Mass for Passenger on Missing Ship Mysteriously Advertised in Brazil
AN ATLANTIC PORT, May 5.— German agents in South America are believed to have knowledge of the fate of the United States Navy collier Cyclops, missing almost two months, according to passengers on a British liner arriving here to-day from Rio de Janeiro.
Reports that the Cyclops was either captured or sunk by a U-boat or German raider, were thought to be greatly strengthened by an occurrence which stirred the Brazilian capital a fortnight after the collier disappeared. This was three weeks before the Navy Department announced officially that the vessel was overdue.
There appeared in a Brazilian paper about March 27 an obscure announcement in Portuguese. It was to the effect that a mass would be said for Alfred L. Moreau Gottschalk, United States Consul-General at Rio de Janeiro, and a passenger on the Cyclops. A large Catholic church and the time were designated.
Signed to the advertisement of the memorial services were the names of the of the staff of the American Consulate and a number of the Consul General’s friends. These men came forward at once and denied that they had had anything to do with the announcement. The priest of the church designated was then questioned, and stated that he knew absolutely nothing of the mass.
Investigations were begun immediately by the Brazilian government and the American officials to discover whence information concerning the fate of Mr. Gottschalk had come. When the American Secretary of the Navy announced on April 14 that the Cyclops had been missing a month, suspicion was confirmed that German agents had previous knowledge that the collier was to be torpedoed.
It is believed that one of the Teutonic spies, with knowledge of the facts, was using this method of making an official announcement of the vessel’s loss for the benefit of fellow propagandists, at the same time throwing a taunt in the faces of Gottschalk’s associates.
Lieutenant Commander W. H. Booth, U. S. N., a passenger on the liner, said that a search of all waters in the South Atlantic and visits to every South American port of consequence had been made in vain by United States navy ships in an effort to locate the Cyclops.
“While the Cyclops carried a heavy cargo of manganese, it would have been impossible for it to have caused the vessel’s destruction,” he said. “The officers would have had ample time to send out a wireless call before the ship sunk. There were vessels all about, but no such message was picked up.”
“Not a sign of wreckage or a single lifeboat has been found. There have been no big storms recently, and the Cyclops was armed to withstand attack. The vessel has simply vanished.”
New York Tribune, New York, NY, May 6, 1918