the number of people who are falling subject to the false
information being spread about them. They feed the public bogus stories and
claims, and people take to them like fire does to gasoline. The reality is that
there is no real mystery to be solved about the Bermuda Triangle. There is only
a perceived mystique about it because people spread the conspiracies and rumors
like wildfire, and they go around the internet to the point where it is nearly
impossible for the gullible peoples of the society to decipher which
information is true and which is not.
The
Bermuda Triangle is no more mysterious than any other body of water. Most
disappearances noted by theorists have reasons not mentioned to the public, and
every body of water has disappearances that nobody makes as big of a deal of.
The entire conspiracy itself is a fraud blown way out of proportion with the
influence of media and the internet, causing a widespread conspiracy that most
believe to be fact. According to the survey, only the minority are unaffected,
leaving the majority of the population to be under the spell of the theorists.
The
Bermuda Triangle is not any more mysterious than any other body of water.
However, there are still some conspiracy theories regarding it that claim it is
mysterious for various reasons depending on the theory in question. These
theories are false and are simply resources used by journalists and theorists
to spread their personal fame by creating popular theories to be believed by
the public. The theories regarding the Bermuda Triangle are widespread through
the means of media and fool the average joe into believing them, resulting in a
society that mostly believes the Bermuda Triangle has an air of mystique about
it and that any disappearance is mysterious. In reality, they are due to events
like storms. Theorists have come up with theories that go the scientific route,
such as H.J. Gruy’s theory suggesting that the disappearances of planes and
ships are due to destructive gas hydrates (Gruy 1). As this theory is more
scientific sounding, most who read it immediately assume it to be fact without
any research. Other theorists go the fantasy route, such as Charles Berlitz, whose
theory says that the disappearances are due to the energy from the crystals
guarding the sunken City of Atlantis, which he claims to be in the Bermuda
Triangle (Radford 1). Whatever the theory that is thrown at the public and into
the media, that theory is false because the Bermuda Triangle is just a body of
water with nothing special about it.
Works Cited
Gruy, H.J. “Natural Gas Hydrates and
the Mystery of the Bermuda Triangle.” Petroleum Engineer International,
1 Mar. 1998, www.osti.gov/biblio/616279.
Radford, Benjamin. “Bermuda
Triangle: Where Facts Disappear.” LiveScience, Purch, 25 Sept. 2012, www.livescience.com/23435-bermuda-triangle.html.
Ausink, John A., and Miriam
Matthews. “Improving the Effectiveness of Air Force Squadron Commanders.” RAND
Corporation, 23 May 2018, www.rand.org/blog/2018/05/improving-the-effectiveness-of-air-force-squadron-commanders.html.
“Charles Carroll Taylor (1917-1945)
- Find A Grave...” Find A Grave, www.findagrave.com/memorial/7071436/charles-carroll-taylor.
“Ghost Patrol: The Strange Disappearance of
Flight 19.” Longitudws, 3 Apr. 2014,
peterkurtz.com/tag/charles-carroll-taylor/.
McElhiney, Allan. “Taylor.” Naval
Air Station Fort Lauderdale Museum, www.nasflmuseum.com/taylor.html.
“Shadow Box.” TogetherWeServed,
navy.togetherweserved.com/usn/servlet/tws.webapp.WebApp?cmd=ShadowBoxProfile&type=Person&ID=448303.
Radford, Benjamin. “'Lost' City of Atlantis:
Fact & Fable.” LiveScience, Purch, 1 Mar. 2018, www.livescience.com/23217-lost-city-of-atlantis.html.
No comments:
Post a Comment