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Marko
Member
Username: marko
Post Number: 8
Registered: 7-2002
| | Posted on Thursday, July 11, 2002 - 4:22 am: | 
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That was a tragedy. When it comes to sea tragedies, the first thing that comes to mind is Titanic (for some reason) i know more people where involved, but other stories shouldn;t be forgoten. Has anyone read "In Harm's Way"? if you didn;t pick it up TODAY it's like 7.99$ these men where eaten buy sharks, floating in the south pacific for nearly 5 days without being discovered. They had a slow death, no food, and the fact that there was no water was another. The indianapolis was the boat that carried the components of Little boy the nuclear bomb that fell on Hiroshima. Here's a web site for the book and the ship http://www.ussindianapolisinharmsway.com the book is still a New York Bestseller, i highly recomend it.
Marko |
Steve Smith
Member
Username: steves
Post Number: 43
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Monday, July 15, 2002 - 1:39 pm: |
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You're right - Indianapolis is one of those chapters that should never be forgotten: both for the suffering of the crew and the vilification of the Captain. Interesting to read on that site about the attempts to locate her, too. Isn't Newport the guy who salvaged Liberty Bell 7? |
Marko
Member
Username: marko
Post Number: 20
Registered: 7-2002
| | Posted on Monday, July 15, 2002 - 7:16 pm: |
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Couldn't tell you. Perhaps someone here knows more. I think that she is allready discovered. The Captains name, still hasn't really been cleared up. The court martial is still in his records. The Man who sank the Indy said "even if the Captain did the zig zag patern, i would have still sunk the ship" this was after the war when he came to the States to talk to the press. The court tought that the reason indy sank was because Capt.McVay didn't follow the zig zag pattern. The book really tells a lot about the sinking and what happened after the war. by buying the book some money is also donated to the USS indy's survivors fund. |
Don Tweed
Member
Username: smokestack
Post Number: 174
Registered: 5-2002
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 17, 2002 - 8:07 pm: |
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First introduced to the Indianapolis when I saw JAWS!
The scene with Quint,Hooper and Chief Brody drinking and comparing scars that lead to Quints story has always been my favorite scene!!!
-Don |
Kritina Johnston
Member
Username: kjohnston
Post Number: 117
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 17, 2002 - 9:23 pm: |
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Curt Newport was the one who discovered the Liberty Bell 7.
A link to an article about the discovery can be found here:
http://www.cnn.com/TECH/space/9907/20/grissom.capsule.01/ |
Marko
Member
Username: marko
Post Number: 22
Registered: 7-2002
| | Posted on Thursday, July 18, 2002 - 6:32 am: |
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can anyone please tell me more about this Jaws thing that has to do with the Indy, i cant really put my finger on it. I saw the movie like 5 years ago.Why was it in the movie and why do they mention it? |
Inger Sheil
Moderator
Username: isheil
Post Number: 1178
Registered: 12-2000
| | Posted on Thursday, July 18, 2002 - 7:11 am: |
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The character Quint was an Indianapolis survivor, who related in graphic detail what happened to the men in the water (hence his antipathy for sharks).
Has anyone identified the sharks involved? The pan-tropical oceanic whitetips, perhaps? (Prob. the only reason they're not involved in more attacks on man is they're a pelagic species - most folks they come into contact with are ship or plane crash victims). Tiger sharks or bulls? |
Kritina Johnston
Member
Username: kjohnston
Post Number: 119
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Thursday, July 18, 2002 - 9:52 am: |
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There's a link over at Discovery.com which has some survivor testimony.
http://www.discovery.com/exp/indianapolis/stories.html
I've always found it interesting that it was Jaws that inspired Hunter Scott to become interested in the Indianapolis, and in getting McVey's name cleared. Who would have thought a young man could be so determined?
Life truly is strange that way...
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Iain Stuart Yardley
Member
Username: boz
Post Number: 214
Registered: 3-2002
| | Posted on Tuesday, July 30, 2002 - 9:48 am: |
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Today is the 57th anniversary of the USS Indianapolis disaster. On 30th July 1945, a Japanese submarine torpedoed the ship in the Pacific. 880 people were killed, 316 survived in shark-infested waters for 5 days. |
Peter Spielvogel
Member
Username: teitoku
Post Number: 94
Registered: 12-2005
| | Posted on Tuesday, August 15, 2006 - 5:21 am: |
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This is rather insignificant, but I'd like to know. How exactly did she sink? I've heard some report that describe her listing slightly to starboard and mostly just plunging straight by the bow like the Titanic. I've heard others where she rolls completely over to port and sinks like the Andrea Doria. Which is more correct?
April is the cruelest month...
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Cliff Mark Barry
Member
Username: cb139
Post Number: 71
Registered: 5-2002
| | Posted on Tuesday, August 15, 2006 - 9:53 pm: |
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Hi Peter,
try this link, it may answer some of your questions
http://www.ussindianapolis.org/intro.htm
Cliff |
Peter Spielvogel
Member
Username: teitoku
Post Number: 99
Registered: 12-2005
| | Posted on Tuesday, August 15, 2006 - 10:27 pm: |
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Thanks, Cliff.
April is the cruelest month...
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Tarn Stephanos
Member
Username: titanictarn
Post Number: 1930
Registered: 1-2002
| | Posted on Tuesday, May 15, 2007 - 2:22 pm: |
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I still can't understand why the captain the USS Indianapolis was blamed and court marshalled after her sinking- The Indianapolis was not given an escort. It seems to me the negligence should lie with the navy for not sending out a search party right away....Crew memebers of the Indianapolis have defended their captain over the years- who sadly committed suicide in the 1960s. Has there ever been a move to clear his name?
Does the blame for the massive deathtoll lie squarly on the captain's shoulders, or was he the Navy's scapegoat? |
Tarn Stephanos
Member
Username: titanictarn
Post Number: 1946
Registered: 1-2002
| | Posted on Wednesday, May 16, 2007 - 4:34 am: |
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Goodness, sorry for the typos...
There was a documentary on Discovery about a expedition in 2000 to find the wreck, but the ship was never located....I was unaware the Indianapolis had just delivered the A bomb.... |
Michael H. Standart
Moderator
Username: mstandart
Post Number: 12967
Registered: 12-2000
| | Posted on Wednesday, May 16, 2007 - 5:23 am: |
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An inquiry is the inevitable result of just about any sinking, even in combat. The Indianapolis was no different in this regard. For my own money, Captain McVay was as much a scapegoat as anything else, and it didn't help his case that he wasn't zig zagging at the time of the attack. There may have been an element of complacancy at work on his part, but considering how ineffectively the Japanese used their submarines overall during the war, it was understandable. The Japanese skipper was doing nothing more then his job.
I'm surprised you were unaware of the ship delivering the A-bombs to Tinian. That little detail was a signifigant part of the mystique surrounding this ship.
Cordially,
Michael H. Standart
Equal Opportunity Curmudgeon
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Tarn Stephanos
Member
Username: titanictarn
Post Number: 1947
Registered: 1-2002
| | Posted on Wednesday, May 16, 2007 - 5:29 am: |
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Hi Michael
I was aware she delivered the A bomb, but I didn't realise it occoured right before her final voyage...
It's extrordianry the US Navy called one of the Japanese submariners to testify at the court marshall.. |
Veronika Jenei
Member
Username: verocska
Post Number: 2
Registered: 11-2006
| | Posted on Monday, June 18, 2007 - 3:57 pm: |
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Hi Everyone,
I just finished reading Doung Stanton's book about the sinking of the USS Indianapolis. I truly recommend it to everyone who is interested in the ship's story. And if you would like to help to clear the name of Captain McWay the survivors have a webpage with all the relevant information about the ship: http://www.ussindianapolis.org. |
Richard Glueck
Member
Username: richard_glueck
Post Number: 230
Registered: 4-2005
| | Posted on Monday, June 18, 2007 - 4:11 pm: |
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Is the search for the wreck ongoing? |
Michael H. Standart
Moderator
Username: mstandart
Post Number: 13338
Registered: 12-2000
| | Posted on Monday, June 18, 2007 - 8:37 pm: |
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>>Is the search for the wreck ongoing?<<
Not to my knowladge. There was one serious attempt to find her but it was unsuccessful.
Cordially,
Michael H. Standart
Equal Opportunity Curmudgeon
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Veronika Jenei
Member
Username: verocska
Post Number: 3
Registered: 11-2006
| | Posted on Tuesday, June 19, 2007 - 9:39 am: |
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Are the exact coordinates of the sinking known at all? I guess it would take quite some time to find it even if someone start looking for it seriously. As far as I remember the previous expedition was fairly short and concentrated on few "promising" areas. I guess a more coordinated search would be needed like in the case of Titanic where they were systematically sweeping the seabed with sonars back and forth. |
Michael H. Standart
Moderator
Username: mstandart
Post Number: 13343
Registered: 12-2000
| | Posted on Tuesday, June 19, 2007 - 5:34 pm: |
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>>Are the exact coordinates of the sinking known at all?<<
No.
The general co-ordinates are known but even if a surviving crewman had the last known position committed to memory, this was not the day and age where GPS existed. If they had information that was really exact, I think the ship would have been located by now. This hasn't happened.
Cordially,
Michael H. Standart
Equal Opportunity Curmudgeon
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Veronika Jenei
Member
Username: verocska
Post Number: 5
Registered: 11-2006
| | Posted on Thursday, June 21, 2007 - 8:21 am: |
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I was just wondering about the coordinates because according to Doug Stanton one SOS message was sent from the Indianapolis before it sank but was ignored by responsible officers. I had the idea that it might have contained the position of the ship. |
Richard Stover
Member
Username: rlsflorida
Post Number: 14
Registered: 4-2005
| | Posted on Saturday, June 23, 2007 - 8:21 pm: |
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The problem with radioed positions is that they may be off by a little or off by a lot. (Look at titanics, and they had a lot more time to send out a position)
With the ship sinking out from under them, i'd think that while they would want to send out an sos, surviving would be a little bit higher on the list at the time.
Plus, even if the general area is known, it still can take a long time to locate the sunken vessel as the ocean floor is an awfully big place.
(i like to compare it to finding a BB somewhere in a football field. More luck than anything unless exact coordinates are known) |
Veronika Jenei
Member
Username: verocska
Post Number: 6
Registered: 11-2006
| | Posted on Sunday, June 24, 2007 - 1:19 pm: |
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I guess that is right, I just thought the ship sank really fast so drifting after sending out an SOS message would not affect the ship's position as much as if the sinking takes a longer time (like in case of Titanic). Of course, I know that the CQD position still does not guarantee the location of the wreck. Anyway, this is most probably a hypothetical discussion because even if the Navy knows that position they might have a good reason not to make it public. But I don't want to start creating theories let's stick to the objective facts, shall we. :o) |
Michael H. Standart
Moderator
Username: mstandart
Post Number: 13380
Registered: 12-2000
| | Posted on Sunday, June 24, 2007 - 3:47 pm: |
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>>even if the Navy knows that position they might have a good reason not to make it public.<<
In my opinion, the reverse is true. In the deep part of the Pacific, it's not as if anybody can get to her unless the have the same lavish and expen$ive equioment needed to explore Titanic. Further, the ship has no real secrets to hide. The Indianapolis was a Portland class heavy cruiser which was commissioned in 1932 and was already obsolete by this point in time. There was nothing made special about her just because she carried two nuclear weapons to Tinian. All she did was serve as the delivery truck.
You can see some excellant photos of the ship at http://www.navsource.org/archives/04/035/04035.htm
Cordially,
Michael H. Standart
Equal Opportunity Curmudgeon
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Richard A. Krebes
Member
Username: krebes
Post Number: 240
Registered: 11-2000
| | Posted on Sunday, June 24, 2007 - 9:55 pm: |
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The high command was at fault, pure and simple:
The I-58, the sub which sank the Indy, was KNOWN to be operating in Phillipine Sea.
But McVay was not even warned. Apologists claim that was because with so much sea to cover, it was deemed unlikely I-58's search radius and the Indy's voyage would intersect.
A grossly absurd assumption, for where but on a shipping lane would a submarine be?
Indeed, the Japanese knew full well of the "Peddie" route between Guam and Leyte which the Indy was following when she was torpedoed, as well as the others between the Mariana's and Leyte.
In fact, the I-58 was excatly athwart the Peddie track at the time Indianapolis hove into view.
Commander Hashimoto had to dive and get off the track swiftly in case he had a destroyer on the hunt approaching his boat.
What is more, another Japanese submarine had sunk a destroyer escort named the Underhill only a few days before the Indy's arrival to deliver the atomic bomb.
Survivor Harlan Twible personally told this writer in an e-mail a few years ago that the biggest blunder was not warning them about the sinking of the Underhill. Which indicated a clear and present danger from submarines of the down, but not out, Imperial Japanese Navy.
What is even more apalling is that the fact the crew were five days adrift was not even allowed into the court martial.
If only a crewman had had the gumption to spill all about what they had to endure, the Navy would have been so embarassed by the revelation, their credibility in picking on McVay would have been blown out of the water.
Alas, when survivor Dr. Lewis Haynes began to speak of the second day in the water as part of his testimony, it was cut off.
As far as searching for her goes, it would be as challenging as the search for the Bismarck, and without any ballpark sinking estimates to triangulate and operate within, indeed a case of looking for a BB on a football field.
Hopefully, though, Indianapolis will one day be found, as Bismarck and her victim the Hood were destined to be.
Richard Krebes |
Veronika Jenei
Member
Username: verocska
Post Number: 8
Registered: 11-2006
| | Posted on Monday, July 2, 2007 - 6:34 pm: |
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Michael! You wrote in a previous post that "An inquiry is the inevitable result of just about any sinking, even in combat." I am really not familiar with the traditions in the US Navy regarding this matter but as Doug Stanton wrote in his book and mentions it several times that the captain's court marshall was "highly unusual". It is really difficult to imagine that the navy investigates every single sinking in war time, but I might be wrong. |
Michael H. Standart
Moderator
Username: mstandart
Post Number: 13453
Registered: 12-2000
| | Posted on Tuesday, July 3, 2007 - 6:36 am: |
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There's a difference between an inquiry and a courts-martial. A Board of Inquiry is (Theoretically at least) a fact finding body which is established to work out the factual particulars of a casualty.
A courts-martial is a criminal proceeding which has the power to establish adjudicate guilt or innocence and to impose penalties.
They have some similarities in certain proceedures, but beyond that, are very different aninmals.
Cordially,
Michael H. Standart
Equal Opportunity Curmudgeon
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Michael H. Standart
Moderator
Username: mstandart
Post Number: 13509
Registered: 12-2000
| | Posted on Sunday, July 8, 2007 - 4:59 pm: |
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