Encyclopedia uss indianapolis

I've heard others where she rolls completely over to port and sinks like the Andrea Doria. Which is more correct? Cliff Mark Barry Member. Tarn Stephanos Member. 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 s.

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? Goodness, sorry for the typos There was a documentary on Discovery about a expedition in to find the wreck, but the ship was never located I was unaware the Indianapolis had just delivered the A bomb Michael H.

Standart Member. 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. Rather than let them collect attic dust he chose about 10 of the best and had them made into note cards for sale through gift shops. The cards were extremely high quality. Worth it every penny for the quality of the bird illustrations and the fine printing.

Nobody much cared. The buyers representing gift shops were interested in trendy new stuff, not stuffy old note cards. The son had a lot of time on his hands as he watched the parade march past his meager booth. We talked for the better part of an hour. Nobody else even gave his cards a second glance. So, we talked of wars and birds, mountains and dentistry, cabbages and kings.

It turned out the man I met had never known his father. His only real memories were contained in a collection of bird paintings. When we parted company I promised to try to sell a story about the dentist, the son, and the birds to some magazine.

The story remained untold until now. Harland Duzen Member. That is the saddest and most poetic story I ever heard. Those editors should be embarrassed of themselves for not publishing his story just because it's story wasn't directly related to sailing. Thank you David G. Brown for telling us this. J Sheehan Member. Don Tweed said:. The scene with Quint,Hooper and Chief Brody drinking and comparing scars that lead to Quints story has always been my favorite scene!!! Dan Kappes Member.

The following is an excerpt of his speech. The full speech can be found here. As she participated in the search for the Japanese attack force, she steamed through waters thick with Japanese submarines…the Japanese had deployed over 25 submarines to the waters around Pearl Harbor.

It is likely only through pure chance that the USS Indianapolis did not suffer the same fate in the first days of the war as she did in the last days.

USS Indianapolis then provided critical protection to US aircraft carriers that launched among the very first retaliatory offensive strikes against the Japanese, on New Guinea, in March These carriers then participated in the crucial Battle of the Coral Sea May , which resulted in two Japanese carriers put out of action, so that at the decisive Battle of Midway a month later June the odds were four Japanese carriers against three US carriers, instead of six to three, which probably changed the outcome of that most important battle of the war.

Meanwhile, the USS Indianapolis was sent to operate in the Aleutian Islands in brutally cold, foggy and dangerous Alaskan waters, not even counting Japanese submarines. The USS Indianapolis sank a Japanese munitions ship Akagane Maru attempting to resupply the Japanese garrison on Attu, one of the islands they had captured, which exploded with the loss of all hands. In numerous actions through the rest of the war, the USS Indianapolis not only served as the flagship but also conducted frequent close-in bombardments of Japanese-held islands to include Tarawa, Kwajalein, Guam, Iwo Jima and others, in range of Japanese return fire.

Once again, fate spared the USS Indianapolis, but she shared the danger. Far more American Sailors were killed or injured, 9, casualties including almost 5, killed, than at Pearl Harbor. The number of US ships sunk or seriously damaged by Japanese kamikaze suicide attacks numbered over Naval near-shore operations, anti-submarine warfare, and surface warfare missions. The last surviving member of the ill-fated ship died in May The second ship christened USS Indianapolis, All Rights Reserved.

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A product of the Indianapolis Bicentennial effort —21 , the digital Encyclopedia of Indianapolis integrates and accesses the explosion and fragmentation of knowledge created both as born-digital information and as a large new digital archive.