Sinking of the SS Montebello | In Person (Ryan Ranch)

Course Description:

In December 1941—only ten days after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor—enemy submarines appeared off the West Coast and began attacking merchant vessels. On the evening of December 23rd, the Imperial Navy submarine I-21 fired one torpedo at a tanker carrying over 3 million gallons of explosive fuel, sinking her in the waters off Cambria, California. Stuart McDowell's "The Sinking of the SS Montebello" describes the dramatic events leading to the night of the attack, the firing of the torpedo and explosion, and the crew's desperate efforts to escape and survive. Join us for a fascinating telling of this little-known attack whose centerpiece lies ghost-like in the waters off our Central Coast.