Bald, Jens USS Cyclops

Verschollen im Bermudadreieck. Rätselhafte Erzfrachter-Unglücke

In March 1918, the coal supplier USS Cyclops set sail from Barbados to deliver a cargo of manganese ore vital to the war effort to Baltimore. Since then, the ship has been missing, along with its 309 crew members. No SOS signal was received, and none of the numerous lifeboats or life jackets were deployed. The press suspected treason and speculated about a possible attack on the ship by German submarines. The US Navy conducted a thorough investigation to determine the ship's whereabouts. However, this raised more questions than it answered. The disappearance of the Cyclops thus became one of the greatest mysteries in maritime history and contributed to the myth of the Bermuda Triangle. A significant factor in this was the behaviour of the German-born captain, George W. Worley, who turned out to be a brutal alcoholic. The fact that he was born in Germany and hoped for the victory of the German Empire was, in retrospect, unpalatable to the US Navy. Did the captain plan to hijack the ship with other crew members of German descent and take it to Germany, where manganese ore was urgently needed for the arms industry? Did the cargo shift in the storm and cause the Cyclops to capsize? What role did damage to one of the two main engines play in the ship's disappearance? Did the crew mutiny and rebel against the captain's brutality? Did the ship break apart in the waves? The many questions are reason enough to take a closer look at the history of the Cyclops. This includes a look at the global political background, such as the sinking of the Lusitania and the entry of the United States into the First World War, as well as an examination of the legend of the Bermuda Triangle. The sinkings of the ore freighters Edmund Fitzgerald and Melanie Schulte are presented as examples in order to draw possible conclusions about the loss of the Cyclops.