USS Cyclops ( AC - 4 ) USS " Cyclops " ( AC - 4 ) was one of four " Proteus " - class colliers built for the United States Navy several years before World War I . Named for the Cyclops , a primordial race of giants from Greek mythology , she was the second U . S . Naval vessel to bear the name . The loss of the ship and 306 crew and passengers without a trace within the area known as the Bermuda Triangle some time after 4 March 1918 remains the single largest loss of life in U . S . Naval history not directly involving combat . As it was wartime , there was speculation she was captured or sunk by a German raider or submarine , because she was carrying of manganese ore used to produce munitions , but German authorities at the time , and subsequently , denied any knowledge of the vessel . The Naval History & Heritage Command has stated she " probably sank in an unexpected storm " but the cause is unknown . History . " Cyclops " was launched on 7 May 1910 , by William Cramp and Sons , Philadelphia , Pennsylvania , and placed in service on 7 November 1910 , with Lieutenant Commander George Worley , Master , Naval Auxiliary Service , in command . Operating with the Naval Auxiliary Service , Atlantic Fleet , she voyaged in the Baltic from May – July 1911 to supply Second Division ships . Returning to Norfolk , Virginia , she operated on the east coast from Newport , Rhode Island , to the Caribbean , servicing the fleet . During the troubled conditions in Mexico in 1914 – 1915 , she coaled ships on patrol there and received the thanks of the U . S . State Department for cooperation in evacuating refugees . With American entry into World War I , " Cyclops " was commissioned on 1 May 1917 , and her skipper , George W . Worley , was promoted to full commander . She joined a convoy for Saint - Nazaire , France in June 1917 , returning to the U . S . in July . Except for a voyage to Halifax , Nova Scotia , she served along the east coast until 9 January 1918 , when she was assigned to Naval Overseas Transportation Service . She then sailed to Brazilian waters to fuel British ships in the south Atlantic , receiving the thanks of the State Department and Commander - in - Chief , Pacific . Disappearance . She put to sea from Rio de Janeiro on 16 February 1918 and entered Bahia on 20 February . Two days later , she departed for Baltimore , Maryland , with no stops scheduled , carrying the manganese ore . The ship was thought to be overloaded when she left Brazil , as her maximum capacity was . Before leaving port , Commander Worley had submitted a report that the starboard engine had a cracked cylinder and was not operative . This report was confirmed by a survey board , which recommended , however , that the ship be returned to the U . S . She made an unscheduled stop in Barbados because the water level was over the Plimsoll line , indicating an overloaded condition ; however investigations in Rio proved the ship had been loaded and secured properly . " Cyclops " then set out for Baltimore on 4 March , and was rumored to have been sighted on 9 March by the molasses tanker " Amolco " near Virginia , but this was denied by " Amolco " s captain . Additionally , because " Cyclops " was not due in Baltimore until 13 March , it is highly unlikely that the ship would have been near Virginia on 9 March , as that location would have placed her only about a day from Baltimore . In any event , " Cyclops " never made it to Baltimore , and no wreckage of her has ever been found . < ref name = " usnsh - c / cyclops . htm " > USN Ships - USS CYCLOPS ( 1910 – 1918 ) < / ref > Reports indicate that on 10 March , the day after the ship was rumored to have been sighted by " Amolco " , a violent storm swept through the Virginia Capes area . While some suggest that the combination of the overloaded condition , engine trouble , and bad weather may have conspired to sink " Cyclops " , an extensive naval investigation concluded : " Many theories have been advanced , but none that satisfactorily accounts for her disappearance . " This summation was written , however , before two of " Cyclops " s sister ships , and , vanished in the North Atlantic during World War II . Both ships were transporting heavy loads of metallic ore similar to that which was loaded on " Cyclops " during her fatal voyage . In both cases , it was theorised that their loss was the result of catastrophic structural failure , but a more outlandish theory attributes all three vessels ' disappearances to the Bermuda Triangle . Rear Admiral George van Deurs suggested that the loss of " Cyclops " could be owing to structural failure , as her sister ships suffered from issues where the I - beams that ran the length of the ship had eroded owing to the corrosive nature of some of the cargo carried . This was observed definitively on the USS " Jason " , and is believed to have contributed to the sinking of another similar freighter , the " Chuky " , which snapped in two in calm seas . Moreover , " Cyclops " may have hit a storm with 30 - 40 knot winds . These would have resulted in waves just far enough apart to leave the bow and stern supported on the peaks of successive waves , but with the middle unsupported , resulting in extra strain on the already weakened middle . On 1 June 1918 , Assistant Secretary of the Navy Franklin D . Roosevelt declared " Cyclops " to be officially lost and all hands deceased . One of the seamen lost aboard " Cyclops " was African American mess attendant Lewis H . Hardwick , the father of Herbert Lewis Hardwick , " The Cocoa Kid " , an Afro Puerto Rican welterweight boxer who was a top contender in the 1930s and ' 40s who won the world colored welterweight and world colored middleweight championships . In 1918 a short summary of the Loss of the " Cyclops " was listed in the US Navy Annual Report For a BBC Radio 4 documentary , Tom Mangold had an expert from Lloyds investigate the loss of the " Cyclops " . The expert noted that manganese ore , being much denser than coal , had room to move within the holds even when fully laden , the hatch covers were canvas and that when wet the ore can become a slurry . As such the load could shift and cause the ship to list . Combined with a possible loss of power from its one engine it could founder in bad weather . The captain . Investigations by the Office of Naval Intelligence revealed that Captain Worley was born Johan Frederick Wichmann in Sandstedt , Hanover , Germany in 1862 , and that he had entered America by jumping ship in San Francisco in 1878 . By 1898 , he had changed his name to Worley ( after a seaman friend ) , and owned and operated a saloon in San Francisco ' s Barbary Coast . He also got help from brothers whom he had convinced to emigrate . During this time he had qualified for the position of ship ' s master , and had commanded several civilian merchant ships , picking up and delivering cargo ( both legal and illegal ; some accounts say opium ) from the Far East to San Francisco . Unfortunately , the crews of these ships reported that Worley suffered from a personality allegedly akin to that of ' s captain William Bligh ; the crew often being brutalized by Worley for trivial things . Naval investigators discovered information from former crew members about Worley ' s habits . He would berate and curse officers and men for minor offenses , sometimes getting violent ; at one point , he had allegedly chased an ensign about the ship with a pistol . Saner times would find him making his rounds about the ship dressed in long underwear and a derby hat . Worley sometimes would have an inexperienced officer in charge of loading cargo on the ship while the more experienced man was confined to quarters . In Rio de Janeiro , one such man was assigned to oversee the loading of manganese ore , something a collier was not used to carrying , and in this instance the ship was overloaded , which may have contributed to her sinking . The most serious accusation against Worley was that he was pro - German in wartime and may have colluded with the enemy ; indeed , his closest friends and associates were either German or Americans of German descent . " Many Germanic names appear , " Livingston stated , speculating that the ship had many German sympathizers on board . One of the passengers on the final voyage was Alfred Louis Moreau Gottschalk , the consul - general in Rio de Janeiro , who was as roundly hated for his pro - German sympathies as was Worley . Livingston stated he believed Gottschalk may have been directly involved in collaborating with Worley on handing the ship over to the Germans . After World War I , German records were checked to ascertain the fate of " Cyclops " , whether by Worley ' s hand or by submarine attack . Nothing was found . Near the time the search for " Cyclops " was called off , a telegram was received by the State Department from Charles Ludlow Livingston , the U . S . consul on Barbados : Some reports attribute the telegram to Brockholst Livingston , but he was actually the 13 - year - old son of the Consul .