The L'Anse sentinel., 1921-07-01
Mystery of Lost Cyclops
Probably Cleared at Last

Tor an occasional white sail on the
horizon and an incident one night.
"At the end of the thirteenth day
we put into Bahia and dropped Off o
few of our 800 army passengers. We
had gobs, diplomats and marine ofll-
GERS on board. Then we put to sea
again for Rio.
"We arrived at Rio four days later.
and when we entered the harborC the
U. s. s. Pittsburgh, with the ad-
mirals flag flying, ordered us to take
anchorage 1000 yards astern Of her.
We lowered away one of our motoS
boats and sent to the Pittsburgh,
among other passengers, Captain Har-
rington of the marine corps, who had
been assigned to the Pittsburgh for
duty.
Reports to Admiral caperton.
"An hour later senSaphore message
from the Pittsburgh read: Captain
Hays will repair on board Pittsburgh
Immediately and report to the force
commander
"a boat called alongside and
arriving on board her l went to Ad-
miral Caperton's cabin and was greet-
ed by him very kindly. He asked me
to tell him about the Orion's journey
southward and particularly about the
objects we had sighted off Barbados.
Captain Harrington had told him in
a chat about the incidents.
"In reciting them to the admiral
made it clear to him that in both
cases the Orion's captain ordered me
not TO stop.
This relieved me of all responsi.
bility, and as left the Pittsburgh
Captain Boesch was ordered on board
the flagship. He came back to the
Orion some time later, apparently up
set as result of his talk with the
admiral, and he called me into his
stateroom.
Captain Boesch ain Trouble"
'He told me it looked as though
we were in trouble. He said almost
every one on the Orion had seen the
Franklin buoy, but as far as he knew
only the two Of us had seen the life
raft. He asked me In a subtle way II
was sure it was a life-raft. l an
swered that 1t might have been a phos'
phorous spot in the water.
"The captain called in his yceman
and dictated letter to this effect
After careful consideration ! have
come to the conclusion that the OBJ
ject reported as life-raft was moi
a life-raft but PHOSPHORUS spot In
the water caused by small seas
II heard nothing more about the
matter. l thought several times
though, of Amphitrite, beloved Of sail
ors, who dances under ships PROV
From Rio we went to Montevideo
On our way home we stopped at San
tos, Brazil, to take on a cargo Of IL,
600 tons of coffee. We were glad Il
was not manganese. We stopped al
Rio again to pick up travel passenger!
for the States.
A Dread Prophecy.
"While in Bahia the paymaster o
the Orion and / went to the cruise
Raleigh one evening to have dinner
During the course of the meal WI
were told that as the Raleigh's OH
GERS stood on deck watching the Cy
clops put to sea on her homewar'
journey they bet each other the Cy
clops would never get back to tn
States.
II have often stood on the fore
castle Of the Orion looking aft AM
watched her deck give in calm sea
The cause Of this is that the twin
screw colliers are so long that whel
both engines happen to thrust to
gether the longitudinal strain Is s
great there is give to the framin
Of the ship. Ofttimes during that "
bration / have looked up at the bridg
and watched the foremast bend lik
carriage whip.
The Raleighs officers, even from
distance, had seen the Cyclops' dec
give under the strain.
The cycIops' Cargo.
81 went ashore at Bahia to see tn
dockmen who had loaded the Cyclop
On the dock where the cargo wa
slowed, the foreman, named Martin
explained to me as best he could r.
member just how the loading wa
done.
"He pointed out two cranes sc
about 300 feet apart on the dock an
told me the cranes had lowered Il
! cargo into the Cyclops's holds. ! aske
him II the cranes had been move
4 during the course Of the loading. an
a he said No He also said the @
4 clops had not shifted either forwai
a or aft along the dock.
"This implied that one-half the ca
B 60 had been loaded into one or tv
a forward matches and one-half into OF
q or two after matches.
with collier's 1R,00O-ton carl
Of coal all the matches are filed
\ the covers. Manganese ore Is so mu'
e heavier than coal that 1900 tons
" 1t spread evenly over a big ships be
a tom would be only few feet deep.
!. .'T have given. these facts as ! foul