Mysterious Disappearance of the USS Cyclops

Sheltie

Fratty and out of touch.
The Cyclops comes up a lot in paranormal discussions. The number of missing and/or sunken ships off the coast of the US South Atlantic over the years is staggering. Coupled with the fact that WW I had not yet ended, there are a lot of logical possibilities.

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Over 5,000 ships have disappeared off the coast of the Carolinas alone.
 

CasualBystander

Celestial
Lo~ Ok, I'm rating this one as a two star mystery at most. I mean given the history of the ships they must have had a design flaw somewhere. Either they failed structurally, or their structures somehow enabled the coal bunkers to heat up enough so that there was self combustion, and leading to an explosion or out of control fires, or it was something along those lines.

The USS Main probably feel victim to just such an event.
Coal bunker Fire

Of all four ships only the Jupiter/Langley was accounted for by loss through enemy action. All others vanished unaccounted for while at sea. I mean clearly there was some issue. Maybe the Langley, being a naval ship, and after so many modifications and changes, that these had so changed the original design, as she was no longer a coal fired ship but oil powered, and so she survived until sunk in wartime action.

This strongly suggests that the other ships were probably lost to coal fires as only the Langley had been converted to oil fired turbines.
The Proteus was built in 1911. In March 1941 she was sold to Canadians and used to haul bauxite. She left port in November 1941.

The NEREUS was built in 1911. In March 1941 she was sold to Canadians and used to haul bauxite. She left port in December 1941.

None of the ships were lost hauling coal.
 
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Castle-Yankee54

Celestial
The Cyclops comes up a lot in paranormal discussions. The number of missing and/or sunken ships off the coast of the US South Atlantic over the years is staggering. Coupled with the fact that WW I had not yet ended, there are a lot of logical possibilities.

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Over 5,000 ships have disappeared off the coast of the Carolinas alone.

That number isn't to surprising with the weather, two world wars and human error in that area. One must also take into account the fact its been a high traffic area for over 400 years. That 0ver 5,000 ship have sunk in those waters is to be expected.
 

Sheltie

Fratty and out of touch.
I think we've had this discussion before. Maybe on the old site? Either that or I'm having a Mandela Effect moment.
 

ImmortalLegend527

The Messenger Of All Gods old and new
More than 100 years later, the 'great mystery' of the vanished USS Cyclops remains unsolved

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One hundred years ago Wednesday morning, the USS Cyclops, a massive American World War I transport ship hailed as a “floating coal mine,” should have been docked in the waters off Baltimore, fresh off a journey from Brazil.

But the vessel – reported to be the Navy’s biggest and fastest fuel ship at the time – and the 309 men onboard it never pulled into the Chesapeake Bay on March 13, 1918, and its whereabouts to this day remain unknown.

“In terms of loss of life and size of ship, it’s probably the last great mystery left unresolved,” James Delgado, an underwater explorer, told the Baltimore Sun this week as recent discoveries of historical shipwrecks are renewing hopes amongst the scientific community of finally finding the Cyclops.

The 540-foot long and 65-foot wide ship, outfitted with 50-caliber machine guns to help transport doctors and supplies to American Expeditionary Forces in France during The Great War, was last seen in Barbados on March 4, 1918.

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Built in Philadelphia eight years earlier, the USS Cyclops was capable of transporting 12,500 tons of coal and could lift two tons of it in single buckets along cables that ran along the ship, leading newspapers to call it a “floating coal mine,” according to the Baltimore Sun.

But on its final journey, the Cyclops was loaded up with 10,000 tons of manganese ore – a denser and heavier cargo – and stopped at the Caribbean island for nine days to resupply before vanishing into the horizon.

Those back in the U.S. began to take notice as day after day passed without any signs of the ship making its way to Maryland. "COLLIER OVERDUE A MONTH," blared a headline in the New York Times on April 15, 1918, next to a list of the hundreds of passengers on board.

"Numerous ships sailed to locate the collier as she was thought to have been sunk by a German submarine," the Naval History and Heritage Command says on its website. "Her wreck has never been found, and the cause of her loss remains unknown."

Two months after the ship failed to reach Baltimore, Franklin D. Roosevelt, who then was an Assistant Navy Secretary, announced the Cyclops and all of its crew were presumed lost at sea, resulting in what remains the largest loss of life in Navy history unrelated to combat.

Nothing from the ship has been found. No wreckage, oil slicks or debris. Not even a distress call. And speculation has raged throughout history, leading some to claim wild theories involving the Bermuda Triangle, giant sea creatures and mutinies.

"One magazine, Literary Digest, speculated that a giant octopus rose from the sea, entwined the ship with its tentacles and dragged it to the bottom," the U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command said. "Another theory was that the ship suddenly turned turtle in a freak storm, trapping all hands inside."

Navy Secretary Josephus Daniels at the time added that "there has been no more baffling mystery in the annals of the Navy than the disappearance last March of the U.S.S. Cyclops.”

“There has not been a trace of the vessel, and long-continued and vigilant search of the entire region proved utterly futile," the Baltimore Sun quoted him as saying.
Most likly found its way to the other side by accident..just like all the others.
 

CasualBystander

Celestial
How is a design flaw confusing?
Why does this design flaw keep coming up?

All the boats that disappeared were loaded with cargo more than 50% more dense than the coal the ships were designed for.

We know the Cyclops was overloaded.

The other two ships were 30 years old and it is likely their new owners overloaded them.
 

Castle-Yankee54

Celestial
It appears that the sister ships of the Cyclops and Jupiter had sat in storage for over 15 years after carrying coal for 10 years or so. The coal was acidic and could have caused structural weakness which could have weakened the ship and that could affect a potential design flaw and with the severe weather have sunk the vessels. Both vessels were in the Canadian Merchant Service and were hauling bauxite when they sank. The time they were layed away could have also weakened the structural integrity which accentuated any damage by their cargo and any design flaws.
 
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