The SS Cotopaxi distress call
The coal steamer SS Cotopaxi sailed for Havana on 29 November 1925 and sent a distress call on 1 December. A wreck identified in 2020 places its loss off Florida, away from the Bermuda Triangle.
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Under Captain W. J. Meyer, the SS Cotopaxi sailed from Charleston on 29 November 1925, bound for Havana. Wikipedia says it carried coal and a crew of thirty-two. On 1 December 1925 it sent a radio distress call: it was tilting and shipping water in a tropical storm. Wikipedia says the ship went on the overdue list on 31 December. Newsweek reports that searchers found no wreckage, lifeboats or bodies.
The ship became linked with the Bermuda Triangle story. In 2020 a wreck off St. Augustine, Florida was identified as the Cotopaxi. Smithsonian Magazine says historian Guy Walters found a mention of the forgotten distress signal, sent some tens of miles off the Florida shoreline. NPR reports that the call's coordinates placed the ship north-west of the Triangle, about 20 miles from the wreck off St. Augustine, and that the identification put the theories to rest.
"On 29 November 1925, Cotopaxi departed Charleston, for Havana, under Captain W. J. Meyer, with a cargo of coal and a crew of thirty-two.[6][11][12] On 1 December, Cotopaxi radioed a distress call reporting that the ship was listing and taking on water[6][11][13] during a tropical storm.[14][15] The ship was officially listed as overdue on 31 December.[11]"
- Lost ship rediscovered after disappearing near the Bermuda Triangle, Smithsonian Magazine (2020)
- Wreck's identification 95 years after ship's disappearance, NPR (2020)
- Ship that vanished in the Bermuda Triangle, Newsweek (2020)