DEEP WEB: facts, conspiracies, solved, unsolved cases, murders and mysteries

Mysterious Vanishings on the High Sea

The Marine Sulphur Queen
An in depth investigation was undertaken, and interestingly when the debris was analyzed, two of the life jackets held evidence of being damaged by “predatory fish” but no sign of being damaged by an explosion or heat. It was also found that the area had experienced severe weather at the time of the vanishing, and that the heated sulphur tanks were often known to experience fires around them, but that these blazes, although sounding frightening, were considered to be fairly routine by the crew. Also discovered was that the ship had had some structural problems, such as a keel that had become rather weak due to corrosion, which it had been scheduled to get maintenance work done on. This led to the official conclusion that it had likely broken up in the bad weather and sunk out at sea. Other theories were proposed as well, such as that there had been a mutiny, or an explosion had torn the ship apart, but no one knew for sure, and the Coast Guard would conclude at the end of its investigation:

In view of the absence of any survivors and the physical remains of the vessel, the exact cause for the disappearance of the…Sulphur Queen could not be ascertained.

In later years there has been a promising find, when in 2001 a wreck was found in the Gulf 140 miles out from Ft. Myers, Florida and sitting upside down in 423 feet of water which is thought to perhaps be the missing ship, but it is not known for sure. The disappearance of the SS Marine Sulphur Queen quickly became latched onto by Bermuda Triangle conspiracists, and even now it is often mentioned in the same breath as the mysterious region, along with all of the more bizarre theories that entails. For its part, the Coast Guard has eschewed such paranormal explanations, at one point stating:

The Coast Guard is not impressed with supernatural explanations of disasters at sea. It has been [its] experience that the combined forces of nature and unpredictability of mankind outdo even the most far-fetched science fiction.

Yet another mysterious disappearance in the region is the vanishing of a luxury yacht known as the Witchcraft. The boat was a 23-foot yacht that had been fitted with special flotation devices to give it the claim of being “unsinkable.” On December 22, 1967, an avid and experienced yachtsman by the name of Dan Burack embarked on a cruise aboard the yacht off of Miami, Florida, along with his friend Father Patrick Horgan, in order to see the Christmas illumination along the coast. When the departed they were doubtlessly not expecting any trouble, as the weather was calm, and after all their boat was supposed to be unsinkable, but things would soon take a turn for the weird.
Just 1 mile out from the marina the yacht allegedly bumped into something unidentified in the water, which Burack suspected had bent the ship’s rudder. He called the Miami Coast Guard at approximately 9PM and explained the situation, yet at this time he was rather calm and composed, and did not seem to think that it was an emergency situation. Burack calmly explained that he had hit something in the water and requested assistance back to the marina, and there was no reason at all to suspect that anything was particularly wrong. Indeed, later reports from the Coast Guard would repeatedly emphasize Burack’s composed demeanor during the call.
It took only 19 minutes for a Coast Guard ship to reach the position of the Witchcraft, yet when they arrived there was no sign at all of the yacht or the two men aboard. A search immediately commenced that would quickly grow to meticulously scour an impressive total area of 24,500 square miles over 6 days, involving hundreds of boats and aircraft that looked as far as the Gulf Stream. Throughout all of this, not a single piece of debris was discovered, no emergency flares were sighted even though Burack had a flare gun aboard, and none of the ample safety flotation equipment that had been stowed aboard was found. Likewise there was never any further communication from the lost ship, and the Coast Guard was baffled at how fast the Witchcraft had so abruptly and completely disappeared in such a short time. It was also perplexing because the weather had not been stormy at all, the sea serene, and even if the “unsinkable” ship had been damaged somehow, its special flotation devices should have ensured that at least some of the wreckage would stay afloat. However, nothing at all was ever found, and the Coast Guard would say of the Witchcraft and its crew, ”They are presumed missing, but not lost at sea”.

The extremely odd, total disappearance of the Witchcraft has propelled the case into the annals of great sea mysteries, and it is often listed as one of the more baffling disappearances attributed to the Bermuda Triangle. Theories of course have cropped up around the case, such as that it was caught up in a sudden, short-lived squall or had been the victim of a rogue wave or freak ocean current, with one of the more outlandish being that the yacht had in fact bumped into some immense sea monster that had subsequently attacked and pulled it down to a watery doom. Considering no sign or trace of the Witchcraft or its crew have ever been found, we will likely never know for sure.
These are just a few of the countless cases in which the ocean has pulled unfortunate souls into its maw to swallow them up without a trace. In most of these disappearances there is very little, if anything, left behind to give us any clue as to what has happened to these people. It is as if they have been erased from existence, overpowered and vanished by forces beyond our control no matter how well equipped, large, or formidable the vessel was. What happened to these ships and their occupants? What was their final fate? It is likely that the seas will keep these secrets to themselves, divulging nothing even as they lie in wait for more victims, forever untamed by the forces of man and keeping us in their thrall. As long as we venture out among these watery expanses the sea will always keep some of us for itself, just as ravenous, mysterious, and ferocious as it has ever been.