By KAREN KASPER

Special to the Journal

John Henry Vidlund was born in January of 1890 in Ishpeming. He attended Ishpeming Schools but like so many young men in that era, did not graduate. He enlisted in the navy serving from 1908 to 1912. He left the Navy after his initial term of enlistment was up and settled in Marquette, working for LS&I.

When the United States entered World War One, he was among the first to enlist in the Navy.

“Mr. Vidlund left Ishpeming May 27 (1917), arriving at Norfolk, VA., May 31. He was assigned to the U.S.S. Cyclops on which he has served since. From Norfolk he went to New York from where he left for France June 14, reaching St. Nazaire, France June 28.”

“‘I have arrived in France,’ writes Mr. Vidlund, ‘just a month from my date of enlistment, and already am in a foreign country nearly 5,000 miles away. While I expected to go to France, I scarcely expected it so soon.'” (Mining Journal, July 28, 1917) While in France, Vidlund was able to visit Paris.

In November he received shore leave and visited his parents. It was probably the last time his parents saw him.

The Cyclops was one of four Proteus class colliers built several years before the first World War. She was launched in 1910 and was placed into service that same year. Operating with the Naval Auxiliary Service, the Cyclops serviced naval ships in such places as the Baltic, the Caribbean and even coaled ships during the United States occupation of Veracruz, Mexico in 1914-1915.

With the entry of the US into World War One, the ship was commissioned into military service. In January of 1918 she was assigned to the Naval Overseas Transportation Service and sailed to Brazilian waters to fuel ships in the South Atlantic.

The Cyclops was captained by George Worley, which was not his real name. He was born Johan Frederick Wichmann in Germany in 1862 and entered America by jumping ship in San Francisco in 1878. For a time, he owned and operated a saloon in San Francisco’s Barbary Coast. While he was operating the saloon, he qualified for the position of ship’s master and commanded several civilian merchant ships, picking up and delivering cargo. He may have participated in the opium trade.

Worley was not a good captain and would often berate and curse officers and men for minor offenses and at times got violent. The worst accusation against Worley was his pro-Germanic leanings, especially in wartime. Worley was suspected of colluding with the enemy, and he had many German friends and associates.

In early February the Cyclops sailed to Rio de Janeiro to load a cargo of manganese ore. Worley placed an inexperienced officer in charge and there were suspicions that the ship may have been overloaded.

She put to sea on the 16th of February and stopped at Salvador on the 20th. On the 22nd, the ship departed for Baltimore. Before the ship left port Worley submitted a report that one of the engines had a cracked cylinder and was not operating. It was recommended that the ship return to the States.

An unscheduled stop was made in Barbados, but the ship sailed from that island on March 4. That was the last time anyone would see the Cyclops. Her course homeward took her through the Bermuda Triangle.

“The big American naval collier Cyclops carrying fifty-seven passengers, fifteen officers and 221 men in her crew has been overdue at an Atlantic port since March 13. The navy department announced today

that she was last reported at a West Indies port on March 4 and that extreme anxiety is entertained as to her safety. The vessel was bringing a cargo of manganese from Brazil. Among the members of the crew of the missing ship was John Henry Vidlund, of Ishpeming, Mich.” (Mining Journal, April 15, 1918)

There were two other crew members from the Upper Peninsula, John George Alschbach of Kearsarge and James Wall from Rockland.

“Alfred L. Morgan Gottschalk, United States consul general at Rio de Janeiro, was the only civilian among the passengers on the collier, the others being two naval lieutenants and fifty-four naval enlisted me returning to the United States. The Cyclops was commanded by Lieutenant Commander G. W. Worley, U.S.N.R. There have been no reports of German submarines or raiders in the locality in which the collier was, the department’s statement said. The weather had not been stormy and could hardly have given the collier trouble.

The fact that the collier had been missing nearly a month became known here Thursday, April 11. The naval censor requested the Associated Press not to publish the fact, on the ground that the ship had not been given up for lost, and that to publish the fact that she was overdue might expose the Cyclops to submarines or other enemy attack, while she might be disabled on the high seas.” (Mining Journal, April 15, 1918)

There were many theories as to the Cyclops disappearance, given that she sailed into the Bermuda triangle and because of her captain’s pro German sympathies. However, none of the theories were ever proved. All three of her sister ships were ill-fated. Two of them sank without a trace in 1941 and the third was attacked by Japanese aircraft and hit by five bombs. Surviving crew members were rescued and the ship was scuttled by torpedoes. Structural problems may have sunk the Cyclops.

The loss of the Cyclops was the single largest loss of life in the history of the United States Navy not directly involving combat.