Editing USS Cyclops Disappearance (1918) (section)

=== Background ===
The USS Cyclops was a '''Proteus-class collier''' built in 1910 to supply fuel to the U.S. Atlantic Fleet. By 1918 she was assigned to the Naval Overseas Transportation Service and had made multiple voyages to South America and the Caribbean to carry strategic war materials.

Her final voyage began in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where she took on a cargo of '''10,800 tons of manganese ore''' — a material critical to steel production during World War I. The ship stopped briefly at Salvador, Bahia, before proceeding to Barbados for refueling. She departed Barbados on March 4, 1918, on a direct course for Baltimore.