My Brain

“My brain is like the Bermuda Triangle... Information goes in and then it's never found again” (Minion Quotes)

After nearly 95 years, explorers believe they have discovered the SS Cotopaxi, a ship that vanished near the area known as the Bermuda Triangle in 1925. The ship was named after the named after the Cotopaxi volcano in Ecuador.)  Scientists have just determined that the old ship, the SS Cotopaxi, is actually on the ocean floor about 35 miles off of St. Augustine, FL. It was a 250-foot-long steam-powered cargo ship that sailed from Charleston, SC, to Havana, CU, on Nov. 29, 1925 before disappearing after it encountered a storm

On that voyage, the SS Cotopaxi vanished as well as its entire 32 person crew. The ship became part of the Bermuda Triangle myth. That’s the place in the Atlantic Ocean where ships and planes just disappear. In the summer of 2019, a federal scientist, marine biologist, and diver, Michael Barnette, went on a dive, and believed the SS Cotopaxi was a shipwreck found that many First Coast locals refer to as the Bear Wreck.

Barnette spoke with British historian, Guy Walters, who subsequently combed through archival ship records and learned that the Cotopaxi had sent out wireless distress signals on Dec. 1, 1925 (two days) after it left from Charleston, SC (giving the ship’s location). The signals were picked up in Jacksonville, FL, around the area of a shipwreck that was found some 35 years ago.

After working with the St. Augustine Lighthouse and Maritime Museum, a nonprofit organization dedicated to researching and preserving the maritime history of the region, two of the group's leading maritime archaeologists went back to the wreckage with Barnette to look for more clues.

Not to be deterred, Barnette reached out to Al Perkins, who had been a long-time diver in the area and occasionally collected souvenirs he found while underwater. Barnette studied the dimensions of the SS Cotopaxi to positively identify that the vessel and Bear Wreck were one and the same.

“ADHD: it’s like living in your very own Bermuda Triangle.” (Anonymous)[i]

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[i] Sources used:

·        “Ship believed to be lost in Bermuda Triangle in 1920s, found off Florida coast” by TEGNA

·        “Wreck found believed to be 95-year-old ship that vanished near Bermuda Triangle” By Ella Torres

·          “This 95-Year-Old Ghost Ship Has Been Hiding In Plain Sight” By Daisy Hernandez

·        “Country Abbreviations” by Sustainable Sources

SS Cotopaxi