TURNING POINTS
The USS Indianapolis: A Secret Mission, a Missed Rescue, and a Captain Blamed
After delivering crucial atomic-bomb components to Tinian, the cruiser disappeared in the Philippine Sea—and its survivors waited nearly four days for help.
After delivering crucial atomic-bomb components to Tinian, USS Indianapolis was sunk by a Japanese submarine in July 1945. A breakdown in reporting left its survivors adrift for nearly four days and put Capt. Charles McVay III at the center of a lasting fight over responsibility.
When the USS *Indianapolis* failed to arrive at Leyte Gulf on July 31, 1945, no search began.
More than a day earlier, the heavy cruiser had sunk in the Philippine Sea. Hundreds of sailors were still alive in the water, scattered among life jackets, rafts, and small groups. The Navy did not know they were missing.
The loss followed a mission of unusual consequence. Days before, *Indianapolis* had delivered key components for the Little Boy atomic bomb to Tinian. Its sinking, the delay in finding its crew, and the court-martial of its captain made the ship’s final voyage one of the most painful episodes of the Pacific war’s closing weeks.
A Secret Delivery, Then a Routine Transit
In July 1945, *Indianapolis* carried the enriched-uranium core and other components intended for Little Boy. On July 26, the cruiser delivered the cargo to Tinian in the Northern Marianas. Little Boy was later used against Hiroshima on August 6. The ship was not carrying the atomic bomb when it was sunk. [1][4]
After leaving Tinian, *Indianapolis* proceeded to Guam. On July 28, Capt. Charles B. McVay III departed Apra Harbor for Leyte Gulf, where the crew was to prepare for a planned invasion. The cruiser sailed without an antisubmarine escort.
Its earlier assignment was classified, but the disaster that followed cannot be explained by secrecy alone. The ship was attacked, communications failed in the sinking, and its overdue arrival did not bring an effective alarm. Those failures left survivors beyond the reach of a rescue effort for nearly four days.
The Sinking and the Silence That Followed
Shortly after midnight on July 30, the Japanese submarine *I-58*, commanded by Mochitsura Hashimoto, attacked *Indianapolis*. Two torpedoes struck the cruiser, which sank in roughly 12 minutes. [1][4]
There were 1,196 men aboard. About 300 are estimated to have died in the explosions and sinking, leaving nearly 900 men in the water. The precise division between those killed immediately and those who died afterward cannot be determined. [1][4]
The ship’s distress communications did not bring rescue. When its scheduled arrival at Leyte passed on July 31, no organized search followed.
For nearly four days, the survivors endured heat, exposure, wounds, thirst, exhaustion, and delirium. Some held onto life jackets. Others crowded into rafts. Sharks attacked men in the water, but they were only one part of an ordeal driven chiefly by time and the absence of rescue.
Found by Chance
On August 2, Lt. Wilbur C. Gwinn was flying a routine patrol in a PV-1 Ventura when he spotted an oil slick and then saw men in the water. The sighting was accidental, not the result of a search launched after *Indianapolis* failed to arrive. [3]
The discovery set a rescue in motion. Lt. R. Adrian Marks flew a PBY Catalina to the scene and found survivors spread across the sea. Although his orders did not authorize a landing in the heavy swells, Marks brought the aircraft down and his crew pulled 56 men from the water. When the cabin filled, survivors were placed on the aircraft’s wings. The destroyer escort *Cecil J. Doyle* was among the first ships alerted and took part in the rescue. [3]
By the end of the operation, 316 men had survived. The loss of 880 crew members was the greatest single loss of life at sea from one vessel in U.S. Navy history. [1]
The public learned of the sinking as the war was ending. When President Harry Truman announced Japan’s surrender on August 14, the Navy released news of the *Indianapolis* loss as well. The catastrophe received far less immediate attention than the end of the war. [4]
The Court-Martial of Capt. McVay
In December 1945, the Navy court-martialed McVay on a charge connected to failing to zigzag, the practice of changing course unpredictably to make a submarine attack more difficult. He was convicted of hazarding his ship by failing to do so.
Hashimoto, the commander who had ordered the attack, testified at the trial. He said zigzagging would not have prevented his submarine from making the attack under the conditions that night. [5]
McVay was the only U.S. Navy captain court-martialed for losing a warship to enemy action during World War II. Fleet Adm. Chester W. Nimitz later remitted his sentence, but the conviction remained in McVay’s record. [2][5]
The case left larger questions unresolved: why *Indianapolis* had sailed as it did, why its overdue arrival was not treated as an emergency, and why those failures received less public attention than the captain’s conduct.
For decades, McVay received hostile letters from some victims’ families. He retired as a rear admiral and died by suicide in 1968. [5]
Survivors continued to argue that the Navy had treated their captain unfairly. Their campaign gained momentum in the 1990s, when Florida student Hunter Scott made the sinking the subject of a school history project.
In 2000, Congress passed a resolution stating that McVay should be exonerated for the loss of *Indianapolis*. President Bill Clinton signed it, and in 2001 the Navy directed that the action be added to McVay’s official file. [2]
The action did not change the ship’s loss or restore the men who died. It did change the official record around responsibility for one of the Navy’s gravest wartime disasters.
The Wreck Beneath the Philippine Sea
For more than seven decades, the location of *Indianapolis* remained uncertain. In August 2017, an expedition funded by Paul G. Allen located the wreck more than 18,000 feet below the surface of the Philippine Sea. Historian Richard Hulver’s analysis of an LST-779 log entry helped refine the ship’s likely route and narrow the search area. [6]
The wreck is protected as a submerged naval grave. Its discovery settled a question of location, but not the questions raised by the loss: how a ship could vanish without a search, how long its survivors were left adrift, and why its captain bore the burden of blame for so many years. [6]
Frequently Asked Questions
**When was the wreck of the USS *Indianapolis* found?**
The wreck was found in August 2017 by an expedition aboard the research vessel *R/V Petrel*. It lies more than 18,000 feet beneath the Philippine Sea. [6]
**How many crew members survived the USS *Indianapolis* disaster?**
Of 1,196 men aboard, 316 survived. The sinking and the days before rescue killed 880 members of the crew. [1]
TIMELINE
Key moments
Sources
- Indianapolis (CA-35) - Naval History and Heritage Command — Naval History and Heritage Command
- SECNAV Gordon England 2001 Addition to McVay File — Naval History and Heritage Command
- The Sinking of the USS Indianapolis - Pieces of History — National Archives and Records Administration
- Episode 6 – 883 Killed | The National WWII Museum — The National WWII Museum
- How a WWII Japanese sub commander helped exonerate a U.S. Navy captain — The Washington Post
- USS Indianapolis Discovered: Analysis of a Shipwreck Site — National Park Service / Naval History and Heritage Command
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