USS Cyclops

The USS Cyclops was a ship of the United States Navy that was deployed during World War I. Charles W. Reed was a sailor who served on it. At some point, the Cyclops was destroyed by something while at sea, and Reed was the sole survivor of the incident. From then on, Reed was afflicted by haunting visions of a sinking city, and he gained supernaturally-enhanced powers of observation that he put to use as a private investigator in Boston.

In 1920, six months after the city of Oakmont, Massachusetts was beset by the Flood, Reed traveled to Oakmont at the behest of Johannes van der Berg in the hopes of solving the mystery of his visions and gaining insight into the loss of the Cyclops.