{"id":103413,"date":"2019-05-21T20:28:07","date_gmt":"2019-05-22T00:28:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=103413"},"modified":"2019-05-21T11:30:07","modified_gmt":"2019-05-21T15:30:07","slug":"column-the-musings-of-a-simple-country-man-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=103413","title":{"rendered":"COLUMN: The Musings of A Simple Country Man"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Musings of A Simple Country Man<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Hobie Morris<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Where are They? An Unsolved Memorial Day Mystery<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Hobie Morris<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Three hundred and nine U.S. Navy sailors vanished. These\nyoung men would never grow old; would never be honored in future Memorial Day\ncelebrations. Most of them were too young to have wives or future family\ngenerations. These men are long forgotten as if erased by time and the dustbin\nof American history. But once they lived and then they mysteriously\ndisappeared, their fate unknown. This simple country man thinks they too shall\nbe remembered this Memorial Day,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To this day, the disappearance is a long time lingering and\npainful toothache to the U.S. Navy. It is a century old mystery that has baffled\nand remains unsolved- but not without many theories, all of which remain\nunverified speculations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 309 sailors were the crew of the USS Cyclops, a naval\nvessel bigger than a football field. Along with all men on board, the Cyclops\ndisappeared never to be found to this day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What happened? Theories range from possible to fantasy: Bermuda\nTriangle, giant squid, German spies, U-boat torpedoes, captured by a German\nraider, sea monsters, a mutiny, hit by a meteorite, a huge rogue wave, a faulty\nengine, a shifting heavy cargo \u2013 on and on the speculation has continued over\n100 years but with no success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Renowned underwater explorer, James Delgado, has said \u201cin\nterms of loss of life and size of ship, it\u2019s probably the last great mystery\nleft unsolved.\u201d (the greatest loss of life unrelated to combat in U.S. Naval\nhistory)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There should have been many clues: a distress signal, pieces\nof life boats, or sailors caps etc. How could all these men and this colossal\nvessel just simply vanish? Not an oil slick to be seen despite an exhaustive\nsearch by other naval vessels. No debris \u2013 nothing!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The U.S.S. Cyclops was not a rowboat. Built in Philadelphia\nin 1910, it was launched on May 4th of that year. It was 540 feet long, 65 feet\nwide, and steel hulled. It was the Navy\u2019s biggest and fastest fuel ship, able\nto haul 12,500 tons of coal, and it could steam at 15 knots. Huge clamshell\nbuckets could lift two tons of coal in a single mouthful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A newspaper at that time called it \u201ca monter collier \u2013 a\nfloating coal mine\u201d. In those years, anthracite coal fueled our Navy and the\nU.S.S. Cyclops steamed out of Norfolk, VA down the East Coast to deliver coal\nto U.S. Naval bases in Cuba, Haiti, and Puerto Rico.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When America entered World War I in April 1917, the Cyclops\nwas lightly armed with .50 caliber guns. She transported MDs and medical\nsupplies from Johns Hopkins hospital to St. Nazaire in France. (Ironically the\nonly known monument to the Cyclops hangs in France, not the USA.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Several months later, the Cyclops arrived in Brazil to take\non 10,000 tons of manganese ore. Denser and heavier than coal, it was an\nunfamiliar cargo for the Navy crew.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Refueling in Barbados, the heavily loaded ship steamed out\nfor a 9 day trip to the steel yard at Baltimore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The date was March4, 1918. It never arrived \u2013 and still\nhasn\u2019t! The search was exhaustive but futile. But we are not without hope. We\nlive in a high tech world. Sonar can sweep the ocean depths like a flashlight. The\nnumber of shipwrecks still lost are dwindling rapidly. The discovery of two\nWorld War II warships, The U.S.S. Indianapolis and the aircraft carrier, U.S.S.\nLexington was led by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. Will Paul Allen and other\nwealthy Americans with similar interests eventually direct their high tech\nefforts to discover the U.S.S. Cyclops; to finally bring closure to 309\nAmerican servicemen who seemingly fell off Earth? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Until then, somewhere out there, the great collier remains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 309 sailors deserve a belated Memorial Day tribute. This\nsimple country man hopes these men will eventually be deservedly honored.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hobie Morris is a\nBrookfield resident and simple country man.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Musings of A Simple Country Man Where are They? An Unsolved Memorial Day Mystery By Hobie Morris Three hundred and nine U.S. Navy sailors vanished. These young men would never grow old; would never be honored in future Memorial Day celebrations. Most of them were too young to have wives or future family generations. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":42368,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[23677,23808,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-103413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-columns","category-opinion","category-top-story"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p43meu-qTX","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/madisoncountycourier.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/Morris-head-new.jpg?fit=226%2C287&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=103413"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103413\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/42368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=103413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=103413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=103413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}