From UFOs and the Limits of Science by Ronald D. Story c. 1981

Reproduced for educational purposes only.

The Underwater Civilization Theory

Reports of unknown objects entering or leaving large bodies of water or
proceeding through them have been made from time to time and have been
labeled unidentified submarine objects (USOs). Numerous theorists have
consequently speculated that secret UFO bases might be located on the
ocean beds, far from man's activities and possible detection. By moving
underwater, UFOs would have access to all continents, and, by
proceeding up major rivers and tribituaries, could reach many inland
locations without risking detection by atmospheric flight.

Vehicles capable of interstellar flight, some proponents of the
extraterrestial hypothesis point out, would certainly be able to
withstand the pressures and stresses of deep oceanic environments. This
point has some validity, and it can also be stated that some of the
most remote areas of the planet are located in parts of the southern
Pacific and Indian oceans, providing easy access from the atmosphere
with minimum chance of visual or electronic detection.

At the same time, it could be asked why the UFO operators go to such
lengths to remain unobserved, only to display their vehicles so
blatently in such populated areas as the U.S. and Europe.

One of the proponents of the Underwater Civilization Theory was the
late naturalist, Ivan T. Sanderson, who proposed not only that an
extraterrestial civilization could be using the ocean depths, but that
a native civilization, one having evolved underwater long before man,
could also be doing so. He concluded, in fact, that "it is much more
likely that both suggestions apply." Although he provided no sources or
references, Sanderson stated that more than 50 percent of all UFO
reports concerned objects over, coming from, or going toward (or into)
bodies of water.

Related to the "Underwater Civilization" idea for UFOs is the popular
explanation for the disappearances of ships and planes in the so-called
Bermuda Triangle.

During the past thirty years, more than 100 ships and planes with more
than 1,000 persons on board have supposedly disappeared - some say
"mysteriously, without a trace" - in an area variously dubbed "The
Bermuda Triangle," "The Devil's Triangle," "The Hoodoo Sea," "The
Triangle of Death," and "The Graveyard of the Atlantic." It is actually
a large area of undefinable shape around and including the triangle
formed by Florida, Bermuda, and Puerto Rico, where sea and air traffic
is said to be the greatest. For reasons which are to follow, some
writers have "theorized" a UFO connection to explain the "strange"
disappearances.

The Bermuda Triangle-UFO link to missing vessels was perhaps first
hinted at in the 1930s by Charles Fort (1874-1932), who, as his
biographer Loren Gross writes: "played with the notion that mysterious
vanishments of ocean vessels and their crews...may be due to wanton
seizures by spacemen." Two decades later, astronomer Morris K. Jessup
(1900-1959), in his book, The Case for the UFO, wrote: "To attempt to
postulate motive for space inhabitants kidnapping crews from ships..is
in the realm of pure speculation. On the other hand...our space friends
would want to know what has happened to us since they left, or what has
happened to us since they put us down here. Again, there is always the
possibility that the open seas provide an easy catching place."

More recently, author Charles Berlitz capitalized on the triangle and a
possible UFO connection by quoting in his best-selling book, The
Bermuda Triangle, his friend, J. Manson Valentine, who reported several
UFO sightings in the area. Berlitz also quoted a reporter by the name
of Art Ford, who claimed that a final radio transmission, picked up by
a ham operator from one of the doomed pilots (in this case, Lieutenant
Charles Taylor, flight leader of the five Navy torpedo bombers that
disappeared on December 5, 1945), contained the warning: "Don't come
after me...they look like they are from outer space." But according to
a transcript from the Navy Inquiry Board, what Taylor actually said
was" :I know where I am now. I'm at twenty-three hundred feet. Don't
come after me."

Also, there are claims of unusual electromagnetic effects occurring in
the triangle, a common feature of many UFO reports. Actually, none of
the "magnetic anomalies" reported in the area appear to be true.
Reports of compass needles spinning crazily have never been
substantiated. The fact that the compass points to true north from the
triangle does not cause confusion, but rather, simplifies navigation.
The compass points to true north from many other places in the world.
The only part of the triangle from which it does point directly north
is at the southern tip of Florida. Those who claim that the north-
pointing compass is strange or confusing lack even the most fundamental
knowledge of magnetism, compasses, or navigation. The presence of a
"space\time warp" (whatever that means) is, again, unsubstantiated.

Popular author John Wallace Spencer in a revised version of his book,
Limbo of the Lost, offered a provocative theory. He reasoned that:
"Since a 575-foot vessel with 39 crew member disappearing 50 miles
offshore in the Gulf of Mexico, and commercial airliners disappearing
while coming in for a landing cannot happen according to earthly
standards and yet are happening, I am forced to conclude that they are
actually being taken away from our planet for a variety of reasons."

In a 1975 version of the book, retitled Limbo of the Lost - Today,
Spencer modified his UFO theory so that the extraterrestials were no
longer carting the captives away from Earth but were taking them to
hidden underwater facilities, where the ETs conducted experiments on
the earthlings and their machinery. However, Spencer offered no
evidence that UFOs had been present or were even sighted in conjunction
with any of the incidents he described. Consequently, many think that
these authors, in order to attempt to make a bigger story, are
"dressing up" their accounts by including UFOs.

The UFO-capture theme was again used in the movie Close Encounters of
the Third Kind: The five Navy torpedo bombers that disappeared in 1945
had been taken aboard a gigantic "mother ship"; all of its captives
(unaged over the years) were released at the end of the movie to
demonstrate that the extraterrestials are friendly after all.

In reality, the "Bermuda Triangle Mystery" has been shown to be a sham
-an accumalation of careless research, misconceptions, sensationalism,
and downright falsification of data - and is so regarded by most
leading UFO researchers. For example, the 575-foot ship that Spencer
claimed had disappeared was found within two weeks, sunken in shallow
water. Volatile fumes in the holds had exploded, nearly tearing the
ship in two. The airliner that Spencer said had disappeared while on a
landing approach was a chartered DC-3 that lost its way at night in
1948, out of sight of land, because of radio navigational problems.
Thorough investigations of other incidents by Larry Kusche (author of
The Bermuda Triangle Mystery - Solved) led to similiar down-to-earth
explanations.

According to the April 1978 issue of J. Allen Hynek's International UFO
Reporter: "the Bermuda Triangle stories...are NOT relayed by the pilots
or sailors who experience them; they are the fraudulent literary
distortions of a small handful of authors. All triangle mysteries so
far have been examined. Would that the more baffling UFOs (which are
themselves the mysteries) were so easily resolved."
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