- In late July 1945, the US Navy cruiser
USS Indianapolis sailed across the Pacific on a secret mission. - The Indianapolis successfully completed that mission, but a much more arduous experience awaited its crew.
Shortly after midnight on July 30, 1945, USS Indianapolis was hit by two torpedoes fired by a Japanese submarine.
The first struck the starboard bow, almost tearing it off completely. The second hit amidships and ignited a fuel tank, causing numerous secondary explosions.
The ship took on a heavy list, and a large explosion effectively tore it in two. Just 12 minutes after it was hit, Indianapolis capsized and sank with some 300 sailors and Marines trapped aboard.
Most of the crew, more than 800 men, managed to abandon ship. Many were forced to swim, hold onto debris, or float with their life jackets, as very few life rafts were able to be launched.
Unfortunately for them, their ordeal was not only far from over — it was about to get worse.
A decorated veteran with an important mission
USS Indianapolis was one of two Portland-class heavy cruisers. Commissioned in 1931, it was by all accounts a fine ship. It was the flagship of the US Navy's Scouting Force in 1933 and carried President Franklin Roosevelt on multiple journeys.
Affectionately known as "Indy" by its crew, the ship rose to the challenges of
Indy even served as Adm. Raymond Spruance's flagship in 1943 and 1944, while he commanded the US Fifth Fleet.
Indianapolis shot down at least nine enemy planes, fired thousands of rounds at hundreds of targets ashore, and even suffered a kamikaze attack during a pre-invasion bombardment of Okinawa.
As a result of this attack, the cruiser returned to the US for repairs. Upon their completion, Capt. Charles B. McVay III was given top-secret orders; he was to transport vital cargo to Tinian Island as quickly as possible.
So secret was the operation that McVay and his crew had no idea what they were transporting — only that its importance was paramount.
"I can't tell you what the mission is. I don't know myself, but I've been told that every day we take off the trip is a day off the war," McVay reportedly told his crew.
They left San Francisco on July 16, reached Pearl Harbor in a record 74.5 hours, and arrived at Tinian on July 26.
In fact, they were transporting the internal components for the "Little Boy"
The cargo was immediately taken ashore on Tinian, and Indianapolis soon departed for Guam, where it received new crew members. McVay was then ordered to sail to the Philippines, so they could train for the planned invasion of Japan.
McVay was told that enemy activity was unlikely and that no escort was possible. Two days into the Indianapolis' journey, I-58, a Type B3 submarine commanded by Cmdr. Mochitsura Hashimoto, spotted the cruiser, fired six torpedoes, and reported to Japan that it had sunk an enemy battleship.
'Miserable — like hell'
The two torpedoes knocked out Indianapolis' power, so it was unable to send a distress signal. Many of the sailors who jumped into the water that night were covered in the ship's oil, which was spilling uncontrollably.
A hundred survivors likely died in the first few hours from wounds sustained in explosions and fires as the ship sank. The rest of the crew was dispersed in seven groups over a 25-mile area. The largest group was made up of 300 to 400 men.
The survivors floated for four or five days before they were rescued. In that time, hundreds died from drowning, dehydration, exposure, and exhaustion.
"It was miserable — like hell," said Paul McGinnis, a signalman. "You couldn't wait for the sun to go down. When the sun went down it was a relief. Then it would get cold and you would start to shiver, and you couldn't wait for the sun to come back up."
Desperate, some drank salt water to quench their thirst.
"Men began drinking salt water so much that they were very delirious," recalled Granville Crane, another survivor. "In fact, a lot of them had weapons like knives, and they'd be so crazy that they'd be fighting amongst themselves and killing one another."
Then the sharks arrived.
"All the time, the sharks never let up." said Eugene Morgan, a boatswain. "We had a cargo net that had Styrofoam things attached to keep it afloat. There were about 15 sailors on this, and suddenly, 10 sharks hit it and there was nothing left. This went on and on and on."
It wasn't until three and half days after the sinking, after some survivors were spotted by a pilot on patrol, that the Navy realized the Indianapolis had been sunk. The last of the survivors were rescued by August 8.
Because Indianapolis couldn't get a distress signal out, no immediate rescue was ordered. Port officials in Leyte in the Philippines also did not report that Indianapolis missed its arrival time. the I-58's report of the sinking was intercepted, but it was believed to be a fabrication, so it was not passed along.
A lasting legacy
Of Indianapolis' nearly 1,200-man crew, only 316 survived, making it the worst sinking in US naval history.
The Navy immediately made changes to ensure such an event wouldn't happen again; escorts were required for most warships, reporting procedures for overdue ships were implemented, and all ships were ordered to zigzag at all times for the remainder of the war.
McVay survived the sinking and was held responsible by the Navy. He was the only US captain court-martial for losing a ship sunk by an act of war.
Though his conviction included an immediate remittance, McVay was never able to command at sea again and was always associated with the tragedy. Some family members of the deceased sent him hate mail. He died by suicide in 1968, holding a toy sailor in his hand.
After a massive effort by survivors and a sixth-grade student, McVay was completely exonerated in 2000, when President Bill Clinton signed legislation clearing him of any wrongdoing.
In 2017, a research team led by Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen discovered the wreck of the Indianapolis 18,000 feet below the waves of the Pacific.