This Day in History: USS Cyclops Disappears

On this day in 1918, USS Cyclops departs from Barbados, headed for Baltimore. She is never seen again. Her disappearance is among those adding to the mystery of the Bermuda Triangle—although that term did not then exist.

“Only God and the sea know what happened to the great ship,” Woodrow Wilson said at the time.

Cyclops was a Proteus-class collier designed to carry coal. She transported troops and supplies for the United States during World War I, but her service remained uneventful until January 1918 when the Naval Overseas Transportation Service tapped her to carry coal to Brazil.

By late January, she was in Rio de Janeiro with 9,960 tons of coal, but she was also having mechanical problems: A cracked cylinder had left one engine non-operational. The captain filed a report but was told to return to the United States.

Repairs could be made stateside.

Thus, Cyclops departed Rio on February 15, but this time she was carrying a new type of cargo. Instead of coal, she carried manganese ore, a critical ingredient in steel production. Unfortunately, manganese ore is much denser than coal, meaning a hold full of ore weighed far more than one filled with coal.

Indeed, she carried 10,800 long tons of the ore.

A scheduled February 20 stop at Salvador was uneventful, but it was followed by an unscheduled stop in Barbados. Cyclops stocked up on food and supplies (making the ship slightly heavier) before her final departure on March 4.

She filed one radio report: “Weather Fair, All Well.” No one ever heard from her again.

Did the molasses tanker Amolco see her on March 9 off the coast of Virginia? Probably not. Cyclops wouldn’t have been able to get that far that fast, given her engine problem. Did she get caught in a March 10 storm?

To this day, no one knows. Her 309 crew and passengers simply disappeared—the largest non-combat loss of life in U.S. Naval history.

“Not a bit of wreckage,” Santa Fe Magazine later observed, “nor a sign of any description has been found . . . . She just disappeared as though some gigantic monster of the sea had grabbed her.”

In the months after her loss, rumors swirled about her captain, Lt. Commander George (Wichmann) Worley. He was born in Germany. Was this related? Did a German submarine get Cyclops?

Others noted that the captain and crew weren’t on good terms. Worley reportedly complained about his crew, claiming they were incompetent and causing his engine problems. They, in turn, thought Worley eccentric, too prone to drink, and too harsh with the crew. Was there a mutiny?

The Navy has no official explanation. “The disappearance of this ship,” it states, “has been one of the most baffling mysteries in the annals of the Navy, all attempts to locate her having proved unsuccessful.”

Nevertheless, others believe several factors likely worked together to doom the ship.

Captain Lawrence B. Brennan, U.S. Navy (Ret.) notes the “synergy of events” that Cyclops faced: the engine problems, reduced maneuverability, cargo that was new to the ship, and prior hull damage from a coal fire.

“She also had problems with extreme rolls,” he notes. “On at least one occasion it was reported that her cargo had shifted. Water entering the hull would affect the ship’s stability and buoyancy, probably resulting in free surface effect that caused progressive flooding, and ultimately causing her to sink.”

The explanation is rational, but when Cyclops’s two sister ships later disappeared in or around the Bermuda Triangle, many felt that the mystery had deepened.

Will we ever know what really happened to Cyclops? What do you think?

Constitution4Kids.com

Primary Sources:

• Block-Long Mystery Ship Disappeared 55 Years Ago (Naples Daily News; June 14, 1973) (p. 12A)

• Bob, Zarnetske, Navy Mystery since 1918: Fate of the USS Cyclops (Connecticut Post; Dec. 29, 1974) (p. C-4)

• Captain E.K. Roden, The Mystery of U.S.S. Cyclops: Reasons for the Theory of its Destruction by Enemy Conspirators (Santa Fe Mag., Feb. 1921) (p. 49)

• Captain Lawrence B. Brennan, U.S. Navy (Ret.), The Unanswered Loss of USS Cyclops – March 1918 (Naval Historical Foundation; June 13, 2013)

• Frankie Witzenburg, The Mysterious Fate of the Cyclops (Naval History Mag., Aug. 2020) (reprinted HERE)

• German Hand Seen in Loss of Cyclops (San Francisco Chronicle; April 16, 1918) (p. 3)

• Sabrina Collins, William Robert Wolf and USS Cyclops (Mariners’ Museum & Park; Sept. 10, 2021)

• U.S. Gives Up Cyclops Crew, Report Here (Oklahoman; June 28, 1918) (p. 1)

• Worley’s Two Sisters and Brother in S.F. (San Francisco Chronicle; April 16, 1918) (p. 3)