Stupidity accounts for a large portion of mysterious disappearances in the Bermuda Triangle, a British oceanographer told The Royal Gazette.

University of Southampton professor Simon Boxall has attributed about 2 per cent of Bermuda Triangle occurrences to large or rogue waves.

“However, the majority happened through poor preparation and inexperience, aka stupidity,” said Dr Boxall, who lives in England.

He frequently lectures on the Bermuda Triangle and has featured in documentaries, such as Secrets of the Bermuda Triangle in 2018.

His scientific specialities are ice melt in the Arctic and ocean oil spills, but he decided six years ago to look into the Bermuda Triangle phenomenon. This is an area between Bermuda, Puerto Rico and Florida where mysterious accidents and vanishings happen to planes and maritime traffic.

“I was sure there was an obvious answer to the mystery,” Dr Boxall said.

He read all the out-there theories — extraterrestrials, methane gas bubbles, ancient technology from the lost City of Atlantis — and came up with one of his own: incompetence.

Statistically the chances of an American boat disappearing in the Bermuda Triangle are fairly high. This is not for any mysterious reason, but because one third of all American boats can be found there.

“That area includes the coast of Florida, and inland waters and great lakes,” he said.

There are no agreed upon boundaries for the Bermuda Triangle, but it is estimated to consist of from 500,000 square miles to 1.5 million square miles.

Dr Boxall said the US Coast Guard’s 2019 annual report reveals that 82 per cent of all maritime recoveries, disasters and incidents were attributed to people going to sea with no experience or training.

“You need a licence to drive a vehicle on land, but anyone can buy a yacht, get in it and attempt to sail,” Dr Boxall said. “Some people can afford a $500,000 boat, but then do not bother with life rafts, flares, life jackets or radios.”

One of the most famous Bermuda Triangle disappearances was Flight 19, a squadron of five United States Navy Avenger torpedo bombers that vanished on December 5, 1945, on a training flight from Fort Lauderdale, Florida to the Bahamas.

Not only were 14 aviators lost, but so were men on a seaplane sent to find them.

“These were not experienced aviators,” Dr Boxall said.

Part way to their destination, trainer Charles C Taylor began to fly the wrong way, with the four other bombers following him. One theory is that Lieutenant Taylor’s compass malfunctioned.

“Apparently, he was a bit pompous and did not listen to anyone,” Dr Boxall said. “Some of the initial radio conversation between the aircraft was picked up. One of the trainees who was looking at the ground, radioed that they were going the wrong way. Taylor’s response was essentially, I know what I am doing. You are just students. Shut up and follow me! They did. Unfortunately, they turned in the wrong direction and effectively went out to the open sea.”

It is now thought that the bombers ran out of fuel and crashed into the ocean.

“These are the days when radios were fairly weak and you had no global positioning system,” Dr Boxall said.

The loss of the flight squadron inspired writer George Sands to pen an article in Fate magazine in 1952, coining the term “Bermuda Triangle”.

“Other stories in that issue included The Truth about Flying Saucers, Invisible Beings Walk the Earth and Twenty-million Maniacs,” Dr Boxall said.

He said the Bermuda Triangle is the perfect breeding ground for monster waves because of the frequency of storm systems.

“A single storm will create waves ten to 12 metres high [32ft to 39ft],” he said. “That is pretty high, but it is not horrendous.”

However, when multiple storm systems converge on each other the result can be rogue waves defined as waves more than twice the significant wave height — the average of the tallest third of waves.

“Contrary to disaster movies, they do not occur in a flat, calm sea, but in stormy conditions,” he said. “You might occasionally find these waves during hurricanes. They also do not typically happen near land, but in the open ocean.”

A rogue wave can sink or severely damage a large vessel, particularly if the wave comes in a set of two or three. The German freighter MS München in 1978, the offshore drilling unit Ocean Ranger in 1982 and USSCyclops in 1918 are suspected of being lost to rogue waves.

It is only in recent years that scientists have been able to measure these ocean monsters using satellite technology.

The first rogue wave measured was the Draupner Wave in the North Sea in 1995 which was 25.6 metres (84ft high), more than twice as tall and steep as the surrounding ocean waves.

Dr Boxall said there are many theories surrounding the Bermuda Triangle, including magnetic anomalies.

“Ironically, there is a slight magnetic anomaly in the Atlantic,” Dr Boxall said. “It is about 2,000 miles south of the Triangle off the coast of Brazil. There are also all sorts of conspiracy theories. It is always quite amusing reading through some of these things. Whenever I talk to the media or write an article I can guarantee I will get a few e-mails from people saying they know the answer.”

Dr Boxall is no stranger to Bermuda, having visited the island several times with university study groups.

“We stayed at the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences,” he said. “Now Bermuda has gotten a bit too expensive, and we take groups to Thailand.”