USS Indianapolis Sunk: 883 Die in Shark-Filled Waters

Two Japanese torpedoes slammed into the heavy cruiser USS Indianapolis shortly after midnight on July 30, 1945, sending her to the bottom of the Philippine Sea in twelve minutes. What followed was the deadliest single-ship loss in United States Navy history and one of the most harrowing survival stories of World War II. The Indianapolis had just completed a secret mission of extraordinary importance. She had delivered key components of the atomic bomb "Little Boy" to the island of Tinian, from which a B-29 would drop it on Hiroshima seven days later. Sailing unescorted from Guam toward Leyte Gulf for training exercises, the cruiser was spotted by the Japanese submarine I-58, commanded by Lieutenant Commander Mochitsura Hashimoto. The torpedoes struck the starboard bow and midship, igniting aviation fuel and ammunition magazines. The ship listed so rapidly that many sailors below decks had no chance to escape. Captain Charles McVay III gave the order to abandon ship, but the angle of the sinking prevented many distress signals from being sent. Of the 1,195 crew members aboard, approximately 900 made it into the water alive, most without life rafts. For the next four days, the survivors drifted in the open ocean under a scorching sun, clustered in groups held together by kapok life jackets. Dehydration, exposure, and saltwater poisoning killed scores. Then the sharks came. Oceanic whitetips, drawn by the blood and thrashing, attacked repeatedly. Men hallucinated from drinking seawater, and some killed each other in delirium. By the time a Navy patrol plane spotted the survivors by chance on August 2, only 316 men remained alive. The Navy court-martialed Captain McVay, the only American skipper so treated for losing a ship in combat during the war. He was convicted of failing to zigzag, though Hashimoto himself testified that zigzagging would not have saved the ship. McVay committed suicide in 1968, and Congress exonerated him posthumously in 2000.