New Britain herald., 1926-04-09
Collier May Be Explained by Recent to Sister Ship Orion, Which Linped
 lnto Port Atter Nearly
 Buckling Up in Atlantic Waters
By Carl T. Crum

ONE of the most amazing mysteries N that has ever baffied the Navy De- partment is probably solved at last. Navy officials believe they have the answer to the strange fate of the collier Cyclops, which vanished so completely and weirdly en route from South Amer. lea to this country during the World war, taking some 300 human lives and huge cargo of manganese ore down with it.
 The last heard from the Cyclops was when she left the Barbadoes, British West Indies, where she stopped for bunker coal. Then she mysteriouslv disappeared, without a word or ves. tlge of wreckage to indicate where or now she had come to grief. For savsn years the Navy Department has never aoandoned its search for an explanation to the vessels appearance-some hot 'iea message or scrap of labeled drift. "Uoo' washed up on shore, that might .en the story It has carefully inves- t,sa'ed every possible rumor, some of the'h manltestly ridiculous and none of . ."eln adequate, concerning the sbip's late. And then, last month. an acc;da,t to the naval collier Orion, sister sbir to the Cyclops, and identical in con, struchon, suddenly threw great rsv or illumination on the matter ". taught in a severe storm outside +he N'rg'nla Capes, the Orion, laden ujth " large cargo of coal, buckled .rd Gy Iarely made port in safety. It is now oelleVed that this is precisely what ham, pehea 10 the Cyclops; that she enconp tered one of the tropical storms so fra quent In the neighborhood of tho woat indies; that the weight of +ba o. "e'. pneS Of manganese ore-mucb besv;as sia. .nah 4 coaI--in her hold shifted and tnat she buckled and went down snJ I uen,y before lifeboats could bs ln~, u eleo' safety appliances reached or a,,",, the wireless put into operation, ''en THAT the Cyclops, equipped ss .h.
 was with superior wireless annan S"' 'os' should fail to send out one rfara, s;ar, or distress has always been cons;dsn ls.i"l one or the Strangest features of her ds su appearance. ' But this feature is easily e1pialned If, as the ship bent and twisted and her decks gave way. the wira,os. Jssu was injured. "'e'ess c1, nI any rate, the assumption that the UyrIopS collapsed and sank as the Orion eoilaPsed and nearly sank is the onlv one of all the many theories so far aoVanced that appeals to the Navy De. Partment as distinctly plausible A rafe1ui inspection of the damaged Orion Aas been ordered by Secretary Wilbur to determine if flaws in it's constructor were responsible for the buckling of tbe Ship' And should such flaws he founJ It IS predicted that the secret of +ho Cyclops disaster will come to light with them. "''A
 Although other vessels have sailed silently and mysteriously off to the nort or missing ships in recent years, none has created quite the furor that the vanishing Cyclops did.
 AS seaneh tell 1t, the Cyclops started out in life with jinx upon it. When It was first launched on May T. 1910 at the yard of William Cramp & Sons onip and Engine Building Company, of Philadelphia, the vessel did not start down the ways when expected and there was an anxious wait of about ten min utes while the boats bow was raised hv jacks. Then it took the water without difficulty, "A bad omen!" aaid the sea men who watched the proceeding. "She baked at the start!"
 Nevertheless, the Cyclops started on her career in the navy the following No- yomber with much rejoicing. As the largest collier of her type in the world and the only one to be equipped with special facilities for coaling first-line fighting vessels at sea, the navy took great pride in her and sent her on sev eral special missions
 A TIER the United States entered the
 \ war, one of our great needs was fer manganese, to make hard steel. The supply obtainable in this country was insufficient, and the resources of other nations had to be drawn upon. Brazil had large quantity it was willing to sell, so the Cyclops was sent to South America to get it. Arriving at Rio de Janeiro on January 25, she began load ing manganese ore until she had taken on lO,Soo tons of it. The job completed, on February Is she left Rio for Balti- more, carrying with her several pas