Loss of the last major American warship

By WILLIAM H. STEWART
Special to the Saipan Tribune

Third of a seven-part series

This is a continuation of a series of articles commemorating the 60th anniversary of the end of the war in the Pacific.

The heavy cruiser USS Indianapolis departed San Francisco on July 16, 1945 with a top-secret cargo bound for Tinian. Touching Pearl Harbor on July 19 the warship raced on across the vast Pacific unescorted and arrived at Tinian on July 26 and in doing so established a record by steaming some 5,000 miles from the United States west coast in only 10 days.

After departing Tinian en route to Leyte, Philippines the ship made a brief stop at Guam. On July 28 the vessel was struck on its starboard side by two torpedoes fired from the Japanese submarine I-58 commanded by Captain Machitsura Hashimoto, IJN. The cruiser had been steaming on calm seas at 17 knots, when it was struck and lost in the Philippine Sea at 12:15am, July 30,1945, three days after delivering critical components for the atomic bomb to Tinian. The ship capsized and sank in 12 minutes at 12 degrees—02′ North Latitude, 134 degrees — 48′ East Longitude.

The ship was not immediately missed by U.S. naval authorities and no mention was made that she was overdue on the Movement Report System used to track naval vessels.

After many hours in the water, delirium set in and men began to die from drinking sea water, some hallucinated and swam toward imaginary islands while others dove underwater to imagined hotels and drowned—many were carried away by sharks. Driven mad after four days in the water and dying of dehydration, exposure and man-eating sharks, hundreds of the ship’s officers and crew perished. It was not until 10:25am on Aug. 2, 1945 that 316 survivors of its original crew of 1,199 were finally sighted and rescued.

Presumably, the vessel had been torpedoed as a result of failure to conduct “zig-zag” maneuvers. It was the worst sea disaster in the history of the United States Navy. Unaware that the ship was lost, the Navy did not dispatch rescue teams or launch a search effort until days after the sinking.

One can only speculate how the course of history might have been changed if the ship and its cargo had been sunk before making its fateful delivery to Tinian.

It was the last major American warship to be sunk in the Pacific War. The Indianapolis had earned 10 battle stars for her World War II service.

Late in the afternoon of Aug. 2, Lieutenant Robert A. Marks, flying a Catalina PBY 5A, spotted some of the survivors bobbing in the water and at great risk to himself, his crew and the plane, landed the amphibious aircraft in the water near the men. There were strict regulations against landing this type of aircraft on the open sea as the hull of the “Dumbo,” as it was known, was weakened by construction necessary for placing its landing wheels. Lt.

Marks and his crew taxied to the area where some of the survivors were being attacked by sharks. He radioed his location and began filling the aircraft’s fuselage with 56 men who were later transferred to naval vessels, which began arriving on the scene between midnight and 3am. One such vessel, the USS Ringness, APD 100, picked up Captain Charles B. McVay, III and 35 others and sent a secret dispatch while proceeding to Peleliu which stated that the Indianapolis had not been zigzagging. Rescue operations continued for six days, until Aug. 8, and covered a radius of 100 miles of open ocean saving 316 of the crew. Eight-hundred-eighty-three men were lost in the sinking.

The Destroyer USS Helm DD 388 was one of several naval vessels participating in the search for survivors and any remains of the crew. On Aug. 6 the ship’s captain reported,” All bodies were in extremely bad condition and had been dead for an estimated four or five days. Some had life jackets and life belts; most had nothing. About half the bodies were shark-bitten, some to such a degree that they more nearly resembled skeletons. All personal effects and the Medical Officer’s Reports, were forwarded to the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery and the Personal Effects Distribution Center, Farragut, Idaho, on the assumption that such effects will be assembled from all ships participating in the rescue.”

Unknown and unanticipated by Captain McVay in less than four months the skipper of the ill-fated Indianapolis would face a Court Martial. The charges follow:

HOLD FOR RELEASE
UNTIL READ IN OPEN COURT MARTIAL
EXPECTED DECEMBER 3, 1945

To: Captain Thomas J. Ryan, Jr., U. S. Navy
Judge Advocate, Genera Court Martial, Navy Yard, Washington, D. C.

Subject: Charges and specifications in case of Captain Charles B. McVay, III, U. S. Navy

1. The above-named officer will be tried before the general court-martial of which you are judge advocate, upon the following charges and specifications. You will notify the president of the court accordingly, inform the accused of the date set for his trial, and summon all witnesses, both for the prosecution and the defense.

CHARGE I
THROUGH NEGLIGENCE SUFFERING A VESSEL OF THE NAVY TO BE HAZARDED

SPECIFICATION
In that Charles B. McVay, III, Captain, U. S. Navy, while so serving in command of the USS INDIANAPOLIS, making passage singly, without escort, from Guam, Mariana Islands, to Leyte, Philippines Islands, through an area in which enemy submarines might be encountered, did, during good visibility after moonrise on 29 July 1945, at about 10:30 p.m., minus nine and one-half time zone, neglect and fail to exercise proper care and attention to the safety of said vessel in that he neglected and failed, then and then after, to cause a zigzag course to be steered, and he, the said McVay through said negligence, did suffer the said USS INDIANAPOLIS to be hazarded; the United States then being in a state of war.

CHARGE II
CULPABLE INEFFICIENCY IN THE PERFORMANCE OF DUTY

SPECIFICATION
In that Charles B. McVay, III, Captain, U.S. Navy, while so serving in command of the USS INDIANAPOLIS, making passage singly, without escort, from Guam, Mariana Islands, to Leyte, Philippines Islands, having been informed at or about 12:10 a.m., minus nine and one-half zone time, on 30 July 1945 that said vessel was badly damaged and in sinking condition, did then and there fail to issue and see effected such timely orders as were necessary to cause said vessel to be abandoned, as it was his duty to do, by reason of which many persons on board perished with the sinking of said vessel; the United States then being in a state of war.

JAMES FORRESTAL

To be continued

Published in commemoration of the 60th Anniversary of the end of World War II
William H. Stewart is a military historical cartographer and has mapped many of the World War II Pacific battlefields. He is the author of the books, Saipan In Flames (translated into Japanese) and Ghost Fleet of the Truk Lagoon now in its 6th printing.
Reference sources: Due to space limitations many reference sources have been omitted. This information will be furnished those interested when requested from the author at e-mail: spno@zoomnet.net.