DARK HISTORY: THE USS INDIANAPOLIS

Ninetoes remembers the scene in Jaws when Captain Quint tells the tale of the sinking of the USS Indianapolis. So, he decided to look into what actually happened…

Hey there, history lovers! It is your old pal, Ninetoes, coming to you from Ninetoes HQ. Today, I am looking at the sinking of the USS Indianapolis. I have coffee in my system and my thinking cap on, so let’s get to it!

The USS Indianapolis went into service on November 15, 1932. She saw a lot of action in the Pacific Theater, and her destiny would change thirteen years after she went into service. On July 16, 1945, she would leave Hunter’s Point Naval Shipyard in San Francisco and head for Pearl Harbor. From here she would make her way, unaccompanied, to Tinian Island. Her mission was Top Secret, and her cargo was precious.

Here is the thing to keep in mind: July 16, 1945, is a date that is etched into history for a totally different reason, and fans of the movie Oppenheimer will recognize the date as the TRINITY TEST near Alamogordo, New Mexico. This was the first detonation of a nuclear weapon. Yeah, that one.

The same day after the test was concluded, the non-nuclear parts of the bomb, as well as six 85-pound discs of enriched uranium that were stored in lead-lined containers. The discs were stored in lead-lined containers that were bolted and chained to the floor of Captain McVay’s quarters. Indianapolis’ Top-Secret mission was to deliver the atomic bomb to Tinian Island.

After the stop at Tinian Island, the USS Indianapolis made her way to Guam, where sailors who had completed their tours of duty were relieved and others came on board. She left Guam on July 28 and made her way to Leyte, where the crew would receive training before joining Vice-Admiral Jesse B Oldendorf’s Task Force 95 in Okinawa.

On July 30, 1945, at fifteen minutes after midnight, the USS Indianapolis was struck by two torpedoes from a Japanese submarine. Within twelve minutes, she would roll over and sink. Close to three hundred of her 1,195 crew members went down with the ship. The remainder of the crew was adrift. There were not many lifeboats or life vests to be had.

The men were adrift in the ocean for four days and five nights in shark-infested waters. The sharks were drawn by the explosions, the thrashing of the wounded, and the blood in the water. The sharks were mainly white tips and tiger sharks. The sharks circled and lunged at the men and dragged them underwater.

The crew members died from dehydration, exposure, or the bites from the sharks. On August 3, 1945, 316 survivors were pulled from the water. The Navy’s own investigation concluded that one hundred and fifty men were killed by shark attack.

This incident is considered to be one of the deadliest naval disasters in U.S. history. This disaster was compounded by communication failures that delayed the rescue of the crew members until August 2, 1945, when, by chance, a U.S. Navy aircraft spotted the survivors.

Captain Charles McVay was court-martialed over the incident. The charges were failing to order his men to abandon ship and hazarding the ship. McVay was one of the last men to abandon ship, and he was cleared of that charge. He was convicted of hazarding the ship by failing to zig-zag. (He was given an order to zig-zag at his discretion, weather permitting.) Be that as it may, he was not informed of a Japanese submarine operating in the waters between Guam and Leyte. What’s more, the commander of the Japanese submarine, Mochitsura Hashimoto, wrote in his testimony to Senator John Warner (chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee) that the Indianapolis would have been sunk regardless of zigzagging. McVay’s sentence was remitted by Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz, and he was returned to full service until he retired in 1949 with the rank of rear admiral.

There is one other tragedy to consider in all of this, and that is the death of Captain Charles McVay in 1968. He carried the guilt of what happened to the Indianapolis, and it wore him down. Many of the survivors said he was not to blame for the sinking of the ship, but some families of the departed felt otherwise and let him know. Charles McVay committed suicide in 1968. He was 70 years old.

Until the next time, I bid you successful research.

Darren “Ninetoes” Perdue is a book and media reviewer. When he is not reading, he is watching true crime shows, cooking for his family, or working on a plan for universal domination. If you see him on his porch, say hi. He does not bite…much.

PLEASE NOTE: The views and opinions of the staff of Memento Mori Ink do not necessarily represent those of Memento Mori Ink or Crystal Lake Publishing, nor do the views or opinions of Crystal Lake necessarily represent those of Memento Mori Ink or its staff. Thank you for understanding.