THE SARGASSO SEA/BERMUDA TRIANGLE

Hurricanes



Hurricanes are extremely powerful storms which are spawned in the Atlantic near the equator, and have historically been responsible for thousands of lives lost and billions of dollars in damage. The sinking of Francisco de Bobadilla's Spanish fleet in 1502 was the first recorded instance of a destructive hurricane. In 1988, Hurricane Gilbert, one of the most powerful hurricanes in history, set back Jamaica's economy by three years. These storms have in the past caused a number of incidents related to the Triangle.





Gulf Stream



The Gulf Stream is an ocean current that originates in the Gulf of Mexico, and then through the Straits of Florida, into the North Atlantic. In essence, it is a river within an ocean, and like a river, it can and does carry floating objects. A small plane making a water landing or a boat having engine trouble will be carried away from its reported position by the current, as happened to the cabin cruiser Witchcraft on December 22, 1967, when it reported engine trouble near the Miami buoy marker one mile from shore, but was not there when a Coast Guard cutter arrived.





Freak waves



Extremely large waves can appear seemingly at random, even in calm seas. One such rogue wave caused the Ocean Ranger to capsize in 1982, then the worlds largest offshore platform. There is, however, no particular reason to believe rogue waves are more common in the Bermuda region, and this could not explain loss of airplanes.