Theodosia Burr Alston
Further information: Theodosia Burr Alston
Theodosia Burr Alston was the daughter of former United States Vice President Aaron Burr. Her disappearance has been cited at least once in relation to the Triangle. She was a passenger on board Patriot, which sailed from Charleston, South Carolina to New York City on December 30, 1812, and was never heard from again. Both piracy and the War of 1812 have been posited as explanations, as well as a theory placing her in Texas, well outside the Triangle.
Ellen Austin
The Ellen Austin supposedly came across a derelict ship, placed on board a prize crew,
and attempted to sail with it to New York in 1881. According to the
stories, the derelict disappeared; others elaborating further that the
derelict reappeared minus the prize crew, then disappeared again with a
second prize crew on board. A check from Lloyd's of London records proved the existence of the Meta, built in 1854 and that in 1880 the Meta was renamed Ellen Austin.
There are no casualty listings for this vessel, or any vessel at that
time, that would suggest a large number of missing men were placed on
board a derelict that later disappeared.
USS Cyclops
Main article: USS Cyclops (AC-4)
The incident resulting in the single largest loss of life in the history of the US Navy not related to combat occurred when USS Cyclops, under the command of Lt Cdr G.W. Worley, went missing without a trace with a crew of 309 sometime after March 4, 1918, after departing the island of Barbados.
Although there is no strong evidence for any single theory, many
independent theories exist, some blaming storms, some capsizing, and
some suggesting that wartime enemy activity was to blame for the loss. In addition, two of Cyclops's sister ships, Proteus and Nereus were subsequently lost in the North Atlantic during World War II. Both ships were transporting heavy loads of metallic ore similar to that which was loaded on Cyclops
during her fatal voyage. In all three cases structural failure due to
overloading with a much denser cargo than designed is considered the
most likely cause of sinking.
Carroll A. Deering
Main article: Carroll A. Deering
A five-masted schooner built in 1919, the Carroll A. Deering was found hard aground and abandoned at Diamond Shoals, near Cape Hatteras, North Carolina on January 31, 1921. Rumors and more at the time indicated the Deering was a victim of piracy, possibly connected with the illegal rum-running trade during Prohibition, and possibly involving another ship, SS Hewitt,
which disappeared at roughly the same time. Just hours later, an
unknown steamer sailed near the lightship along the track of the Deering, and ignored all signals from the lightship. It is speculated that Hewitt may have been this mystery ship, and possibly involved in the Deering crew's disappearance.
Flight 19
Main article: Flight 19
Flight 19 was a training flight of five TBM Avenger
torpedo bombers that disappeared on December 5, 1945, while over the
Atlantic. The squadron's flight plan was scheduled to take them due east
from Fort Lauderdale
for 141 miles, north for 73 miles, and then back over a final 140-mile
leg to complete the exercise. The flight never returned to base. The
disappearance is attributed by Navy investigators to navigational error
leading to the aircraft running out of fuel.
One of the search and rescue aircraft deployed to look for them, a PBM Mariner with a 13-man crew, also disappeared. A tanker off the coast of Florida reported seeing an explosion
and observing a widespread oil slick when fruitlessly searching for
survivors. The weather was becoming stormy by the end of the incident.
According to contemporaneous sources the Mariner had a history of
explosions due to vapour leaks when heavily loaded with fuel, as for a
potentially long search and rescue operation.
Star Tiger and Star Ariel
Main articles: G-AHNP "Star Tiger" and G-AGRE "Star Ariel"
G-AHNP Star Tiger disappeared on January 30, 1948 on a flight from the Azores to Bermuda; G-AGRE Star Ariel disappeared on January 17, 1949, on a flight from Bermuda to Kingston, Jamaica. Both were Avro Tudor IV passenger aircraft operated by British South American Airways.
Both planes were operating at the very limits of their range and the
slightest error or fault in the equipment could keep them from reaching
the small island. One plane was not heard from long before it would have
entered the Triangle.
Douglas DC-3
Main article: NC16002 disappearance
On December 28, 1948, a Douglas DC-3 aircraft, number NC16002,
disappeared while on a flight from San Juan, Puerto Rico, to Miami. No
trace of the aircraft or the 32 people onboard was ever found. From the
documentation compiled by the Civil Aeronautics Board investigation, a
possible key to the plane's disappearance was found, but barely touched
upon by the Triangle writers: the plane's batteries were inspected and
found to be low on charge, but ordered back into the plane without a
recharge by the pilot while in San Juan. Whether or not this led to
complete electrical failure will never be known. However, since
piston-engined aircraft rely upon magnetos to provide spark to their cylinders rather than a battery powered ignition coil system, this theory is not strongly convincing.
KC-135 Stratotankers
On August 28, 1963, a pair of US Air Force KC-135 Stratotanker aircraft collided and crashed into the Atlantic. The Triangle version (Winer, Berlitz, Gaddis)
of this story specifies that they did collide and crash, but there were
two distinct crash sites, separated by over 160 miles (260 km) of
water. However, Kusche's research
showed that the unclassified version of the Air Force investigation
report stated that the debris field defining the second "crash site" was
examined by a search and rescue ship, and found to be a mass of seaweed and driftwood tangled in an old buoy.
Connemara IV
A pleasure yacht was found adrift in the Atlantic south of Bermuda on
September 26, 1955; it is usually stated in the stories (Berlitz, Winer) that the crew vanished while the yacht survived being at sea during three hurricanes. The 1955 Atlantic hurricane season shows Hurricane Ione passing nearby between the 14th and 18th of that month, with Bermuda being affected by winds of almost gale force.
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