The USS Indianapolis was a London Naval Treaty era Portland class heavy cruiser that was commissioned on November 15, 1932, in Camden, New Jersey. She saw combat in both the Atlantic and the Pacific but was more active in the Pacific. The USS Indianapolis actually participated in operations in the Aleutian Islands in Alaska, The Marshall and Marina Islands, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa. Her Final mission was to deliver parts of the first nuclear bomb to an airfield on the island of Tinian, and she was sunk on her way back to Leyte.
She sat at the bottom of the ocean missing until August 18, 2017, when the research vessel RV Petrel located wreckage from Indianapolis some 5,500 meters below the surface, resting on the floor in the underwater mountain ranges of the North Philippine Sea. As of April 2025, there is only one remaining crew member alive from the USS Indianapolis.
THE SINKING AND THE AFTERMATH
Imagine being a sailor on board the USS Indianapolis in the Pacific on the night of July 30th, 1945, in the final months of World War Two. You are resting in your sleeping quarters when, all of a sudden, an explosion from a Japanese torpedo rocks the ship. More than likely, you would not have survived until rescue. While only about 330 of her crew members went down with the ship, out of over 1000 sailors aboard the ship, only 316 survived long enough to be rescued. The rescue took 5 days.
The cause of the delay in the rescue was a combination of secrecy and incompetence. The Indianapolis was returning from a top-secret mission to deliver parts of the first nuclear bomb to Tinian. However, during her return, she was struck by two Japanese torpedoes and was sunk. The surviving crew then had to survive a combination of shark attacks, starvation, dehydration, and the elements.
You may be asking how incompetence comes into play; well, for that, you would have to go all the way back to the USA, where the US failed to realize that the ship was missing until it never arrived at port, And the rescue was delayed until the survivors were spotted by an aircraft that was on a routine patrol.
The aftermath of the sinking was tragic, Not only due to the loss of life but also because of Captain Charles McVay III’s unjust court-martial; he was court-martialed for “failing to zigzag,” a maneuver used to avoid being targeted by torpedoes. This court martial was seen as a way for the navy to cover up its mistake. As a result, Captain McVay decided to take his own life in 1968; it’s suspected that this happened as a result of the court martial in combination with the guilt and emotional strain he felt over the loss of his crew.
Thankfully Captain McVay was posthumously exonerated in 2000 after testimony from survivors, new reports, and the testimony of Mochitsura Hashimoto, the captain of the I-58 submarine that sunk the Indianapolis, said that zigzagging would not have saved the ship.
For a much more in-depth reading on the sinking of the Indianapolis and its aftermath: https://www.usni.org/magazines/naval-history-magazine/2016/june/tragic-indys-enduring-fascination
Portland Class Armor, Armament, Crew, and Econemy
PLEASE NOTE: The amount of crew on the USS Indianapolis was 1196 rather than the 1033 seen on the USS Portland
A PBY-5 Catalina landed to pick up survivors, however, they ended up using the seaplane as a makeshift “lifeboat” for the survivors until more help arrived.
In the movie Jaws the character named “Quint” was a sailor on the USS Indianapolis and tells a short story about the tragedy.
The USS Indianapolis, on its final voyage, was unusually painted in a distinct dark blue color below its lowest exposed deck
- Yes
- No
Sources
https://www.ussindianapolis.com/
USS Portland | War Thunder Wiki
Indianapolis (CA-35)
https://www.usni.org/magazines/naval-history-magazine/2016/june/tragic-indys-enduring-fascination
https://www.ussindianapolis.com/final-crew
USS Indianapolis (CA-35): Booklet of General Plans - Main Dk, 2nd Dk & 1st Platform | DPLA
