First Ship to Disappear in the Bermuda Triangle: USS Cyclops (1918)

Disappeared: March 4, 1918
Route: Barbados → Norfolk, Virginia
Cargo: 10,000+ tons manganese ore
Crew: 309 (largest non-combat loss of life in US Navy history)
Ship: 542 ft, 19,000 tons, 15 knots, built 1910

USS Cyclops (AC-4)

The USS Cyclops, a US Navy collier (coal carrier), is the earliest well-documented large vessel to vanish in the Bermuda Triangle.

No distress call, no wreckage, no survivors
Theories: structural failure (overloaded), rogue wave, German U-boat (WWI), methane hydrate eruption
Sister ships Proteus and Nereus also vanished (1941)

While smaller craft disappeared earlier, the Cyclops' loss cemented the Triangle's reputation. The wreck has never been found.

Caribbean