
Wreckage found of USS Indianapolis that was sunk by Japan, killing nearly 900 - mozumder
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wreckage-found-uss-indianapolis-sunk-japan-worst-us/story?id=49313017
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indescions_2017
What a legendary find! And 18,000 feet deep has to be near record. Titanic two
miles below to put it in perspective.

And what a mission. Highest ultra top secret. With the eventual outcomes of
Hiroshima, Nagasaki and the unconditional surrender of Japanese forces. U.S.
Navy treating it as a "sunken war grave." Echoes of Henry V's St Crispin's Day
Speech and it's lines:

"From this day to the ending of the world, But we in it shall be rememberèd"

And also the inspiration for the best ten pages in screen writing history ;)

The Indianapolis Speech By Robert Shaw In Jaws (1975)

[https://neilchughes.com/2013/03/10/the-indianapolis-
speech-b...](https://neilchughes.com/2013/03/10/the-indianapolis-speech-by-
robert-shaw-in-jaws-1975/)

~~~
pouetpouet
I had trouble understanding what's more impressive 18000 feet or 2 miles.
5,4km vs the titanic 3,8km deep

~~~
petepete
You're not alone. Even here in the UK we measure distances on road signs in
miles but I have no idea how many feet, furlongs, yards or shackles are in a
mile.

~~~
jacobush
How many fortnights to the furlong do you get on that thing?

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Clubber
This is a pretty harrowing story for those that don't know. They were carrying
atomic bomb secrets so they couldn't call for help. The crew floated around in
water getting eaten by sharks. The old man in Jaws does a good job of telling
the story. You should definitely research it if you are interested in that
sort of thing.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Indianapolis_(CA-35)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Indianapolis_\(CA-35\))

Bataan Death March, Rape of Nanking, most of WWI, all pretty gruesome and what
humanity is capable of pretty quickly.

~~~
Sniffnoy
If you read the relevant part of the Wikipedia article, that's not actually
true:

> In the first official statement, the Navy said that distress calls "were
> keyed by radio operators and possibly were actually transmitted" but that
> "no evidence has been developed that any distress message from the ship was
> received by any ship, aircraft or shore station."[22] Declassified records
> later showed that three stations received the signals; however, none acted
> upon the call. One commander was drunk, another had ordered his men not to
> disturb him and a third thought it was a Japanese trap.[23]

It looks like nobody noticing the sinking until a plane saw the survivors
floating in the water was not due to any secrecy requirements, but rather due
to four people screwing up simultaneously (the fourth being Lieutenant Stuart
Gibson, who didn't notify anyone when he noticed the ship was overdue).

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Spooky23
A big part of the silence is that circumstances of the sinking is that it
would challenge the perception of the Navy and military in general.

It's an amazing feat that the wartime was able to run as well and successfully
as it did. That said, there were plenty of idiots, drunks and dysfunction all
over the place.

~~~
dba7dba
Major Winters of the Band of Brothers fame was originally in the army as an
enlisted man. But while in basic training he witnessed an army officer giving
a presentation while holding a wrong rifle for an hour. So he realized maybe
being an officer would not be so hard after all and applied to be an officer.
The rest is history.

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mchannon
Epilogue from the excellent but dated documentary on the site:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunter_Scott](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunter_Scott)
did get the captain exonerated. He is now (or at least recently) a naval
aviator. No word of any movie yet.

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jhbadger
"If you haven't heard of the Indianapolis, that's the whole point" says the
narrator. Like people haven't seen "Jaws" and remember the whole "like doll's
eyes" speech from Quint.

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rl3
An excellent resource on the incident itself and the aftermath:
[http://www.ussindianapolis.org/](http://www.ussindianapolis.org/)

The Indianapolis had delivered its atomic cargo four days prior to its
sinking. Presumably there wasn't anything sensitive or environmentally
hazardous left on board. Had there been, I suspect the wreck would have been
located much sooner.

~~~
Retric
It takes a lot to do environmental harm when your 3.4 miles under water. Even
if the bomb pices where left it would not have been a significant
environmental issue.

