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USS Cyclops


LucidElement

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I've always had a fascination with ghost ships; Mary Celeste, Ourang Medan, Lady Lovibond. The stories of missing crews, or reappearing ships (things of legends & truth keep me interested) I have never heard of the USS Cyclops until I just came across the article on Foxnews. It was a great find, the USS Lexington but the USS Cyclops had 309 men onboard and have been lost at sea for a great amount of time. I wanted to share the below link with the community and see (no pun intended) if anyone had any thoughts on what may have happened to this great coal transporter.

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"One hundred years ago Wednesday morning, the USS Cyclops, a massive American World War I transport ship hailed as a “floating coal mine,” should have been docked in the waters off Baltimore, fresh off a journey from Brazil.

But the vessel – reported to be the Navy’s biggest and fastest fuel ship at the time – and the 309 men onboard it never pulled into the Chesapeake Bay on March 13, 1918, and its whereabouts to this day remain unknown."

 

Link: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/03/14/more-than-100-years-later-great-mystery-vanished-uss-cyclops-remains-unsolved.html

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A hurricane or storm like that leaps to mind as what happened on its way. I mean, in those times there was little in the way of weather. If they ran into one down south at sea no one may have even known about it. There is one idea.

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Not seeing enemy activity over that way during the time. The closest was on the 20th a bit west of Morrocco. Maybe something came over and took a shot before heading back but it seems a stretch to think so.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_shipwrecks_in_February_1918

Most weather archives of the time focus on Europe.

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Quote

10,000 tons of manganese ore

Stuff like that in bulk can easily cause a ship to capsize if it shifts suddenly or if, say, a hatch cover gave way and teh hold filled with water. She';d probably break in two or capsize and down she'd go before anyone had a chance to get off a signal with the kind of wireless equipment that they had in those days.

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Interestingly, from Wiki, the free pedia, 

Cyclops had three sister ships, all commissioned in 1913, which were all ill-fated.

  • USS Jupiter (AC-3) was converted to an aircraft carrier between 1920 and 1922 and was re-commissioned as USS Langley (CV-1). Langley was the first American aircraft carrier and was vital in developing United States naval aviation capabilities. She was converted again between 1936 and 1937 as a seaplane tender and re-designated as AV-3. She was stationed in the Philippines in December 1941 and departed for Australia following the Japanese attacks on Pearl Harbor and the Philippines. On February 27, 1942, while ferrying fighter planes to Southeast Asia, she was attacked by Japanese aircraft and was hit by five bombs causing critical damage. After her surviving crew members were rescued, Langley was scuttled by torpedoes fired by her escorting destroyers.[22]
  • USS Proteus (AC-9) was sold on March 8, 1941, became part of the Canadian Merchant Navy, and was lost at sea without a trace, probably in or near the Caribbean Sea, sometime after November 25, 1941.[23]
  • USS Nereus (AC-10) was sold to the Aluminium Company of Canada on 27 February 1941. She was lost without a trace after departing St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands on December 10, 1941 with a load of ore.[24]
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dang all those lost without a traces make me wonder if there was a design fault.

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9 minutes ago, Not A Rockstar said:

dang all those lost without a traces make me wonder if there was a design fault.

The alternative is that previous cargo rendered each ship more vulnerable to problems. Following one of the links in the Wikipedia article, I found a footnote indicating a Rear Admiral of the US Navy who had suggested that other ships of these kinds had transported acidic coal which eroded parts of the ship. Maybe they didn't always carry the same stuff and I'm betting even just one transportation of acidic coal would do enough damage that overloading the Cyclops would've done 'er in.

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Huh. Great read.

Only 3 potential causes...

- Aliens

- White House administration

- Design/procedural flaw or mis-management

 

Conclusion... Aliens.

Edited by pallidin
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On 3/14/2018 at 0:57 PM, Vlad the Mighty said:

Interestingly, from Wiki, the free pedia, 

Cyclops had three sister ships, all commissioned in 1913, which were all ill-fated.

  • USS Jupiter (AC-3) was converted to an aircraft carrier between 1920 and 1922 and was re-commissioned as USS Langley (CV-1). Langley was the first American aircraft carrier and was vital in developing United States naval aviation capabilities. She was converted again between 1936 and 1937 as a seaplane tender and re-designated as AV-3. She was stationed in the Philippines in December 1941 and departed for Australia following the Japanese attacks on Pearl Harbor and the Philippines. On February 27, 1942, while ferrying fighter planes to Southeast Asia, she was attacked by Japanese aircraft and was hit by five bombs causing critical damage. After her surviving crew members were rescued, Langley was scuttled by torpedoes fired by her escorting destroyers.[22]
  • USS Proteus (AC-9) was sold on March 8, 1941, became part of the Canadian Merchant Navy, and was lost at sea without a trace, probably in or near the Caribbean Sea, sometime after November 25, 1941.[23]
  • USS Nereus (AC-10) was sold to the Aluminium Company of Canada on 27 February 1941. She was lost without a trace after departing St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands on December 10, 1941 with a load of ore.[24]

Wow. 3 ships of the same class all disappear without a trace. Had to be a design flaw or something that either capsized or split the vessel would be my guess.

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6 hours ago, South Alabam said:

Wow. 3 ships of the same class all disappear without a trace. Had to be a design flaw or something that either capsized or split the vessel would be my guess.

And all three in the same area of the globe. 

It does seem they were a bit wonky one way or another. 

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With things like that it's also important to remember how primitive means to communicate over long distances and to locate ships and planes still were, both in 1918 and in the 1940s, as was engineering really when compared to today.

In addition to that, well...hate to be obvious, but there were freaking huge, global conflicts going on during those time periods, which in turn would have caused everybody to be stressed, on the edge and likely a bit overworked, which would have caused a larger potential for small errors with big consequences.  

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My bet is that it was some kind of seamonster like the kraken or maybe  an albatross

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12 hours ago, Herr Falukorv said:

My bet is that it was some kind of seamonster like the kraken or maybe  an albatross

oooh, yeah, Albatross attack! 

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On 2018-03-17 at 7:09 AM, Not A Rockstar said:

oooh, yeah, Albatross attack! 

Its more common than people believe

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I would like to see one of the ROV vessels do a new search where Dan Hawes was diving in 68 with todays technology. The Cyclops had such a unique superstructure his description sounds like a solid clue. Plus being a navy operation the locations were documented. 

A friend of mine sent me a picture of the deck of the Selkirk Settler as he was travelling aboard some years ago. The two pictures are the same ship. Not hard to see why something loaded with hundreds of tons might sink. 

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