The Sinking of the USS Indianapolis

Join Kelli as she goes over what happened to the USS Indianapolis, the ship that brought atomic bomb parts to Tinian Island so they could be assembled - and dropped - on Hiroshima. Though the ship completed her mission, making  Oppenheimer's and the Manhattan Project's work come to life in the form of a nuclear bomb, the USS Indianapolis suffered a catastrophic - and fatal - blow when it crossed paths with a Japanese submarine.

This is the story of the ship. Kelli discusses its important cargo, gives context on WWII and why the ship was in the Pacific in the first place, and then details the sinking of the USS Indianapolis - and for those of you with thalassophobia, there was something in the deep that the men needed to worry about... 

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Intro and Outro music credit: Nedric
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Sources referenced:
In Harm's Way: The Sinking of the USS Indianapolis and the Extraordinary Story of Its Survivors by Doug Stanton

Chapters

• 0:28 Intro
• 4:10 Historical Context
• 14:16 Tinian Island
• 22:23 Torpedo!
• 38:04 Floating in the Water
• 45:54 The Aftermath
• 52:55 Outro

Transcript

The Sinking of the USS Indianapolis
Intro
Welcome to A Popular History of Unpopular Things, a mostly scripted podcast that makes history more fun and accessible. My kind of history is the unpopular stuff - disease, death, and destruction. I like learning about all things bloody, gross, mysterious, and weird. 

Just a quick reminder that you can support me and the show on Patreon, just look up either A Popular History of Unpopular Things or APHOUT. And you can also now watch episodes on YouTube - so go subscribe to my channel there! Links for both the Patreon and YouTube are in the description.

In mid-July 1945, the USS Indianapolis was sent on a top-secret mission. The destination? Tinian Island, which is near Guam, and about 1,500 miles South Southeast of Tokyo. The mission? To deliver secret cargo that most men on the ship didn’t know contained enriched uranium and other parts necessary to build the atomic bomb. More specifically, the one we eventually dropped on Hiroshima on August 6th, 1945 - Little Boy. If you’re not already a history or WWII buff, then this might sound familiar to you if you watched Oppenheimer, the Christopher Nolan biopic that came out last year starring Cillian Murphy. A brilliant film - just, long.

The USS Indianapolis delivered her cargo successfully on July 26th. Once she left Tinian Island, en route to her next mission, she was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine. But what makes this story so fascinating, other than the top-secret nuclear bomb mission, the context of WWII, and other cool war stuff - is the sinking itself.

Because not only did several hundred men die in the initial explosion, but the ship itself rolled over, the bow pointed nose first into the depths, and the whole thing sank - in some of the deepest waters on our planet. Some men went down with the ship, but most were left adrift in the vastness of the Pacific Ocean, more than 350 miles away from the closest land. But they would soon have more to worry about than just exhaustion and dehydration. Of the 1,195 men who sailed on the Indianapolis, only 317 survived.

Today’s episode is a classic WWII tale of heroism and bravery, but it’s also a story that involves explosions, ships, and lots of death. My favorite! Plus, it’s been a while since I’ve given you a good ole sea story, aye? I think the last one was… let me think… the Halifax Explosion? And come to think of it, the Halifax Explosion was referenced in Oppenheimer! That was cool to see. So we’ll first work through the historical context - something we usually do at the beginning of each APHOUT episode - to get a good understanding of why the USS Indianapolis was bringing atomic bomb parts and enriched uranium to Tinian Island, so we know why the ship was in Pacific waters. Then, we’ll take a look at the story leading up to the event itself before going over the sinking and the chaos that ensued. I then want to talk briefly about the aftermath - the fallout from one of the worst naval disasters in US history.

So let’s get started!

Historical Context
The Captain of the USS Indianapolis in 1945, Captain Charles McVay, was told on July 15th, 1945, to get his ship and crew ready, then sail to the shipyard at Hunter’s Point in San Francisco. There, he’d receive a secret mission - which we know was the mission to deliver enriched uranium and atomic weapon parts to Tinian Island. But McVay and many of his crew didn’t know the plan - they just assumed they were heading to Japan to join the fight.

The whole context of the sinking of the USS Indianapolis takes place towards the tail end of WWII. By July 1945, of the three main axis powers of WWII - Germany, Italy, and Japan - only Japan was left. 

Italy was the first of the three to surrender and it happened in late September 1943; their leader, Benito Mussolini, had been removed from power and his fascist state was crumbling. He was eventually executed in April 1945. The Italian General who was acting as Italy’s leader, negotiated with General Eisenhower - yes the same Eisenhower who later became an American President - for a conditional surrender. Italy allowed allied powers to cross through Italian lands so they could continue fighting against the other Axis power - Germany. That was in late 1943.

This certainly helped the Allies, and after more fighting, Germany surrendered in May 1945. A little more than a week after their Nazi leader, Adolf Hitler, committed suicide. It was an unconditional surrender, and they had to give up control of their country to the Allied powers - you may remember some of this if you studied the Cold War, right? Germany was eventually split into East and West Germany. East Germany was run by the communist Soviet Union, and West Germany was controlled by the Americans, the Brits, and the French until they formally ended military occupation in 1955. The two halves of Germany were only reunited in 1990 with the collapse of the Soviet Union. But that’s a story for another day.

So in May 1945, two of the three powers had surrendered. The European campaign was over, but Japan showed no signs of giving up.

Japan in the years leading up to and including WWII was an Empire, meaning it had engaged in territorial expansion and taken over other nations - that’s just what empires do. At its height, Japan had taken control of a good chunk of East and Southeast Asia, as well as some Pacific Islands. They occupied Korea (and its just Korea at this point, by the way, it hadn’t yet split into north and south), Taiwan, Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, some smaller islands in the Pacific, and even parts of China. So, a pretty big Empire.

Small side tangent on China and Japan during WWII, because I did always enjoyed teaching this in my world history classes. China was one of the Allied powers in WWII. I know we typically only think about the US, the UK, France, and the Soviet Union… but China was a major part of it as well. China was actually in the midst of its own Civil War when WWII broke out with Japan - the Nationalist Party in control of China at the time, run by Chiang Kai-Shek, was trying to keep the Communist uprising, led by Mao Zedong, at bay. They had been fighting since 1927. The Civil War paused, kinda, sorta, from 1937 until 1945. After WWII ended, the Civil War resumed, and the Communists ended up winning and taking control in 1949. And China remains Communist today, as most of us know. But it’s worth remembering that China and Japan have had major beef, historically, and that includes WWII. So while we usually just think about WWII Japan as an American enemy, they were also fighting a massive front in China that was a stalemate; neither power was winning, and Japan was expending a lot of resources fighting the Chinese. Which will come into play in this story.

Now the Japanese Empire was growing - quickly. Less than 100 years before the beginning of WWII in East Asia, which again was 1937, Japan was a relatively isolated country - it was only in 1853, with the arrival of an American squadron, that Japan opened up its borders. Prior to this, Japan had no real power to speak of, as they purposefully isolated themselves to stay out of the European imperialistic mess that was the 17th through 19th centuries, that’s the 1600s to 1800s. But with the American arrival in 1853, Japan saw a modern, industrial future. With US and European support, Japan rapidly transformed from a small, isolated, weak nation into an industrial, imperial powerhouse. In less than 100 years.

A bit threatened by this, the US sanctioned Japan. You see, to grow so rapidly like this you need resources! And Japan is a pretty tiny island, relatively speaking. So to industrialize, modernize, and grow - just like the Americans and Europeans did during their industrial revolution - Japan needed resources. So they looked to their mentors. How did Europe and the US get rubber, oil, and other resources in the age of industrialization? Well - they turned to imperialism. They conquered other nations and took their land, labor, and resources - most notoriously, in Africa. And speaking of - African imperialism is absolutely going to be a topic one of these days. Just not today.

Japan did the exact same thing. They engaged in imperialism. And all of the nations they conquered and colonized became sources of land, labor, and resources. 

However, the West didn’t want this to happen. They felt threatened by Japan’s rapid growth. So they did what they could to stop Japan - they levied an embargo. Essentially, the US cut off Japan’s access to the resources they’d need to continue growing their empire and accumulate power, like access to oil. Japanese bank accounts in the US were frozen. American exports to Japan stopped. It was a serious problem for Japanese expansion.

Which, by the way, was the point. The US didn’t want Japan to continue its imperial expansion, and they also wanted Japan to stop encroaching on China, an American ally at the time. Did it work? Well, I guess it did, because Japan felt the need to strike back against the Americans.

And this was the attack on Pearl Harbor - December 7th, 1941. A date, FDR said, which will live in infamy. As a result of the attack on Pearl Harbor, the growing tensions between the US and Japan, and also the fact that our allies in Europe had been fighting against Italy and Germany - the US joined the war.

Now chronologically in our main story, it’s the summer of 1945. Italy and Germany have already lost and surrendered. But not Japan. And it didn’t look like they were going to surrender, so the US had a plan.

They would unleash a terrible new weapon. The Atomic Bomb.

Beginning in 1942, the Manhattan Project was secretly developing nuclear weapons. I’m not going to go too in-depth here, because I don’t want this whole episode to be me geeking out over nuclear weapons and energy. You can go listen to my episode on the Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster, or the Radium Girls, for more information on all things atomic. 

But the Manhattan Project, popularized again recently with the film Oppenheimer, oversaw the development of the atomic bomb. Two different types, actually. The first ever atomic weapon was tested on July 16, 1945 - a plutonium bomb detonated south of Los Alamos, New Mexico. Codename Trinity.  And this was one day after Captain McVay was sent to Hunter’s Point to learn that he and his ship, the USS Indianapolis, would be instrumental in dropping an atomic bomb on Japan. Something the US at this point had decided would be the only way to get stubborn Japan to surrender to the allied powers and end WWII once and for all.

Tinian Island
As that Trinity nuclear test was happening over in New Mexico, Captain McVay received a telegram, which read, quote, “Indianapolis under orders of commander in chief and must not be diverted from its mission for any reason.” End quote. 

After Trinity, Truman knew the nukes worked, so he moved forward with plans to build the bombs and drop them on Japan. By this point, McVay had already gotten his orders from Hunters Point, but they were sealed in an envelope and he was told not to read them until they had cleared land. But in the meantime, he told his officers, and again I’m quoting - “Gentlemen, our mission is secret. I cannot tell you the mission, but every hour we save will shorten the war by that much.” End quote.

The all-important cargo was loaded on board the ship - crates stacked in the port hangar deck, sealed in red wax to prevent tampering. If you watched Oppenheimer, it's those crates that are loaded up and taken out of Los Alamos after the successful Trinity test. Marines on board the Indianapolis were told to stand guard over the cargo, but they didn’t know what was inside. Was it live ammunition to help in the war against Japan? Gold? They were left to speculate. But we know it was the components that were later used to build the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima on August 6th - nicknamed Little Boy. The one dropped on Nagasaki, three days after the first was dropped on Hiroshima, was called Fat Man. 

The enriched uranium, uranium-235, was kept separate from the bomb parts in a sealed black canister. But what’s cool about the uranium is that it was approximately half of the entire US stock. Again, for more info on all things atomic, go listen to my episodes on The Radium Girls or The Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster. I go in-depth into things like radioactive isotopes, what the 235 means, all that good stuff. And in Chernobyl I break down how nuclear fission works! But anyways, this amount of uranium was precious, valued at around $300 million at the time, which in today’s economy, accounting for inflation, would be over 5 billion. So they’ve got bomb parts and half of the US’s stock of uranium on board this ship, heading for Tinian Island.

As the Indianapolis set sail, President Truman and Winston Churchill were getting ready to deliver the Potsdam Declaration - a warning to Japan to essentially surrender or die. Which Japan refused to do. So all of the pieces were in place - they tested the bomb and it worked, they successfully got all the composite parts and the uranium on board a ship heading to Tinian Island, and they gave Japan one last chance to stand down (which, again, they refused). The operation was a go.

Once the Indianapolis was out at sea, with San Francisco fading quickly behind them, McVay opened up his orders and read them for the first time - “Men, this is a speed run to the island of Tinian, where we are to deliver the cargo. We can’t lose time. All hands be sharp. That is all.” 

And boy did McVay take those orders seriously. It only took the USS Indianapolis 74.5 hours to travel approximately 2,400 miles to Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, which is an average of 33 land miles per hour, or 29 knots per hour. And this is a record speed, by the way, and it’s still unbroken to this day. At Pearl Harbor, they refueled, dropped off some passengers, and went right back to sailing five hours later. McVay was on a mission to race to Tinian Island - and he was serious about completing it. There was another 3,300 miles to go beyond Pearl Harbor. And that leg of the trip only took them 6 days.

On July 26th, McVay and the Indianapolis sailed into Tinian Island. It took them only ten days to go from San Francisco to Tinian Island, a total sailing distance of approximately 5,000 miles. That’s… pretty incredible. 

The uranium and bomb parts were offloaded successfully, and the Indianapolis had completed its mission. Long story short and simplified on the nukes - scientists and engineers built several casings and housings for the atomic bomb, did some tests, and when they were satisfied with the final weapon, loaded it into the Enola Gay, a Boeing B-29 Superfortress bomber, and dropped on its target - Hiroshima.

But that’s not why we’re here today. We’re here to talk about the USS Indianapolis.

Once it had delivered the cargo, the Indianapolis rejoined the war effort against Japan. Its new orders were to sail to Guam, about 120 miles south of Tinian Island. There, McVay would report to the naval base and get his orders to head to Leyte, an island due West in the Philippines, where it would join the Pacific Fleet and prepare for a naval invasion of Japan. Okay, great.

Now we know that there wasn’t likely to be a naval invasion of Japan, since the nuclear bomb was being assembled and tested at Tinian, right? But most people didn’t know that at the time - remember that it was a top-secret mission. Operation Centerboard, it was called. So while a select few were preparing to drop a nuke on Hiroshima, the rest of the navy and the Pacific fleet were preparing to deploy to Japan to take the island.

McVay was now focused on this impending naval invasion - he may have transported the bomb parts and enriched uranium, but he wasn’t privy to what was in his cargo or anything about the nukes. He was instead worried that his crew, which was comprised of some newer sailors, wouldn’t be ready in time.  McVay was eager to get to Leyte so he would have time to prepare his men and get them some proper training. After consulting with his superiors, it was decided the Indianapolis would leave on Saturday, July 28th for Leyte, some 1,300 miles away. By going the standard speed of 15.7 knots, he would arrive off Leyte on Tuesday, July 31st.

A few notes on this for later - by going from Guam to the Philippines, the Indianapolis would cross from the Marianas Sea Frontier to the Philippines Sea Frontier - basically, going from one region to another in terms of how the US controlled things. Different men controlled the different regions - Admiral Nimitz controlled the Pacific fleet from Guam, while General MacArthur controlled the Army and Air Force from the Philippines. This means that command in the Pacific was divided between two men - and it was a bit of a political struggle. What this means for our story is that communication between the two regions was a bit… delayed. And sometimes not accurate. 

As Doug Stanton notes in his incredible book, called In Harm’s Way, quote, 
“...Friction between the two military titans [Nimitz and MacArthur] …existed. Information about a ship’s whereabouts, or other crucial facts, sometimes got lost in the fallout. This could mean trouble for the Indianapolis, which sometimes relied on the presence of carefully timed escorts to protect her from enemy submarines and spirit her out of danger.” End quote.

As it turns out, this was a valid fear, because this is exactly what happened.

Torpedo!
The Indianapolis was a heavy cruiser, not a destroyer. Typically in WWII, destroyers were the ships with the sonar gear required to detect submarines. The Indianapolis didn’t have this stuff. To his credit, Captain McVay requested an escort from Guam to Leyte just in case, but his request was denied - after all, Guam and Leyte weren’t that close to Japan, so there shouldn’t be any Japanese submarines around. Besides, as McVay was told, all battle-ready destroyers were deployed and assisting B-29 bomber raids on Japan. 

This area was called the “backwater;” essentially, an area away from the main action, the front lines. The waters around Japan? That’s where the fighting was happening. Not all the way down south between Guam and the Philippines. Or so they thought.

But regardless, McVay had orders to head to Leyte, and he would do so alone. Going from one region to another, where communication was notoriously lacking, without sonar gear to detect submarines.

And speaking of a lack of communication, McVay was not given the full report when he looked over the intelligence of the area. He was not told that only three days earlier, a Japanese submarine torpedoed and sank the USS Underhill, a Destroyer escort, while heading to Leyte, following a similar route to the one the Indianapolis was about to take.

McVay was also not told that a group of Japanese submarines was operating in this so-called backwater, specifically the route that McVay was ordered to sail to get to Leyte. The men who gave McVay his mission had this intelligence, but they didn’t pass the information along, assuming that McVay would get it later from someone else. But as you can probably guess by this point, McVay was never told. And his ship never made it to Leyte.

Late in the night on Sunday, July 29th, the Indianapolis was cruising comfortably. Normally, US Navy ships in WWII would sail in a zigzag pattern to avoid being hit (though arguably it didn’t make much of a difference). But McVay ordered the ship to just sail straight. After all, the intelligence he had was that this route was safe, far away from the front lines, in the backwaters, far from Japanese submarines. The ship was also in what Doug Stanton refers to as a relaxed state of sailing. Quote:
“The Indianapolis was traveling in what was called “yoke-modified” position. The most secure position was known as Zed, which meant that all hatches and doors had been dogged - sealed off - making the compartments impermeable. “Yoke-modified” described a more relaxed state of sailing and was acceptable in waters where there was little perceived threat of enemy attack. It left the ship’s interior spaces dangerously vulnerable. With the hatches opened, the otherwise watertight compartments could be breached in seconds.” End quote. 

And again, McVay was sailing with faulty intelligence, assuming that it was all quiet on this Eastern front. 300 boys were sleeping on the top deck, and temperatures inside the ship were well above 95 degrees Fahrenheit in some areas - that’s 35 degrees Celcius. No wonder the hatches and doors were opened! The engine room itself could get up to 120 degrees Fahrenheit; almost 49 degrees Celsius. That’s, like, the high temperature over in Death Valley during the summer. You know, the hottest place on earth.

With everything calm and quiet, McVay went to sleep at 11 pm. 

Just after midnight on Monday, July 30, the Japanese submarine I-58, captained by Commander Mochitsura Hashimoto, fired six Type-95 torpedoes. Each torpedo carried approximately 1,200 pounds of explosives - enough to take out a city block. And two of them hit the Indianapolis

The first torpedo hit the forward starboard, which is the right side of the ship. Big chunks of the bow of the ship, the front of the ship, were blown up into the air. A gas tank was hit, too, spilling 3,500 gallons of high-octane plane fuel, which of course caught on fire and burned within the belly of the ship. Any men sleeping on deck near the bow were vaporized, *snap*, just like that, in the explosion. Others nearby were burned beyond recognition until they died from their injuries. It’s estimated that around 100 men were killed in this initial blast.

The second torpedo hit midship, just below the bridge. It also hit the boiler room.

With the bow gone - the whole front of the ship, right? - the Indianapolis started taking on water - quickly. The fires burning within the starboard compartments quickly spread to the rest of the ship, so the port side (that’s the left) and the stern (the back of the ship) were soon on fire as well. The ship was listing, which means tilting, to the starboard side, which makes sense as this was the side that was hit and taking on water. In a few minutes, the ship would sink. There wasn’t much time to figure out what to do, and all lines of communication in the bow of the ship were destroyed anyway, so orders couldn’t be relayed to the engine room or to the men who would soon be trapped below.

McVay was, of course, violently jostled awake by the first torpedo strike. He hadn’t been through a torpedo hit before, but he knew what he needed to do - assess the damage, take care of the damage, and engage the enemy. What should have happened was the engines should have been shut off to prevent more water from coming in. But since communication was down, there was no way to relay that information to the engine room. Instead, the guy down there cranked the remaining propeller to go as fast as possible - to get away from the threat was the justification. 

McVay went to the bridge to assess the damage, but by this point, there wasn’t much to be done anyway - they couldn’t adequately fight the fires because the water mains were destroyed. To help with the listing, the ship tilting on one side, they attempted to put more water in the ballast on the port side, the left side, but it wasn’t making much of a difference. The ship was taking on too much water.

McVay then moved to put out a distress signal - by radioing their latitude and longitude - their position, right? - they could get help from any destroyers or any ships in the area - the problem, though, was that the radio was seemingly destroyed, so McVay didn’t know if it would work. 

The Indianapolis, still plowing ahead at 12 knots, which is 14 land miles per hour, was listing more and more as it kept taking on water. Since there was no means of communicating with the engine room, there was no way for McVay to get the ship to stop. I love how Stanton puts it; quote: “With her bow torn off, the front of the ship resembled a mangled snout rooting ahead through the sea, gulping water.” End quote.

For the men stuck below deck, they faced a deadly situation - water was pouring into the ship, so they climbed up ladders to ascend, escaping the flood. But many, as they did so, came across fires raging in the decks above them. Drown, or burn? Those on the starboard side were also dealing with the ship listing, making it harder and harder for them to escape as the rooms kept tilting. The hole in the middle of the starboard side, coupled with the missing bow in the front, meant that the ship was doomed-  it was quickly turning over, with its missing nose pointing towards the ocean floor.

McVay faced a crucial decision. Should he make the call to abandon ship? If the Indianapolis was salvageable and he abandoned her, he would be court-martialed. So, if McVay thought the ship should still sail, he couldn’t leave it. He sent his men to survey the damages, but they returned telling him that it was only getting worse, and the ship was definitely going down. McVay gave the orders to abandon ship, only 8 minutes after the torpedoes hit it.

The orders to abandon ship should have gone through the PA system. Like when you’re sitting in your classroom at school and there’s an announcement on the loudspeaker. But remember, the communications systems were destroyed, so even though McVay made the decision, not everyone would be told. They did their best to spread the word, cupping their hands together in front of their mouth and yelling the orders as loudly as possible. Boys were jumping off the ship, in a pure chaotic fashion. I always picture it like that scene in Titanic with people jumping off wherever and however they can. I can only assume that even the most grizzled sailors in a moment like this would panic, right? But consider that many of these boys were new sailors, and barely had any proper training to begin with - that’s why they were heading to Leyte in the first place!

Of the 35 life rafts on board, only about 12 made it off the ship. There weren’t enough survival provisions on them, either. There were plenty of lifejackets, though, as a mistaken double-order had been placed on board back in San Francisco. So at least there was that. But not all the boys remembered to put one on before leaping off the decks into the black waters below - remember, it’s pure chaos at this point, right? The ship is listing, it’s on fire, they can hear the creaking and groaning of metal collapsing in on itself, and many were baby sailors with no training. So Captain McVay watched as a bunch of his men jumped overboard without a lifejacket, despite him yelling to do so.

Those who jumped overboard on the port side, the left side, the side not hit with torpedoes, found themselves in an ocean without any lifesaving equipment. Which makes sense; if the ship is listing to starboard, to the right, then all the stuff would fall out on that side. Those who jumped into the waters off the starboard side worked quickly to gather whatever provisions were bobbing around in the water before the engulfed Indianapolis rolled over on top of them. But in addition to that threat, consider that the whole ship was surrounded in not just water, but fuel that was leaking into the water. A highly flammable, sticky, and problematic situation for the hundreds of men now bobbing around in in, some without life jackets.

Before long, the bow of the ship was pointing directly at the sea floor, and several eyewitness accounts from survivors noted that the stern, the rear of the ship, was pointing straight up at the sky. And not everyone had jumped at this point - some of the boys were standing on the port side propellors, riding the ship down into the sea.

Now actually, some radioed distress signals did make it out, giving the Indianapolis’ latitude and longitude. They were only able to send the message for about 2 minutes, but it was received by several people. A radio shack (not the store) on Leyte, still 650 miles away to the west, received it. The sailor on duty brought it to the attention of Commodore Jacob Jacobson - yes that’s his name - who was the ranking officer at the base. The Commodore was dismissive and made no attempt to either confirm or deny whether or not it was a real SOS.

A different radio shack (again not the store) got the message too, and this message was received with the proper urgency, and an officer on duty quickly sent two navy tugboats from the Leyte harbor. BUT - the tugboats were sent without the knowledge of the Commodore there, Commodore Gillette. When Gillette found out, he recalled the tugboats despite the fact they were already one-third of the way there.

A third message was received aboard a landing craft at Leyte, and the sailor at the radio shack sent along the message, but this too was ignored.

Let me explain why. The standard operating procedure here was that if messages couldn’t be confirmed with a reply, they were assumed to be pranks. If they didn’t get a reply, they ignored it. Does anyone else see the glaring problem here? The huge red flag? What if the ship CAN’T reply?

And I do understand why - we were at war with Japan, this could be a trap or a hoax, it could divert ships around to be targeted… The Japanese had sent out fake distress calls, so this could have been another trick. 

Which is very unfortunate for the sinking USS Indianapolis.

Captain McVay, as the Indianapolis was sinking, debated going down with his ship. He didn’t want to think about the survivor’s guilt he’d feel if he actually, somehow, made it out alive. He also didn’t want to think about the impending trial that would no doubt happen if he survived - he feared being found at fault for what happened, even though it happened so quickly he had no idea what was going on. But the decision on whether or not to flee or sink with his ship was made for him - a wave pushed him off the deck, and he narrowly avoided being smacked with the ship’s propellor as it came down behind him. Shortly after McVay fell into the water, he turned around to see what was left of his ship, but the Indianapolis was gone.

It’s estimated that 300 men died on the ship, and around 900 made it off. Many of those 900 watched as the ship stood straight up in the air, stern pointing at the sky, slowly sinking bow- or nose-first down into the water. The only thing left was the debris on the surface, and the men bobbing along with it. From that first torpedo hit, it only took 12 minutes for the ship to disappear. 

Floating in the Water
So now what? You’ve got 900-odd men floating in the ocean, roughly halfway between Guam and Leyte - 650 miles away from either place. Clusters of the men banded together in small groups - some in lifeboats, some just floating with the lifejackets on - but those groups were becoming increasingly pulled apart by waves and currents. The winds were pushing them along, but at the rate they were drifting, it would be weeks before they hit any land. Not that they knew that, anyway. But they would die from dehydration before that happened. And besides, most of them were just boys, remember? They were brand new sailors and weren’t trained to fight in war, let alone ready to survive a torpedo attack in the middle of the Pacific.

The only hope they clung to was that when the Indianapolis failed to show up at Leyte, a search party would be sent out along their route. But remember before when I mentioned communication problems? Well, sadly, it was written down at the harbor in Leyte that the Indianapolis had arrived without incident, despite nobody actually checking. At the same time, the group responsible for tracking back in Guam did the same. They just assumed the Indianapolis arrived, even though in reality it was sitting on the sea floor. Only one man actually noticed that the Indianapolis had not arrived - Lieutenant Gibson, who was in charge of new arrivals at the harbor. He should have told a superior officer. But instead, he made a note that it was, quote, “overdue.” He made the assumption it was diverted to complete another mission. So nobody went looking for them.

The survivors continued floating and slowly drifting, not knowing whether they’d live or die, surrounded by bodies and oil slicks and debris, waiting for a rescue that they didn’t know would come. But things were about to get worse - the commotion had brought in groups of top ocean predators. Sharks.

Makos, Tigers, White-Tips, and Blue Sharks came up from the depths, probing around the men and wreckage for any food. Some of the boys were lying in nets, or bobbing in life vests, or sprawled out on makeshift rafts. And soon enough, they started to feel the sharks bumping against their legs from below. 

One survivor, seaman first class Gus Kay, recalled that, quote, 
“finally [the sharks] attacked - they pulled guys right out of the water. We thrashed, trying to keep ‘em away from us, but they came right into the group. Took the net and everything right up into the air. Tore guys’ limbs off. The water was bloody.” End quote.

Though the sharks had been around from the get-go, they had mostly taken the dead bodies. But two days into the ordeal, they started attacking the living.

Now days after being in the water, dehydration was getting to the boys. And despite knowing the risks, they started to consume seawater. Perhaps they didn’t consider the risks; they were delirious with hunger, with thirst, were sunburned, terrified of shark attacks, assuming the worst at every second of the day… and they turned to drinking seawater to at least feel some relief. And if you didn’t already know this - DO NOT DRINK SALTWATER. It dehydrates you even faster, and it’ll kill you.

The ones who drank seawater started to develop hypernatremia - a rise in salt levels in the body. They foamed at the mouth. They started having seizures. Their lips turned blue. Their brains were, for lack of a better way of explaining it, short-circuiting. Some fell into a coma, and many died. And don’t forget, you’ve still got the sharks circling. 

It’s hard to know how many were killed by sharks; I’ve seen estimates ranging from a few dozen to around 200; Doug Stanton puts it around 200 in the book, though other sources think it was more likely around 100-150.

But it got worse from there, if you can believe it. The mental anguish and severe dehydration took a toll on the boys, and they started to lose their minds. Doug Stanton does a good job explaining this. Quote:
“In the very early hours of Wednesday morning, the boys started killing one another. Haynes [the chief medical officer] had spent the night listening to the sounds of his shivering and chattering teeth. Then, from somewhere not far off he heard a shout: ‘There’s a Jap here, he’s trying to kill me. Get [him]!’

Haynes, swimming up to the pandemonium, saw boys with knives blindly stabbing at [their] buddies... Those unable to punch or stab rose up and tried to drown the closest breathing thing they could find. One sailor gouged out another’s eyes with his fingers.

Hypothermia, dehydration, hypernatremia, the onset of starvation - Haynes knew what was turning the minds of these boys inside out. In a matter of ten minutes, an estimated fifty boys were killed.” End quote.

And here’s a quote from Private First Class Giles McCoy of the Marine Corps. Quote: 
“The worst part was giving up my life, accepting that I was going to die - it wasn’t the sharks, and it wasn’t seeing your buddies die. It was when you realized you’re going to die. And we were young men, healthy men. All of a sudden, there’s no change, we can’t make it. They’ve forgotten us. We can’t last out here forever - we’re gonna die.” End quote.

On Thursday, August 2, 4 days after the Indianapolis sank, a plane flew overhead and noticed what looked like an oil slick. When it came down closer to check it out, the pilot saw men waving their hands up at him. Not knowing if they were enemies or friendlies, the plane did another loop, and decided that regardless, they were men who needed saving. Food, water, lifejackets, and other survival gear was dropped, though it certainly wasn’t enough, and some of the food and water cans burst on impact with the water.

The pilot sent a radio message to search and rescue HQ on Peleliu, an island that’s part of today’s Palau, south of where the wreckage went down. And this, four days later, was the first report of what happened to the Indianapolis, even though there were others along the way who received the SOS message. Finally, the message was properly received, and 2 destroyers were sent as part of one of the largest search and rescue operations in US naval history. And in the end, of the 1,195 men on board the Indianapolis, only 321 survived the torpedoing and the ensuing battle for survival against sharks and delirium. Four more died in hospital after being rescued, bringing the total survivors to only 317 men. 

Private McCoy wondered, quote, “How many were left out there and just watched those ships and planes [disappear] from sight?” What an incredibly sad, heartbreaking thought.


The Aftermath
The last search and rescue patrols were conducted on August 5th. The next day, August 6th, was the day the US dropped Little Boy on Hiroshima - made possible by the Indianapolis’ original mission. It had brought those weapons parts and uranium to Tinian Island, but upon completion of the mission, faced a horrible fate. The people of Japan, too, suffered from the nuclear attack. Two days after Hiroshima, Russia declared war on Japan, opening up a third front to the north. Remember that China was fighting Japan from the West, and the US was approaching from the East. A day after Russia declared war, a second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. Six days later, on August 15th, Japan announced its surrender.

But while the world was watching, with horror, the destructive power of nukes, McVay was dealing with his own crisis - inquiries into what happened to the USS Indianapolis, and whether he, as Captain, was at fault. McVay told Private McCoy, quote, “You know what? I think they’re going to put it to me.” End quote. And unfortunately, he was right.

The court blamed McVay for the sinking as well as the ensuing deaths on two things - first, his failure to zigzag. Second, his failure to send out a distress message.

On that second point - a distress signal did get out! But because of the state of the ship, McVay testified that he doubted a message got out in time. The court believed him, even though he was wrong. McVay was court-martialed, which is when one is accused of breaking military law. Before the trial, though, they omitted the charge about the distress signal. Instead, they charged him with failure to abandon ship in a timely manner. Which of course is ridiculous because it went down so quickly - in just 12 minutes.

In response, McVay told a news reporter that, quote, “I was in command of the ship and I am responsible for its fate. I hope they make their decisions soon, and do what they want with me.” End quote.

You know what wasn’t questioned by a court? Why 900 men were left to float alongside the wreckage of their downed ship for 5 days in an ocean surrounded by sharks, despite the distress signal getting out successfully. In other words, the Navy’s conduct was not questioned. Just McVay’s.

He was the first captain in US history court-martialed for losing his ship as a result of an act of war.

You know what’s wild, though? The court flew in Commander Hashimoto - you know, the one who sank the Indianapolis. They wanted to find out whether McVay’s decision not to zigzag was the reason for being targeted. Stanton notes in his book, quote, 
“[Hashimoto] proceeded to embarrass the Navy by explaining that zigzagging would have made ‘no change in [the] method in firing the torpedoes.’ He would have sunk the Indianapolis no matter what course she was on.” End quote.

Take that, Navy. That’s what you get for trying to pin the sinking of a torpedoed ship on its captain. I just think it’s wild that they flew in the guy who sank it to testify that it wasn’t really McVay’s fault. 

But that apparently didn’t matter, because McVay was convicted of ‘hazarding his ship by failing to zigzag.’ He was acquitted of the second charge, failure to abandon ship in a timely manner. He was demoted in rank, which would in essence keep him from becoming an Admiral, something he had previously dreamed of obtaining. His military career was over.

And worse than that, he was hounded by the families of those who died for the rest of his life. One piece of hate mail stated, quote, “Merry Christmas! Our family’s holiday would be a lot merrier if you hadn’t killed my son.” End quote.

On November 6, 1968, tormented by grief and wracked with guilt, burdened by the continuous letters blaming him for the deaths of those 900+ men who never returned from war, Captain Charles McVay committed suicide.

28 years later, in 1996, a request was filed by the survivors of the USS Indianapolis to re-investigate things, hoping to absolve Captain McVay of the charges placed against him. The response? Quote: 
“The conclusion reached is that Captain McVay’s court-martial was legally sound; no injustice has been done, and remedial action is not warranted.” End quote. 

Despite this blow, the survivors continued to work hard to clear their captain’s name. They didn’t blame him - they loved him. And they knew he did everything he could with the information he had. Remember that McVay wasn’t given all the intelligence - that there were Japanese submarines in the area. So, operating under the information given to him by the institution he had worked for his entire life, he trusted in what he knew and sailed for Leyte. He did everything he could to get a message out, even though his ship was on fire, taking on water, and actively sinking, but that message was ignored. The harbor masters assumed the ship arrived even though it didn’t, and they would likely have all perished if it weren’t for a lucky plane flying overhead. 

In a September 1999 hearing, Private McCoy railed against the navy admirals in attendance that, quote, “Captain McVay’s honor has been violated. You’re sitting here telling me Captain McVay hazarded our ship by failing to zigzag? I want to tell you, our ship was hazarded long before Captain McVay [left port].” End quote.

On October 12, 2000, Congress finally exonerated McVay. The conviction wasn’t expunged from his record, though, and survivors continued to fight for that eventuality. And it didn’t take long - on July 13, 2001, 56 years after the Indianapolis sank, the Navy finally exonerated McVay. Secretary of the Navy Gordon England noted that, quote, 
“The American people should now recognize Captain McVay’s lack of culpability for the tragic loss of the USS Indianapolis and the lives of the men who died as a result of the sinking of that vessel. Captain McVay’s military record should now reflect that he is exonerated for the loss of the USS Indianapolis and so many of her crew.” 

Outro
Thanks for joining me for this episode of A Popular History of Unpopular Things. My name is Kelli Beard, and I hope you’ve enjoyed the story of The Sinking of the USS Indianapolis. Thank you for supporting my podcast, and if you haven’t already checked out my other episodes, go have a listen!

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