Christopher Columbus was the first traveler known to us to pass through the Sargasso Sea and cross the area of ​​the Atlantic that we now call the Bermuda Triangle. It was thanks to Columbus that this area was shrouded in an atmosphere of mystery, which over the years became more and more intriguing. His ship's log contains a description of the sea, completely filled with algae, a story about the unusual behavior of the compass needle, about the sudden appearance of a huge tongue of flame, about the strange glow of the sea. Each incomprehensible phenomenon terrified the sailors, whose nerves were already strained to the limit, and it seemed to them an ominous warning that it was time to return home. Rumors of all these incredible events quickly spread among the sailors, and soon this region of the Atlantic gained a reputation for being mysterious and mysterious, a reputation that remains with him to this day.

When the astronauts went to the moon in 1969, they knew much more about their route, which exceeded a quarter of a million miles, than Columbus knew about his three thousand-mile journey in 1492. The flight of astronauts was provided by thousands of specialists around the world, using the best computers and communications created by man. The astronauts knew exactly how long their journey would take, and were prepared in advance for the many dangers that could lie in wait for them.

When Columbus left the Canary Islands in three small boats with a crew of ninety people, he had no idea what awaited him. He had no maps of the upcoming route, no one to establish contact with if necessary, no place to look for help in a moment of danger, and besides, he did not even imagine how long the journey would last or what surprises lay in wait for him.

The Sargasso Sea is located in the central part of the North Atlantic [the North Atlantic is sometimes called the part of the Atlantic Ocean located in the northern hemisphere], located between 30 and 70 degrees west longitude and 20 and 35 degrees north latitude. There are fewer clouds, less winds and less precipitation than over other areas of the ocean. The Sargasso Sea is almost the size of the United States of America; it stretched over 2,000 miles long and 1,000 miles wide. From all sides, the Sargasso Sea is surrounded by powerful Atlantic currents, which make its waters slowly rotate clockwise. This sea got its name from the Portuguese word "sargago", which means "seaweed".

The first sailors who crossed the Sargasso Sea were constantly afraid to run aground, since large accumulations of algae usually mean the proximity of land. Meanwhile, the depth of the ocean in this area is several miles.

Many unusual creatures live in the Sargasso Sea, which either recently sailed here, so to speak, as a “hare”, on all kinds of objects carried by the currents, or are descendants of the same “hares” that have adapted to life on algae.

The so-called "horse latitudes", that is, a strip of frequent and prolonged calm between the thirtieth and thirty-fifth parallels, greatly enhance the unusualness of this area. The air here is so still that sailors sometimes read on deck by candlelight all night long, and sailing ships could not move for a long time.

Although Columbus described the algae of the Sargasso Sea very accurately, the tales of those who visited here after him frightened the sailors. In those days, sailors did not like to go too far from the coast, and they became uncomfortable if the land did not appear for too long. They were horrified at the sight of a solid mess of yellow, brown and green algae with bizarre creatures teeming on them, stretching as far as the eye can see, right up to the horizon. The more ships stood motionless, with drooping sails along the "horse latitudes", the more terrible the stories about the Sargasso Sea became. According to them, it was no longer the lack of wind that delayed the ships there, but something else, incomprehensible. The sides, ropes and anchor chains gradually overgrown, entangled in a strong web of algae, which tenaciously kept the ship in this trap under the hot tropical sun until its crew died of hunger and thirst, and from the ship itself only a skeleton rotten and littered with skeletons remained, which did not go to the bottom only because it was surrounded by "tentacles" of algae. The case was also helped by the woodworm, which feels great in tropical waters, which sometimes really turned the sides of ships into solid dust. In the legends of the Sargasso Sea, various animals crawling through the weaves of algae were transformed into giant monsters that could drag the ship into the ocean abyss. There were rumors that the crews of ships that found themselves in this accursed sea died a painful death from suffocation.

When any objects enter the relatively calm waters of the central Sargasso Sea, they begin to move in a giant circle, like a person caught in a whirlpool, and eventually drown.

Many plants brought here by currents continue to grow. It can be assumed that most of the algae were brought into the Sargasso Sea from the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea with the help of the Gulf Stream. From Central America and the West Indies, tree trunks come here - a victim of hurricanes. And in general, all the rubbish and garbage that enters the rivers of these areas may sooner or later end up in the Sargasso Sea. As reported in the press in 1968, there is more oil and resin than sargassum, and this oil floats here from all over the world.

Many abandoned ships have been found in the Sargasso Sea, and because of this, it has the infamous reputation of a ship graveyard. Thanks to some novelists, the central regions of the Sargasso Sea have become famous as a fantastic realm, where once sunken ships crammed with treasures pile up on top of each other, many of which have lain there for hundreds of years, and the inhabitants of this amazing kingdom, brought here by the inexorable sea currents, are indifferent to treasures. , useless to them. Yes, no matter what they say about the Sargasso Sea, truth or fiction, this is indeed a very strange place.

The name “horse latitudes” arose back in those days when ships with horses on board stood here for a long time, caught in a calm. Days passed, but there was no rain, no wind, and supplies drinking water declined catastrophically. The horses, dazed from thirst, often broke off the leash and rushed into the water. And it also happened that the people themselves threw the weakened horses overboard in order to save the rest of the water for the stronger and more resilient ones. Superstitious sailors claimed that the ghosts of horses often appear here at night.

On the evening of September 13, Columbus noticed that the compass needle was no longer pointing at the North Star, but had shifted six degrees to the northwest. So for the first time the declination of the magnetic compass was noted. Watching over the next few days, as the arrow shifts more and more, Columbus realized that this new phenomenon could cause confusion among the crew members. The captains of the other ships also noticed that something was wrong with the compasses, and when it became known to all the sailors, they were horrified. They decided that even the laws of nature are different here. It seemed to them that some unknown force was acting on the compass, wanting them to go astray, and each of them was afraid that even more strange and mysterious phenomena awaited him ahead.

At this point, those who mention the strange behavior of the compass when they touch on the mysteries of the Bermuda Triangle usually change the subject of the story, as if giving the reader the opportunity to reflect on the nature of the mysterious forces operating in this area of ​​\u200b\u200bour planet. Meanwhile, this story has a continuation: Columbus came to the conclusion that the compass needle generally points not to the North Star, as his contemporaries believed, but to some other point in space. The navigators and the entire crew treated the scientific knowledge of Columbus with the greatest respect; they believed him and quickly calmed down. More than three centuries later, Washington Irving in his biography of Columbus wrote about this: “... the explanation that Columbus gave to this phenomenon was very plausible, which indicates the sharpness of his mind, always ready to find the only correct solution in the most critical situation. Perhaps at first he put forward this hypothesis only in order to calm the frightened sailors, but, as it turned out later, Columbus himself was quite satisfied with this explanation. And although Irving questioned the Columbus hypothesis, Columbus correctly solved this riddle.

The compass needle does not point to the North Pole or the North Star, but to the North Magnetic Pole, which is located near Prince of Wales Island, halfway between Hudson Bay and the North Geographic Pole. There are very few places on the globe where the compass needle points to the geographic North Pole; almost everywhere it deviates from the geographic meridian, and the angle of declination ranges from several degrees to 180. Now this feature of the magnetic needle is well known to pilots, sailors and hikers. They know how to correct compass readings to determine the direction of the geographic pole in any area of ​​the earth's surface.

The "great tongue of flame" that Columbus reported fell into the sea was apparently a meteor. This event did not particularly frighten anyone, and it was talked about simply because this meteor, apparently, was of a fairly large size.

By the beginning of the second week of October, Columbus was in a desperate situation: the sailors openly refused to obey him, demanding a return. For several weeks now they had seen land-dwelling birds and plants, which inspired in their hearts the hope that they would soon come to land. But every morning before them, again and again, the endless expanses of the ocean spread out and everything became more birds and plants. Sometimes the sailors mistook the clouds on the horizon for the coastal strip of land and so often shouted as if they were seeing land, causing the whole crew to exuberant joy, followed by new disappointment, that Columbus finally announced that if someone shouted "Earth!" and within three days this is not confirmed, he will lose the right to the prize promised to the one who first sees the earth.

But by October 11, so many sure signs appeared, unmistakably indicating the proximity of the earth, that Columbus himself climbed onto the deck and began to peer into the horizon. About ten o'clock in the evening he thought he saw some kind of fire in the distance. Thinking that he was imagining it, he called one of the sailors. He also saw fire. But when another called sailor approached, the fire had already disappeared. In order not to disturb the team in vain, no one was told about this. And four hours later, Rodrigo de Triaia from the Pinta caravel signaled that the land was visible. This time there was no error.

Historians are still arguing and arguing about what kind of fire was noticed by Columbus. A variety of assumptions were made: a torch in a fisherman's boat, a torch in someone's hands on the shore, a flock of luminous fish, etc. However, the hypothesis of an optical illusion caused by excessive eye strain, in connection with which the desired was presented as real, acquired the largest number of supporters.

So, almost five hundred years ago, this area of ​​the Atlantic, including the Bermuda Triangle, was surrounded by a halo of mystery thanks to Columbus and his superstitious team. Columbus himself wrote down facts, and only facts, in his ship's log, but over time they were exaggerated, and the sailors were especially afraid of everything that they could not understand.

The Bermuda Triangle is a region in the western Atlantic Ocean off the southeast coast of the United States. It is "famous" for the fact that over a hundred ships have disappeared without a trace over the past two hundred years, and after the Second World War, 14 aircraft have "gone missing." An extensive literature is devoted to the riddles of the Bermuda Triangle. There are many hypotheses, including the most fantastic ones, regarding the causes of disasters in this area. Of great interest in the West was Charles Berlitz's recently published book The Bermuda Triangle, published in the USA, excerpts from which were published by a Swiss weekly. It describes the largest shipwrecks and aircraft accidents that occurred under mysterious circumstances in the area of ​​the "triangle".

In the Bermuda Triangle, no bodies or wreckage of crashed ships and planes have ever been found. Some aircraft maintained normal radio contact with the airport or military base until the last second; others transmitted strange messages: the instruments suddenly failed, the compass needle began to spin wildly, the sky turned into yellow, fog appeared (in clear weather), the sea looks “somehow unusual” - no one had time to give more specific information ...

Many aircraft, including passenger ones, disappeared right during a communication session with ground services, “as if falling into some kind of hole in the atmosphere,” as one of the conclusions of naval experts figuratively stated. The ships disappeared instantly, as if suddenly dissolved. Giants such as the Marine Sulfur Queen, a ship 129 meters long, or the American liner Cyclops with a displacement of 19 thousand tons with 309 passengers on board, disappeared without a trace. There were also those who later managed to find drifting in the area of ​​the "Bermuda Triangle" without a single person on board.

Many have tried to find out the causes of mysterious disasters and deaths. Various hypotheses were put forward and subjected to serious study, among which there were many of the most fantastic. The version of storms caused by earthquakes was discussed; talked about meteorites, attacks of sea monsters; there were also those who came up with the idea of ​​"displacement of time and space, leading to a transition to another dimension"; studied the possibility of electromagnetic and gravitational storms, plunging aircraft and ships into the abyss. Some have argued that we are talking about unknown flying or underwater vehicles, controlled by representatives of the surviving ancient civilizations or aliens from outer space, who attacked aircraft and ships, capturing crew members and passengers as examples of the inhabitants of the Earth.

“We are off course. Everything is mixed…”

The Bermuda Triangle got its name after 6 aircraft of the US Navy disappeared on December 5, 1945, along with the crews. The five planes that crashed first were on a routine triangular training flight from Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale, Florida, 256 kilometers east, then 64 kilometers north, and finally back to the base in Florida. southwest direction. The area they flew around was formerly known as the "Damn's Triangle", the "Triangle of Death", the "Sea of ​​Ghosts", or the "Gemetery of the Atlantic". This area received the name "Bermuda" because the maximum point of removal from "Fort Lauderdale" lies on the same parallel with Bermuda, which, moreover, is located in the northern corner of the zone, where, before and after 1945, planes and planes disappeared under unusual circumstances. court. But they disappeared one by one.

This time, a sad fate befell a whole group of five aircraft. It was also divided by the sixth - a seaplane sent in search of a crew of 13 people. He also mysteriously disappeared, leaving no trace.

"Flight-19" - this was the symbol for the training flight of the "five" bombers - torpedo bombers of the "TBM 3 Avenger" type of the US Navy. Each car had a fuel supply that would be enough for more than 1600 kilometers. The thermometer showed 29 degrees, the sun was shining, rare clouds were floating across the sky, a weak northeast was blowing. The pilots, who had already finished flying that day, reported that the weather was perfect. The flight was scheduled for two hours. At 14.00, the planes rolled out onto the runway and took off 10 minutes later. Around 3:15 p.m., when the bombing practice was completed and the flight headed for the airfield, the radio operator in the control tower at Fort Lauderdale received a strange message from the flight commander. There is a tape recording of their conversation:

"Commander(Lt. Charles Taylor). Earth... We are on the verge of a catastrophe... It seems that we have lost our course... We do not see the earth... I repeat... We do not see the earth.

Dispatcher.What are your coordinates?

— It is difficult to give the coordinates. We don't know where we are at all... Looks like we've gone off course.

- Turn towards the west.

We don't know where the west is. Everything is mixed up… It’s strange… We can’t determine the direction… Even the sea looks somehow unusual…”

Then the instructor managed to contact the commander of the lead aircraft. The latter reported: “Both compasses failed. I'm trying to head for Fort Lauderdale... I'm sure we've passed over Case, but it looks like it's a little further south, no land in sight."

This was a sign that the leader's plane did not fly over Case. Otherwise, continuing to follow their course, the planes would soon reach land.

Due to atmospheric interference, radio communication with the "nineteenth" was deteriorating. On the planes of the "five", apparently, they stopped accepting the dispatcher's commands. Meanwhile, in the control room, the alarming voices of radio operators were still audible, keeping in touch with each other. From their abrupt remarks, a disappointing picture loomed. Fuel is running out, overboard strong wind, compasses in airplanes - both gyroscopic and magnetic - are out of order, the arrows are dancing like crazy, showing different directions. During all this time, the powerful radio station of the naval base could not establish contact with the aircraft, although the conversations between them were heard quite well.

The news that the crews of Flight 19 were in distress agitated the personnel of the naval base. Search aircraft were equipped. A military seaplane with 13 crew members on board took off from the Banana River Naval Air Base.

At 4 pm, the control tower was surprised to hear that Lieutenant Taylor had transferred his authority to another pilot, Captain Stever. The latter's message was received despite significant radio interference and the speaker's excited, slurred speech.

“We don’t know where we are… Probably 360 kilometers to the northeast… We must have passed over Florida and are now somewhere over the Gulf of Mexico…” Then, probably, the commander decided to change course 180 degrees to again fly over Florida, however, as a result of this maneuver, radio communications began to deteriorate, which indicated that the link had taken the wrong course and was moving away from the coast of Florida to the east, into the open sea. According to the testimony of some witnesses, the last words received from Flight 19 were: "It looks like we ..." Others claim they heard a little more: "We are enveloped in white water ... We are completely lost our bearings."

In the meantime, a report was received in the control room from Lieutenant Koum, one of the officers of the search aircraft, which flew to the area where it was supposed to find the link. Koum reported that there was a strong wind at an altitude of 1800 meters. This was the last news received from the search aircraft. Then communication with him was interrupted.

Now not five, but six planes were listed as missing. Traces of the aircraft and 13 members of its crew could not be found.

"They disappeared without leaving a trace"

At about 7 pm, a radio station at a naval base near Miami received a weak radio signal consisting of only two letters: "... FT ... FT ..." This was part of the code designation for the missing link, since the lead aircraft was listed under the number "FT-28". Was it an attempt by the missing to make themselves known? In this case, they transmitted their message two hours after they ran out of fuel.

The next day, the most ambitious search operation in history began. It involved 240 ships of the US Navy, 67 aircraft from the aircraft carrier "Salomon", four destroyers, many submarines, 18 ships of the Coast Guard, search and rescue boats, hundreds of private planes, yachts and fishing schooners, units of the British Navy and the air force of the Bahamas. But the search turned out to be fruitless, everything that could lead to the trail was carefully studied. Crew members of one cargo plane reported that on the day Flight 19 disappeared, a red flash was seen over the mainland. Maybe the seaplane exploded? However, this assumption had to be rejected. A merchant ship then reported that at 7:30 p.m. that day, "something like an explosion" had been seen in the sky. If this had to do with the five Avengers, then one would have to assume that they were in the air a few hours after the fuel ran out. In addition, one would have to assume that all five aircraft collided and exploded at the same time. It is curious to note that neither the! Flight-19 nor the seaplane received an SOS signal. The version of a forced landing on the water also disappeared. The Avengers were able to stay on the surface for 90 seconds. The crew members had sufficient training to leave the aircraft within 60 seconds.

Many hypotheses were caused by the strange mention of "white water" in the last message from Flight-19. It could be related to the unusually thick white fog that often appears in the area. This fog could explain the lack of visibility, as well as the words of the radio operator that "the sun looks somehow abnormal." But the fog could not affect the compass needles. True, there is a “dead zone” between Florida and the Bahamas where radio communication is impossible, but something else happened to the planes before it was interrupted.

A special commission of the Navy studied the information collected: the materials of the investigation of the military tribunal in the case of one of the officers responsible for checking the instruments were taken into account (later he was acquitted, since it was proved that the instruments had passed the test before the start, relying on the instructions). But, despite all the efforts of the commission, the causes of the incident have not been established. The conclusion of the experts said: "Judging by the radio reports, the planes went off course, and their compasses were out of order." Captain Wingard, in an interview with reporters, expressed himself more clearly: "The members of the commission failed to offer any acceptable version of what happened." One of the commission's experts, not without drama, remarked: "They disappeared without leaving traces, as if they had flown to Mars."

Lieutenant Wirshing, who at that time worked as an instructor at the Fort Lauderdale base, and later devoted many years to studying this issue, believes that, in ascertaining the fate of the crews of 6 aircraft, one must proceed from the fact that they “disappeared”, and not died because there is no evidence of the latter.

Lieutenant Wirshing recalls that another training flight was made that morning, during which unusual phenomena were also noted. In this flight, the compasses also failed, and the landing took place not at the base, but 76 kilometers to the north. These details then fell out of sight, pushed aside by the sensational incident with Flight-19.

"Sea of ​​Lost Ships"

The largest number of unexplained shipwrecks in the Bermuda Triangle occur in the Sargasso Sea in the western Atlantic. This sea itself has been a source of mystery ever since Spanish and Portuguese navigators first arrived in it five centuries ago.

This sea of ​​algae is bounded by the Gulf Stream, which moves first to the north and then turns to the east. The southern boundary is formed by the returning flow of the Gulf Stream and the North Trade Wind Current. However, the exact contours of the sea are not defined. Relatively speaking, it extends from 23 to 35 degrees north latitude and from 30 to 68 degrees west longitude. At the bottom of the Sargasso Sea is the steep Bermuda Plateau and numerous underwater elevations that do not reach the surface of the sea and form flat plateaus, as if they were once islands. At its northern border, a part of the North Atlantic Ridge runs along the bottom, a giant chain of seamounts, individual peaks of which rise above the surface of the sea, forming the Azores.

Thus, the Sargasso Sea is "stall"; there are almost no currents in it, except for those that go around it. It starts about 320 kilometers from the Greater Antilles, about 420 kilometers from the Atlantic coast to Cape Hatteras. The Sargasso Sea then extends towards the Iberian Peninsula and Africa to the North Atlantic Ridge.

This sea is famous not only for its algae, but also for its calmness, which probably gave rise to such picturesque but terrifying legends as the tales of the “sea of ​​lost ships”, “the graveyard of ships” or the “sea of ​​fear”.

The first legends about the Sargasso Sea were probably written by the Phoenicians and Carthaginians, who are believed to have visited these places thousands of years ago and landed in America. In any case, Phoenician rock inscriptions were found in Brazil, Phoenician coins in the Azores, Carthaginian coins in Venezuela and on the southeast coast of the United States, and drawings in Mexico, apparently made by Phoenician or Carthaginian aliens. And the description of the calm and algae of the Sargasso Sea, which belongs to the Carthaginian Himilcon, who lived in 500 BC, sounds quite convincing:

“Not the slightest breath of wind will move the sails, the heavy air of this dead sea is so still ... Numerous algae float on the surface and cling to the ship ... The sea is not too deep, the surface of the earth is only slightly covered with water ... sea ​​monsters scurry between lazily crawling ships ... "

The stories about the "sea of ​​lost ships", as well as other legends, are based on real facts, although the fantasy of the narrators has left its mark on them. Australian Allen Villiers, who in 1957 crossed the Sargasso Sea on a sailboat and actually noticed the missing ship bound by algae, wrote in his diary:

“A ship that, due to calm, is forced to stand motionless until all supplies run out ... in all likelihood, begins to grow algae and shells, which in the end completely deprive it of the ability to move ... Tropical wood borers will eat away the skin ... and the decayed frame , inhabited by skeletons ... will slowly disappear under the flat surface of the sea.

Calm is not dangerous for modern ships. However, this makes it even more mysterious disappearance ships in the Sargasso Sea. In a sense, all shipwrecks are mysterious, since no captain has the intention of wrecking his ship. As soon as the fate of this or that vessel is clarified, or at least the circumstances of its death, all mystery disappears. But this cannot be said about all the ships that “disappeared” in the Sargasso Sea.

In the footsteps of filibusters

When the following reports of disappearances of ships in the Sargasso Sea and neighboring sections of the Gulf Stream appeared, the weather and pirates were mostly blamed for everything.

Spanish ships sailed from Mexico, Panama and what is now Colombia, entered Havana and sailed from Florida, often becoming victims of the hurricane. Their treasures fell to the seabed and were brought to light by divers in the following centuries. Other ships were sunk by marauders or pirates.

But long after the piracy ceased to be a profitable business, ships continued to disappear in the area just as regularly, and even in good weather. In subsequent years, more and more attention was paid to the fact that neither the islands nor the coast of the western Atlantic had ever found either shipwrecks or corpses.

Many of the missing ships belonged to the US Navy or other states. A whole series of disappearances began in 1800, when the USS Insurgent went missing with 340 passengers on board, and continued until May 1968, when the USS Scorpion with a crew of 99 went missing under "unexplained" circumstances. Is it true. She was soon found: the Scorpion sank about 740 kilometers southeast of the Azores at a depth of several thousand meters.

When they begin to list how many deserted ships were found in the Sargasso Sea or adjacent areas of the Atlantic Ocean, they almost always remember the Mary Celesti, the most “famous” ship in the history of navigation among those that were abandoned by the crew and passengers. With the Mary Celesti, misfortune happened in the Sargasso Sea, although the ship, following to the place north of the Azores, where in November 1972 it was seen by the British brig Dei Gracia, passed only at the northern tip of the Sargasso Sea. On the brig they noticed the unruly "Mary Celesti" and gave her a signal. Since there was no answer, it was decided to go aboard. The Mary Celesti was captured as a "trophy".

The party boarding the Mary Celesti found that the sails were raised and the cargo of liquor was securely locked in the holds. The ship had enough fresh water and food, but ten of the crew, including the captain, his wife and little daughter, disappeared without a trace. Money, pipes, personal belongings, and even a sailing boat were still on board, although for some reason there was no sextant. The large cabin was boarded up, as if someone had barricaded themselves there from attack.

This mysterious story even became the subject of a trial, but the Mary Celesti mystery was never resolved. The disappearance of the team was explained by an attack by pirates or a riot, during which the sailors killed the captain and fled from the ship. There have also been suggestions that the sailors were afraid of the possibility of an explosion, that everyone was struck by a contagious disease, or that the entire crew was taken prisoner. The insurance company Lloyd, which paid the premium, was inclined to think that an unexpected fire in the hold with alcohol plunged the crew into such a panic that she abandoned the ship. The fire was later extinguished. In fact, alcohol tends to spontaneously ignite spontaneously, burn with a blue flame, and then go out. It is possible that the crew could not simply return to the ship when the fire went out.

Another possible explanation for the strange behavior of the crew was the presence of ergot in the grain stocks. The ergot present in bread has repeatedly created terrible situations on ships: people lost their minds and control over themselves and died as a result. Such collective insanity could be the reason why the crew abandoned the ship in a panic, the same thing could happen on those ships that disappeared in other seas.

In his book Mysterious Adventures in Time and Space, Harold Wilkins put forward a plausible hypothesis according to which the Mary Celesti was boarded by an unknown ship, her crew was killed, and subsequently the pirates claimed that they "found a ship at sea", and received for it's an award. Developing his theory, Wilkins points out some contradictions in the testimony of the captain and the crew of the "Dei Grazia".

Ten minutes of "nonexistence"

The researchers of the "Bermuda Triangle" have long paid attention to another mysterious region of the oceans. It is located southeast of Japan, between Japan and the Bonin Islands, and has earned a reputation as a dangerous area for ships and aircraft. Just like in the Bermuda Triangle, underwater volcanic eruptions and other natural phenomena can explain the mysterious occurrences that occur here. This area, also called the "Damn Sea", enjoys, at least officially, even worse fame than the "Bermuda Triangle", since it has been declared a danger zone by the Japanese government. This measure was taken after Japanese experts conducted a series of studies in the area in 1955.

The "Bermuda Triangle" and the "Devil's Sea" have one common pattern: at 80 degrees west longitude, which crosses the "Bermuda Triangle" along its western border, the magnetic and geographic north poles coincide. The 80th meridian of the west longitude, passing through the pole, changes its designation and becomes the 150th meridian of the east longitude, which comes from north to south past Japan, crossing the "devil's sea" just in the middle. At this point of the "devil's sea", the compass needle points simultaneously to the geographic and magnetic poles, just as in the western part of the "Bermuda Triangle", in the other hemisphere of the globe.

The continued disappearance of aircraft and ships was the reason that in 1955, with the support of the Japanese government, an expedition was sent to this area, during which scientists were to make various measurements and experiments. To this end, the research vessel "Kaiyo Maru No. 5" cruised in the "devil's sea". The expedition ended in the most incredible way - the ship, along with the crew and a group of scientists, disappeared without a trace.

The existence of one or more areas in the oceans, where mysterious events occur, has led to the appearance of a number of strange statements. Theories have been advanced regarding anti-gravitational displacements, and it has been argued that there are places where the laws of gravity and magnetic attraction do not function as commonly believed. The author of the book Great Mystery in the Air, Ralph Barker, observes that new discoveries by physicists indicate the existence of anti-gravitational particles of matter. He believes that "matter that does not obey the laws of gravity, the nature of which is opposite to the nature of the matter of the Earth, has a colossal explosive force if it comes into contact with terrestrial matter ... and that it is localized in certain regions of the Earth ..." he suggests that this matter may have space origin and "accumulates" sometimes under the continents, but mostly under the seabed.

On closer acquaintance with this theory, one finds a possible explanation for electronic and magnetic deviations in various parts of the globe, but the disappearance of such a large number ships and aircraft, this still cannot be justified. Information about magnetic anomalies was also obtained in other seas. There are places where the force of attraction of the source of energy under water is stronger than the attraction of the north magnetic pole.

Ivan Sanderson published an article in Saga magazine, where he spoke about the results of a thorough study of the Bermuda Triangle and other similar sea areas. In the course of their research, Sanderson and his collaborators found that most of the mysterious incidents with aircraft and ships occur in six regions with almost the same ellipsoidal configuration and located between 30 and 40 degrees north and south latitude. These include the Bermuda Triangle and the Devil's Sea.

Sanderson developed his theory and compiled a grid of anomaly regions at intervals of 73 degrees, covering the entire globe. Five of these areas are located in the northern hemisphere, five - in the southern, including the pole. The Bermuda Triangle, in his opinion, is the most famous of these areas, since ships and aircraft often end up in it. Other regions, although less well known, exhibit equally powerful magnetic aberrations.

Most of these areas are located east of the coasts of the continents, where warm, northward moving sea currents meet southward currents. In addition, these areas represent nodal points where sea currents at the surface and at depth move in opposite directions. Powerful deep tidal currents, influenced by different temperatures, create magnetic storms that cause radio interference, affect the magnetic field, and possibly change the force of gravity. It is possible that, under certain circumstances, these phenomena can cause the movement of ships and aircraft to other points in space-time. Sanderson in this regard refers to an interesting phenomenon of the uneven flow of time observed in these areas. We are talking about those cases when the planes, after completing the task, landed much earlier than the allotted time. This would be understandable if they were flying with a tailwind, the speed of which would be 760 kilometers per hour. But the winds recorded by the meteorological services during the flights could not cause such deviations. Most often, these phenomena are found in the Bermuda Triangle. It seems that the planes, faced with such an anomaly, slip past or rush into the "sky hole".

A similar time jump occurred five years ago at an airfield in Miami. He never received a convincing explanation. This is a National Airlines passenger plane, which, with 127 passengers on board, was approaching the runway from the northeast and was controlled by ground-based radar. Suddenly he disappeared from the screen and appeared only ten minutes later. The plane landed without any complications. The pilot and crew were surprised by the concern of the ground staff, as they believed nothing out of the ordinary had happened. One of the controllers said to the pilot: “My God, buddy, you simply didn’t exist for ten minutes!” the team compared the time on their watch and all the clocks in the car and found that all clocks were equally ten minutes behind. This was all the more strange because when checking the clocks on the plane and on the control tower, made twenty minutes earlier, no discrepancies were noted.

WELTWOCHE, ZURICH.

Abroad №41 1975

The Bermuda Triangle is the area of ​​the Atlantic Ocean, the forming "tops" of which are Florida, Puerto Rico and Bermuda. This place is famous all over the world for not good deeds. The zone is known for the fact that something supernatural and inexplicable is happening within it: everything that falls within the radius of attention of this "devil's hole" simply disappears! How? Why?

The paranormality of this section of the water surface has long haunted mankind. Over the solution of the so-called "mystery of the Bermuda Triangle" for decades, thousands of people have been struggling in vain, both from the world of scientists and from among the indifferent and inquisitive inhabitants. The solution to this puzzle is still considered one of the most intractable to the human mind.

There are a huge number of the most diverse theories on the topic of the Bermuda Triangle, or rather, the reasons for the emergence of its "damned" features. Some of them are quite logical, more or less adequately explaining the existing oddities, while some are simply ridiculous and frankly smack of idiocy.

The most popular judgments about the mystery of this "magnet of troubles and misfortunes" are voiced by the following options:

1. Comet

About 11 thousand years ago, a comet fell to the bottom of the ocean, in the very place now known as the Bermuda Triangle. According to those who hold this view, this heavenly body could have such unusual electromagnetic properties, the strength of which could well have a negative effect on navigational instruments, engines and other equipment of ships, aircraft and other floating and flying objects. In particular, to bring these systems into a non-working state.

2. Pirates

Wards of the "Jolly Roger" for many hundreds of years instilled fear in sailors, including those who traveled in this region of the Atlantic. It is a fact. And with regard to the missing ships, it can be recognized as true. However, the version of piracy in no way explains the disappearance of flying technology.

3. Methane hydrate

The bottom line is this: in the very depths of the "Bermuda problem" there is a process of formation of giant bubbles filled with methane hydrate, i.e. water-methane compound. When such a "vessel" reaches its maximum size, it rises to the water surface and thus transforms into a kind of huge "hill". A vessel that stumbles upon such an “obstacle” seems to “slip”. The bubble bursts, thus forming a funnel, which, as a result, drags the ship into the "hole". In the case of airplanes, the “absorption” scheme is presented as follows: gas from the bubble enters the air, contact with a hot engine, followed by an explosion.

4. Time Vortex

There is such a story: in 1970, one American pilot, flying to the island of Bimini, flew over the Bermuda Triangle zone. It is not known where a very strange "cloud" formed in front of him. At first, it grew at a rapid pace, and then it turned into a kind of "tunnel". The pilot had only one way out - to fly inside the "cloud". The devices seemed to have gone crazy, sparks and flashed from all sides, and the “tunnel” itself rotated counterclockwise. Then an even bigger oddity happened: the plane jumped out of the "funnel" in the Miami area. Instead of the standard 75 minutes, the flight time was 47 minutes. This is exactly what Bruce Gernon claimed - the main actor this story.

5 Secret Government Tests

Supporters of this theory argue that it is in the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe "devil's hole" that one secret government base is located, referred to as AUTEC, i.e. Atlantic Center for Underwater Testing and Evaluation. Inside its "walls" the government is testing various alien technologies, and also comes into contact with representatives of extraterrestrial civilizations.
It is worth noting that this division really exists. True, his field of activity is somewhat different. So, according to the official legend, the center is engaged in testing submarines, sonars and weapons.

6. UFO

An alien ship is placed under the waters of the "hole". The aliens living there study the inhabitants of the planet Earth, their technologies and achievements. It is for this purpose that they “steal” ships and planes.
Also, “other gates” can be hidden in this place, i.e. a passage to a dimension inaccessible to earthlings, who sometimes open up and “calling into the unknown” ships and planes.

7. Atlantis

The bottom of the Bermuda Triangle is the graveyard of the legendary ancient island. Solar energy within this mythical territory was generated through the use of some mysterious crystals. Their power is so great that it provokes failures in the control systems of swimming and aircraft.

8. Compass error

The triangle zone is the place where a conventional magnetic compass points not to magnetic north, but to the geographic pole. Scientific evidence suggests that the deviation between the magnetic N Pole and the geographic N Pole is over 700 miles, or approximately 1,300 kilometers. In the standard state of affairs, sailors, when plotting a course, take into account the difference between these indicators. However, forgetting about the existing similar exceptions, i.e. about the so-called "magnetic anomalies", it is quite possible to become a victim of a disaster.

9. Bad weather

The climatic features of the "devil's zone" are characterized by restless behavior. A characteristic feature of this oceanic area are storms and hurricanes, which are a derivative of the collision of warm and cold air masses. The fast current of the Gulf Stream also causes a lot of trouble. Together, these "whims" of the weather represent a heightened risk factor for any vehicle.

Let's get this straight from the start: there really is no "mystery" associated with the Bermuda Triangle. Planes and ships go missing in the region between Puerto Rico, Florida and Bermuda just as often as in any other part of the world.

Moreover, there are no statistical data for this region. Of course, there are many natural mechanisms that can cause a shipwreck, but they are almost never found in the Bermuda Triangle.

Scientists' opinion

Despite the lack of any scientific evidence, Bermuda makes headlines from time to time when the papers need another scoop. Scientists are probably already tired of explaining that the “mystery” of the Bermuda Triangle is nothing more than a myth, but, fortunately, reports have appeared the other day that actually indicate that this phenomenon simply does not exist.

The famous Australian scientist Karl Krushelnitsky notes that the percentage of ships and aircraft that disappear in this area is the same as in other parts of the world. The Bermuda Triangle, as you know, is located close to the equator, not far from America, so it is not surprising that many air and water routes pass through it.

The history of the appearance of the myth

According to Krushelnicki, the myth of the Bermuda Triangle began when several large military convoys - and their subsequent rescue missions - disappeared from the region between World War I and World War II. In fact, these disappearances are explained by the terrible weather and the insufficient equipment of the aircraft.

Some of the pilots who went missing that day also made catastrophic mistakes, such as often getting lost by drinking before a flight or even setting out without proper aviation equipment.

In most cases, the bodies and pieces of equipment were never found, but this is not surprising, given that they all fell into the ocean. Even today, the wreckage of aircraft and ships that fell into the ocean is very difficult to find, despite significant advances in reconnaissance and tracking technology.

Speculation and hypotheses

However, the disappearance of the crew, combined with extensive press coverage of the case, guaranteed the emergence of legends. Although it has long been known that there is nothing mystical or otherworldly about this triangle, there are still many hypotheses trying to explain these disappearances. Some of them claim to be scientific, while the rest seem absolutely outlandish.

Not so long ago there was an assumption that shipwrecks can be caused by bubbles of methane that rises from the bottom of the sea. Although this version seems quite scientific, and not mystical, as is often the case with the Bermuda Triangle, there is one problem: there are no methane reserves in this region.

However, not everyone dies and disappears into the triangle. Some lucky ones manage to survive. And then they tell strange stories that sensible citizens refuse to believe. Because if you believe in these stories, then your heart becomes restless. What eyewitnesses say should not have happened to anyone and never. And if it does, then in a fantasy world where the laws of physics known to us do not apply. Only in that strange world can that which should not sink, or disappear that which cannot disappear, just as that which cannot appear suddenly cannot appear.

Maybe these people are a little crazy? No, they are normal. They just happened to see something that neither I nor you had to see. And their stories are just as strange as the stories of outside observers cited above. But these people were not observers. They were participants in an action incomprehensible to us. And they were saved, most likely by pure chance. They just got lucky. Therefore, I begin, as they do in court, to call witnesses. So, honorable court and gentlemen of the jury, the first witness ...

Witness #1

Bruce Gernon

We already know the pilot Bruce Gernon, Let's listen to his testimony.

Mr Gernon, do you promise to tell the court the truth, and the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?

Yes, Your Honor.

Then tell the court what you saw during your flight... um... through the so-called tunnel?

Willingly, Your Honor.

My father and I had our own plane, and since 1967 we flew constantly to the Bahamas and Andros Island. We have made many such flights and have never encountered anything out of the ordinary. And on that day, December 4, 1970, everything also seemed normal. My father's business partner Chuck Lafayette was on board with us, and we took off safely from Andros Airport in a brand new Beechcraft A36.

Just after takeoff, I noticed right in front of us, about a mile away, a small cloud. It hung very low over the ocean, about 500 feet. You know, such an ordinary crystalline cloud, biconvex, only I have never seen these clouds so low.

The weather report was good, so the cloud did not scare us, and we continued the flight. But the cloud suddenly began to turn into a huge cloud, consisting of cumulus clouds. We went up to 1000 feet and the cloud also went up with us. It literally grew before our eyes. And we couldn't dodge it, it hijacked our plane. We climbed, but already in it for another 10 minutes before breaking free.

The altitude was 11,500 feet, the sky was clear. I leveled the plane, chose the optimal speed for flying 195 miles per hour; Then I looked back and was terribly surprised. The cloud we came out of was huge, it looked like a giant semicircle, it stretched for twenty miles, I couldn't see where it ended.

Soon another cloud appeared in front of us, it hung near the island of Bimini. It looked like the cloud we had just come out of, only it was even bigger, it went up to 60,000 feet, and when we got within a few miles of it, it seemed to us that it was touching the ground. It was right on course, and we entered it.

It was a strange sight. Immediately everything around turned black, although there was no rain, visibility was four or five miles. No zigzags of lightning, just strange white flashes, very bright, that illuminated everything around us. And the deeper we went into the cloud, the brighter and more often these flashes became.

We made a 135 degree turn and flew south to get out of the cloud. So we flew 27 minutes. We thought we could get to the edge of the cloud and go around it, but after going six or seven miles, we realized that it was curved to the east. And five minutes later it became absolutely clear that the cloud from which we escaped at Andros and this cloud at Bimini were one and the same cloud. It was his second part, the opposite side of the strange ring-shaped body. Apparently a cloud formed over Andros and began to grow like a donut, a giant donut with a diameter of 30 miles. It was impossible, but we did not find another explanation. We realized that we were trapped and could neither get out of the cloud, nor go around it, nor fly under it.

About thirteen miles later I saw a U-shaped slit in the cloud. I had no choice - I turned and tried to pass into this cut. And as we got closer, I found that it was like a hole in the cloud. This hole looked like a beautifully formed tunnel about a mile wide and ten miles long, we could see blue sky at the other end of the tunnel. But I noticed that this tunnel seemed to be shrinking, so I increased the speed of the plane. We were now going under 230 mph, at top speed. And when we entered the tunnel, it became quite narrow, 200 feet in diameter. It's like we're in a mine. And if before it seemed to me that the length of the tunnel was 10 miles, now it looked like its length was no more than a mile. From the exit I saw sunlight, it was white and as if silky. The walls of the tunnel were perfectly round, and they kept shrinking and shrinking. The entire interior of the tunnel was dotted with small gray filaments of clouds that swirled counterclockwise just in front of the plane and around the plane.

We went through this tunnel in about 20 seconds, and for about five seconds I experienced a strange feeling of weightlessness, as if I was being pulled forward. When I looked back, I caught my breath: the walls of the tunnel were shrinking, it was clear that they were collapsing, the cut disappears and all this gray mass slowly rotates clockwise.

All of our electronic and magnetic navigation instruments were malfunctioning. The plane was flying perfectly straight, and the compass needle moved slowly in a circle. I managed to contact Miami and reported that we were about 45 miles southeast of Bimini at 10,500 feet. The Miami air traffic controller replied that he did not see us on the radar in the area.

Everything was very strange. We thought that the exit from the tunnel would be blue sky, but we were walking in a dull grayish-white fog. Visibility was no more than two miles, we could see no ocean, no horizon, no clear sky. The air was cloudy, but no rain or lightning. I found a name for this air - electronic fog. I called this phenomenon so because our instruments failed. I relied only on intuition and flew to the imaginary west. We spent about three minutes in this electronic fog.

Suddenly, the dispatcher contacted us: he identified our plane - it was not far from Miami Beach and was flying west. I looked at my watch and saw that we had only been flying for 34 minutes. We couldn't be at Miami Beach, we just had to get closer to Bimini.

Then the fog began to disappear, it seemed to break, some horizontal lines appeared on both sides of us. Then the lines became like cuts four or five miles long. Through them we saw the blue sky. These cuts began to grow, expand, connect. After eight seconds, they all connected, and the fog disappeared. All around me was a sparkling blue sky, beautiful and extraordinarily bright. And below I saw Miami Beach.

When we landed in Palm Beach, it turned out that our flight took only 47 minutes. I thought it was a mistake, maybe the plane timer was messing up, but all our clocks showed 15.48, and we took off at 15.00. Never before have I flown from Andros Island to Palm Beach in less than 1 hour and 15 minutes, and then on a direct route. And here we clearly circled and did at least 250 miles. How can an airplane travel 250 miles in 47 minutes?

Only by a miracle our flight ended safely. For a long time we did not even talk about this incident. I could not logically explain what happened to us then. But I felt that I needed to understand this, several times a day I moved from one explanation to another. Only in 1972 did I learn about the Bermuda Triangle, that ships and planes were disappearing there. I found out that some kind of time warp could be the cause. And then I realized: you need to look for the answer in this direction. To fly a tunnel 10-15 miles long would take us four minutes. Exactly enough to go through a thunderstorm and go out to a clear sky. We stayed in the clouds the 90 miles to Miami and covered 100 miles of space and 30 minutes of flying time in just three minutes.

Witness Jernon, did you see blue-green flashes during your flight in the tunnel?

No, your honor. There were no other colors than gray, and this is the true color of the electronic fog. As for green flashes, I've seen them three times in the Florida Keys. They are bright green and slowly flare up, reaching their maximum brightness, lasting from 10 seconds to a minute.

What else can you say about the tunnel?

When we took off from the fog, Your Honor, there was some fog left on the tips of our wings. He held on to the wings for another ten seconds. It seems to me that we were flying inside the fog, as if in clear weather, that the fog was, as it were, attached to the plane: I did not fly through the fog, but I flew with the fog. This is probably what leads to the disorientation of pilots in the fog.

What can you say about the green flash?

Like electron fog, this is a very interesting phenomenon. I lived in Key West for 15 years, but I only saw flashes like this three times. A green flash occurs when the sun sets below the horizon and instantly changes color from orange to green.

What other phenomena did you observe while flying in the triangle?

I have seen many UFOs...

Witness, we're talking about serious matters.

Your Honor, I mean it in all seriousness. Any unknown object in the sky is a UFO. I am not a supporter of the alien version, in my opinion, this is one of the types of ball lightning.

Okay, then we're listening.

Your Honor, I have seen many UFOs, but not in the last 20 years. The first time was in Florida. It was something like a fan, as my family members can attest.

No, keep going, we're listening.

This object maneuvered in the sky, and we observed it for about half an hour. It was about 100 feet in diameter, bright white, and about a mile away from us. Then I saw a UFO during a storm. This happened a month after we flew through the tunnel.

This time we flew at night and headed east from Miami to Bimini at 10,000 feet. When we were a few miles from the coast, we noticed in the east, very far away, an amber light. And suddenly this light began to move towards us with incredible speed. Soon he was right in front of us. This object sparkled like amber, when light was passed through it, it looked like a saucer 300 feet in diameter. It seemed so massive, as if made of some kind of solid substance, and not of light. I had to make a left turn to avoid a collision, but when I looked back, he was already gone.

Of course, this could be an illusion, but this illusion was seen by everyone who was on board. And what is characteristic, we flew exactly along the same route on which we got into the fog. It couldn't be the moon, it only appeared in the sky an hour later.

A year later, I saw a UFO when I was returning from Carolina. I even managed to take a picture of it. And it had exactly the same shape as the object that I almost collided with over the ocean. And again, the full moon appeared an hour later.

A year later, I was flying to Delfray Beach, and again, an hour before the full moon, I saw a UFO. This time there were five of them, and they were going at great speed from north to south towards Bimini. And again, they were exactly the same shape and size, as I have already described. At first I even thought that there was a dependence of the appearance of UFOs on the position of the moon, but this is not so. I flew a lot, but never saw them again. Maybe it's some form of reflection of the moon, which creates a similar illusion, or it's actually lightning. I used to call them flying birds, because it seems to me that fireballs have high aeronautical abilities and they seem to move of their own free will, like living birds.

So, from the first witness, we learned the following: in the Bermuda region, a strange kind of cloud structures are formed, within which space and time have different characteristics. The witness also told us that at certain rare moments the optical properties of the air change and its color changes. In addition, in the Bermuda area, the content of electricity in the air is high, which causes fireballs. The witness confirmed that there are areas where communication with the ground is lost and navigation devices and radios do not work well or at all. Areas of equipment failure are observed in those places where electronic fog appears.

Let's move on to the questioning of the second witness.

Witness #2

cosmonaut Vladimir Kovalenok

Witness, you are a respected person, an astronaut after all. Tell me, from what you saw flying over our planet, is there any reason to believe that the Bermuda Triangle is somehow different from other parts of the Atlantic?

Your Honor, I saw a cyclone forming over Bermuda. And it was a breathtaking sight. And I would not like to be on a light plane inside this cyclone ...

Are you saying that the fantastic picture that we have just been painted can turn out to be a reality?

Your Honor, judge for yourself. For example, I saw extended streams of clouds over the ocean and wondered: why? Observational experience has been accumulating. And it soon became clear that the cloud cover "tracks" the ocean currents.

Over oceanic zones with active dynamics, the cloud cover was also unusual. Even geometrically regular cloud patterns were often observed, reminiscent of Carnot vortices in gas dynamics. What is this? What is the reason? And here is an unexpected discovery: the patterns of the cloud cover repeated the patterns of ocean currents, which we often saw on the water surface, where the sun was reflected in it.

But most often I was pestered by those very mysterious phenomena in the Bermuda Triangle region, about which whole mountains have been written not only of science fiction stories and novels, but also scientific papers and articles. True, there was nothing special in this area, it seemed, and was not noticeable. Is it only possible to note the striking emerald color of the Caribbean and Sargasso Seas. But one day it happened...

Coils of space flight encircle the Earth sixteen times a day. In those cases when we cross the equator from the southern hemisphere to the northern, the turns are called ascending, if from the northern to the southern - descending. These are conditional definitions, but I think it will be easier to understand me this way.

In space navigation, the situation is somewhat different. In flight, the following happens: if you flew over some area, for example, on an ascending orbit, then after two or three orbits you will fly over the same area on a descending orbit. In addition, from the side through the windows (and this is from a height of 350–380 kilometers) it is visible for 1800–2000 kilometers. Such fantastic opportunities make it possible to observe rare and unique phenomena from space.

So, once, on an ascending coil, I examined the area of ​​​​the Bermuda Triangle: it was cloudless over the ocean. Bermuda, Florida, Cuba - everything was visible well. On the next turn, I also glanced in that direction - nothing special. But when I flew over this area on a downward orbit, I did not recognize him. The entire region was covered with clouds that formed a giant disk with a diameter of up to a thousand kilometers. At first I thought I was in the wrong area. But navigational instruments showed that we were just above Bermuda.

Where did the clouds come from? Shocked by what I saw, I began to observe this region systematically. However, the riddle was not so easy to solve. Yet my efforts were not in vain. In a cloudless atmosphere, I gradually began to highlight zones with different transparency. These air masses were mobile: they moved from the Greenland region along the coast of North America and reached the Central Atlantic. I found a similar movement on the other side: from Antarctica along the coast of South America - also to the Central Atlantic region.

Continuous observations finally crowned with success. I still found the reasons for such an unexpected appearance of cloudiness over a large region. Apparently, these air masses differed in humidity and temperature. And colliding near Bermuda, they formed a huge cyclone. At first it was just my guess. But it was confirmed: I observed the formation of cyclones here several more times. And all this in a fairly short time. It turned out that a third stream of air (or baric) formations also reaches this region from the Southern Hemisphere through the Isthmus of Panama. Then the incredible happens here: thunderstorms sparkle, the ocean boils, powerful cyclones form. So, maybe all the mystery and mystery of the Bermuda Triangle depends on its geographical location?

So you're not denying the mystery of the Bermuda Triangle, witness? Do you deny that because of the “geographical position” of this area, as you said, ships and planes disappear here without a trace? What about weather forecasters? Can't they predict when your "geographical" detonator will go off?

Your Honor, what could meteorologists know when observations of nature, even from an airplane, could be carried out within a radius of up to 150 kilometers. So the forecasters "deceived" the pilots, often not knowing, and therefore not warning them about the impending thunderstorm. I remember well what it means to be in an area of ​​thunderstorm activity. The plane tosses like a piece of wood; some cars turned into wreckage while still in the air. Now for me there is no mystery of the Bermuda Triangle, which is simply located at the crossroads of three air currents. It's my opinion.

And your this… giant disk… this array of clouds, did you really see it?

How are you, your honor.

So, if Gernon got into a small cloud, then what happens in a giant disk?

Witness, and these globular UFOs that Gernon observed, huge globular UFOs, they cannot be connected with the fact that areas where there is no gravity are somehow formed over Bermuda?

Your Honor, I can only answer this from my own experience. I saw a match burning in weightlessness. A yellowish-pale flame erupts and instantly turns into a sphere. Meanwhile, the scope continues to grow. An ember of a burnt match shines through the yellowish-pale flame, from the tip of which a thin stream of gas, at the level of microbubbles, stretches. The gas permeates the entire flame and forms a small tubercle at the exit from the sphere. The spectacle of a burning match is amazingly beautiful, one might say fantastic.

But would a flame in the absence of gravity look like a sphere?

Like a sphere, Your Honor.

Thank you witness.

We call the next witness.

Witness #3

Martin Caden

Martin Cayden - pilot who ended up in the Bermuda Triangle on June 11, 1986.

Witness, you flew over Bermuda a lot. Have you ever seen anything inexplicable there?

Yes, Your Honor, I saw it.

Once we flew from Bermuda to Florida in clear and perfectly calm weather. We had excellent equipment that allowed us to take pictures directly from space, so we could know what the weather was like outside without even looking out the windows. We just received these pictures and began to print them. From them it was clear that the weather was beautiful. Visibility was perfect, the air was absolutely transparent. The nearest clouds were far to the south of us.

We were flying at a good speed, and suddenly the printer stopped producing images, and all the electronic innards of our aircraft looked like dried clams. And in just a second, everything changed. We were just over Cat Island. The first trouble happened with the compass - the arrow spun like crazy. All instruments failed, I could fly the plane only on manual control, no autopilot. The whole sky was covered with something similar to fog. Visibility became zero - the wings of the car were not visible through the windows. We flew exactly in a bottle of milk. Or inside a container with a cocktail of whipped cream, eggs and alcohol. When we looked down, the ocean seemed like a small patch, a barely visible speck in this cocktail. We lost communication, the automatic identification system failed, the electronic fuel flow meter showed something unimaginable - there were solid eights on its display. In general, everything that should have worked no longer worked.

We started going down. But even lower, 50 feet below us, everything was the same - as in a cocktail glass. We tried to go higher, 8000 feet. But there was still the same cocktail of whipped cream, eggs and alcohol. And only an hour later, flying over Johnsonville, we seemed to break through the veil. At last we could see the world. Immediately the compass stopped spinning and returned to normal. The gyroscope has stabilized. All electronics came to life. Everything worked again. But before that, nothing worked for four hours. And if you ask any engineer if this is possible, he will answer you - it is impossible.

Our third witness has just said two important things; 1) in clear weather, areas of particular fog form over Bermuda and 2) all navigational instruments and electronics fail in these areas.

If the witnesses we heard testified about the state of the air, then our next witnesses were in the ocean. And they can tell what happened on the water. The time has come to invite them to court.

Witness #4

Don Henry

Don Henry devoted his whole life to the sea. He was a scuba diver, a rescuer, and a captain. He traveled a lot and visited not only Bermuda, but only Bermuda such a strange incident could happen to him, which he witnessed in 1966.

Witness Don Henry, describe in detail what happened to you in the Bermuda Triangle?

Your Honor, this happened in 1966. We sailed from Puerto Rico to Fort Lauderdale in a 2000-horsepower Good News tugboat, forty-eight meters away. Behind us, we dragged a barge with a displacement of 2,500 tons, which was tied to a tugboat with a cable about 300 meters long. She used to carry petroleum nitrate, but now she was empty.

We were just passing through the Bahamas. In the middle of the day, when there was not a single cloud in the sky, I went into the wheelhouse located at the back of the captain's bridge for a couple of minutes, and suddenly I heard some screams. The crew must have gone crazy, I ran out onto the bridge and yelled, “Hey, what the hell are you doing here?” The chief officer who was there said to me: "Look, Cap, at the compass." I looked. And what did I see when I looked at the compass? The needle rotated clockwise and wound circles. I knew this could happen with magnetic compasses, but I've never seen anything like it! Just don't think that it could be because of the speed with which we were going. I have been sailing in tow for many years and I knew what a tug was. But there was something wrong with the compass. He twirled and twirled.

And the weather had nothing to do with it. I swam in different weather. And that day the sea was calm, completely flat. Visibility is excellent. It may have been a little cloudy, but the clouds were high. No storm clouds, no cumulus, nothing.

The compass was not the only problem. Something happened with all our equipment, with communications, as if the energy in tow had run out. We couldn't contact anyone by radio. For some reason we didn't have light. Suddenly, the generators stopped working, that is, they worked, but only idle. There was nothing. Even the fifty rechargeable batteries I brought from Rico were all dead and degraded, all that remained was to throw them away. I learned about batteries later. Then it was not up to them.

And then I went out to the bridge, looked at the sky and was dumbfounded. There was no longer any horizon. I just didn't see where the sky begins and the water ends. It looked as if there was no ocean and no sky. I mean, they seemed to be mixed together. I looked at the ocean from the bridge, but I saw only some kind of foam, it was very similar to milk.

And the sky… the sky was the exact same color too. There is no difference between water and sky, which is why I say there was no more horizon.

Purely automatically, I turned around and looked at how our barge was doing - this, you understand, is a reaction developed over the years. But I didn't see the barge! I thought that this could not be, because we did not feel any jerk. If the barge had come off, our tugboat would have taken off like a scalded cat! I knew our barge was out there somewhere, I just couldn't see it. The tugboat was moving as it should be, pulling, but there was no barge there!

Then I ran to the poop, from there I went down to the towing deck, grabbed the cable with my hands and began to pull it. Of course, you can't move a 2,500-ton barge with your hands, but it's possible to understand whether a tug is pulling it. The cable was tense, so the barge was following us. This somehow calmed me down. Not everything turns out to be bad.

However, I still did not see the barge. She worried me a lot. She was tied tightly, but fog swirled instead of her, stormy waves surrounded her, and I felt how hard the tug was dragging her - but I did not see her! Didn't see it at all! And what was supposed to be water, it seemed somehow changeable, vague where my barge was.

All right, that's enough for me. I ran to the bridge and screamed; "Full speed ahead." I had no idea where we were, but I wanted to get out of this place as quickly as possible. Everything looked as if something wanted to delay us, but, fortunately, he did not succeed.

In those years, I knew everything about the Bermuda Triangle, all the sailors who swim here knew. And I couldn’t understand why they demand some kind of statistics, my God, here everything is clear even without statistics ...

Witness, speak to the point, do not deviate from the story.

Yes, Your Honor. And so we tried to rush forward. There was a feeling that someone did not want to let us go, that we were being held with exactly the same force with which we are trying to pull the barge. We leaned with all our might, but as if we could not pull anything. When you swim in tow for a long time, you feel with your skin whether your tug is pulling a barge or not, whether there is resistance or not. You understand this by the vibration of the ship. There was resistance, and very strong. And we rushed on.

And so we began to emerge from the fog - gradually, slowly, but steadily. We saw the horizon again. Everything began to work - radio, light, generator. Everything was fine again. The fog is gone.

And the damn barge is back. I ran to the towing deck and pulled the cable. The damn barge peeped out of the fog, which was now located in only one place. She was securely tied down, the tow line intact. In the place where she was, now the water was seething, although the waves were not high.

We went a little further and were completely out of the fog patch. Visibility around was excellent: I could easily distinguish objects that were twenty kilometers from the tugboat. Now I also saw the barge, but I decided to check everything. I took a boat and walked along the cable to the barge. I touched her. She was warm, very warm. No, not hot, but the way it should not be in any case.

Then I returned to the bridge. It seemed like an eternity from the moment I stepped onto the bridge to the moment the barge emerged from the fog, but in reality it only took seven to ten minutes.

I think this incident scared me a lot, but this does not mean that since then I have been trying not to get to Bermuda. You can't avoid sailing those places if you drive boats from Puerto Rico to Canada. But from that moment on, I began to believe that something incomprehensible was going on in Bermuda.

Witness, you say it was the fog that caused the instrument malfunction. Have you had any problems with the compass before?

Your Honor, there have been, but not like this. I knew that the needle could spin if you pass over a large rift or magnetic anomaly. She does the same over the places of maritime disasters. If the catastrophe is large and there is a lot of metal at the bottom, the arrow definitely goes crazy. So after the war, I found a Japanese warship in Tokyo Bay. I have heard that the arrows are turning on Guadalcanal, there were heavy battles and many ships sunk. But not here ... We later checked our compass, and checked it at Bermuda, it showed normally. Sometimes, of course, any compass fails. But we always had both a magnetic compass and a gyroscope compass to see the difference in readings. Because when you go by the ocean, it's easy to get off track. But in the Bahamas, I've been extremely careful ever since.

Witness, where in the triangle did this incident happen to you?

We were going to the Bahamas, in a hollow, there is a depth of 3000 feet.

Witness, after this incident, did anything else extraordinary happen to you?

Thank God no! And one such case is enough!

So, we are again faced with phenomena already familiar to us: a white fog appears, all devices stop working. A new one is added to the known facts: an uncontrolled vessel, such as a barge, that is, not moving under its own power, is difficult to take away from the anomalous spot. Some energy changes occur with it. In this case, the barge warmed up.

Let's hear from the next witness.

Witness #5

Frank Flynn

As a young man, Flynn served in the Coast Guard. One day he encountered an incomprehensible and frightening phenomenon. It happened on August 8, 1956, when a Coast Guard boat was sailing in Bermuda waters..

Witness, describe in order what happened.

Yes, Your Honor.

Until this day, I had never swum in Bermuda waters. On August 8, our boat went to sea. The weather was calm and very clear. Magnificent visibility, although it was very early, almost still at night. The boat went on a routine patrol. At about 1:30 a.m., we noticed an object on the radar at a distance of 28 miles from us. The configuration of this object was similar to the outlines of the coastline. So we became worried that we were off course. But when we checked the course, it turned out that we were going in the right direction. The nearest coast was 165 miles away. In the place where we observed the "earth", nothing like this simply should not have happened. The object couldn't have been a ship either. He didn't move. So we decided to come and check out what it is.

We headed for the object and after about an hour and a half we came to the mark of half a mile to the radar target. After that, we slowed down and began to approach cautiously. When we were about 100 yards away from the object, we shone a spotlight on it. Here a surprise awaited us: the light seemed to be absorbed by the object, we could not see anything. We approached even closer, almost hitting the object with the left side, shone again, but did not see anything - our light did not penetrate there. We turned around and almost touched the object with our starboard side, but still nothing was visible.

Twice or three times we practically touched the object, but at the contact we didn’t even feel jolts, as if it were steam or fog. It was unusual, and we decided to try to get inside the object. As soon as we crossed its border, visibility plummeted to zero. Almost immediately we were signaled from the engine room that they were losing pressure. The speed began to drop, and when it dropped to four knots, we decided to get out.

We barely escaped from this mass. And I still don't know what we faced that night. Since then I have talked to many oceanologists, but no one could explain it to me.

Witness, did the radar show it was a solid object?

Yes, Your Honor, a massive solid object.

Witness, but during the study it turned out that the object is not solid?

Yes, Your Honor. It was not a body, it was something like a clot of darkness.

Witness, did your boat enter the object at full speed?

Your Honor, we've slowed down a bit, but not to four knots. If we had stayed longer, we would not have been able to get out.

From the testimony of our witness it is clear that the object recorded by the radar was neither a shore, nor a ship, nor any solid body. The searchlight beams couldn't penetrate it. Nevertheless, it had outlines, although the density was the same as that of ordinary air and water. It was completely dark inside this formation, and the boat's engine immediately began to stall.

Let's hear the sixth witness.

Witness #6

Paul Vance, owner of the twenty-six-foot sailboat Rea Form».

Witness, please describe the incident in detail.

Your Honor, on the evening of June 26, 2001, along with my friend Doug Gernon, I took my boat from West Palm Beach, Florida to the West End, Bahamas. At 9:30 pm, eleven miles offshore, I looked up at the sky to the northeast and noticed something strange. There, in the distance, at an altitude of 3000-5000 feet, hung a luminous object. The light was dim. At first I thought it was a plane landing on the water, then it was a helicopter. Because the object was emitting light downwards, exactly illuminating the water with a spotlight. But this light was weaker than the light from the spotlight.

Lot I saw the mist rising from below in that place and the light descending in the mist towards the water. The mist exactly surrounded this light and also emitted a glow. It didn't last very long. And then everything dissipated - no luminous object, no fog. The sky was clear and the stars were clearly visible. We wanted to film this phenomenon with a video camera, but the boat was uneven and too fast.

Witness, what color was the light you saw?

White, Your Honor.

And that light disappeared as if the object had landed?

No, your honor. The object entered the fog, the whole fog was illuminated, and everything went out.

Have you heard, witness, the noise from the engines?

We couldn't have heard it, our engine was running, Your Honor.

Could it be the moon?

No, your honor. I saw the moon, it has already risen. I had the feeling that the light appeared and waited for a column of swirling fog to form, and then he entered it like a door.

Explain your words, witness.

Yes, Your Honor. First the light began to decline, then it entered the swirling cloud of fog, then the fog itself flared up, and everything disappeared.

It couldn't have been the plane's lights?

No, Your Honor, the light was white. I have a pilot's license and know very well what a plane landing at night looks like. It was, to put it sensibly, an atmospheric phenomenon, and at the same time it seemed to me that this luminous object seemed to be passing somewhere.

And how long did the phenomenon last?

Two or three minutes, Your Honor, not very long.

What was the weather like that evening?

Cloudy, the sky is overcast in places, a light east wind was blowing.

Didn't you think to stop the boat to take a better look?

Your Honor, we were thinking of something else. When this light appeared, our motor was running at full power, but the speed was dropping, it seemed to be idling. But we were so shocked by what we saw that at first we did not even pay attention to the motor. But in the morning I looked around the boat and noticed a ring of black soot around the exhaust pipe. I thought there was a problem with the fuel pump. And when we got home, I checked the motor. Outwardly, everything was in order. But when I dismantled the engine, I found that the coil in the ignition system was torn off, as if it had been blown away by pressure.

You did not connect the damage to the engine with the phenomenon that you observed?

No, because this could happen for various reasons. But when we observed the object, our engine simply choked, worked at full power, but the speed did not increase.

Have you heard about the phenomena that occur in the Bermuda Triangle before?

I heard, Your Honor. In books on this topic, they wrote about some kind of holes in the sky and dark masses through which stars are not visible. When these strange air masses appear, electromagnetic disturbances occur, the compass fails, generators stop working, electricity fails, and ships are endangered. It has been reported that as soon as the fire in the sky enters such a dark mass, the stars reappear and the sky clears. And for some reason, these cases always happened between Florida and the Bahamas. I think it's because yachts don't usually go far into the waters of the Bermuda Triangle. They mostly swim along the standard route, and I don’t know what’s going on there away from the islands. See, nobody knows that. Those who find out do not come back.

Let us also note the testimony of our sixth witness. He watched as a luminous object entered the area of ​​fog, after which the fog dissipated and the sky with stars became very clearly visible. During the incident, the yacht's engine was idling, and then it turned out that he was damaged.

Witness #7

We have another witness. His name is known throughout the world. This is the 15th century navigator Christopher Columbus. He was the first European to record and describe some of the phenomena that, as we now know, are associated with the waters of Bermuda. Let's see what the published Diaries say about the first voyage of Columbus. There are no common descriptions here, only scanty facts, and the story will not take long. Let's start from the moment when the ships of Columbus entered the waters of the triangle.

Saturday, September 8. On Saturday at three o'clock in the morning the wind blew from the northeast. The admiral went his own way to the west. On the sea there was a wave from the prow, which prevented the course, and therefore only 9 leagues were passed in a day and a night.

Sunday, September 9. Fifteen leagues passed in the afternoon. The Admiral decided to count the fractions of the way less than they actually went, in the event that the voyage turned out to be long, so that fear and confusion would not seize people. During the night they traveled 120 miles, or 30 leagues, doing 10 miles an hour. The sailors steered poorly and deviated more than a quarter to the northeast. We were off course almost half a breeze. For this, the admiral reprimanded them many times.

Monday, 10 September. During the day and night, 60 leagues were covered - 10 miles, or 2.5 leagues per hour, but in order not to inspire fear in people if the journey was long, they calculated the distance traveled at 48 leagues.

Tuesday, 11 September. They sailed all day in their own way, that is, to the west, and traveled more than 20 leagues. We saw a fragment of the mast from a 120-barrel ship, but could not fish it out. About 20 leagues passed during the night, but for the reason already indicated, only 16 were noted.

Wednesday, 12 September. Continuing along the same path, 33 leagues passed in a day and night, counting fewer leagues for the same reason.

Note that nothing special seems to be happening. A sailboat floats for itself, only for some reason the sailors begin to mismanage control and deviate from the course. Are the sailors to blame? Or is another force, the “triangular” one, to blame? And the decision of Columbus to count a smaller distance is also a strange decision. People murmured. It can be attributed to the fact that they grumbled from the unknown. They were afraid. But fear… Fear is a symptom of the triangle. Many people who have been here speak of unexpected and unaccountable fear.

Thursday, September 13. In the course of a day and a night 33 leagues traveled the same way to the west, reckoning three or four leagues less. The currents were opposite. On this day, the compass needle deviated to the northwest, the same thing happened the next morning.

Friday, 14 September. They sailed day and night on their way to the west and traveled 20 leagues, numbering somewhat less. People from the Niña caravel said they saw a seagull (garxao) and a rabo de junco. These birds never move more than 25 leagues from the earth.

The sailors were right. They walked, passing tiny islands. In this area, as it became known later, there are not only "permanent" islands, but also "temporary», volcanic origin.

Saturday, 15 September. During the night and day they traveled 27 leagues and even more in the same way to the west.

Sunday, 16 September. Day and night they sailed the same way to the west. Passed 39 leagues, noted only 36. During the day it was cloudy, drizzling. The admiral here notes that on this day such surprisingly mild weather was maintained throughout the journey, that the charm of the morning hours gave great pleasure, and it seemed that only the singing of a nightingale was missing. He says: "The weather was like Andalusia in April." Here they began to notice many tufts of green grass, and, as one could judge from its appearance, this grass had only recently been torn off the ground. Therefore, everyone believed that the ships were near some island, and, according to the admiral, it was just an island, and not the mainland. He says: "The mainland itself lies even further away."

The ships sailed on the Sargasso Sea. This is one of the strangest areas of the triangle. And although most bermudologists believe that the sea is part of the anomalous triangle, it in itself represented a unique phenomenon. Columbus, marveling at the mild and pleasant weather, did not yet know how dangerous the area could be. He didn't even imagine; that these apparently quiet waters can suddenly rise like a wall in a completely clear sky and destroy ships. He got lucky. He never saw the Sargasso Sea in action.

Monday, 17 September. The admiral sailed his way to the west and covered more than 50 leagues in a day and a night. However, only 47 were noted. The course helped. We often saw grass and there was a lot of it. It was the grass that grows on the rocks, and it was brought from the west. The sailors reasoned that they were close to land. The pilots took the north and found that the needles [of compasses] deviated to the northeast by a large quarter. The sailors were seized with fear and sadness, and it was impossible to know the reason for this. When the admiral found out about all this, he ordered to take the north again in the morning; it turned out that the arrows showed correctly. The reason was that it seemed as if the star itself was moving, and not the needles [of the compass].

After dawn, on the same Monday, they saw even more grass, and it turned out to be river grass. Among the herbs they found a live crayfish, which the admiral kept. The admiral remarks that these were all sure signs of land, and that the ships are no more than 80 leagues from it. It was discovered that since the departure from the Canary Islands there had not yet been such low-salinity water in the sea and such calm weather. Everyone cheered up, and each ship accelerated as much as possible in order to be the first to see the land. We saw a lot of dolphins, and the people from the Nina killed one. The admiral notes at the same time that all these are signs of the western side: “I trust in the Almighty, on whom everything depends, and I hope that he will give us a glimpse of the earth very soon.” In the morning, as he notes, they saw a white bird, which is called "rabo de junco." This bird does not sleep over the sea.

Tuesday, September 18. They went day and night, passing more than 55 leagues, but showed only 48. The sea all these days was very calm, just like the river in Seville. Martin Alonso (Pinson) on the Pinta, a very fast ship, went ahead without waiting for the rest of the caravels. He reported from his caravel to the admiral that he had seen many birds flying to the west, and therefore he hoped to see land that very night; that's the reason he walked so fast. A large cloud appeared in the north - a sure sign of the proximity of the earth.

Wednesday, September 19. They sailed their own way, and since the weather was calm, they covered 25 leagues in a day and night, but recorded 22. That day, at 10 o'clock, a silly fell on the ship, in the evening they saw another one. These birds are usually not more than 20 leagues from the earth. Sometimes it rained, but there was no wind - a sure sign of the earth. The admiral did not want to linger, sailing against the wind (barloventeando), to make sure that there was land close, although he believed that there must be some islands to the north and south, as in reality there were, and he walked between them , because his desire was to follow on to the very Indies; “And the weather is favorable, therefore, trusting in the Lord, I will be able to see all this on the way back,” these are his words. Here the pilots showed their nautical charts. According to the estimates of the pilot of the Nina, the flotilla was 440 leagues from the Canary Islands, the pilot of the Pinta - 420 and the pilot of the admiral's ship - exactly 400 leagues from these islands.

Thursday, September 20. We sailed that day to the west, a quarter to the northwest, as the winds were repeatedly replaced by calm. Passed 7 or 8 leagues. Two silly people flew on the ship, and then another sure sign of the proximity of the earth. We saw a lot of grass, although it was not noticeable the previous day. They caught a bird that looked like a seagull with their hands. It was a river bird, not a sea bird, and its paws are like those of a seagull. Shortly before sunrise, two or three of the birds that are found on earth flew into the ship singing, but they disappeared as soon as the sun rose. Then a fool flew in from the west-north-west, and he flew to the south-east - a sign that he left the land behind him to the west-north-west, because these birds sleep on land, and in the morning they fly out to sea in search of food and from the earth they are not removed more than 20 leagues.

Probably the sailors of Columbus were very lucky», that their captain purposefully went to his "India». The waters in which they now sailed were dangerous. And who knows how the voyage would have ended if Columbus had decided to look for the islands! Moreover, the ships of Columbus, how should I say it, suddenly lost their spatial orientation. The starting point for them was those left behind by the Canaries, but for some reason the sailors got confused in their calculations. On the admiral's ship, they believed that they were 400 leagues from the Canaries, on the Pint, which was further, 420 leagues, and the pilots of the Nina measured 440 leagues from the Canaries. Isn't it interesting?

Friday, September 21. Most of the day was calm, then a light wind blew. During the day and night, advancing now in their own direction, now in a different course, they covered about 13 leagues. At dawn they saw so much grass that it seemed that the whole sea was teeming with it, and it was coming from the west. We saw a fool; the sea was as smooth as a river, the weather could not be any better. We saw a whale - a sign of the proximity of the land - because the whales swim close to the shore.

Saturday, September 22. They sailed to the west-north-west, sometimes deviated somewhat in one direction or another, and passed 30 lindens. Grass almost did not come across. We saw several pardelas and other birds. At the same time, the admiral writes: “This nasty wind came in handy for me, because my people are very worried, deciding that winds [favorable] do not blow in these seas for returning to Spain.” For some time the grass did not come across, and then appeared - and very thick.

Please note that sailboats have to go “either in their own direction, then in a different course” - such strange winds blow here, changeable and insidious. But even this wind, which interferes with navigation, seems to Columbus a gift from heaven. Why? During the journey through the waters of the Sargasso Sea, the sailors were convinced that the jester .... there are no "correct" winds that can bring them back to their homeland: They have been blowing under the wind all the time in the direction of the continent of America!

Sunday, September 23. They sailed to the northwest, sometimes deviating a quarter to the north, and sometimes in their own way, that is, to the west. Passed 22 leagues. We saw a dove, a fulmar, another river bird and white birds. There was a lot of grass, and crayfish were found in it. Since the sea was calm and smooth, people began to murmur, saying that the sea was strange here and the winds would never blow that would help them return to Spain. But soon a strong commotion began, with no wind, which surprised everyone quite a bit. The admiral, on this occasion, noted: “This stormy sea brought me great benefit, and this, perhaps, has not happened since the days of the Jews, when the Jews grumbled at Moses because he freed them from captivity.”

Monday, 24 September. They sailed their way west, day and night, and traveled 14.5 leagues. A silly fell into the ship. We saw a lot of pardelas.

Tuesday, 25 September. Most of the day it was calm, then the wind blew, and until night they went their way to the west. The admiral had a conversation with Martin Alonso Pinzón, captain of the Pinta caravel, regarding a map that three days ago [the admiral] sent to the caravel, and on which, as it turned out later, the admiral struck some islands in this sea, and Martin Alonso said that they are not in these places. The admiral replied that he also thought so, and if they did not meet the islands, then this was due to the action of the currents, which constantly carried the ships to the northeast. Therefore, the actual distance traveled must be less than that indicated by the pilots. Holding on to this conviction, the admiral requested that the said chart be sent to him, and when it was given, the admiral began to plot a course on the chart with his pilot and sailors.

At sunset, Martin Alonso Pinzón appeared at the stern of his ship and with a joyful look called the admiral, congratulating him, for he saw the land. Hearing such a firm statement of Pinson, he, according to him, threw himself on his knees and gave thanks to our Lord, and Martin Alonso and his people exclaimed: "Glory to God in the highest" (Gloria in excelsis Deo); his crew did the same, and those who were on the Nina climbed onto the masts and rigging and all with one voice claimed that the ground was [visible]. So it seemed to the admiral, who believed that he was 25 leagues away from her. Until nightfall, everyone was convinced that the land lay somewhere nearby. The admiral ordered all ships to deviate from their usual path to the west and go to all ships to the southwest, in the direction where land appeared. During the day they sailed 4.5 leagues west, at night 17 leagues southwest, but people were told that they had traveled 13 leagues, because they were constantly pretending to say that they had traveled a shorter distance, so that the [true] path would not seem long to them. Thus, two accounts of the distance traveled in this voyage were kept: the smaller account was false, the larger one was true. They walked on a calm sea, and therefore many rushed into the water and bathed [at the ships]. We saw a lot of dorados and other fish.

Doesn't it seem strange to you that Columbus refers his map to the Pint? Obviously, he is worried that he has lost the right direction. He is so anxious that he is forced to plot a new course with the pilots! But then a surprise happens: the sailors see the land. And even Columbus himself is sure that he sees the earth. And the birds show that the earth is near, This transition from despondency to hope, does it remind you of anything? “We got lost,” Taylor says, and after a short time: “I think I see the Florida Keys!”

Wednesday, 26 September. The admiral sailed his way west until noon, then headed southwest until he was convinced that what everyone had taken for land yesterday was the sky. During the day and night they sailed 31 leagues, but the people were told that they sailed only 24 leagues. The sea was like a river, the weather pleasant and mild.

Thursday, 27 September. They sailed their way to the west. Twenty-four leagues were passed during the day and night, but only twenty leagues were counted for the people. We saw a lot of dorados, one was killed. Noticed the rabo de junco.

Friday, September 28. They sailed their way to the west. In a calm day and night, 14 leagues passed, but they announced to people that they had sailed 13 leagues. We met some grass, caught two Dorados. More were caught on other ships.

Saturday, September 29. They sailed their way to the west. 24 leagues passed, but 21 leagues were counted for people. There was a lull, so a little bit passed during the day and night. We saw a forktail bird (rabiforcado). These birds force the fulmars to regurgitate the swallowed fish, and then eat it and only feed on it. Forktail is a sea bird. But she does not live above the sea, nor is she more than twenty leagues from the land. There are a lot of them on the Cape Verde Islands. Then they saw two fools. The weather was mild and pleasant, exactly the kind of which they say that only nightingale singing is missing, while the sea was smooth as a river. Three times the fools appeared and once the forktail. We saw a lot of grass.

Joy is replaced by sadness. The earth that Columbus saw turned out to be the sky. Think about it: the earth that the entire crew of Columbus saw turned out to be the sky. Or - what? Mirage? All signs of the close land are there: birds that do not live far from the coast, but there is no land. As long as they are in these waters, the sailors of Columbus live in anticipation of the land. The ships are going exactly to the west, as the instruments, albeit old ones, show. They go four days to the west, in the direction of the land they saw. Or are they cheating?

Sunday, 30 September. They sailed their way to the west, passed 14 leagues in a day and night with a calm, but showed only 11. Four rabos de juncos flew onto the ship - an important sign of the proximity of the earth, because when several birds of the same breed appear together, it can be said with certainty that these are not birds that have strayed from the flock and have not lost their way. Twice we saw four fools and a lot of grass.

It was noted that the stars, which are called "Guards" (Guardas), in the evening were at the right hand, on the western side, and at dawn - one line below the left hand, to the northeast, Thus, during the night they passed no more than three lines, which corresponds to nine hours. And so, says the admiral, it happens every night. It has also been observed that when it got dark, the needles [of the compass] deviated a quarter to the northwest, and at dawn they pointed exactly in the direction of the Star [Polar]. Therefore, it is possible that the Star, like other stars, moves, while the needles [compass] always show correctly.

Thursday, 11 October. They sailed west-southwest. For all the time of the voyage, there had never been such excitement at sea. We saw pardelas and green reeds near the ship itself. People from the caravel "Pinta" noticed a reed and a branch and fished out a hewn, possibly iron, stick and a piece of reed and other herbs that will be born on earth, and one plank. People on the caravel "Nina" saw other signs of the earth and a twig strewn with rose hips. Everyone was inspired and delighted to see these signs. Twenty-seven leagues passed on that day before sunset. After sunset, they sailed their way westward at a speed of 12 miles per hour, and by two o'clock in the morning they had covered 90 miles, or 22.5 leagues. And since the caravel "Pinta" was faster and went ahead of the admiral, she found land and gave the signals prescribed by the admiral. This land was first seen by a sailor whose name was Rodrigo de Triana.

Also, the admiral, being on the stern platform (castillo de rora), saw the light at 10 o'clock in the evening, but the light was so obscure that, not wanting to say that [ahead] land, the admiral called Pero Gutierez, the royal bedkeeper (repostrero d' estrados del rey), and told him that he had seen the light, and asked him to look [afar]. He, having fulfilled the request, also saw the light. This was reported by Admiral Rodrigo Sanchez de Segovia, who was sent by the king and queen with the flotilla as a controller (veedor). Rodrigo Sanchez had not seen the light before, because he was in a place where it was impossible to notice anything, but after the admiral told him about the light, they began to peer together and saw something like a spark wax candle which went up and down.

I specifically cited almost the entire passage from Columbus's diary from the day he approached the Sargasso Sea to the moment when he saw a strange light. Literally the next day, the cry of the sailor on duty was heard: “Earth!” - and this time the earth was not an optical illusion.

You can, of course, assume that Columbus did not meet anything special on the way to the shores of America. But it is not. He noted those oddities, which were later discussed by many who had been in the triangle. And his stay in the area lasted much longer. In addition, Columbus was the first European who encountered an incomprehensible zone, he did not know about its deceit and had no idea that very soon the Spanish ships would become the first victims of the unknown.

To make it clear, let me remind you of the details of the voyage of Columbus:

So, the land discovered by Columbus was one of the islands of the Bahamas group, stretching from South Florida to Haiti. In the last days of October, the flotilla approached the northeastern part of Cuba, followed the coast to the west for 50 miles, and then returned to the northeastern tip of the island in search of gold and fair winds.

In December 1492, Columbus sailed to the shores of Haiti. On the night of Christmas, December 25, 1492, the Saint Mary was wrecked off the northwest coast of Haiti. Two caravels, the Pinta and the Nina, could accommodate part of the crew of the Saint Mary, but there was not enough room for everyone. They were forced to stay in Haiti in hastily built Fort Navidad (Christmas). January 16 "Pinta" and "Nina" headed back to the European shores. Thus ended the first voyage of Columbus.

Now let's bring together the oddities that Columbus mentions.

1. The compass needle deviated to the northwest, the same thing happened the next morning.

2. At night, at its beginning, it was seen how a marvelous fiery branch fell from the sky into the sea, 4-5 leagues from the ship.

3. The pilots took the north and found that the needles [of the compasses] deviated to the northeast by a large quarter. The sailors were seized with fear and sadness, and it was impossible to know the reason for this. When the admiral found out about all this, he ordered to take the north again in the morning; it turned out that the arrows showed correctly. The reason was that it seemed as if the star itself was moving, and not the needles [of the compass].

4. Since the sea was calm and smooth, people began to murmur, saying that the sea was strange here and the winds would never blow that would help them return to Spain. But soon a strong commotion began with no wind, which surprised everyone a lot..

5. When it got dark, the needles [of the compass] deviated a quarter to the northwest, and at dawn they pointed exactly in the direction of the Star [Polar]. Therefore, it is possible that the Star, like other stars, moves, while the needles [of the compass] always show correctly.

6. The admiral, being on the aft platform, saw a light at 10 o'clock in the evening, but the light was not clear, something like the flame of a wax candle, which either rose or fell.

Of course, it is difficult to draw conclusions from such scant information. But scientists who studied the path of Columbus believe the following. Navigators had problems with navigation only when entering the waters of the Sargasso Sea. Before that, there were none all the way from the coast of Spain. And since the compasses sometimes did not work, then they worked, we can talk about a well-known phenomenon in Bermuda, which still interferes with navigation in the area today.

There were three problems with the compass. The second time, "it seemed that the Star itself was moving (navigators checked against the North Star), and not the needles of the compass", that is, they could not correlate the position of the North Star with the north. Could navigators have confused the North Star with some other moving object? Or was something happening that distorted the perception of the North Star as a fixed one? For the third time in the evening, the compass showed northwest, and at dawn north, this surprised the sailors so much that they concluded that the North Star was moving and did not always point north.

While sailing in the triangle, Columbus saw a “wonderful fiery branch” falling into the sea, that is, a certain fiery object, which is usually considered either a meteorite or “fire of the triangle”, which was reported by our sixth witness. A strange light that went down and up, rather weak, similar to the fire of a candle, was noticed later, a month later. And the second light certainly could not be a meteorite. It looks like a fire triangle.

And the last oddity is a sharp change in the weather, when a calm and very calm sea was suddenly seized by excitement in complete calm. All of these things are happening today. Columbus was the first to notice them.

Notes:

Guadalcanal- an island in the Pacific Ocean, in the group of the Solomon Islands.

About 92 meters.

« take north"-" tomar el norte "- a marine Spanish term that denoted a special way of checking the northern position of the magnetic needle on the North Star: the pilot placed his palm placed on the edge between his eyes, on the line of the nose and bridge of the nose, pointed his palm at the North Star, and then, without changing position of the hand, put it on the compass card.