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A Mystery of the Ocean
Ever since man started to explore outer space we have thought of Earth as a place which has no more mysteries for us to explain. But there is one part of the Western Atlantic Ocean that has a very strange history. It lies between Florida and Bermuda. In this area, over 100 ships and planes have vanished since 1945! "The Hoodoo Sea", "the Graveyard of the Atlantic" and "the Devil's Triangle" — this area has many names, but it is best known as "the Bermuda Triangle"...
The three points of the triangle known as "the Bermuda Triangle" are Bermuda, Florida and Puerto Rico. From 1945 until the present day over 1,000 lives have been lost in this area without trace — no bodies have been found!
Many small boats and light aircraft have vanished, in this area. But so have large ships. One of these was the Marine Sulphur Queen which was 150 metres long. Another was the USA Cyclops which disappeared along with all the 309 people she was carrying.
What makes these losses even more mysterious is the fact that hardly any S.O.S. signals are ever received from the ships and boats which disappear.
Also, these things happen in good weather and without warning. Ships, seem to vanish into thin air. This fact has led some people to suggest all sorts of strange explanations. For example, some people believe that the planes fly into a "hole in the sky" from which they are unable to escape. Others think that the ships that have disappeared have been the victims of beings from outer space who have snatched them from the surface of the sea a taken them to some unknown world!
Some people point out that the Bermuda Triangle is one of the ft places on Earth where a magnetic compass does not point towards the magnetic north and that because of this navigators often find themselves с course and in danger.
Some people believe that the Bermuda Triangle does not exist and that г the accidents that have happened there are simply coincidence.
Hugh CORRIGAN
Text 8.
UFOs
On 24th June, 1947, Kenneth Arnold, a young American business man, was flying his private aeroplane above the Cascade Mountains in Washington. As he drew near Mount Rainier he saw nine circular objects moving at high speed pass twenty-five miles away. There was a Douglas DC-4 airliner in the sky at the same time, and Arnold thought that each of the objects was slightly smaller than his aircraft. The objects flew "as if they were linked together".
On landing, Arnold described what he had seen. He told a newspaper reporter that the objects "flew like a saucer would if you skipped it across the water." His words provided a name for the objects he had seen. Kenneth Arnold was the first observer reported to have seen flying saucers.
Within a few weeks of the report of what Arnold had seen, reports of similar sightings came from various parts of the world — from Canada, Australia, England and Iran.
From the start, there was a great deal of guessing about What the flying saucers might be. An American newspaper reporter stated that the saucers were, in fact, a new secret type of aircraft, "a combination of helicopter and fast jet plane". This proved to be incorrect. In 1947, a so-called "cold war" was in progress between the United States and the Soviet Union and one famous newspaper writer suggested that the saucers were a new type of spy aircraft sent out from Russia. Another idea was that the flying saucers came from outer space, sent by beings from another world.
In time, the term "flying saucer" has given way to the more scientific one "unidentified flying object", and for over two decades from 1947 a great deal of investigation was carried out into UFOs in the United States.
Sightings of UFOs were not new. Reports of such objects date back three thousand years. Some people include among these reports of fiery chariots, glowing lights and strange clouds which are mentioned in the Bible.
In the early days of the Roman Empire, a round object that looked like a globe or a shield was said to have been seen moving across the sky. On another occasion a fiery globe, brighter-than the sun, was reported to have been seen, first falling towards the earth and then rising again.
Similar stories were told in the Middle Ages. Medieval writers described bright lights, balls, discs and strange shapes that were seen in the sky.
In 1742, a large brightly-lighted object shaped like a cylinder was reported to have been seen over London.
On 1st August, 1871, an astronomer named Coggia saw a strange red object in the sky over Marseilles, France.
In January and February 1913, "unknown airships" were seen at various times over many different places in Britain.
In July 1938 a UFO flew over New York. It shone brilliantly and gave forth a sound described as "a great swish", "a persistent hiss" and "a faraway roar". It was lost to sight when it fell below the horizon, possibly falling into the sea. Experts declared that the object was a large meteorite but not everyone who saw it agreed.
In the years before World War Two there were frequent reports of aircraft crashing into the sea without leaving a trace and without any known aircraft being missing.
Over the years many photographs of objects said to be flying saucers have been produced by various people. Some of them have been shown to be fakes. The others have not been accepted as genuine pictures of UFOs beyond a reasonable doubt.
What are these UFOs? Are they sent from outer space? Do they contain beings from other worlds? Some people think so. Gabriel Green, president of the Amalgamated Flying Saucer Clubs of America is one of them. He has
said: "Inhabitants of other worlds are holding off their visitation to the troubled earth because they feel that they would either be worshipped as gods or feared as conquerors".
Perhaps we will have to wait for an explanation of UFOs until we receive it from someone from another world.
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