Once one of the most luxurious private yachts in the world, the USS St Augustine was not built for war. But her loss is symbolic of the everyday risks taken by those who served.
The “Great Sedition Trial” uncovered shocking connections at the time with the German reich that we were fighting, and challenged the idea that the nation was of a single mind during the war. It also challenged exactly how far the national commitment to freedom of speech and opinion reached, especially in extraordinary times.