The following day the Navy Department sent a similar message to the commander of Squadron I, Patrol Force, Atlantic fleet. On March 24 the station at Charleston, S.C., reported that at intervals for twenty-three hours messages by radio had been sent in an endeavor to locate the Cyclops, but without success. Commander Belknap directed that calls be continued, and on March 26 the Navy Department sent the following message to the Governor of the Virgin Islands:
"U.S.S. Cyclops sailed from Barbados March 4 for Baltimore. Has not yet arrived. Have you any information regarding this vessel passing St. Thomas?"
The reply was "No information regarding U.S. S. Cyclops."
Every station within radio communication of her route and every ship within call during the time of her passage, including foreign ships, was asked for any fragment of information. The search was continued as long as it seemed possible to gain news of her, but nothing definite was ever heard. The only suggestion of how she may have been lost is contained in a message to the Navy Department from the First Naval District, received June 6, 1918:
"Mr. Freeman, now in Boston, telephone address held in this office, states log of U.S.S. Amalco shows that on night of March 9 U.S.S. Cyclops was about five miles distant. March 10 heavy gale damaged the Amalco. Capt. C.E. Hilliard, of the Amalco, now at 2876 Woodbrook Avenue, Baltimore, Md."
On April 22 the commander in chief of the Pacific fleet sent to the Navy Department the following statement of her cargo:
"U.S.S. Cyclops had by tally of bucket 10,604, by draft in feet 10,835 tons manganese, distributed number one hold 10,614; number two hold 1,995; number three 2,250; number four 1,875; number five 2,870. Cargo stowed direct on wood dunnage in bottom of hold. Reports differ as to whether cargo was trimmed level or left somewhat higher in middle. Incline to latter belief. Reported also vessel had 4,000 tons of water, mostly in double bottoms. So far as ascertained, no steps taken to prevent increasing of metacentric height, and this must have been considerably increased."
What caused the catastrophe will probably never be known, but with one of her engines reported out of order she was not in the best condition to weather the storm reported by the Amalco, and it is not unlikely that a sudden shifting of her cargo caused her to capsize and to be instantly engulfed.
Exactly one hundred days from the date of her sailing the following order was issued: