Just when you think a kooky belief might be down for the count and people have finally wised up, it rises again to infect new generations of minds. The silly claim that the Bermuda Triangle is a perilous patch of ocean that claims ships and planes by supernatural or paranormal means appeared to have faded and died years ago—no chance. This myth is back again, thanks in part to shameless pseudodocumentaries that cable networks show at the expense of their dignity and their viewers’ minds. The Internet is to blame as well. On the Web, crazy can look respectable to unsophisticated eyes and there are plenty of pages in cyberspace waiting to fool the gullible.

Before exploring why the Bermuda Triangle claim doesn’t hold up to scrutiny, let’s consider its origins. Did it grow out of ancient legend? Was there some kind of fringe scientific discovery that sparked it? Did the accumulation of recorded mishaps at sea within its borders give life to the Triangle tale? Of course not! None of that is even remotely true.

The Bermuda Triangle claim is widely believed to trace back to nothing more than a single magazine article published in a 60s pulp magazine. Vincent Gaddis wrote “The Deadly Bermuda Triangle” that appeared in the February 1964 issue of Argosy magazine. Argosy was a magazine that targeted young men with fictional adventure stories and highly sensationalised articles. No one would ever confuse it for National Geographic or Scientific American. Furthermore, Gaddis was no marine scientists nor maritime expert. He was a guy who wrote about kooky, unproven stuff. For example, he also wrote “Gold Rush Ghosts” and “Wide World of Magic”.

By itself, the Argosy article probably would not have been enough to give the Bermuda Triangle a lasting place in pop culture. That blame goes to Charles Berlitz, author of the 1974 bestseller, “The Bermuda Triangle”. Berlitz’s body of work, however, hardly inspires confidence either. He also wrote books promoting belief in the Roswell alien crash and Atlantis.

Dubious origins aside, is there anything to the Bermuda Triangle? Do ships and planes really vanish there? Yes! Ships and planes really do go missing in the area popularly known as the Bermuda Triangle. But here’s the tiny piece of information the Triangle peddlers never mention: Ships and planes go missing outside of the Bermuda Triangle too! The Triangle area sees heavy sea and air traffic so we should expect the occasional disaster or missing boat. If nothing ever went missing there, then we would have an actual mystery. But a misreading of statistics doesn’t fully explain the appeal of this myth. In my opinion it has flourished for one reason more than all others. We just can’t resist a good story.

While researching the Bermuda Triangle for a book about odd beliefs, it didn’t take long for me to see that this is really nothing more than a hollow claim resting on top of a collection of really good stories. It’s like someone drew a triangle around a bunch of campfire tales. Of course most of the Triangle stories fall apart with a minimal amount of fact checking and those that are genuine mysteries do not prove anything. (The absence of an explanation is not an explanation.) It should be no surprise that a collection of tall tales and twisted facts could fool many of us. After all, we are a species in love with stories. Much of our lives centre around them in books, theatres, on television, on the Web, and in personal conversations. The fact that we are drawn to stories so strongly and routinely rely on them to transfer important information should make us wary about them. We are too easily seduced by them and need to be on guard against mistaking a good story for a true story because they are not necessarily the same thing.

My research made it clear to me that nothing unusual is going on in the Bermuda Triangle. Just to be thorough, however, I checked with some people who should know more than anyone about this topic. It turns out that the US Navy doesn’t lose a wink of sleep worrying about the Bermuda Triangle, even as they often send thousands of sailors, ships, subs, and aircraft into the Triangle. I also phoned the US Coast Guard’s Miami base where I spoke to a polite and patient lieutenant who assured me that Coast Guard dismissed the Triangle long ago. He referred me to their official statement on the matter: “The Coast Guard does not recognise the existence of the so-called Bermuda Triangle as a geographic area of specific hazard to ships or planes. In a review of many aircraft and vessel losses in the area over the years, there has been nothing discovered that would indicate that casualties were the result of anything other than physical causes. No extraordinary factors have ever been identified.”

The next time someone tries to convince you of unnatural dangers lurking in the Bermuda Triangle, just ask why you should believe in it when the US Navy and US Coast Guard don’t.