Collier May be in Port of Missing Men
Many Theories Suggested to Account for the Disappearance of the Cyclops.
Washington, June 1.—What became of the missing collier Cyclops? Is she a prize in some German port, the victim of treachery? Does she lie disabled in some unfrequented cove of the tropical seas, driven there and helpless by accident?
Or has she made her last voyage and with more than 300 souls turn up in the Port of Missing Men to join seventeen other ships of the American Navy which have disappeared just as mysteriously since 1781?
Sailing from Barbados in the West Indies March 4 with a complement of 295 men the great 19,000-ton naval collier has not since been sighted or reported. By order of the Navy Department all available navy craft in Southern waters have been making a dragnet search for the vessel, but daily the conviction among officials grows stronger that the great modern mystery of the sea will remain unsolved.
But the search for the ship still is maintained with unabated intensity. Cruisers and destroyers have retraced her route. Every island among the scores that dot that portion of the sea is being carefully scrutinized for any clue. But the unremitting anxiety of the searchers has failed to disclose any trace of a ship apparently plucked in a day from the busy lanes of the South American trade routes.
Many Theories.
To account for the disappearance of the Cyclops there have been suggested many theories—all possible, none entirely plausible.
Was she blown into fragments by a heavy charge of explosives placed in her hold before she left port? This explanation is hardly acceptable because wreckage would have covered the sea for many miles around.
Was she torpedoed and sunk “without a trace” by a German submarine that had crossed the Atlantic to prey on comparatively unprotected shipping? That theory is discounted because in such a case at least a few s. o. s. calls could have been sent out before the Cyclops went under. Moreover floating wreckage certainly would have been found.
Was she attacked and captured by a marauding enemy raider that had slipped into the Atlantic after eluding the British fleet? Even if attacked, it is claimed, the collier’s wireless would have put her in communication with other naval vessels or merchant shipping.
Enemy Agents?
Did enemy agents, carefully “planted” among the ship’s personnel, seize control of the Cyclops in the night and dismantle the radio to make wireless communication with the outside world impossible? This explanation has but little support because it is claimed that a small enemy force hardly could be expected to reduce to prisoners a force of nearly 300 men, many of them naval reservists.
Again, if taken by an enemy force abroad where is the Cyclops now? Every bay, every inlet capable of admitting a vessel of her draft, has been carefully searched. She had not enough coal in her bunkers to make the trans-Atlantic trip to some German port. Morover, one engine was out of commission, cutting down her speed to ten knots an hour. Even if additional coal had been procured she hardly could have slipped past the British patrols into some German port. Her limping gait would have made her an easy victim for the fast Allied destroyers or cruisers.
Did the crew succumb to the effects of a poisonous gas given off by her cargo of manganese? Hardly, it is thought because all shipping men used to cargoes of that character take precaution to eliminate the danger.
Perhaps Foundered.
Did the big vessel of 19,000 tons displacement, constructed with a view of withstanding the heaviest weather, founder in a severe tropical storm. This theory sounds unreasonable to many who believe the ship capable of riding safely out of any storm she might encounter, yet in view of all the known circumstances the explanation is accepted by most naval officials as the most probable account for the disappearance. The Cyclops although of deep draft and broad beam carried a remarkably high and heavy superstructure. Eight great steel derricks towered over her hull, and there was other heavy framework placed above decks to give her a maximum of efficiency in loading or discharging coal.
In case of a heavy list to port or starboard, perhaps to the extent of forty-five degrees, the Cyclops, burdened with her heavy derricks, was perhaps unable to swing back into equilibrium, crashed over to one side, and quickly settled. The heavy cargo of manganese might have shifted and hindered the vessel from righting after a severe list.
Stormy Weather.
Moreover, vessels which returned to Atlantic ports about the time the Cyclops was due, reported that unusually stormy weather had been encountered in Southern waters. Caught in the trough of a heavy sea, the Cyclops might have capsized and gone down quickly, dragging down beneath her hull all deck equipment which otherwise might have floated on the surface as an indication of her fate.
The theory that the Cyclops suddenly went down in a storm is about the only theory that adequately would explain her failure to wireless in case of danger. The fact that no radio calls ever came from the vessel is one phase that characterizes the disappearance of the ship as one of the most mysterious in modern sea annals.
Leaving the West Indian harbor on March 4 the Cyclops was expected to touch at an Atlantic port on March 13. When attention was called to the fact that she was a few days overdue, no anxiety was felt because it was known she had one engine out of commission. However, when a week passed and there was even no news that she had been sighted, a feeling of great apprehension swept over the Navy Department. Every effort was made to find her, but on April 14 the department gave permission to publish the facts, which long had been withheld.
Daniels Still Hopeful.
Secretary Daniels still clings to the hope that mystery will be cleared, but there are not many in the department who share his views.
The call of blue water always has stirred and will stir the blood of men. But just as much as in romance, the seven seas abound in tragedy.
The ocean has taken its annual heavy toll of human life from the time of the modern ocean liner and floating steel fortress, back to the days of the ancient Phoenecians who braved the wild seas of the Mediterranean in their frail craft and picked their way even to the far-off England to barter for Cornwall tin.
The loss of merchant shipping ever has been great—particularly in these days of the ruthless undersea rover—but fortunately the United States navy has carried America’s flag over the world’s waters for nearly a century and a half without particularly severe losses, due to the elements.
From the records of the Navy Department there has been compiled a brief list of naval vessels which sailed and then went down in the ocean’s maw without leaving a soul to tell the story.
Left No Trace.
The Saratoga, a ship of eighteen guns, commanded by Capt. .John Young, was lost at sea with all on board on March 1781.
A few years later, the General Gates, also a ship of eighteen guns built in 1777 or 1778, was lost without a trace.
The Pickering, a brig of fourteen guns, weighing 187 tons and carrying a crew of ninety men, sailed from Newcastle. Del., on August 20, 1800, in command of Lieut. B. Hillar, bound for the Guadaloupe station. She never was heard from from that date, it being Believed that she floundered in an equinoctial gale in September that same year.
The Insurgent, which had been captured from the French in 1779 by the U. S, S. Constellation, sailed from Hampton roads on August 8, 1800, for a cruise in the West Indies. She also is believed to have gone down with her crew of 340 men in one of the equinoctial gales that caused the Pickering to go under.
The Wasp with 140 men under command of Commander Johnston Blakely, engaged and captured on September 1, 1814, the British brig
Atlanta. A Swedish brig reported having spoken to her three weeks after that date, but no further news ever was had about her. She is supposed to have foundered in a gale.
The Hamilton, one of Commodore Chauncey’s squadron on Lake Ontario, capsized on the night of August 10, 1813, while trying to weather the enemy’s squadron.
“All hands,” says the official chronicle, “are supposed to have been at quarters.”
The Epervier, a ship of eighteen guns and a complement of 128, captured from the British by the. U. S. S. Peacock, sailed from Gibraltar for this country on July 4, 1815. She last was seen by a merchant vessel on August 14 in mid-Atlantic.
The Lynx, a schooner of three guns with fifty men on board, commanded by Lieut. J. R. Madison, sailed from St. Mary’s Fla., for Jamaica, on New Year’s Day, 1821. She last was sighted on January 22 that year.
The Wildcat, with three guns and thirty-one men, commanded by Lieut. J. F. Legare, sailed from Cuba for Key West in 1824. She is supposed to have gone ashore on Carysford reef, as an armchest and other wreckage from the vessel later were found there.
Armed with eighteen guns and carrying a crew of 140 men, the Hornet, with Commander Otho Norris as skipper, foundered in a gale off Tampico on September 10, 1829, with a loss of all hands.
The Sylph, a small naval schooner, also believed to have foundered a few years later, as she never was heard after her departure from port.
The Sea Gull, which left Orange Harbor for Valparaiso in company with the Flying Fish on April 28, is believed to have sunk in a severe gale, from which the Flying Fish took refuge under false Cape Horn.
Sailed from Charleston.
The Grampus, a schooner of twelve guns, sailed from Charleston, S. C., about March 14, 1843, and was due at Norfolk, Va., between the 8th and 15th of April. In June the Navy Department abandoned all hope for her safety.
The Jefferson, a steamer engaged in the coast survey was lost near the Straits of Magellan in 1850.
The Albany, a sloop-of-war with 210 men under command of Commander J. T. Gerry, sailed from Aspinwall on September 29, 1854, for New York. After a long wait the steamers Princeton and Fulton were sent in search of her, but no trace ever was discovered.
The Levant, also a sloop-of-war with 210 men, under Capt. William Hunt, departed from Hilo in the Sandwich Islands on September 18, 1860. Vessels of the Pacific squadron searched for her many months, but the only traces ever found were an oar and broken spar, believed to have belonged to her.
The only case in recent years of a naval vessel, other than the Cyclops,
disappearing from the face of the sea, is the tug Nina, which officially was declared lost by the department on March 15, 1910. She is believed to have foundered with all hands in a gale off the Atlantic coast,
The Bamberg Herald, Bamberg, SC, June 20, 1918