The Bermuda Triangle, a name that strikes fear into most who sail or fly through it. Everyone’s heard stories throughout their lives from strange occurrences to massive ships and planes vanishing without a trace, what could be the cause of all this weirdness? Some say it is extraterrestrials, some say its wormholes and strange natural phenomena, while others claim that the lost city of Atlantis resides within the triangles waters and is the reason for these strange occurrences. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves though. This three-part post will go over some of the history of the Bermuda Triangle and three famous incidents that have occurred in recent times. Now let’s dive straight into the history of the Triangle and the disappearance of the USS Cyclops.

The term “Bermuda Triangle” was first coined by Vincent H. Gaddis in 1964 for a story in Argosy Magazine. The Triangle as it has commonly become known, is made up of the roughly one million square mile region encompassed between Miami, Puerto Rico, and Bermuda. The area has become famous for its reputation to cause ships and planes to disappear or encounter odd phenomena within its confines. Time magazine even claims that between 1946-1991 over 100 disappearances occurred within the Triangle. However, disappearances and strange events have occurred long before that.

The first instance of strange phenomena within the Triangle came during Christopher Columbus’s famous voyage to discover the Americas in the 1400s. While sailing through the area which would become known as the Bermuda Triangle, Columbus, and his crew noted several “odd occurrences”. The seas became rougher than they had been throughout the voyage, the compass began to spin and malfunction, and strange lights were seen in the skies. Colombus also noted a fireball that crashed through the sky and into the sea. Now whether these were paranormal or just weird weather phenomena are up for debate, but this encounter would mark the first in a long line of odd occurrences and disappearances within the Triangle.

In modern history, perhaps the first notable disappearance in the Triangle came in 1918. Near the tail end of the first world war the USS Cyclops, a proteus class fuel ship and one of the largest vessels in the US Navy, was preparing for another routine voyage. On February 20, 1918, USS Cyclops left El Salvador for Baltimore loaded with Manganese Ore. The trip was planned to be nonstop but due to a cracked cylinder head making the starboard engine unusable and the fear that the ship was overloaded, the ship stopped in Barbados on March 4, 1918. After an inspection, she and her cargo were found to be sound and the Cyclops and her 306 crew left for Baltimore. Now whether she was indeed overloaded or not remains a mystery, however her fate is even more so.

USS Cyclops was never seen or heard from again after leaving Barbados. No distress calls, no wreckage, and no survivors. Her loss remains the US Navy’s single largest loss of life not involving combat. Though many theories have been floated as to what happened to the ship from capsizing, to being caught in a storm, to aliens, none have proven to be overwhelmingly convincing. For now and until the wreck is discovered, the true fate of the USS Cyclops and her crew will remain one of the Triangle’s mysteries.

Thanks for reading and if you enjoy this post please feel free to leave a comment. A big thanks to BuzzFeed Unsolved and National Geographic for the information and inspiration needed to create these posts, definitely check out their channels and website if you like this type of content. Look forward to part 2 on Bruce Gernon’s strange flight soon!