ON THE COVER:
Kicking Dismayed workers survey the burned hull of USS Lafayette after the capsized ship had been raised upright. (USN)

FEATURES:

THE ELLWOOD BOMBARDMENT
The sleepy oil field community on California’s barren coast seemed a million miles away from the Second World War. That is until the night of 23 February 1942 when the commander of Japanese long-range submarine I-17 had other ideas and his attack on America was the first since the War of 1812 / by Boyd Ransforth

HMS SAPPHO VERSUS THE BASS STRAIGHT TRIANGLE
This Royal Navy brig enjoyed an adventurous life on anti-slavery patrols. Assigned to a new posting in Australia, the brig and its entire crew disappeared without a trace in an area that would become known as the equal to the Bermuda Triangle / by Drew Parker

DEATH OF USS LAFAYETTE
Few ocean liners were more deluxe than the SS Normandie of the 1930s. Employing France’s finest artists and artisans, the interior was an Art Deco masterpiece. In New York Harbor when Germany invaded Poland on 1 September 1939, the liner would be grabbed by the American government. In desperate need of transports, plans were drawn up to convert the ship to a troop transport or an aircraft transport. Then, on a cold winter’s night, a blaze tore through the vessel. Was it Nazi sabotage or merely a case of blundering and negligence? / by Robert J. Cressman

DEPARTMENTS

MUSEUM NEWS
Display depicts working waterfronts

INTEL FILE
Are we seeing the emergence of a new “Fat Leonard” scandal?

LOST AT SEA
This month, we focus on abandoned and sunken ex military vessels / by Susan Duprey

YOUR NAVY
Highlighting the month’s best images from the Navy’s top photojournalists / by Howard Carter

SEA MAIL
News and views from the readers of Sea Classics