Warship Profile: USS Indianapolis

On the 15th of November 1932, the USS Indianapolis was commissioned. This Portland class heavy cruiser sported nine 8 inch 55 caliber guns, eight 5 inch 22 caliber AA defense turrets and two 3mm saluting guns. It had two aircraft catapults with four seaplanes on board.

The warship was originally intended as a light cruiser due to the light armor, but the heavy guns demanded the armor to be increased and the ship was deemed a heavy cruiser.

On the the 16th of July in 1945, the USS Indianapolis was assigned a top secret mission. It was to deliver an important piece of cargo, the crew joked it was toilet paper for Douglas MacArthur, but it was something that would completely change the tide of the war.....the atomic bomb.
The crew delivered the bomb to Tinian on July the 26th, the Indianapolis then made its journey back but tragedy was about to strike.

At 0:15 hours on July the 30th, the ship was struck by two torpedoes fired by the Japanese submarine I-58. The ship capsized within a few minutes.

The survivors of the sinking were stranded at sea for several days, many would perish due to starvation, dehydration and attacks by sharks. Several even committed suicide whilst lost at sea.

At 10:25 on August the 2nd, crew were discovered adrift by a patrolling Seaplane.

Despite the rescue, the United States Navy considered McVay to be at fault for not zig-zagging resulting in the ship being torpedoed and the death of countless sailors.

Captain McVay would unfortunately face hatred for the rest of his life, even receiving a phone call from the mother of one of the sailors lost at sea saying "Hope you had a good Christmas, mine would have been better if you didn't get my son killed" He would end up taking his own life years later.

Another controversy, was the US navy not reporting ships arriving and leaving ports. A distress signal was sent out but due to the top secret mission this information was not acted upon

In popular culture, the Indianapolis has had quite the coverage. As mentioned at the start of this video, the character of Quint in Steven Spielberg's 1975 thriller "Jaws" gives a terrifying monologue about the sailors of the ship being attacked by sharks.

The story was adapted into two films, the first being "Mission of the Shark" in 1991 starring Stacey Keach as Captain McVay. This TV movie is a very underrated war movie and presents the struggle for survival in a gripping and heart pounding way, the acting is top notch across the board. The movie was received fairly well by critics

The second being "USS Indianapolis: Men of Courage" released in 2016 starring Nicholas Cage as Captain McVay. This movie isn't quite as good, the dialogue is very cheesy and and the death scenes are ridiculous beyond belief, at times it feels more like a silly shark movie than a survival story of one of the deadliest moments in World War II

Discovery Channel did a special called "Ocean of Fear" about the sinking and the crew members struggle for survival at sea.

The USS Indianapolis is also a unlockable ship in the extremely popular World of Warships video game, I am actually very poor at playing the ship, but I'm hoping to improve my skills with it as its a very powerful ship in the game.