The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1918-06-05
American Navy Still Maintaining
Search for Its Lost Collier, But
No Trace Has Yet Been
Found-Theories Given

Found-Theories Given
Washington, June 5.-What became
of the missing collier Cyclops?
Is she prize in some German port,
the victim of treachery? Does she
lie disabled in some unfrequented COW
er Of the tropical seas driven there
and helpless by accident?
Or has she made her last voyage
and with more than 300 souls turned
up in Port Of Missing Men to join
seventeen other ships Of the Ameri-
can navy which have disappeared just
as mysteriously since 1881?
Sailing from Barbados in the West
Indies March 4 with complement Of
295 men, the great 19,00O-ton naval
collier has not since been sighted or
reported. BY order of the Navy De-
partment, 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 mod
ern mystery of the sea will remain
unsolved.
But the search for the ship still Is
maintained with undated intensity.
Cruisers and destroyers have re-
traced her route. Every island
among the scores that dot that por-
ton fthe sea is being carefully
scrutinized for any clue. But the un-
remitting anxiety of the searchers
has failed to disclose any trace of a
ship apparently plucked in day
from the busy lanes of the South
American trade routes.
Some of the Theories
TO account for the disappearance
of Cyclops, there have been suggest
ed many theories-all possibles, none
entirely plausible.
Was she blown INTO fragments by
a heavy charge of explosives placed
in her hold before she left port? This
explanation is hardly acceptable be-
cause wreckage would have covered
the sea for many miles around
Was she torpedoed and sunk with
out trace" by a German submarine
that had crossed the Atlantic to prey
on comparatively unprotected ship.
ping? That theory is discounted,
because in such case, at least, a
few S 0 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 COM
munication with other naval vessels
or merchant shipping.
Did enemy agents, carefully plant
ed among the ships personnel
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 be-
cause it is claimed that small ene-
my force hardly could be expected to
reduce to prisoners a force of near.
ly 300 men, many of them naval re-
servists.
Again, if taken by an enemy force
abroad where is the Cyclops now?
Every bay, every inlet capable of ad.
hitting vessel of her draft has
been carefully searched. She had
not enough coal in her bunkers to
make the transatlantic trip to some
German port. Moreover, one engine
was out of commission, cutting down
her speed to ten knots an hour.
Even if additional coal had been pro.
cured she hardly could have slipped
past the British patrols into some
German port. Her limping gait
would have made her an easy victim
for the fast Allied destroyers or
cruisers.
Did the crew succumb to the eff.
fects of poisonous gas given off her
cargo of manganese? Hardly, it is
thought, because all shipping men
used to cargoes of that character take
precaution to eliminate the danger.
Did the big vessel of 10000 tons