The Fall of Númenor

Christopher Tolkien begins The Lost Road with his father's first outline of the Fall of Númenor and his subsequent sketches of the story. Once again it's rather amazing to see the bones of the story pretty well intact at first outline with various supporting details would consist of the later edits. I don't know if Tolkien spent a great deal of time thinking through his mythology, destroyed his earliest notes that we cannot see, or was just remarkably resolute at first writing. The earliest outline has some of the following details:

• Men are given a land in the Western Sea
• Old name was Númar; named Atalantë (The Falling) after. Notice the resemblance to Atlantis (which disappeared or fell into the sea?)
• The people were great mariners
• The Ban on sailing West by the Valar was in effect (they could go as far as Tol Eressëa
• They became long lived due to the radiance of Valinor; but weren't satisfied
• Thû comes and turns hearts away from the Valar
• The Númenóreans rebel 
• Atalantë is destroyed; the World was made round; a remnant of the Númenóreans survived in Middle-earth ever longing for the Straight Path to the West

From this first outline Christopher Tolkien gives a couple of sketches of the story with great detail: some additions; some changes, but the main ideas stated above remain closely intact. 

• Added detail: the Faithful Men who sided with the Valar against Morgoth are rewarded their own land
• The land become Númenor; the chief city Númar (or Númenos)
• Thû "...came in the likeness of a great bird to Númenor and preached a message of deliverance, and he prophesied the second coming of Morgoth" (p. 15, The Lost Road). Interesting that Thú seeks out Númenor in the early versions. 
• Angor and Istar, King and Queen of Númenor fell under Thú's sway
• Angor raises an armada and invades Valinor. This line seemed new to me: "And they passed Tol-eressëa, and it is said that the Elves mourned and grew sick, for the light of Valinor was cut off by the cloud of the Númenóreans" (p. 15, The Lost Road). This gives a powerful picture of the massive amount of ships. I don't remember this line from the published version. 
• Valinor is rent from the earth (by decree of Ilúvatar) and the armada destroyed and Númenor was cast down.
• Interestingly the remnant that survived were on the East side of the island partly by the will of Angor and partly by their own will (they were faithful to the Valar still)--first hints of the King's Men verses the Faithful I think.
• Much more detail in regards to the remnant of Númenóreans: how they sought to build ships to sail the Straight Path high above. "But they achieved only ships that would sail in the air of breath" (p. 17, The Lost Road). This is a curious statement to me; it's clear Tolkien is not talking about ships sailing the sea (at least from what I can discern from contextual clues) but no more info is give. Are these planes of some sort? This type of elusive detail was dropped out of the Silmarillion version of the story. 
• Lastly the first glimpse of the Last Alliance is seen in this sketch. How Amroth and Elrond, Men and Elves assailed Thû. Amroth was killed but Thê forced to flee into a dark forest (again a connection to Mirkwood and The Hobbit's Necromancer). This was the last deed of alliance between Elves and Men. "And here the tale of the ancient world, as the Elves keep it, comes to an end" (p. 18, The Lost Road). Obviously that line had to be struck out after completion of The Lord of the Rings.

A second version, early abandoned, of the Fall of Númenor was begun by Tolkien. Here are a few final points of interest:

• Thû has now become Sauron
• Rumor of Sauron's greatness in Middle-earth reached ears of the King of Númenór (now Tar-kalion)
• It is said that Sauron could not enter Númenor unless summoned and in his pride Tar-kalion sent for Sauron that the king of Middle-earth would give the King of Númenór homage
• Sauron "...being cunning and filled with malice he plotted in his heart to destroy Númenór... (p. 26, The Lost Road).