On 30 July 1945, the USS Indianapolis was returning from delivering parts of the first atomic bomb to Tinian Island, enroute to Leyte after leaving Guam, when disaster struck. She was traveling without an escort when she took several torpedoes from the I-58, a Japanese submarine commanded by Mochitsura Hashimoto. She suffered massive damage and began listing and sinking by the bow. Suddenly, 12 minutes after the attack, she rolled over and plunged down by the bow with her stern in the air. Of the 1196 crew members, some 300 are believed to have gone down with her. The survivors, with few lifeboats or life jackets, began a narrowing ordeal that lasted nearly three days.
Not having been reported as failing to arrive as scheduled, the Navy was unaware that she had been sunk and that the survivors were awaiting rescue. Although the Navy claimed she sent no distress call, later declassified records showed three were received but not acted on. Adrift in the water, the men suffered from hypothermia, dehydration and shark attacks. Some drank seawater which resulted in salt poisoning and rapid death.
It wasn't until 2 Aug that a PV-1, commanded by Lt. C Gwinn, spotted the survivors. The PV-1 dropped a life raft and a radio transmitter and requested support for the search and rescue effort. A PBY Catalina flying boat was sent, and while enroute she overflew the USS Doyle, whose captain decided to divert to the scene under his own authority.
The PBY began dropping life rafts but when he noticed the shark attacks, Lt Marks, the plane's commander, landed the aircraft, which was against orders, and began rescuing survivors. He picked up stragglers and lone swimmers since they were at greatest risks from sharks. Radioing for help and identifying the survivors as from the Indianapolis, the PBY, after being fully loaded, began tying survivors to the wings, saving lives but damaging the plane to the point it could not fly again.
When the Doyle arrived, she shone a bright spotlight into the sky to guide other rescuers to the scene while taking on the survivors from the PBY. Eventually other vessels arrived and continued searching until 8 Aug 1945. Of the 800 or so survivors of the sinking, 321 were rescued and 317 survived.
The Indianapolis' CO Captain Charles B. McVay III survived and was rescued; and subsequently convicted at court-martialed for failing to zig zag and thus hazarding his ship; despite the I-58 commander testifying that zig zagging would have made no difference. The Navy's orders also played a role in the tragedy by ordering him to "zigzag at his discretion, weather permitting". The I-58 commander testified visibility was fair at the time, but the court martial board ruled it good and held him accountable for not zig zagging. In addition, many of the survivors did not blame him for the sinking. Admiral Nimitz remitted his sentence and restored him to active duty, where he eventually retired as a Rear Admiral.
However, many families blamed him for their loved ones death and the guilt placed upon him resulted in his taking his life in 1968 at the age of 70. Although several hundred US ships were sunk in WWII, Captain McVay was only CO court-martialed for the sinking of his ship. In 2000, Congress pass a resolution exonerating him of guilt and in 2001 SecNav ordered his record cleared of any wrong doing.
