THE BERMUDA TRIANGLE CALENDAR: November and December 1974

Kusche's 1975 calendar also features as a courtesy November and December 1974, showcasing the mighty USS Proteus and five Grumman TBF Avengers like those lost in Flight 19. All events are identical to those listed in November and December 1975. The complete calendar can be viewed and downloaded at archive dot org.

Lawrence David Kusche, 1974

THE BERMUDA TRIANGLE CALENDAR: December 1975

December greets the Triangle Legend with two heavy hitters: the discovery of the abandoned Mary Celeste in 1872 and the disappearance of the legendary Flight 19, a group of five Navy trainers who were lost with all hands in the Triangle in 1945, along with a search and rescue plane that followed them into oblivion. Kusche's The Bermuda Triangle Mystery - Solved demystifies some of the legend around Lt. Charles C. Taylor and his crew, including the full flight transcript which lacks the famous line "they look like they're from outer space!" which populated more sensational midcentury retellings, implying the fliers had been kidnapped by flying saucers.

Grumman TBF-1 Avengers, identical to Flight 19

The doomed Lt. Taylor

A Martin PBM-5 Mariner, the same type lost in search of Flight 19

Kusche's book included his best estimates of Flight 19's doomed path, with Lt. Taylor becoming disoriented and believing his flight had gotten turned around and was over the Florida Keys, leading him to fly the team out into the empty North Atlantic until their fuel ran out in an attempt to reach land that was actually far south behind them:

This modern reconstruction from wikipedia matches Kusche's work:

The photo star of the month, however, is a DC-3 that disappeared on a flight from Puerto Rico to Miami in 1948, with the loss of 29 passengers and 3 crew.

Lawrence David Kusche, 1974

THE BERMUDA TRIANGLE CALENDAR: November 1975

November's Triangle is full of TERROR as we mark the finding of the wreck of the USS Scorpion, the final departure of the Mary Celeste, and one of the Triangle's most famous victims, Joshua Slocum - the first man to circumnavigate the globe solo! After a lifetime at sea, Slocum had become a major celebrity with his bestselling book Sailing Alone Around the World (1900), but "by 1909, Slocum's funds were running low; book revenues had tailed off. He prepared to sell his farm on Martha's Vineyard and began to make plans for a new adventure in South America. He had hopes of another book deal." He made his fateful departure and was never seen again. Kusche covered the facts as known and some speculation in The Bermuda Triangle Mystery - Solved:

It's not known if Slocum ever made it near any of the nominal borders of the Triangle, or managed to sail on through to the Orinoco River or elsewhere, but his legend lives on as a mystery of the sea, as does debate over the seaworthiness of the Spray, the sailing sloop in which he sailed across the world and then disappeared.

Lawrence David Kusche, 1974

THE BERMUDA TRIANGLE CALENDAR: October 1975

Picking up where we left off some years ago, here's the Bermuda Triangle Calendar entry for October 1975! This month yields a handful of minor league mysteries like the Freya and Columbus' "strange light" that will be familiar to dedicated Triangle heads. Kusche had some fun with the Freya in his The Bermuda Triangle Mystery - Solved on account of that doomed vessel actually being lost and found in the Pacific!

Musicians Stefano DiCarlo and Mauro Ruvolo named a track for the Freya on their 1992 Deep House EP The Bermuda Triangle:

Lawrence David Kusche, 1974

THE BERMUDA TRIANGLE CALENDAR: July - September 1975

Those deadly Dero rays did their damnedest, but we've made it back alive with more entries from Lawrence David Kusche's Bermuda Triangle calendar of 1975! Highlights from this three month stretch include the search for the lost USS Scorpion (not found until October of 1968), the sad and bizarre story of Donald Crowhurst's doomed race against time, and some classic Triangle tales of Columbus' spooky sailing to the New World. September features a lovely painting of the Sargasso Sea by one E.S. Hodgson, a semi-obscure figure who benefits from this biographical sketch by researcher Robert J. Kirkpatrick. Here's that piece in color:

The Sargasso Sea makes a handy segue into the resolution of a minor Triangle mystery - the story of the Ellen Austin, an apocryphal entry in Kusche's The Bermuda Triangle Mystery - Solved: 

Fortuitous happenstance has provided a solid answer to this case. The tale of the Ellen Austin and the derelict happens to match beat for beat the first half of a short story titled "The Mystery of the Water-Logged Ship" by classic horror author William Hope Hodgson. The story is a minor one from 1911 and perhaps overshadowed by his other, more fantastic sea stories such as The Boats of the "Glen Carrig" ... for despite the mysterious setup, the second half of the story reveals that perfectly corporeal pirates are to blame, utilizing a hidden chamber on the derelict to ambush victims seeking salvage! The Triangle myth simply drops the clever denouement and leaves the mystery, pregnant with otherworldly menace.

Lawrence David Kusche, 1974

THE BERMUDA TRIANGLE CALENDAR: May + June 1975

 

After a month of chasing tic tacs and little green wheels, we're back! May and June give us some suitably ominous events with the mysterious loss of the USS Scorpion off the Azores and the (likely explicable) sighting of a UFO by astronaut Jim McDivitt during Gemini 4. Strange days indeed.

Lawrence David Kusche, 1974

THE BERMUDA TRIANGLE CALENDAR: April 1975

April brings two true tragedies: the USS Cyclops is reported overdue with its complement of of 306 souls, and the Raifuku Maru sinks in the North Atlantic claiming all 38 fishermen aboard.

Lawrence David Kusche, 1974

THE BERMUDA TRIANGLE CALENDAR: March 1975

 

March brings us some more Triangle legends with the disappearance of 306 souls aboard the USS Cyclops, the dual loss of Norwegian freighters MV Norse Variant and MV Anita off of New Jersery, and the presumed drowning death of racing jockey Al Snider while fishing in the Florida Keys, among others.

Lawrence David Kusche, 1974

THE BERMUDA TRIANGLE CALENDAR: February 1975

Some of the most infamous Triangle disappearances have occurred in February!

Lawrence David Kusche, 1974

THE BERMUDA TRIANGLE CALENDAR: January 1975

Promotional calendar put together by Kusche for his blockbuster The Bermuda Triangle Mystery - Solved.

Lawrence David Kusche, 1974