had a cracked cylinder and was not operative. This report was confirmed by a survey board, which recommended, however, that the ship be returned to the United States. She made an unscheduled stop in Barbados because the water level was over the Plimsoll line, indicating that it was overloaded, but investigations in Rio proved the ship had been loaded and secured properly. Cyclops then set out for Baltimore on 4 March, and was rumored to have been sighted on 9 March by the molasses tanker Amolco near Virginia, but this was denied by Amolcos captain. Additionally, because Cyclops was not due in Baltimore until 13 March, the ship was highly unlikely to have been near Virginia on 9 March, as that location would have placed her only about a day from Baltimore. In any event, Cyclops never arrived in Baltimore, and no wreckage of the ship has ever been found. Reports indicate that on 10 March, the day after Cyclops was rumored to have been sighted by Amolco, a violent storm swept through the Virginia Capes area. While some suggest that the combination of the overloaded condition, engine trouble, and bad weather may have conspired to sink Cyclops, an extensive naval investigation concluded: "Many theories have been advanced, but none that satisfactorily accounts for her disappearance." This summation was written, however, before two of Cyclopss sister ships, and , vanished at sea during World War II. Both ships were transporting heavy loads of metallic ore similar to that which was loaded on Cyclops during her fatal voyage. In both cases, their loss was theorized to have been the result of catastrophic structural failure, but a more outlandish theory attributes all three vessels' disappearances to the Bermuda Triangle. Rear Admiral George van Deurs suggested that the loss of Cyclops could be owing to structural failure, as her sister ships suffered from issues where the I-beams that ran the length of the ship had eroded due to the corrosive nature of some of the cargo carried. This was observed definitively on , and is believed to have contributed to the sinking of another similar freighter, Chuky, which snapped in two in calm seas. Moreover, Cyclops may have hit a storm with winds. These would have resulted in waves just far enough apart to leave the bow and stern supported on the peaks of successive waves, but with the middle unsupported, resulting in