Even as Japanese aircraft flew toward Pearl Harbor, a small American cargo ship chartered by the Army reported that it was under attack by a submarine halfway between Seattle and Honolulu. After that one cryptic message, the lumber carrier Cynthia Olson and her crew vanished without a trace, the incident all but forgotten as the mighty warships of the U.S. Pacific Fleet burned. A classic high-seas drama and one of the most enduring mysteries of World War II, the author of The Castaway's War uncovers the story of America's first skirmish in the Pacific War, while speculating on the fate of the crew and pondering whether the ship's SOS could have changed the course of history.