The Lost Warship

The Lost Warship, by Robert Moore Williams. “Japanese bombs rained down, there was a tremendous blast–and a weird thing happened to the Idaho…..” This 26,000 word novella, from Amazing Stories, January 1943, is a rousing science fiction adventure tale! The American Battleship, USS Idaho, disappears in the middle of World War II and finds an island of savages and dinosaurs! Only the savages aren’t quite as backward as one would believe…..

Robert Moore Williams (1907—1977), born in Farmington, Missouri, was an American writer, primarily of science fiction. He has over 150 short stories to his credit, published in the popular science fiction magazines spanning the period 1937 to 1966. His first published story was Zero as a Limit, which appeared in Astounding Science Fiction in 1937, under the pseudonym of “Robert Moore”. He also wrote as: E. K. Jarvis, Russell Storm, John S. Browning, and H. H. Harmon.

With many novels and essays to his credit, he penned the “Zanthar” series of four novels over the 1967-69 time period. His “Jongor” series was originally published in Fantastic Adventures in the 1940s and 1950s, but only appeared in book form in 1970. He was a prolific author throughout his career, with his last novel appearing in 1972.

This story by Williams, “The Lost Warship” was originally published in Amazing Stories magazine in January 1943 with the cover painting and interior illustrations credited to J. Allen St. John.

–John

Kindle edition link:  The Lost Warship