Today is the anniversary of one of the worst maritime disasters in history.
The crew of the heavy cruiser USS Indianapolis would have been proud that they had contributed to the ending of WWII and the saving of many American and Japanese lives, but what they had done was top secret. Instead, they became part of the worst single ship disaster in the history of the U.S. Navy. On July 26, 1945, the Indianapolis delivered the components of the atomic bomb that was to be dropped on a Japanese city. That city ended up being Hiroshima. After accomplishing its mission without any drama, the ship was ordered to Guam and then the Philippines. Halfway to the Philippines, without an escort, the ship was torpedoed by the Japanese submarine I-58, commanded by Mochitsura Hashimoto. Hashimoto did not stalk the ship, it simply sailed in his path. The two torpedoes caused the ship to sink in twelve minutes, taking 300 sailors with it. Capt. Charles McVay and over 900 men ended up in the water with few life boats or life vests. They would struggle for survival for 4 days before being discovered by a PV-1 Ventura that was on routine anti-submarine patrol. Rescue efforts saved 316 of the 1,195-man crew. The rest died from drowning, dehydration, injuries, or most famously, from sharks. Sharks came from miles around and hundreds attacked the survivors. It is estimated that as many as 150 of the dead were shark victims. This was the worst mass shark attack in history. Why did it take four days to even start looking for them? The authorities in the Philippines just assumed the ship had arrived. The one man in charge of keeping track of the ship failed to investigate why the ship had not arrived. McVay was court-martialed for not zig-zagging to avoid submarines. Hashimoto testified that it would not have made a difference, but McVay was made a scapegoat. He was the only captain court-martialed for losing his ship in WWII. In 1968, he committed suicide, partly because some of the parents of the victims hounded him with blame for the loss of loved ones. In 1996, sixth grader Hunter Scott researched the sinking and this led to an inquiry by Congress which exonerated McVay.
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/uss-indianapolis-bombed
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Indianapolis_(CA-35)#Secret_mission
USS Indianapolis memorial in Indianapolis, Indiana
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