The Frozen Triangle

"Oh magus, you have begun thy journey. Your master's temple has fallen but his work is not yet finished…" - Orrin Oscar Lutwidge This article falls within the scope of the BioShock Wiki:Something In the Sea Content Project. This project is dedicated to improving the quality of all content related to the viral website, "There's Something in the Sea." Would you kindly help the BioShock Wiki by volunteering on the project page?

“The zone of the unknown where ships are lost... and never found!”

― cover of The Frozen Triangle, by Carleton Rede

The Frozen Triangle was a novel written by Carleton Rede and published by Azguard Books. It offers speculations about mysterious phenomena within a region of the North Atlantic that Rede refers to as the "Frozen Triangle." Rede compares this "Frozen Triangle" to the Bermuda Triangle, but alleges that it is deadlier.

There's Something in the Sea

Main article: There's Something in the Sea

Mark Meltzer was reluctant to waste time reading this book when Jeremiah Lynch originally sent it to him in early July 1968. Mark generally scoffed at anything Lynch sent him that was related to "Atlantis." However, Mark's attitude toward this changed after he heard Orrin Oscar Lutwidge's recording "For the Seeker Who Would Win the Red Queen's Race," which mentioned the "icy triangle." When Mark finally read the book in late July, he found that it contained a great deal of information relevant to pinpointing the location of Rapture. In fact, the coordinates of the Triangle's points in the book roughly matched the tips of the red upside-down triangle on the Bellman's Chart.

During Phase Three of Something in the Sea, Mark used many clues in The Frozen Triangle to open the fourth level of the Metal Box Puzzle. However, Mark left his copy of the book behind when he set out on board a ship. He had to request help from Phil and his network of contacts until the book could be returned to him.

Viral Advertising

Starting November 14, fans who had sent mail to Mark's P.O. Box began receiving pages of The Frozen Triangle along with a letter from Phil Isidore of NUFOS. The letter instructed the recipients to place the pages in prominent places in coastal cities along the east coast to help Mark in his investigation. The letter also included a brief warning not to do anything illegal.

This was the fourth promotional mailing, after the childlike pictures from the Lunchbox Puzzle, the Rise, Rapture, Rise vinyl record, and the Splicer masks with telegrams from Speedy Brothers Telegrams.

Finding the "Frozen Triangle"

A Google Earth view of the "Triangle."

The Frozen Triangle as seen on the bellman's Chart.

The Frozen Triangle, as detailed by the book has coordinate points at:

67° N, 34° W

63° N, 20° W

57° N, 35° W

Plotting these coordinates in Google Earth reveals a triangle that stretches across an area of roughly 135 thousand square miles of ocean between Greenland and Iceland.

Interestingly, the coordinates that Jack was given to hijack the plane in the beginning of BioShock (63° 2' N, 29° 55' W) fit roughly in the middle of the northern portion of this triangle. In fact, this central point could be interpreted to coincide with the point "N" at the center of one of Lutwidge's triangle diagrams on the first page of his notebook. Looking closely reveals that this diagram is almost an upside-down match of the triangle on the cover of Carleton Rede's book.

Note: The view of the Earth in Google Earth is a "General Perspective" projection, which is a type of Azimuthal map projection. This is a type of map that shows the least amount of distortion near the center of the map view.

Because of the distortion inherent in all map projections, the shape of the "Triangle" as it appears on a map will be different for different types of maps. A different map may show the Triangle more closely matching the shape of Lutwidge's diagram.

Transcripts of Book Pages

(Thank you to Meltzer of the 2K BioShock 2 forums who transcribed these pages!)

Page 12

...reports have risen sharply. Consider for a moment: with the advances in navigation and sonar - in waters no longer stalked by enemy U-boats - the number of shipwrecks has steadily climbed since the end of World War II. Since the official figures include only "shipwrecks," the NATO report, by definition, does not include the numerous airplanes that have crashed in the region. (These accidents, surely, cannot be laid off on unconvincing excuses like "forgotten mines'" or "submerged icebergs!") Nor does the list include the vessels that have simply vanished, nor the ships that have been discovered abandoned - often with disturbing evidence of an interrupted journey. (Take, for example, the strange case of the Vulmea. Its mess tables were still covered with half-eaten dinners!)

Even the most cursory examination of the evidence suggest that something very strange lurks beneath the cold blue waters of the North Atlantic. Since NATO will not release the full details of their report, we must confine ourselves to a partial list of the items most salient to our discussion as gleaned from various public reports and news items.

(the following paragraph has been encircled by Mark)

In the interests of rigor, let us agree upon the points that bound the triangle. We shall take Aliuarssik as our Northwestern mark (about 67° N, 34° W). The volcanic fumes of Surtsey Island shall mark our eastern point (at 63° N, 20° W). And we shall arbitrarily take a point 350 miles due southeast of Greenland's tip as the inverted peak of our triangle (at 57° North, 35° West). Henceforth. we shall discuss only incidents that occurred within those bounds - in a futile attempt to quell our facile critics!

(the following comment refers to the encircled passage)

O.O.L. - Tape #2: "WHAT THE ICY TRIANGLE CONCEALS!"

Triangle on map = these co-ords

Page 13

MAJOR INCIDENTS SINCE WORLD WAR II

1946 .. Icelandic fisherman complain of "dead seas and

allege that oil slicks have killed off whole areas of

the ocean.

1947 .. Repeated equipment failure on commercial vessels;

shipping routes are quietly shifted by NATO.

1947 .. A USAF C47 "Skytrain" vanishes with 17 troops

and 2 decorated pilots after a bizarre final radio call.

1953 .. The ill-fated Baldur vanishes during the second leg

of its quixotic attempt to follow the Viking charts.

1955 .. Reports of a "phantom lighthouse" precedes the

discovery of six capsized Icelandic fishing vessels.

1956 .. Final radio transmissions from the English research

vessel Ice Beagle before its disappearance.

1959 .. The Vulmea is found adrift, its 14 man crew

missing.

1960 .. Transatlantic jet DF-0301 vanishes with all crew

and 89 passengers; international search efforts fail.

1960 .. Persistent rumors claim that a nuclear submarine

sank while searching for Flight DF-0301.

Page 62

spite of all their protestations, all of these "knowledge-

able officials" were wrong. Islands absolutely can

appear out of nowhere! Anak Krakatau, the famous

"Child of Krakatoa," didn't come into its own until

1930. Once an uninhabitable slag of molten rock, it

cooled and developed a rain forest, eventually popu-

lated by a veritable menagerie of animal life. Then

there's Banua Wuhu near Indonesia and Kavachi, a

now-you-see-it-now-you-don't volcanic peak near the

Solomons chain.

But the most famous "magically appearing" island

showed up within the confines of the Frozen Triangle!

One November morning in 1963, the cook on an

Icelandic trawler spotted a column of smoke. Fearing

that another vessel had caught fire, he alerted the crew.

Instead of a burning boat, they discovered a churning

sea - boiling with volcanic activity as hot ash burst

skyward. In the following days, a volcano broke the

surface and an island structure formed -soon growing

to over a thousand yards in diameter! The new land was

dubbed "Surtsey," after the fire-giant Surtur of Norse

mythology. Unlike many of the other ephemeral isles,

geologists believe that Surtsey is here to stay!

Is it possible that some of the strange phenomena of

the Frozen Triangle have been connected to the

region's underwater volcanic activity? Possibly some

of our missing vessels crashed against the shores of a

previously unknown isle, much like Surtsey!

Or perhaps the explanation lurks within the deeps?

(Note: Surtsey is a real volcanic island that formed along the south coast of Iceland in 1963.)

Page 63

CHAPTER 7

Leviathan!

The bizarre final transmission from the Ice Beagle

crackled through the receiver long after midnight. Hours

earlier, the beleaguered research vessel reported that their

instruments had gone wild. As the crew fought through

dense fog, a radio call stuttered through the night: "That

doesn't make sense. It shouldn't be there." Then, moments

later, a second call: "Do you see them? They're watching

us!" Then - silence!

Who -- or what -- was watching the Ice Beagle?

The Ice Beagle's last known position was over 200 miles

from any known land mass in an expanse of water 2000

meters deep. A rarely patrolled stretch of icy, inhospitable

ocean, the area hardly teemed with life. Yet the crew had

seen something that clearly did not belong. And these

weren't bored, uneducated sailors. This sighting came

from a team of scientists trained observers all!

They had come out into these waters to search for lost

beasts of legend and folklore. Was their mission cut short

by the very beasts they sought?

The Ice Beagle was the brainchild of Dr. Nayland Fitch.

As a precocious lad, young Nayland would devour scien-

tific texts on the stoop while waiting for his father to return

from his deep sea fishing expeditions. Young Nayland hung

on every word of his father's tall tales of strange creatures

caught in the nets - of giant spider crabs and wee "invisible

shrimp". To young Nayland, such beasts sounded no more

absurd than the animals Charles Darwin described in his

Page 72

(This page and page 73 were sent out as a promotional mailing to fans who had sent mail to Mark's P.O. Box. Fans began to receive these pages with a letter from Phil Isidore on November 16th, which coincided with Mark beginning to solve the 4th level of the Metal Box Puzzle.)

derided as "a second-rate Heyerdahl," the truth is that

Roald Ragnarsson attempted gutsy feats that were

every bit the equal of the more famous explorer. In a

1949 expedition, Ragnarsson flaunted international

law - stealthily sailing from Siberia in a crude, hand-

made vessel built strictly using Stone Age technology.

To prove a point, he sailed in rough wintry seas

carrying not only crewmembers but livestock! Rag-

narsson wanted to prove that there was no necessity for

the "Bering Land Bridge Theory," posited by scientists

to explain cultural and genetic similarities between

Native Americans and Asian peoples. Supposedly,

during the Ice Age, the receding sea exposed a chain of

land in the Bering Strait that pilgrims could cross. Rag-

narsson believed that the "Land Bridge" was a tortured

explanation and that the early settlers had simply sailed

across the ocean. Ragnarsson's bold journey earned

little press attention. But it did allow him to raise

resources for his next ambitious expedition.

Nursed on the legends of Viking explorers, Rag-

narsson was obsessed with the idea that his Nordic

forbears had discovered and perhaps even established

settlements in North America - centuries before any

other Europeans discovered the New World.

Composing charts based on information from

Norse sagas and fragmented information, Ragnars-

son plotted a journey to Iceland, and then towards

the northern shores of Canada. With his dedicated

crew, he built a Viking long ship from "scratch" -

obsessively using only the technology available in

1000 A.D. Playing their roles to the hilt, the crewmen

even consented to wear traditional Viking furs and

Page 73

garments. (What a sight they must have presented to

an unprepared passing ship in the oceans of the

North Atlantic!)

The first leg of the trip went swimmingly. The crew

were greeted in Reykjavik by curious crowds. While

his crew enjoyed celebrations, Ragnarsson retreated to

the docks - brooding, it was said, over a persistent slow

leak in the hull. For proofing the strakes, Ragnarsson

had insisted on using a traditional concoction of animal

tar and hair - steadfastly refusing more modern (and

effective) compounds. Satisfied that he had solved the

problem, Ragnarsson gathered his crew for the much

more treacherous second leg of the journey - one that

would take them through the Frozen Triangle.

Ragnarsson had only begrudgingly consented to bring

a radio - defying regulations by insisting it be turned on

only once every twelve hours to check in with their

current position. Thus, we know little of the ship's fate

except its last reported position: 63°30' N, 27° 4' W.

Roald Ragnarsson and the crew of the Baldur were

never seen again. Not even on a lone strake, not a single

fur-skin nor any of the crew's supplies have ever

been recovered.

Ragnarsson sacrificed his life to prove his theory - to

suggest that Viking heroes who inspired him had

beaten out Columbus and his Italian cronies by five

centuries. But his sacrifice wasn't necessary. Seven

short years later, in 1960, archaeologists discovered

evidence of a Viking settlement that was founded on

the shores of Newfoundland in 1000 A.D. If only Rag-

narsson had survived the perils of the Frozen Triangle-

he would have lived to see it.

Page 91/93

 CHAPTER 9

  "Mayday, Mayday!

The Sea's Attacking!"

One of the most unnerving tales of the Frozen Triangle

never made it into the newspapers. It was a military

secret for many years and it took great effort for the

author to piece together the story. It appears here in print

for the first time.

The C-47 was a legendary workhorse for the United

States Army Air Force during the Second World War. A

heavy-duty transport plane, the fleet had moved tons of

material and countless troops. Yet in 1947, a C-47 and its

battle-seasoned pilots would encounter their strangest

threat. From all accounts, they faced a final battle that

neither they nor the crew would survive.

It all began when a small crew from the U.S. Army

Corps of Engineers were set to depart from an airstrip in the

coastal village of

_________________________________________________

(The last half of the page is torn off, revealing part of the next page.)

Both had logged hundreds of hours in flight - dodging flak,

flying by instruments in the darkest night, struggling with

icebound wings in the dead of winter. Yet here, on a clear

day, their voices were tinged with fear. And their message

made little sense to HQ.

"MAYDAY! MAYDAY!" came the cry. "The sea's

attacking!" And then with a final metallic squawk - the

signal died.

See also

• Apollo Air Flight DF-0301
• Back to the Frozen Triangle
• Lutwidge Writings
• Lutwidge Recordings
• The Vanishing
• There's Something in the Sea