MYSTERY SOLVED

Waipa Post, Volume 43, Issue 3353, 24 September 1931, Page 7

MYSTERY SOLVED

HOW 278 LIVES WEEE LOST. One of the most baffling sea mysteries of modern times—the disappearance of the ship Cyclops, with 278 souls on board, which has since been the object of tireless research by scientists and naval experts—has at last been solved. The vessel is believed to have gone to her doom as the result of a huge subsidence of the ocean bed, which caused her to be overwhelmed in the trough of a gigantic wave.

Over 13 years ago the world first heard that the Cyclops, a. 19,000-ton naval collier, had been lost with all hands somewhere between the Barbadoes and the American coast. At first it was thought she had been the victim of a German submarine —a fact which has since been denied by Germany.

It was pointed out that whether the Cyclops, which was a thoroughly up-to-date ship, had been torpedoed or suffered any other mishap, she would certainly have sent an S.O.S, beforehand and also given her position. As the ship carried a valuable cargo of manganese ore destined for munition factories, an intensive search was made for her track by destroyers yet not a single piece of floating wreckage could be found. There was an air of mystery about the Cyclops' departure for America. She left Barbadoes under sealed orders, which were to be opened at various dates as the voyage proceeded. Now, however, a noted seismologist says he has discovered that during the period of the Cyclops' voyage a huge submarine earthquake occurred in the Atlantic, a fact attested by changes in soundings reported by surveying vessels.

It is thought likely that the illfated vessel was caught in the centre of such a disturbance. Without the slightest warning she was engulfed, and, with a load of manganese ore in bulk, probably went down in a few seconds.

Officials at the United States Navy Department, after examining this latest hypothesis, say they are convinced of its tmxth.