1918 — March 9, Last sighting, Collier USS Cyclops, north of Virginia Capes, VA –290-324

–290-324 Blanchard estimated death toll range.*

— 324 Cornell, James. The Great International Disaster Book (Third Edition). 1982, p. 406.
— 15 Officers
–236 Servicemen
— 73 Civilians [?]
— 309 AP. “Navy Reopens Search for Mystery Ship Cyclops.” Sarasota Journal, FL. 6-22-1973, 14A.
— 309 Reck. “Strangest American Sea Mystery…Solved at Last.” Popular Science, June 1929, 15.
— 306 St. Petersburg Times, FL. “Navy Believes Cyclops’ Fate is Cleared Up.” 2-14-1929, p11.
— 306 US Dept. Navy. “Casualties: US Navy…Marine Corps Personnel Killed and Injured…”
— 304 New York Times. “13 More Lost on Cyclops.” 5-23-1918, p. 13.
— 300 East Liverpool Review, OH. “‘Wings of Warning.’” 12-29-1918, p. 11.
–~300 New York Times. “Last Search For Cyclops.” 5-1-1918, p. 3. (Notes “nearly 300” onboard.)
–>300 NUMA (National Underwater and Marine Agency). Cyclops. Accessed 7-16-2020.
— 295 Belding Banner, MI. “Young Samuel Skellenger Went Down With Cyclops.” 7-10-1918, 1.
— 293 New York Times. “Collier Overdue A Month. Vessel With 293…Aboard…” 4-15-1918, 1.
— 15 Officers
–221 Crew
— 57 Passengers
— 293 New York Times. “Commander’s Wife Says Cyclops Is Safe.” 4-18-1918, p. 7.
— 293 New York Times. “More Ships to Hunt For Missing Cyclops.” 4-16-1918, p. 13.
— 293 Southeast Missourian, Cape Girardeau. “Navy Probes 12-Year Mystery…” 7-30-1930, 9.
— 291 New York Times. “Cyclops List Corrected.” 4-18-1918, p. 4. (Adds 2 names, subtracts 4.)
— 291 Scott County Democrat, Benton, MO. “Government Has Given Up Search…” 7-4-1918, p.4.
— 290 Fort Wayne News, IN. “For Relief of Families of Lost Ship Cyclops.” 8-5-1919, p. 9.
— 20 Officers
–213 Crew
— 57 Passengers
— 290 Secretary of the Navy. “Loss of the Collier ‘Cyclops.’” Annual Report of… 1918, p. 28.
— 20 Officers
–213 Crew
— 57 Passengers
— 270 The Age, Melbourne, Australia. “The Cyclops Vanished.” 10-7-1939, p. 6.
–220 Crew.
— 50 Passengers (including U.S. consul to Brazil, Mr. Alfred Gottschalk).
— 251 Wynne, Vance. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “The Mystery of the Cyclops.” 2-3-1942, p. 23.
— 15 Officers
–221 Crew
— 15 Passengers

* Blanchard note: One would think that after all these years and considering that this was a U.S. Navy ship, there would be a more definitive accounting of the number of people on board, but apparently such is not the case. While we discount the reports of fewer than 290 aboard, the reader is advised to read the accounts below or follow the URLs to information not reproduced herein to make up their own mind.

Narrative Information

Cornell: “Cyclops, Atlantic, March 1918: The naval collier U.S.S. Cyclops disappeared without a trace while on a voyage between Rio de Janeiro and Baltimore, Maryland. The fate of the ship and the 15 officers, 236 servicemen, and 73 civilians on board remains a mystery.” (Cornell, James. The Great International Disaster Book (Third Edition). 1982, p. 406.)

Daniels: “….I am quite sure it [Cyclops] was overloaded and when, in this condition, it came in contact with the tropical storm the load listed to one side and sank the ship. As nothing has ever been heard from it in the years following, my opinion, after running down the reports and suggestions, is confirmed that the Cyclops went down in a storm, and was one of the tragedies of the sea…” (Daniels, Josephus, Secretary of the Navy in 1918. Excerpt of letter to The News and Observer, Raleigh, NC, dated approximately 1929.)

Reck: “In the latter part of February, 1918, the U.S.S. Cyclops, naval collier, steamed out of the beautiful harbor of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with 309 persons on board….A few days later she put in at Barbados, British West Indies, for coal and provisions. Here she left on March 4 for the port of Baltimore.

“On March 9, the collier passed the molasses tanker Amalco north of the Virginia Capes, only a short distance from her destination and almost in sight of the United States coast line. Since that day, neither the Cyclops nor any of her 309 men has ever been seen or heard from…. [p. 15]

“On March 23 the collier was recorded as ‘missing.’ Naval vessels were dispatched on the search…They combed the waters from New York to Barbados without encountering as much as a bit of driftwood that might give a clue….This intensive search was continued for exactly one hundred days after the Cyclops should have docked at Baltimore. Then she was officially marked ‘lost,’ and all on board her were recorded as dead…. [p. 16]

“Recently, the official records of the Cyclops contained in the wartime files of the Navy Department were placed at my disposal. In the quiet of the naval library at Washington, I carefully studied and sifted – the facts! And step by step, I was able to follow, in imagination, the fatal course of the Cyclops from the day she steamed out of Rio de Janeiro until March 10, 1918 – the day after the molasses tanker Amalco passed her north of the Virginia Capes!

“What are the facts?

“First of all, the Cyclops was an awkward craft. Built as a naval collier, she had nearly as much machinery above decks as below. There were huge cranes to swing her cargo to waiting battleships, and towering steel beams which guided the hoisting elevators. She was a large ship, but ungraceful.

“On her fatal voyage, the collier was not operating directly in the naval service, but was carrying war-time freight at so much per ton. She was en route from Brazil to Baltimore with a cargo of manganese ore, used in the manufacture of munitions. What I found in the records was that the Cyclops, on her last trip, was loaded with 10,800 tons of the ore – much more than the safe capacity of the vessel. The manganese had been poured into her hold without apparent regard for maximum weight. As a result, when she left Rio de Janeiro, even in the quiet waters of the harbor, the seas lapped dangerously near her Plimsoll, of safety, mark.

“A repost to the Navy Department following an investigation by the commander-in-chief of the Pacific Fleet, to which the Cyclops had been attached, was particularly significant in this connection. A portion of it read:

… 10,835 tons of manganese stowed direct on wood dunnage in bottom of hold. Reports differ as to whether cargo was trimmed level or left somewhat higher in the middle. Inclined to latter belief. Vessel also had 4,000 tons of water, mostly in double bottom. So far as ascertained no steps taken to prevent increasing of metacentric height (governing top-heaviness), and this must have been considerably increased.

“The conclusion reached at the close of this report was that ‘sudden shifting of cargo caused her to capsize and to be instantly engulfed.’

“The maximum dead weight of the Cyclops was 14,500 tons. Her cargo capacity was listed as 8,000 tons of coal. With the 10,000 tons of manganese on board, the 4,000 tons of water and, in addition, fuel coal and provisions taken on at Barbados, there can be no doubt that the collier was heavily overloaded.

“At the West Indian port, where the Cyclops put in a few days after leaving Rio de Janeiro, officials reported that the water line was over the Plimsoll mark when the collier steamed northward.

“….In the records were several significant reports by Commander Worley, written prior to the collier’s last voyage. In one, the master said the starboard engine was out of commission with a cracked cylinder….This complaint…was substantiated by a survey board which inspected the engines at Rio de Janeiro and reported them ‘not in satisfactory condition.’ However, the board recommended that repairs be postponed until the collier completed her trip…. [p. 17]

“The Cyclops, then, was heavily overloaded. Her cargo probably was not carefully trimmed and was left high in the middle, a condition to cause a sudden, dangerous shift. She had 4,000 tons of sea water in the double bottom, most likely due to the postponement of repairs in the war-time rush to get her cargo to the munitions plant. One of her engines was dead and, to top it all, most of her crew were inexperienced man! ….

“I searched the reports of the U.S. Weather Bureau for March 9, 1918, the day on which the Cyclops had passed the molasses tanker Amalco, and for the following day. And I found that violent storms swept from the interior of the United States on the ninth, to a point several miles off the Virginia Capes on the tenth!

“This was eloquently supported by entries made on March 9 and 10 in the log of the Amalco, a copy of which I found in the Navy files. These showed that, on the evening of March 9, she passed the Cyclops at a distance of five miles. And on March 10 she ran into the heaviest gale her master, Captain C. E. Hilliard, said he had ever experienced. The waves washed over the ship and all but sank her. ‘If I had been carrying manganese ore,’ Captain Hilliard reported, ‘I could not have survived the gale.’ Because of the war, reports from ships at sea were restricted, but the few which did report indicated violent seas coming from all directions.

“But why didn’t Commander Worley send out an SOS when he found himself in distress? The answer is plain. German U-boats were believed to be in the vicinity. Any wireless call would attract enemy as well as assisting vessels.

“Waves roll high along the Virginia Capes. In times of storm they tower fifty or sixty feet! One slap of such a giant wave, and the Cyclops doubtless keeled over. Once on her side, the shifting cargo and the weighty superstructure would have prevented the vessel from righting herself, and he must have dropped like a huge steel weight to the bottom of the ocean. This explains why no lifeboat or even as much as a spar of the ship was ever found….” [p. 137] (Reek. “Strangest American Sea Mystery Is Solved at Last.” Popular Science, June 1929, pp. 15-17 and 137.)

Secretary of the Navy: “There has been no more baffling mystery in the annals of the Navy than the disappearance last March of the U.S.S. Cyclops, Navy collier of 19,000 tons displacement, with all on board. Loaded with a cargo of manganese, with 57 passengers, 20 officers, and a crew of 213 aboard, the collier was due in port on March 13. On March 4 the Cyclops reported at Barbados, British West Indies, where she put in for bunker coal. Since her departure from that port there has not been a trace of the vessel, and long-continued vigilant search of the entire region proved utterly futile, not a vestige of wreckage having been discovered. No reasonable explanation of the strange disappearance can be given. It is known that one of her two engines was damaged and that she was proceeding at reduced speed, but even it the other engine had become disabled it would have not had any effect on her ability to communicate by radio. Many theories have been advanced, but none that seems to account satisfactorily for the ship’s complete vanishment. After months of search and waiting the Cyclops was finally given up a lost and her name stricken from the registry.” (Secretary of the Navy. Annual Report of the Secretary of the Navy for the Fiscal Year 1918. 1918, p. 28.)

US Navy: “Collier USS Cyclops lost at sea without a trace. 306 killed. Last seen at Barbados on 4 March 1918.” (USN. “Casualties: US Navy…Marine Corps Personnel Killed and Injured. …”)

Newspapers

April 17, 1918, NYT: “Norfolk, Va., April 17. – Mrs. Selma W. Worley, wife of Lieut. Commander George Wichtmann Worley, commander of the missing naval collier Cyclops, went to a local newspaper office tonight and declared that the mystery surrounding the disappearance of the ship and its 293 passengers and crew would be cleared up within the next twenty-four hours.

“In one statement Mrs. Worley is quoted as saying that the Cyclops was safe in a South American port and that an official announcement regarding the vessel would be made soon. Mrs. Worley is known to have visited families here who had relatives on the ship and told them not to worry any longer, as the mystery soon would be cleared up….

“Washington, April 17. – Diligent search by naval and merchant ships has failed to disclose thee slightest trace of the missing naval collier Cyclops, with 293 persons on board….” (New York Times. “Commander’s Wife Says Cyclops Is Safe.” 4-18-1918, p. 7.)

April 17, 1918, NYT: “Washington, April 17. – The Navy Department has received information that the following were reported aboard the Cyclops but were not on that vessel…”

Names four crew members.

Names two crewmembers: William Richard Douglas, a baker.
Henry Robert Cowles, seaman.

(New York Times. “Cyclops List Corrected.” 4-18-1918, p. 4.)

April 18, 1918, NYT: “Norfolk, Va., April 18. – Pressed for an explanation of her assertion that the missing naval collier Cyclops, now overdue at an Atlantic port for forty-five days, was safe, Mrs. Thelma W. Worley, wife of Lieut. Commander Worley, in command of the vessel, denied that she had any word of the Cyclops, any member of the crew, or that she knew the present whereabouts of her husband or his ship. She hopes the vessel is safe.” (New York Times. “Has No Word of the Cyclops.” 4-19-1918, p. 5.)

May 22, 1918, NYT: “Washington, May 22. – The names of thirteen more members of crews of various vessels of the American navy who are believed to have been lost with the collier Cyclops were made public today by the Navy Department. The announcement was based on additional information just received by the department indicating that these men were transferred from other ships to the Cyclops as passengers and that they were presumably aboard the collier when she sailed on her last voyage.” [Article lists 13 named individuals, their position, and city and state of residence.] (New York Times. “13 More Lost on Cyclops.” 5-23-1918, p. 13

July 4, 1918: “Dr. H. T. Blackledge of Commerce has received word from authorities at Washington that the government has abandoned all search for the collier Cyclops, which has been missing since March, and that the insurance claims of the 291 men on board would be adjusted. Chas. Blackledge was a store keeper on the steamer.” (Scott County Democrat, Benton, MO. “Government Has Given Up Search for Cyclops.” 7-4-1918, p. 4.)

Aug 5, 1919: “Washington, D.C., Aug. 5. – Senator Warrewn G. Harding, of Ohio, has struck a sympathetic chord in trying to secure relief for the surviving relatives of the officers and enlisted men of the naval collier ‘Cyclops,’ which suddenly disappeared from the face of the ocean last March, leaving unsolved one of the greatest mysteries in naval annals.

“It so happened that the officers and men had not had an opportunity to secure war risk insurance. The resolution of Senator Harding provides that ‘the officers and enlisted men of the navy collier Cyclops shall be held and considered to have applied for the maximum insurance allowable under the provisions of section 400 of said act, and the director of the bureau of war risks insurance shall and he is hereby authorized and directed to pay the surviving relatives of such officers and enlisted men of the navy collier Cyclops, without demand of proof of death, and in the following manner: To his widow, or if no widow survive him, then to his child or children, or if no children survive him, then to his mother, or if no mother survive him, then to his father, or if no father survive him, then to his sisters and brothers.

“In connection with his bill Senator Harding has given out the following:

There has been no more baffling mystery in the annals of the navy than the disappearance last March of the U.S.S. Cyclops, navy collier of 19,000 tons displacement, with all on board. Loaded with a cargo of manganese, with fifty-seven passengers, twenty officers and a crew of 213 aboard, the collier was due in port on March 13….No reasonable explanation of the strange disappearance can be given….”

(Fort Wayne News, IN. “For Relief of Families of Lost Ship Cyclops.” 8-5-1919, p. 9.)

June 22, 1973, AP: “Norfolk, Va. (AP) – The Navy says it will reopen a 55-year-old search for the mystery ship Cyclops, which disappeared off the Virginia coast in 1918 with 309 persons aboard. Acting on the information of a retired diver who believes he stumbled upon the sunken vessel in 1969, the Navy said on Thursday that a search for the Cyclops will be launched in September in hopes of solving the service’s most baffling riddle….

“The search effort will send the salvage ship Kittiwake to a point about 70 miles off the Virginia capes.

“Retired Navy diver Dean Hawes said that in 1969 he entered the murky waters off Virgin’s Cape Henry after two fellow divers had been unable to identify a block-long craft 180 feet below on the ocean bottom. Hawes said he found himself standing on the bow of the vessel, which was lying at an angle with its nose plowed into silt. He said he was stunned by the strange design of the ship. Its bridge was supported by steel stilts above the deck and upright beams running its length resembled the skeleton of a skyscraper.

“Hawes said before he could explore further he was forced to surface. Bad weather that night drove the salvage ship away from the scene and when the divers returned for another look the wreck could not be found.

“Hawes later identified a picture of the Cyclops as the ship he had seen on the Atlantic bottom, and efforts to interest Navy in returning to the scene were begun. The Navy said it considers Hawes a ‘reliable witness’ and therefore is willing to make an effort to relocate the sunken ship. ‘So few ships were laid out like that,’ Hawes said. ‘I’m almost convinced it was the Cyclops. What else could it have been?’

“The Cyclops had two sister ships, Nereus and Proteus, which also vanished without trace in 1941. Proteus left St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, Nov. 13, 1941, and Nereus left the same port on Dec. 10, 1941. Both ships were headed for Canada with loads of bauxite.” (Associated Press. “Navy Reopens Search for Mystery Ship Cyclops.” Sarasota Journal, FL. 6-22-1973, p. 14A.)

Sources

Associated Press. “Navy Reopens Search for Mystery Ship Cyclops.” Sarasota Journal, FL. 6-22-1973, p. 14A. Accessed 7-16-2020 at: https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1798&dat=19730622&id=YM0iAAAAIBAJ&sjid=LY0EAAAAIBAJ&pg=1254,1369785

Belding Banner, MI. “Young Samuel Skellenger Went Down With Cyclops.” 7-10-1918, 1. Accessed 7-16-2020 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/belding-banner-jul-10-1918-p-1/

Cornell, James. The Great International Disaster Book (Third Edition). New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1982.

Daniels, Josephus, Secretary of the Navy in 1918. Excerpt of letter to The News and Observer, Raleigh, NC, dated approximately 1929. In: Reek 1929, p. 17.

East Liverpool Review, OH. “‘Wings of Warning.’” 12-29-1918, p. 11. Accessed 7-16-2020 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/east-liverpool-review-dec-29-1919-p-11/

Fort Wayne News, IN. “For Relief of Families of Lost Ship Cyclops.” 8-5-1919, p. 9. Accessed 7-16-2020 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/fort-wayne-news-and-sentinel-aug-05-1919-p-15/

New York Times. “Collier Overdue A Month. Vessel With 293 Persons Aboard Last Heard From on March 4.” 4-15-1918, p. 1. Accessed 7-16-2020 at: https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1918/04/15/98261516.html?pageNumber=1

New York Times. “Commander’s Wife Says Cyclops Is Safe.” 4-18-1918, p. 7. Accessed 7-16-2020 at: https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1918/04/18/98262008.html?pageNumber=7

New York Times. “Cyclops List Corrected.” 4-18-1918, p. 4. Accessed 7-16-2020 at: https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1918/04/18/98261973.html?pageNumber=4

New York Times. “Has No Word of the Cyclops.” 4-19-1918, p. 5. Accessed 7-16-2020 at: https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1918/04/19/102691804.html?pageNumber=5

New York Times. “Last Search For Cyclops.” 5-1-1918, p. 3. Accessed 7-16-2020 at: https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1918/05/01/102698123.html?pageNumber=3

New York Times. “More Ships to Hunt For Missing Cyclops.” 4-16-1918, p. 13. Accessed 7-16-2020 at: https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1918/04/16/102690731.html?pageNumber=13

NUMA (National Underwater and Marine Agency). Cyclops. Accessed 7-16-2020 at: https://numa.net/expeditions/cyclops/

Reck, Alfred P. “Strangest American Sea Mystery Is Solved at Last.” Popular Science, June 1929, pp. 15-17 and 135. Accessed 7-16-2020 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=XSgDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PAPA157#v=onepage&q&f=false

Scott County Democrat, Benton, MO. “Government Has Given Up Search for Cyclops.” 7-4-1918, p. 4. Accessed 7-16-2020 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/benton-scott-county-democrat-jul-04-1918-p-4/

Secretary of the Navy. Annual Report of the Secretary of the Navy for the Fiscal Year 1918. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1918. Accessed 7-16-2020 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=qGSM61lS23QC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q=cyclops&f=false

Southeast Missourian, Cape Girardeau. “Navy Probes 12-Year Mystery of Sinking of Cyclops During War; Cape Man Aboard Ship.” 7-30-1930, p. 9. Accessed 7-16-2020 at: https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1893&dat=19300703&id=IJIfAAAAIBAJ&sjid=4NMEAAAAIBAJ&pg=3919,4415791

St. Petersburg Times, FL. “Navy Believes Cyclops’ Fate is Cleared Up.” 2-14-1929, p. 11. Accessed 7-16-2020 at: https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=888&dat=19290214&id=3kNPAAAAIBAJ&sjid=zk0DAAAAIBAJ&pg=7079,4496419

The Age, Melbourne, Australia. “The Cyclops Vanished.” 10-7-1939, p. 6. Accessed 7-16-2020: https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1300&dat=19391007&id=MZVVAAAAIBAJ&sjid=I5cDAAAAIBAJ&pg=7207,4092167

United States Department of the Navy. Casualties: US Navy and Marine Corps Personnel Killed and Injured in Selected Accidents and Other Incidents Not Directly the Result of Enemy Action. Washington, DC: Naval Historical Center. 2008.

Wynne, Vance. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “The Mystery of the Cyclops.” 2-3-1942, p. 23. Accessed 7-16-2020 at: https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1129&dat=19420203&id=tJFRAAAAIBAJ&sjid=CGoDAAAAIBAJ&pg=2150,653238

Additional Information

Barrash, Marvin W. U.S.S. Cyclops. Heritage Books, 2020.

Naval History and Heritage Command. “Cyclops II (Fuel Ship No. 4), 1910-1918.” 9-6-2028 update. Accessed 7-16-2020 at: https://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/ship-histories/danfs/c/cyclops-fuel-ship-no-4-ii1.html