Telling the Tale of the USS Indianapolis

Lately (over the past year or so), interest has been renewed in the sinking of the USS Indianapolis, probably because of the new book, In Harm’s Way, which is still only out in hardcover, and I rarely buy hardcovers because of the expense. However, the two original books on the incident, Abandon Ship! By Richard F. Newcomb (1958) and Ordeal by Sea by Thomas Helm (1963) have been reprinted in paperback.

They both tell the same story, of course. The Indianapolis was a heavy cruiser that had survived amazingly intact through the entirety of World War II, from Pearl Harbor until the summer of 1945. A ship with a proud history, she even served periodically as the Fifth Fleet flagship. Then she was chosen to transport the atomic bomb from San Francisco, where she was undergoing overhaul, to Tinian Island, where the Enola Gay and Bock’s Car would depart on their fateful journeys only days after the drop-off. After that short but vital visit, she headed north to Leyte Gulf in the Philippines.

She never arrived. At midnight on 30 July 1945, Indianapolis was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine and sank in minutes. Estimates vary on how many men actually made it into the water. Most witnesses and experts said between 800 and 900 men out of the 1200 man crew were able to make their way off the ship. There is no debate about how many men lived to be found five days later: 317.

The tragedy wasn’t that a US warship was sunk. That happened numerous times during World War II. The tragedy was the administrative errors that led to the survivors of the sinking being in the water for five days. The miracle was that they were found at all. The insult was that the CO, Capt. William McVay, III, was court-martialed afterward, the only ship's captain ever so treated because his ship was sunk.

The older books recount the story better and in far more detail than I can here.

Ordeal by Sea is a more personal account, Mr. Helm having conducted interviews with almost the entire surviving crew during the writing of his book. Abandon Ship!, which tends to be more professional in style and tone, used the official records then existent as its primary source material. Both tell the story very well, though I would recommend Ordeal by Sea as the better book.

Of course, the Navy took steps to ensure that no oversights like the one that left the men of the Indianapolis alone and helpless for so long happen again. As is often the case, something bad has to happen before somebody notices a problem. The story of the Indianapolis, though, should be an object lesson in the dangers of massive bureaucracy and the necessity of constant vigilance both up and down the chain of command.

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