The Lancaster news. [volume] (Lancaster, S.C.) 1905-current, 1918-06-07
WHAT FATE HAS OVERCOME
THE COLLIER CYCLOPS?


lie disabled in some unfrequented
cove of the tropical seas driven there
and helpless by accident?
II Or has she made her last voyage
and with more than 500 souls turn
ed UP in Port of Missing Men to join
seventeen other ships of the Ameri
can navy which have disappeared
just as mysteriously since 1891?
Sailing from Barbados in the
West indies March with COM
(. plement of 295 men, the great 49,
000-ton naval collier has not since
been sighted or reported. 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 mystery of the sea
will remain unsolved.
But the search for the ship is
maintained with unabated intensity.
Destroyers and cruisers have re-
among the scores that dot that por-
tion of the sea is being carefully
scrutinized for any clew. But the
unremittfng anxiety of the search
ers has failed to disclose any trace
of ship apparently plucked in. a
da1a from the busy lanes of the
,lth American trade routes.
u. To account for the disappearance
of he Cyclops there have been sug-
ge& Jed many theories-all possible,
neAe entirely plausible
1M she blown into fragments by
HXH charge of explosive placed
in N2sfold before she left port
This explanation is hardly accepta-
BILE because wreckage would have
covered the sea for many miles
around.
Was she torpedoed and sunk
without trace" by German sub
marine that had crossed the Atlantic
TO prey on comparatively unprotect-
ed shipping? That theory is dis.
counted, because in such a case, al
least few S. o. S. calls could have
been sent out before the Cyclops
went under. Moreover, floating
wreckage certainly would have been
found.
Was she attacked and captured by
marauding enemy raider that had
slipped into the Atlantic after elud-
ing the British fleets? Even If at
tackled, it is claimed, the Golfers
wireless would have put her in
communication with other naval
vessels or merchant shipping.
Did enemy agents, carefully
-'planted" among the ships person
mel. seize control of the Cyclops in
the night and dismantle the radio to
make wireless communication with
the outside world impossible? This
explanation has but little support
because it is claimed that a small
enemy force hardly could be ex-
pected to reduce to prisoners a
force of nearly 800 men, many of
them naval reservists.
Again, if taken by an enemy force
aboard, where is the Cyclops now?
Every bay, every inlet capable of ad-
mitting a vessel of her draft, has
been carefully searched. She had
not ~enough coal in her bunkers to
make the transatlantic trip to some
gine was out Of commission, cut
ting down her speed to ten knots an
hour. Even if additional coal had
been procured, she hardly could
have slipped past the British pa.
, trolls into some German port. Her
limping. gait would have made hel
an easy victim 70 the fast allied
destroyers or cruisers.
Did the crew succumb to the eff.
fects of a poisonous gas given off by
her cargo of manganese? Hardly
it is thoughA because all shipping
men used tos cargoss of that charac.
ter-take precaution to eliminate the
danger. 80
Did the big vessel of. $4,000 tons
displacement, CONSTRUCTED with 6
view to withstanding the heaviest
weather. founder in a severe tropi
cal storm. This sounds unreasona,
bie~to many who believed the shir
capabie> of riding safely out of any
storm she might encounter, yet In
view OF all the known circumstance.