In a foreshadowing of things to come, in early March 1918, it was reported by the Navy that Willie J. Nettles, coxswain on the U.S.S. Cyclops was drowned on February 10, when he was swept overboard. His body was never recovered from the waters off Brazil.
Willie Nettles joined the Navy in 1913, when he was 16 years old. In July, 1915, his parents died within two weeks of each other, leaving only his married sister Maude as a relative. None would have suspected that his shipmates would soon share his fate.READ THE REST The Strange Fate of the Cyclops | M.P. Pellicer:
