The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1918-06-02


What became Of the missing collier
Lyclops?
Is she 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
With more than 10000 souls turned up
in Port of Missing Men to join seven
teen others ships of the American
navy which have disappeared just as
mysteriously since 1881?
Sailing from Barbados in the West
Indies March with complement OF
295 men, the great i9,0O0-ton collier
has not since been sighted or report
Ell. 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 mys-
terry of the sea Will remain unsolved.
But the search for the ship still is
maintained with undated intensity,
Cruisersaand destroyers have retraced
her route. Every island among the
scores that dot that portion OF the sea
lis being carefully scrutinized for any
cine. Bue the unremitting anxiety OF
the searchers has failed to disclose
any trace OF a ship apparently plucked
i'm a day from the busy lanes of the
South American trade routes.
To account for the disappearance OF
u,c Cyclops there have been suggest
cd many theories possible, none
entirely plausible.
Was She blown into fragments by a
! cavy charge of explosives placed in
lar hold before she left port? This
explanation is hardly acceptable be-
eetisc wreckage would have cayered
| .e sea for many miles around.
Mas she torpedoed and sunk with
But n trace by German submarine
tat had crossed the Atlantic to prey
n Comparatively unprotected ship
] ne? Thai theory is discounted, be-
,uaSc in such q case, at least a few
s a. :. calls could have been sent
tut before the Cyclops went under.
Moreover floating wreckage certainly
would have been found.
Mas Sire attacked and captured by a
rlarauding enemy raider that had
ipped into the atlantic after eluding
the British fleets? Even il attacked,
IL il claimed. the Golfers wireless
would have put her in communication
With other naval vessels or merchant
chipping.
Did enemy agents. carefully planted
moug the ships personnel, seize con-
t,ul of the Cyclops in the night and
smantle the radio to make wireless
communication with the outside world
impossible? This explanation had put
tile support because it is claimed
that a small enemy force hardly could
lie expected TO reduce to prisoners a
force Of nearly 300 men, many of them
TaNai reservists.
Again If taken by an enemy force
aaroad where is the Cyclops now !
Every bay, every inlet capable of adj
uniting vessel of her draft, has been
carefully searched. She had not
enough coal in her bunkers to make tn G
transatlantic trip to some German
port. Moreover, one engine was out
of commission, cutting down her speed
to ten knots per hour. Even if an
additional coal supply had been pro-
cured. she hardly could have slipped
past the British patrols into some Ger
man 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 her cargo
of manganese? Hardly, it is thought
because all shipping men used to car
goes of that character take precau-
ton to eliminate the danger
Did the big vessel of 10000 tons dis
placement, constructed with view to
withstanding the heaviest weather
founder in a severe tropical storm :
This theory sounds unreasonable to
many who believed 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 dis
appearance.
The cyclops although OF deep draft
md h.nad heam cariad n ran, rlo hIn.