Episode 655: The Sinking of the USS Indianapolis

Summary

Summary of "Morbid" Episode 655: The Sinking of the USS Indianapolis

Podcast Information:

• Title: Morbid
• Host/Author: Morbid Network | Wondery
• Description: A true crime, creepy history, and all things spooky podcast hosted by an autopsy technician and a hairstylist, blending thorough research with a touch of comedy.
• Episode: 655: The Sinking of the USS Indianapolis
• Release Date: March 17, 2025

---

1. Introduction

In Episode 655, hosts Ash and Elena delve into one of the most harrowing naval tragedies in American history—the sinking of the USS Indianapolis. Balancing detailed historical recounting with their characteristic lightheartedness, they explore the ordeal faced by the ship and its crew during World War II.

2. Background of the USS Indianapolis

The USS Indianapolis was a Portland-class heavy cruiser commissioned by the U.S. Navy in 1930. Initially designed as a light cruiser, it was reclassified the following year after being retrofitted with powerful 8-inch guns. For a decade, the Indianapolis served primarily as a showpiece, hosting dignitaries and participating in naval events.

Notable Quote:

• "It was their crowning glory, you know." — Elena [05:08]

3. The Secret Mission and Pearl Harbor Aftermath

Following the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the Indianapolis was thrust into active combat. Under the command of Captain Charles McVay, the ship played a pivotal role in key Pacific battles, including the bombardment of Iwo Jima. As the war intensified, the Indianapolis was assigned a top-secret mission: transporting components of the atomic bomb "Little Boy" to Tinian Island for assembly.

4. The Attack and Sinking

On July 16, 1945, the Indianapolis departed San Francisco for its clandestine mission. Unbeknownst to the crew, the Japanese submarine I-58, commanded by Mochitsura Hashimoto, was tracking the ship using sonar. The first indication of danger came from seemingly mundane noises—"sonar picked up on dishes rattling"—a fact that both Ash and Elena found astonishing ([17:03]).

At approximately midnight on July 30, 1945, I-58 fired six torpedoes at the Indianapolis, two of which struck the ship, causing catastrophic damage. The explosions resulted in immediate chaos: "Captain McVeigh ... noticed in my emergency cabin ... acrid white smoke" ([20:07]). The bow of the ship was torn off, and the vessel began to sink rapidly, leaving nearly 300 men trapped below deck.

5. The Ordeal of Survivors: Four Days in the Open Ocean

Following the sinking, 890 crew members were cast into the open ocean under dire conditions. The survivors faced extreme dehydration, exposure, and relentless shark attacks. Ash and Elena vividly describe the scene:

Notable Quotes:

• "They were sitting ducks in the middle of the water." — Ash & Elena [26:48]
• "It's like hell on earth." — Elena [43:48]

Sharks, particularly the oceanic white tips, were drawn to the survivors by the chaos and blood in the water. The lack of fresh water and adequate medical supplies exacerbated the suffering, leading to severe illness and hallucinations among the men.

6. Rescue Operations

Rescue efforts were hampered by the Indianapolis's official status as lost due to its top-secret mission, delaying the initiation of search operations. It wasn't until August 2, 1945, when pilot Wilbur Chuck Gwyn inadvertently discovered the survivors while conducting an unrelated mission, that effective rescue efforts commenced. The U.S. Navy destroyer escort, USS Cecil J. Doyle, played a crucial role in rescuing the remaining survivors.

Notable Quote:

• "He made the decision ... to change course and go aid the men from the Indianapolis." — Elena [70:38]

By the time rescue teams arrived, only 317 of the original 890 men had survived the ordeal.

7. Court-Martial and Exoneration of Captain Charles McVay

In the aftermath, Captain McVay faced a court-martial, primarily blamed for the tragedy due to alleged negligence in not employing sufficient evasive maneuvers. However, evidence suggested that the attacking submarine would have sunk the ship regardless of such actions.

Notable Quotes:

• "They scapegoated him completely." — Ash [83:04]
• "We tried to keep the men thinking that they would be saved." — Ensign Harlan Twibble [57:44]

Despite widespread belief among survivors that McVay was unfairly blamed, the court-martial proceeded, resulting in a guilty verdict that tarnished McVay's legacy until his exoneration in 2000, following testimonies from both survivors and Mochitsura Hashimoto.

8. Legacy and Discovery of the Wreckage

The sinking of the USS Indianapolis became a symbol of naval tragedy and was immortalized in popular culture, notably influencing the character Quint in the film Jaws. Decades later, in 2017, Microsoft founder Paul Allen led a team that discovered the wreckage nearly 10,000 feet below the Philippine Sea, providing closure to the survivors and their families.

Notable Quote:

• "The Indianapolis had sunk in the Pacific." — Nevada Mike Corey referencing the impact [63:04]

9. Conclusion

The episode chronicles not only the immediate tragedy of the USS Indianapolis but also the long-term repercussions for its captain and crew. Ash and Elena poignantly highlight themes of survival, leadership, injustice, and redemption, offering listeners a comprehensive and emotionally charged narrative of one of World War II's most infamous naval disasters.

Closing Thoughts:

• "This is an awful, awful tragedy." — Elena [75:29]
• "It's a crazy tale." — Ash [90:17]

---

Notable Quotes with Timestamps:

• "It was their crowning glory, you know." — Elena [05:08]
• "Sonar picked up on dishes rattling." — Elena [17:03]
• "Captain McVeigh ... noticed ... acrid white smoke." — Elena [20:07]
• "They were sitting ducks in the middle of the water." — Ash & Elena [26:48]
• "It's like hell on earth." — Elena [43:48]
• "He made the decision ... to change course and go aid the men from the Indianapolis." — Elena [70:38]
• "They scapegoated him completely." — Ash [83:04]
• "We tried to keep the men thinking that they would be saved." — Ensign Harlan Twibble [57:44]
• "The Indianapolis had sunk in the Pacific." — Mike Corey [63:04]
• "This is an awful, awful tragedy." — Elena [75:29]
• "It's a crazy tale." — Ash [90:17]

---

Final Note: This episode serves as a sobering reminder of the horrors of war and the profound impact of leadership and accountability. For those interested in deep dives into historical tragedies, "Morbid" continues to provide meticulously researched and emotionally resonant stories.

Transcript

[Ash]

Hey weirdos, it's Ash here.

[Elena]

Ready to share a little secret.

[Ash]

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[Elena]

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[Ash]

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[Elena]

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[Ash]

Hey, weirdos. I'm Ash.

[Elena]

And I'm Elena.

[Ash]

And this is morbid.

[Elena]

This is morbid.

[Ash]

This is morbid.

[Elena]

This is morbid.

[Ash]

Everybody's like, oh my God.

[Elena]

Everybody's like, shut the upper. This is gonna be a long one today.

[Ash]

Really?

[Elena]

And it's gonna be a harrowing one. Long and harrowing, but a little different.

[Ash]

Different, long, harrowing and different are the themes of today's morbid. Long, harrowing and different and repeating each other.

[Elena]

Yeah, it's gonna be very, very intense. But it's not like a straight up true crime story. We're gonna be covering the sinking of the USS Indianapolis.

[Ash]

All right. I don't know if I know this story.

[Elena]

It is a story everyone should know.

[Ash]

Yeah.

[Elena]

Because it's a wild tale of survival, of tragedy, of lots of death. But the survivors here, wild what they endured. Wild. And then wild what happened after.

[Ash]

Oh, man. Well, I love US history, so I'm interested.

[Elena]

Yeah, this is kind of a US history thing. There's a lot of crazy, gnarly. If you've ever seen Jaws, you know, straight up New England fare right there, of course, then you have heard Quint's monologue about the USS Indianapolis. Cause he was supposed to be portraying a survivor of that.

[Ash]

I haven't seen Jaws in so long.

[Elena]

Jaws is a. Is iconic.

[Ash]

It's not really a movie that like I've ever rewatched.

[Elena]

I feel like we used to watch it at my grandparents house so much. I could probably quote that entire movie.

[Ash]

I became obsessed with like this like watching all the Jaws movies one summer with my stepmom. Stepmom. It was a very interesting time to start because we were like going to the beach all the time.

[Elena]

Yeah, I remember it was a great time.

[Ash]

Specifically going to a lake and my sister being so terrified of Jaws and me and my brother being like, there's no sharks in the lake. But some of those movies are scary.

[Elena]

They are. They're crazy.

[Ash]

One of them, the shark is like sentient though. Like.

[Elena]

Oh, yeah, it gets wily.

[Ash]

It's kind of like psychic.

[Elena]

Yeah. I've never seen past the first one. Oh, you haven't? No, I just, I. I'm a purist.

[Ash]

The second one is fun. And the third, I think the third one is when the shark literally like knows people's movements.

[Elena]

Like on land. Yeah. Like becomes like way too intelligent for its own good. Bruce there.

[Ash]

Bruce is wild and out.

[Elena]

So we're going to get into it pretty quick today because this is a long one. There's a lot to talk about, so I just want to jump right in.

[Ash]

Let's go.

[Elena]

So the USS Indianapolis was a Portland class heavy cruiser. So one of just two of those kind of ships commissioned by the U.S. navy in 1930. Oh, wow. Originally it was designed as a, quote, light cruiser, which would mean it would be, you know, armed with limited armor and munitions. Makes sense.

[Ash]

Light.

[Elena]

But the ship was actually reclassified as a heavy cruiser the following year because it was retrofitted with 8, 8 inch mounted guns capable of hitting a target several miles away.

[Ash]

Wow, that's really. That's crazy that in 1930 they had that kind of technology.

[Elena]

Oh, this is impressive vessel, for sure. For 10 years, the Indianapolis served mainly as a showpiece for the Navy. Kind of like, you know, it hosted members of the Roosevelt administration. It was like a flagship vessel for events. It was their, like, crowning glory, you know. And then on December 7, 1941, which might be a very familiar date to everybody listening. I hope it is. The Japanese military launched a large and unexpected attack on Pearl Harbor.

[Ash]

Yeah.

[Elena]

And it was on the US naval base at Pearl harbor, killing over 2,400 people at the time of the. I hope they still teach people mostly like, about this.

[Ash]

In school we learned about Pearl Harbor. Pearl Harbor Harbor.

[Elena]

Okay. Because I was like, this is pretty important. At the time of the attack, the Indianapolis was participating in a military exercise in the nearby Johnston Atoll. I think it's atoll is how you pronounce it. And because of, you know, the proximity there, they were called upon to join the search effort to locate the Japanese aircraft carrier carriers that had launched the initial attack. So it got brought into the fray. Now, the attack on Pearl harbor drew the United States obviously into World War II. And as one of the military's most prestigious ships, the Indianapolis was deployed right into the combat because again, it had been retrofitted. It's now, like, ready to go. Over the next four years, the ship provided support during some of the most important battles in the Pacific, like Operation Detachment, where the American military captured the island of Iwo Jima under the command of Captain Charles McVeigh, who becomes a very big part of this whole thing.

[Ash]

That name sounds familiar.

[Elena]

You might also be thinking of Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma bomber.

[Ash]

Oh, that might be it. I don't know. Charles McVeigh sounds familiar to me.

[Elena]

That's the choice. I mean, maybe. I was going to say maybe you do, but McVeigh always makes me think of Timothy McVeigh. Yeah, no, I see what you mean. So, under the command of Captain Charles McVeigh, the Indianapolis bombarded the Japanese from their position a few thousand yards of shore, while infantrymen stormed the beach. According to Indianapolis, the true story of the worst sea disaster in US naval history and the 50 year fight to exonerate an innocent man, which we will get there. It's quote, some men said that when they saw that flag Go up. They thought of home and how it surely wouldn't be long until they could sail back to their moms and sweethearts in the good old usa.

[Ash]

Their moms and sweethearts.

[Elena]

It's very sad. Now during this period, the Indianapolis was very badly damaged when a kamikaze fighter pilot dropped a bomb. Bomb through the deck and into the mess hall. And it exploded in there. It tore a hole in the hull of the ship and to prevent the entire ship from flooding. This is gonna like also just show you like the realities of like war is so scary. Yeah. Because they needed to prevent the whole ship from flooding, obviously. So crewmen had to close the hatch leading to the mess hall. But they trapped nine men inside who eventually drowned in there.

[Ash]

Oh my God.

[Elena]

But it was literally like they just had to. What they had to do, you know, like, it's just like. But just knowing that that's just like a decision.

[Ash]

Yeah. That you split second decision.

[Elena]

Yeah. The ship's bulkheads prevented any major flooding and the Indianapolis was able to return to San Francisco for like major repairs in preparation for what was going to be its most important mission of the entire war. So it had already had to be repaired.

[Ash]

Yeah.

[Elena]

While the military fought to overwhelm the Japanese in the Pacific, a huge team of allied scientists and engineers were hard at work in the USA on a very top secret project. You might have heard of it, the Manhattan Project. This was led by nuclear physicist Robert Oppenheimer. You definitely know his name recently from.

[Ash]

The.

[Elena]

Barbie Heimer, whatever it was.

[Ash]

Barbenheimer.

[Elena]

Barbenheimer.

[Ash]

Barbieheimer. Oppen. Barbie.

[Elena]

We're just like free flowing thoughts right now.

[Ash]

When you play that game where you're both trying to get to the same word and you just yell your conscious.

[Elena]

Thoughts, it's like what we. When I tried to say ostracized, like a different. A different way.

[Ash]

Ostracization. Ostracization.

[Elena]

And I could not say it again. And we just kept saying it. I'm sure people were listening, being like shut the fuck up.

[Ash]

Or just screaming the right way to say it.

[Elena]

I apologize.

[Ash]

Listen, you have these moments with your friends too. Okay.

[Elena]

You do. And we're friends here. So the goal of the project, the Manhattan Project, was to design an atomic bomb the likes of which had never been seen. If you've seen the movie, you know all about it.

[Ash]

Did you see Oppenheimer?

[Elena]

I have not yet, actually, wildly, because I did want to see it. I really like Cillian Murphy. This was like a fascinating and like really terrifying and horrifying time in history?

[Ash]

No, it is interesting.

[Elena]

It's always really interesting to see how it's done in these things, and I heard great things about it. But the whole goal of this project was to design a crazy atomic bomb that would give the allies the destructive power they believed they needed to stop the Japanese army and end the war. By the summer of 1945, the Manhattan Project had succeeded. It created two atomic bombs and they nicknamed them Fat man and Little Boy. The two bombs would eventually be dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima respectively. As we know, in San Francisco, Charles McVeigh had been given the details of the Indianapolis latest mission, but only so many details. They had to transport the components of Little Boy, including the highly radioactive uranium that would ultimate make the bomb so destructive. And in addition to the critical mission, McVeigh would be sailing with nearly 300 new crewmen. Many of them were new recruits to the navy within the last 90 days. Oh, so brand new. Not all the crew was new, but.

[Ash]

At least a good chunk of it.

[Elena]

300 of them were brand new.

[Ash]

Can you IM that's your first mission?

[Elena]

Yeah.

[Ash]

Damn.

[Elena]

From the moment the planes were made in Washington D.C. everything about this mission was so highly confidential. Even Captain McVay, the literal captain of the Indianapolis, was only given the details necessary to just execute the mission. Like execute the delivery and that's it. Right. Like didn't need to need to know basis, essentially. On the morning of July 16, 1945, the Indianapolis departed San Francisco on the way to Pearl harbor where they were going to drop off any non essential passengers and refuel. The ship arrived in Hawaii on July 19 and refueled and then departed for Tinian, a small island in the Northern Mariana Islands. And that's where the bomb was going to be like assembled. Okay, so like on the island, like very complex. Yeah. The missions and activities surrounding Fat man and Little Boy were deemed top secret ultra, which is the highest level of clearance that few in the government or military would ever receive. According to author Lynn Vincent, Ultra's dissemination was choke narrow, closely held and tightly guarded. It seeped out daily to only a tiny group of Pacific fleet commanders. So very, very hush hush. I'm saying this because when the Indianapolis left Pearl harbor on July 19, very few people knew the ship was on a mission.

[Ash]

Right.

[Elena]

They also definitely didn't know where it was going. And this proved to be a problem later. Oh yeah, a big problem.

[Ash]

Okay.

[Elena]

So on July 26, the Indianapolis arrived in Tinian and delivered the cargo which would be dropped on Hiroshima. It was dropped on Hiroshima. Japan a little over a week later and had a message written on the side that read, greetings to the emperor from the men of the Indianapolis.

[Ash]

I remember learning about that in school and just how chilling that is.

[Elena]

It's so chilling.

[Ash]

It's also just like.

[Elena]

It's very chilling.

[Ash]

Is that necessary?

[Elena]

It's just very chill. War gets. Gets worse.

[Ash]

Wily.

[Elena]

Yeah. It's like.

[Ash]

These are very, like, very, like, surface level thing to say about war. We understand.

[Elena]

No, but it's just. It's just like these kind of things when you read like that, like a message saying, like, greetings, you know, greetings to the emperor from the men of the Indianapolis. It's just like. It's so haunting because it's just like such a. A casual message written on an atomic bomb, you know, like, it's just something about that. Just like your brain can't connect to it.

[Ash]

Took out half your population.

[Elena]

Yeah. It's like. It's really wild. Yeah. So from Tinian, the Indianapolis traveled to a US Base in Guam, where several crewmen, having now finished their tour of duty, were dropped off and replaced by new sailors. Even more can't imagine getting onto it at that point. On July 29, they left Guam, and they were on their way to Leyte, an island near the Philippines, where they were going to receive training. Throughout much of the day, the Indianapolis traveled, you know, steady pace, and they moved in a zigzagging motion to make themselves a difficult target for any enemy fire. Any and especially any enemy submarines that were concealed beneath the surface.

[Ash]

That's so scary.

[Elena]

Yeah.

[Ash]

Those are the things that you don't think about during the war. Yeah.

[Elena]

You don't, you know, like. Like, as a somebody, not as, like, a civilian.

[Ash]

Exactly.

[Elena]

You know, like, you just. You don't think about it, like, there. It'll take. Every once in a while, I'll just look at my dad because he was in the submarine service, and I'll look at my dad and just be like, you were in a submarine for months.

[Ash]

And months and months. Like, and what? Sometimes he just didn't know where he was.

[Elena]

Yeah. And, like, my mom didn't know where he was.

[Ash]

Yeah.

[Elena]

And, like, there was no communication. There was a time when they were, like, five. They were something like five hours away from send. Like, showing up at her door and saying, we've lost them. Like, we think they're gone.

[Ash]

Yeah.

[Elena]

And then they got communication back again, like, insane. It's just so bonkers. I'm like, I can't. And again, I'm saying, like, Bonkers. And. And, like, I don't know what else to say. It's just.

[Ash]

It's inconceivable.

[Elena]

I don't have a lot of eloquent language just to discuss how terrible war is.

[Ash]

No, it's just beyond.

[Elena]

It really is beyond my wildest conceptions.

[Ash]

Yeah.

[Elena]

And. And I think they, like, need to teach more about it in school.

[Ash]

They do. Because even I think, like, we were lucky, like, Papa told Papa, and, like, your dad told us a lot about it, and he took us to the submarine museum.

[Elena]

Yeah. Like, he' very into history, so you.

[Ash]

Learn so much via that. But we didn't learn a ton about squid, about all of this in school.

[Elena]

Yeah. It's important to learn this kind of. You need to know what happens so that it can't happen again and where you come from.

[Ash]

You know exactly how you got here.

[Elena]

And to, like, respect what people were dealing with back then, too.

[Ash]

I think that's something that's very much missing.

[Elena]

Very lacking generation. And the next one, very lacking. So. Yeah, so this is. They were having to move in a zigzag motion. And at the time, the maneuver was strictly a precaution. They weren't technically worried. They were just doing it to make sure.

[Ash]

Yeah, it's just like a.

[Elena]

But unbeknownst to McVay and the rest of the crew, the Indianapolis was being tracked. It was being tracked by an i58, which is a Japanese submarine, and it was being captained by Commander mochitsura hashimoto. The i58 sonar. And this really blew my fucking mind. How mundane. The thing is that was able to be picked up on sonar.

[Ash]

Okay.

[Elena]

The i58 sonar picked up on the sound of dishes rattling in the Indianapolis.

[Ash]

Stop.

[Elena]

From six miles away.

[Ash]

And this is in the 40s.

[Elena]

Yep. Six miles away, they could hear sonar picked up on dishes rattling.

[Ash]

And what do you even. There's no way that you even fix that.

[Elena]

And it's just so.

[Ash]

And you'd never think of that.

[Elena]

Something about that hit me in the head like a train, because I was like, that is the most mundane thing I can think of.

[Ash]

And again, how do you fix that?

[Elena]

And why would you even think of it? And six miles away, they could pick up on dishes rattle.

[Ash]

I do wonder if, like, they put something like a precaution into place, like.

[Elena]

Between the dishes to.

[Ash]

Well, like. And now that they. Like when they found out that that was how they got tracked, I wonder if now things are done differently. I wonder if you're in the Navy at all. And Let us know. Cuz now I'm so interested.

[Elena]

Yeah. Cuz that just something about that just shook me to my core. I could not. I was like, I can't wait to tell you what the. The sonar picked up on.

[Ash]

I know. She literally sat down. I saw. I'm sitting here, I'm like, what is it going to do? What is it?

[Elena]

Dishes rattling six miles away. And so they had been silent. And this is. This gives me chills. They had been silently stalking the ship for miles.

[Ash]

Oh.

[Elena]

Just trying to get close enough to strike. And they had no idea.

[Ash]

And then. So when you're on a ship that's like on the surface of the water, obviously. Do they have things where they can track? If they're submarines that are watching them.

[Elena]

They do now, like sonar and stuff like that. Like they have more technology now. I don't know exactly what they had back then to. And again, they're six miles away.

[Ash]

Right.

[Elena]

Like they're six miles away. But it's a lot of like the.

[Ash]

Japanese were tracking them, but they couldn't track them back.

[Elena]

Yeah, that's.

[Ash]

It's scary crazy. That's so chilling. You're right.

[Elena]

So at 12:04am So a little past midnight, the i58 finally caught up to the Indianapolis and Hashimoto gave the order to fire six torpedoes into the hall. Two of them hit the mark. McVeigh said, I was thrown from my emergency cabin bunk on the bridge by a very violent explosion, followed shortly thereafter by another explosion. He said, I went to the bridge and noticed in my emergency cabin and chart house that there was quite a bit of acrid white smoke. I couldn't see any. Anything. The first torpedo that hit the Indianapolis killed dozens of men immediately and sent a violent shockwave through the entire ship and smoke started filling the corridors. When he finally made it onto the bridge, Captain McVeigh learned that the officer on deck had tried to contact the engine room to tell them to cut the engines, but the torpedo blast had taken out the communication system and he couldn't get through. So as the two men are talking on the bridge, the second torpedo struck the side of the ship and it was a little further from the bow than the first torpedo. The first hit had knocked the bow of the massive ship leftward and ripped it at one of the seams, which left a large opening in the hull.

[Ash]

Yeah.

[Elena]

The second had kind of like a little bit of the same effect. It tore a large hole in the side of the ship.

[Ash]

Okay.

[Elena]

Now with the bow of the ship effectively sheared off and the engine's still running. The wreck of the Indianapolis is still being driven forward through the water.

[Ash]

My God.

[Elena]

Filling the corridors below deck with water. Anyone who didn't manage to escape from the lower decks would either be burned alive or drown in the flood.

[Ash]

My God.

[Elena]

So it's just awful screaming, just pain. Awful, awful scene. With the entire communication system now out, McVeigh ran back to his room to get clothing on because this is the middle of the night, right? And he ran into the damage control officer, Casey Moore. Lieutenant Moore had been down in. Down to the bow after the first hit and told McVay the ship was, quote, going down rapidly by the head, sinking bow first.

[Ash]

Oh, fuck.

[Elena]

And he asked whether McVay wanted him to give the order to abandon ship. Now, at the time, the ship was only listing about 3 degrees. And thinking back on the last time the Indianapolis was attacked in Okinawa, McVay thought they would be, you know, they could still steer the ship safely because they were able to do that before.

[Ash]

Yeah.

[Elena]

So he told Moore, hold off for a second on giving that order. A few minutes later, though, Commander Joseph Flynn, the second in command, told McVay, we are definitely going down and I suggest that we abandon ship. And McVay has said he had complete faith in Flynn's judgment and abilities. So he said, abandon ship.

[Ash]

Holy.

[Elena]

We all have routines that bring us calm in a chaotic and often scary world. For me, it is arming my Simplisafe home security system when I'm heading out every morning or locking up each night. That simple step does more than just protect my family and my home. It gives me peace of mind. With Simplisafe, I sleep more soundly and I leave the house with way more confidence. It's really actually amazing how one small push of a button can have such a big impact. I feel so safe knowing that the cameras are going to catch everything that they have, that active guard outdoor protection. We're going to talk about that in a second.

[Ash]

That gives me mega peace of mind.

[Elena]

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Now Captain McVeigh's hesitancy to give the order to abandon ship would later become a matter of great debate. But at the time, McVeigh had yet to fully comprehend the damage that the Indianapolis.

[Ash]

You also have to think this man literally just woke up to a giant fucking explosion.

[Elena]

Exactly. That's the thing. It's like there was no way for him to completely assess the damage of the entire ship in that one second. So he is listening and trying to lean on his officers to tell him like one of them tells them, I think we're going to need to abandon ship. And he's like, okay, hold on a second, let me take a minute.

[Ash]

And you can understand why that's not the first thing that you want to.

[Elena]

Do, not what you want to do. Another officer who he has even more faith in is saying, we got to get out of here.

[Ash]

So now you got people saying, yeah.

[Elena]

And he said immediately he did it. The i58 that hit them was outfitted with Japanese Type 95 torpedoes, which were designed to deliver a massive explosive and then had a secondary effect like that they tacked onto it, which would apply a huge amount of pressure when it happened to basically buckle whatever the target's target was, its internal framing so it was made to cause severe structural damage. When the torpedoes hit the side of the Indianapolis, they not only ripped a hole in the side of the ship, but they really compromised its structural integrity. Like, right away, it was taking on a ton of water. At the same time, the explosion from the blast had ignited the ship's fuel stores, which caused a massive fire that, quote, incinerated or severely burned anyone below deck to the. In the forward part of the ship. Ship. So they just met on fire everywhere. This section included the sick bay, a large section of sleeping quarters, and the area occupied by the stewards, that whole section. So tons of them died immediately and in awful ways. Now, to make matters worse, the fire was rapidly making its way to the decks above, risking the lives of anyone in that area, too. By the time the order to abandon ship had started to make its way around the ship, because they also don't have a communication system right now. It's cut out. McVay had managed to send out a distress signal, but with the ship's entire electrical system again having just been taken out, he had no way of knowing whether it had even successfully been sent out.

[Ash]

Oh, God. But he just.

[Elena]

He did it as best as he could. Given that they were on a highly classified mission, the entire crew of the Indianapolis would be abandoning ship. Not knowing whether they would be rescued, and without knowing how close the Japanese submarine was and whether it was still hunting, that's the thing that you think.

[Ash]

Of, like, okay, now they're just abandoning ship and going into, like, life rafts.

[Elena]

Sitting ducks in the middle of the water.

[Ash]

That's so scary.

[Elena]

And that. And so abandoning ship under those circumstances was only slightly less risky than being on board a burning ship.

[Ash]

Yeah.

[Elena]

Like, there was really no gun. And by barely.

[Ash]

Yeah, like a fraction.

[Elena]

McVeigh had just climbed onto the ladder that led to the bridge when the ship suddenly shifted violently about 25 degrees to the right. Right. And the jolt caused many of the crewmen on deck to fall off the side of the deck and into the water below.

[Ash]

Oh, my God.

[Elena]

A few seconds later, when he reached the bridge, McVey said the ship shifted again, this time about in a 45 degree angle, and that sent more crewmen flying into the water. And these guys don't have life jackets on, right? No, they're not like, they're trying to grab life jackets, but many of them are just being shot into the water. When McVeigh finally reached the communication deck, the ship appeared to have settled at a 60 degree angle. And what he recalled, he said there Were some youngsters there that were jumping over the side. And I got to the lifeline on the communications deck and yelled at those boys to not jump over the side unless they had life jackets. So he's trying to save these kids. Like, oh. Now, at the time, McVeigh was trying to unsecure the lifeboats and make sure as many crewmen had life preservers on before jumping. But a few seconds later, the Indianapolis shifted hard to the right yet again, leaving the ship at a 90 degree angle. McVeigh was making his way to the. The end point of the deck at this point, and the bow of the ship snapped off and dropped into the water.

[Ash]

Oh, fuck.

[Elena]

Now, the impact of such a large section of the ship hitting the ocean caused a wave that swept up onto the ship and sent McVeigh and many others tumbling from the ship into the water. Now, now, like, they got swept off in a wave.

[Ash]

Also, think about the fact that this was so many people's first mission.

[Elena]

Literally, like, and these are 18 and 19 year olds, Justin.

[Ash]

Like, enlisted, or this is like a.

[Elena]

Bunch of, like, teenagers.

[Ash]

My God.

[Elena]

Yeah. And McVay, as soon as he went off the side, McVeigh said, I immediately thought, well, this is the end of me. And I turned around and immediately swam away from the Indianapolis. Now, McVeigh and several others had only been swimming for a few seconds when they felt a rush of heat against their backs and then a swell of hot, oily water. When they turned to see what happened, they saw that the remains of the USS Indianapolis got sucked down into the black water.

[Ash]

Oh, God, I can't even imagine that in my head, never mind seeing it in front of you.

[Elena]

It churns my stomach.

[Ash]

Like, the water literally just swallows the boat that you were just on. And I should not say the boat. The ship.

[Elena]

Like, dude. And if you look up a picture of the USS Indianapolis, it'll just give you even more of, like, it's huge, right? Oh, my God. And watching that thing just get sucked down into the depths must have been.

[Ash]

Oh, I just got chills.

[Elena]

Yeah. Like, it is huge. Wow. And they watched this thing just go right under the ocean.

[Ash]

Ocean, my God, this is a massive ship.

[Elena]

Massive. Now, the explosions on the Indianapolis had dumped countless gallons of oil and debris into the water. And when the ship sank, it churned up the waters. So that makes it even worse. And it was well after midnight, so pitch black. Like, pitch black. So McVeigh couldn't see anything, but all he could hear around him was screaming. And so. And some of Them were. I mean, some people were just screaming because of what just happened. And then some of them were screaming because they were horrifically injured. It's out of the darkness, he ended up seeing a large vegetable crate float by. So he climbed on top of it to get out of the water.

[Ash]

Smart.

[Elena]

And he said a few minutes later, two of the life rafts, likely released from the ship as it went down, floated by. So he grabbed both of those, and the wood lattice that would stabilize the bottoms of the rafts had gone. And there was no oars. But he said, it's better than nothing. Yeah, you gotta do what you gotta do. He got inside one, and he said he called out to anyone around him trying to collect the nearest survivors and get them on the rafts. And with the help of the quartermaster, Vincent Vincent Allard, Captain McVeigh lashed the two rafts together so they wouldn't get separated by the current. Now, in another part of this disaster, Glenn Morgan, another crewman, spotted one of the seaplanes that had come loose from the ship when it sank. Because the ship was so massive, it had seaplanes attached to it.

[Ash]

610Ft long.

[Elena]

Yeah, massive. Now, miraculously, the plane appeared to have survived the explosion and was in an upright position.

[Ash]

Wow.

[Elena]

So he swam towards it, thinking, holy shit, this might be the only way for us to get out of here. But when he reached the plane, he saw that it was badly damaged and it was slowly sinking.

[Ash]

Oh, no.

[Elena]

His disappointment was only slightly tempered by the fact that just underneath the plane's tail was one of the wooden life rafts.

[Ash]

Oh, that's good.

[Elena]

So he acted real quickly because this thing was sinking.

[Ash]

And taking the life raft down with.

[Elena]

Him, grabbed the raft before it was sucked down with the plane. Once he was on board, he took a look around and spotted another raft nearby and started paddling towards that with his hands. So these men are, like, getting the idea that we need to start lashing these together and stay together, but they're.

[Ash]

In the pitch in the middle of.

[Elena]

The goddamn ocean and horrifically injured. At that point, Morgan couldn't see any other survivors. He could just hear people screaming. So he started lashing the two rafts together, just hoping he could get more people on them. And as he was working to get the rafts secured to one another, he said, heads began popping up out of the darkness several feet away. And he said, one after the other, he just saw heads popping out of the ocean, Completely covered in oil and completely unrecognizable. Morgan paddled the rafts to the men and they climbed aboard exhausted, but okay. Covered in oil.

[Ash]

Right.

[Elena]

By dawn, the reality of what had happened became very apparent. The Indianapolis had gone down hundreds of miles from land, and there was nothing but water in every direction.

[Ash]

Oh, my God.

[Elena]

To make matters worse, when many of the rafts fell into the water, they had landed upside down, dumping any unsecured contents like rations and blankets into the water.

[Ash]

Oh, no.

[Elena]

So the men on McVeigh's rafts managed to flip a lot of the boats and found that they. Some of them still contained oars and a canvas bag containing one flare gun and 12 cartridges. That seemed nothing. No. Things were more encouraging on Morgan's rafts because they did find some, quote, meager rations, flares, fishing supplies, and some flashlights. The flashlights and flares could have been valuable in finding, you know, other crewmen and signaling passing ships and planes, but they also were risky. According to Vincent and Vladek, that the authors of that book that I mentioned up ahead and we'll link in the show notes, Japanese submarines had been known to lurk at a sinking site and machine gun. Any survivors?

[Ash]

Oh, my God.

[Elena]

Again, war.

[Ash]

And they're in enemy waters.

[Elena]

Yeah. Yeah. They're just like sitting ducks. Now, the men in McVeigh and Morgan's groups had been lucky, all things considered. And while they were all exhausted and covered in oil, they had managed to avoid suffering any serious physical harm at the moment. Like, a lot of them were, like, pretty much with it. Many of the others, though, were less fortunate. Many of those not killed in the blast or dragged down with the ship suffered serious flash burns from the explosions. Many of them would die within hours of being in the water.

[Ash]

But think of those grueling hours that it die.

[Elena]

Pure suffering. And those who did manage to find each, like other survivors a lot of them found. Now, this wasn't always the case, but there was patches of this. Some of them would find that the camaraderie that they had on the ship did not extend to the crisis in the sea. After the ship went down, Harpo Celaya found himself, himself, stranded without a raft or a life jacket. And he was so happy to spot some other survivors. But when he got to the raft and tried to pull himself on board, they pushed him off the raft and pushed the raft away.

[Ash]

What the. If there's room.

[Elena]

Why, like, what the dude. And the same thing happened when he spotted a second raft.

[Ash]

It's happened to him twice.

[Elena]

Yeah. So he grabbed onto a rope trailing behind the raft and clung to it so he wouldn't get separated from everyone.

[Ash]

What about no man left behind? Isn't that like a. A what the.

[Elena]

And again, these were small pockets of behavior.

[Ash]

Yeah. It wasn't.

[Elena]

For the most part, these men were working together and trying to help each other, but damn, but you're always going to get some dicks in the bunch. Now, the instances again of selfishness and cruelty, very disheartening, but again, uncommon for the most part. Whenever any of the rafts would spot a survivor floating in the water, they would do their best to get to them and drag them on board. Once they were in full daylight, the men on the raft started paddling around their immediate area, looking for any supplies. Anything that was heavy and not lashed to the boats had sunk with the rest of the ship. But they did manage to find some cans of spam and other tinned foods, along with some medical supplies, most of which were waterlogged and kind of useless.

[Ash]

Right.

[Elena]

The one thing they didn't find which they would desperately need was fresh water. At one point early that morning, McVeigh found a three gallon jug of water, but he said immediately he found out it had been tainted. He said it apparently had been cracked because I tasted the water and it was unpalatable. It was salty.

[Ash]

Oh, no.

[Elena]

Now, of the 880 men who survived the attack. Wow. Around 400 would eventually find their way to one another and merge into one larger group.

[Ash]

Wow.

[Elena]

Yeah.

[Ash]

That's incredible.

[Elena]

The most injured were pulled onto the handful of life rafts, but most were floating in the water beside the rafts, some with life jackets, but many without, out just treading water and just holding onto a raft. Getting the group together in this way, 400 men took nearly all their first day in the water and expended almost all of their energy. They were exhausted. They only had one or two paddles on board, and it took hours to travel just a few hundred yards. Wow. The task was made even more arduous by the tide because it was always working against them. They were just going against the tide at all times. On the first day, the survivors had drifted nearly five miles from where the site of the sinking was, and the rolling waves constantly threatened to pull them apart in different directions. For the first day or so, the men in the main group got along pretty well, despite being exhausted, in pain, and horribly terrified. In addition to whatever injuries they had suffered when they abandoned the ship, most of the men were covered in fuel, which had also gotten in their eyes and caused excruciating burning sensations.

[Ash]

And then you're just flushing it out with salt water.

[Elena]

Also, many had unintentionally swallowed large amounts of seawater and fuel, causing them to become violently ill for much of the first day.

[Ash]

Oh, God.

[Elena]

Yeah. Despite all of this, they still managed to work together to locate supplies, care for the wounded, and make hats from the canvas to block out the worst of the sun.

[Ash]

That's insane that they were able to do that.

[Elena]

That the human spirit, man. Yeah. At night, they would occasionally see a plane fly overhead and would fire one of the flares, but the pilots never acknowledged them.

[Ash]

And also, you don't know. That must have been so scary, cuz you don't know if that's your plane.

[Elena]

Yeah. McVeigh later said, we knew now that these eight or nine planes that we saw and that we either during the daytime flash these. These signal mirrors, the emergency signal mirror at nobody ever saw the mirror, us or any of the flares that they were shooting up at their altitude. It was impossible for the pilots to see even a large group of men in the water below. And the survivors didn't know at the time that nobody even knew where the Indianapolis was.

[Ash]

Jesus.

[Elena]

So they weren't looking for them. Like these planes were not search planes. They were just going overhead. Now, as the men worked throughout the day on Monday, they were so preoccupied with what was on the surface of the ocean that didn't occur to them. There was probably some shit below them as well.

[Ash]

Oh, no.

[Elena]

This is something that a lot of people, if you've read or heard about the Indianapolis, which definitely read further into it, it's very fascinating. And some of these interviews with these survivors later, very interesting. This is something that a lot of people know about is the sharks.

[Ash]

Yeah.

[Elena]

Throughout the day, many of the sailors had to kick and splash to fend off, you know, barracuda that would swim up next to them.

[Ash]

Oh, my God.

[Elena]

But otherwise their biggest concern besides that was the sun and, you know, the Japanese, the enemy. Yeah. Then late that afternoon, Seaman second Class Curtis Pace saw from the corner of his eye something moving below him.

[Ash]

No.

[Elena]

He glanced down to get a better look, and he said he saw a shark whip its tail once and its silhouette blended in with. With dozens of others just like it.

[Ash]

No.

[Elena]

Now, the tropical region of the Pacific Ocean that they were in is home to a variety of shark species, including the hammerhead tiger shark and the notoriously aggressive and pissy oceanic white tip.

[Ash]

Oh, God.

[Elena]

I like that.

[Ash]

You just described that shark as pissy.

[Elena]

Very pissy. Such a pissy, very pissy and very opportunistic. I Will say they're very lazy and opportunistic because. Because they tend to be solitary in their behavior.

[Ash]

That's why they're so pissy.

[Elena]

They do. They're pissy. They don't want to deal with anybody else. But they will put away their pissiness and pettiness if they see that there's a large food source that they can congregate together for.

[Ash]

Oh, great.

[Elena]

So they'll congregate for something. But they're scavengers, and like I said, they're opportunistic. They don't really want to expend much energy to hunt. They like it when it's just plopped in front of them, which it was. Oh, boy, was this just plopped right in front of them. So they were like dinner. Like, they were literally like, wow, this is like a banquet.

[Ash]

Are you gonna tell me that people were eaten by sharks in these waters?

[Elena]

Yes, often sharks of all species. Like, if you. If you know anything about sharks, they've evolved over time to be very sensitive to sound. They can detect noise is miles away.

[Ash]

Yeah, sharks are fascinating.

[Elena]

Yeah, they really are. I love sharks. Love sharks. I do, too. Shark Week. They, they. This ability allows them to locate prey and also makes them really good at identifying when prey might be, you know, in distress and, you know, an easy meal. Because sharks, again, pretty lazy, love fast food like the rest of us. So they're like, if it can just be dropped in front of me, why not? Like, that's what she. That's what sharks really look at. They're like, it's got to be easy.

[Ash]

Yeah, it's right.

[Elena]

And if it seems like it's in distress, then it's really not going to put up that much of a fight and I can get my meal and peace out and go on my way. But when the Indianapolis went down, it churned up the sea, causing a large commotion in the water, which, you know, sharks all over the place were like, what's that up with that? And also, there was a lot of splashing from the men, and the blood from the injured and dying would have sent a. A strong signal to nearby sharks. I mean, this was like a homing beacon to sharks who would have followed the scent and at least come to investigate what was going on.

[Ash]

Right.

[Elena]

So throughout the day, Curtis Page and the others watched as the group of white tips below grew larger and larger. They just kept on congregating, and they're just circling, just circling. And for the time being, they were just circling lazily, kind of going and Then all of a sudden they would like. They said they would like, like go below all of them. And then sometimes would grow bold and investigate. But then crewmen would like splash and kick at them and they'd kind of retreat away. But it's like you don't have the energy to keep doing that.

[Ash]

No.

[Elena]

Then the sun went down and they said it was as though they got more emboldened by the sun going down. Cozell Smith was laying on one of the floating nets with several other men. This is so scary. So it was a floating net and he was laying on there with a few other men when one of the white tips shot up from below at like a high speed because that's what they do. And grabbed Smith's hand in its mouth and he screamed. High pitched shriek. Everybody said they heard in the middle of the night. The shark dragged Smith off the raft, pulled him 10ft below the surface and whipped its head back and forth with his arm in its jaws. And he's 10ft in the ocean in the pitch black. So even if he's opening his eyes, he's seeing pitch blackness and just being thrown. I need you to fully comprehend that.

[Ash]

Cuz I didn't you ever.

[Elena]

Until I like. Like cuz you hear that and you're like oh my God, that's awful. Ah. And then you really think of every single component of this and you go oh my God. That is like. Like hell on earth.

[Ash]

Yep.

[Elena]

I can't think of what. You're laying down after a shipwreck and get. You survived a shipwreck.

[Ash]

Like an insane military attack.

[Elena]

Yes. Two torpedoes hitting your ship. You get dragged beneath the surface from a shark into the pitch black depths of the ocean where you are looking around at nothing.

[Ash]

But you also know that multiple other sharks have been surrounding you all day. And then so even if this one doesn't get you. Yeah. There's however many more.

[Elena]

And are they just descending upon me? Am I about to just be torn from limb from limb and this one is tearing a limb off of me.

[Ash]

Well, this guy survives.

[Elena]

He survives.

[Ash]

What the.

[Elena]

Because Smith managed to hold his breath by the way. Because you got it. You're 10ft below the surface and is punching and poking at the shark's snout. Because that's what you're supposed to do. That's supposed to work.

[Ash]

Sure is.

[Elena]

It didn't.

[Ash]

No.

[Elena]

He was unwilling to let go of Smith. So he managed to sink his other hand into the shark's gills and pushed as hard as he could. And finally the shark let Go. And he was able to shoot back up to the surface.

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[Mike Corey]

Hey weirdos, I'm Mike Corey and like you, I'm drawn to true crime, creepy history and all things spooky. If you particularly enjoyed Ash and Elena's coverage of the USS Indianapolis, where 900 sailors battle the rough seas, sharks, dehydration and madness in the open ocean, you need to check out my podcast against the Odds. We dive deep into this survival story across four full episodes, revealing details you haven't heard yet.

[Elena]

Yet.

[Mike Corey]

Each week on against the Odds, we put you in the shoes of real survivors. From the Thai cave rescue to Somali pirate hostages to the Donner Party, these aren't just headlines. They're incredible stories of human endurance. Follow against the Odds on the Wondery App or wherever you get your podcasts. Wondery subscribers can listen to both against the Odds and Morbid early and ad free. Start your free trial in the Wondery App. App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Today.

[Elena]

He frantically swarmed towards the net. Like he ran. He like swam as fast as he could towards the nets. His hand was shredded. Oh, by the Shark, by the way. Yeah, because they.

[Ash]

They got teeth on teeth on teeth.

[Elena]

On teeth on teeth on teeth. It gets worse. No, because when he gets to the shark, he gets up, survives this, gets to the raft.

[Ash]

He cuts him again.

[Elena]

And his crewmates shouted at him to get away from the boat.

[Ash]

Oh.

[Elena]

Because the shark was gonna come back and pull more of them down because he's now bleeding everywhere.

[Ash]

Them.

[Elena]

What the. And they're kicking and pushing him away. And in that moment, though, he said, y'all. He had so much adrenaline that he pulled himself onto the raft anyways.

[Ash]

Good. You can make a fucking turn. They kicked him off again.

[Elena]

Oh, no. One of the men started slashing at Smith with a knife.

[Ash]

Why?

[Elena]

And he succeeded in forcing him off of the boat. And now he is bleeding from slashes on his arms. And he shredded hand.

[Ash]

What the fuck?

[Elena]

So he slid back into the water.

[Ash]

And they were literally about to sacrifice. They were not even about to. They were sacrificing.

[Elena]

They were like, get out of here. Die. And they. So he gets away from the raft because he's like, y'all, like, I'm not going there. And is without a life jacket and is bleeding profusely now.

[Ash]

And there's just sharks everywhere.

[Elena]

By then, the sharks had started attacking other groups of crewmen, because once they saw this happen, the sharks were like, let's go. And they just started going crazy, darting up from below now and just grabbing injured people, grabbing dead bodies. Like, they're just. Just jumping up and grabbing people down.

[Ash]

The PTSD that these survivors must have had, unfathomable. How do you even treat that level of ptsd? Truly, the trauma.

[Elena]

Yeah.

[Ash]

Just seeing multiple of your friend, like your crew members and friends be, and multiple sharks shooting up through the surface.

[Elena]

Well, and to show you how horrifying this ordeal was, like, they're hearing there's terrorized screams just echoing in the night in the middle of the ocean. Men just screaming, crying, begging for mercy.

[Ash]

Oh, that's heartbreaking.

[Elena]

And so. And this other crew member seem. Seaman James King. He was like a young man. He was wounded by the blast already, and he was so terrorized by this whole thing that he removed his life jacket and tried to swim down into the water and just die. But he was quickly retrieved by his friend. And this is what shows you, like, the very ends of humanity here.

[Ash]

Yeah.

[Elena]

His friend Denny Price pulled him back up, and he said he did it several times. And Denny kept pulling him back up.

[Ash]

Oh, my God.

[Elena]

And when he was asked why he kept rescuing him during his Multiple attempts, attempts to end his life. Price later said it's just the right thing to do.

[Ash]

That's a G right there. That's a, that's a human, that's a friend.

[Elena]

Because he was like, we're gonna get out of this. Like, I know you're terrorist right now, but we're gonna get out of this.

[Ash]

You gotta keep a circle around you that you know after a sink, a sinking, you go down with a sinking ship. You survived that. There's sharks attacking you everywhere and you are at your wits end. You better surround yourself with friends that will rescue you every goddamn, every time. You give up and you should never doubt that. Your friends that for you.

[Elena]

And if you doubt that, get new friends. Drop them. Yeah, get new friends now. Until the sharks began attacking, the survivors had been keeping, you know, the dead men that they had that were growing in numbers each day. They kept them secured to a raft and they, the hope was that they could return their bodies to their loved ones once they were rescued. So they were really trying to like, you know, have some honor here for them. When the attack started though, those in positions of authority, like Ensign Harlan Twibble, started cutting away the bodies and allowing them to sink because they were like, they're just gonna keep attacking us. Like we can't.

[Ash]

Well, like you were just saying, the sharks can literally smell.

[Elena]

And they were like, we're just kind of drawing them to us right now, so. And most of them were grabbed by the sharks before they could sink very far. Twibble said everybody was scared to death. These were all 18 and 19 year old kids. Kids. There wasn't any fighting, any turmoil, but everyone was scared.

[Ash]

And then you're just watching sharks eat your sinking friends.

[Elena]

Yeah. For an extended period of time, the survivors were more or less helpless and could do nothing more than listen to the screams and cries of their brothers, essentially one by one as they were dragged off by white tips.

[Ash]

Like how do you even disassociate from.

[Elena]

Them that, like that, like right next to you, you're the, the guy who you have been serving with and who you survived with gets dragged off screaming and you can't help them.

[Ash]

That's so funny.

[Elena]

And then you just watch as they get mauled by a shark.

[Ash]

Like that's the kind of thing that you. These are the kinds of thing, like we didn't talk about this in school.

[Elena]

They need to, These are the kinds.

[Ash]

Of things they need to tell you about.

[Elena]

Yeah. Now by Tuesday morning, most of the groups had set, set up shark watches and worked in shifts to keep an eye out for anything on or just below the surface. Once the large group of whitetips had picked off many of the dead and dying and faced the resistance from the injured and, you know, any of the able bodied that could fight back, the attacks did begin to slow in frequency, but they remained a terrifying reality through the entire ordeal until the very end. Like it never let up.

[Ash]

No, of course not.

[Elena]

McVay later said the kids who were in rafts by themselves on this one raft raft were scared to death of this shark because he kept swimming underneath the raft. You could see his big dorsal fin and it was white, almost as white as a sheet of paper. Apparently the shark spent most of his time on the surface and his fin had bleached out, so he didn't blend in with the surface at all. And I was like, that sounds like, like the super villain of sharks. And I don't like that now. In the decades that followed, the tragedy of the Indianapolis would become synonymous with shark attacks. That's something that a lot of people know about it. And one of the things that really made it synonymous with it was a large soliloquy given by the character Quint in Steven Spielberg's 1975 film Jaws. Quint was played by Robert Shaw, played wonderfully by Robert Shaw. I love Quint.

[Ash]

He's awesome.

[Elena]

Like, love Quint. And he was played as a gruff shark hunter whose hatred of sharks stemmed from his experiences surviving the USS Indianapolis.

[Ash]

Which now carries so much more weight.

[Elena]

It certainly does. I want to read his soliloquy because it's very real. Like they really pulled from the actual thing. Well, now you know that what it is.

[Ash]

Harrowing details.

[Elena]

So he said Japanese submarines slammed two torpedoes into her side, Chief. We was coming back from the island of Tinian till late. We just delivered the bomb, the Hiroshima bomb. 1100 men went into the water. Vessel went down in 12 minutes. Didn't see the first shark for about a half hour. Tiger, 13 footer. You know how you know that in the water, Chief? You can tell by looking from the dorsal to the tail. What we didn't know was that our bomb mission was so secret, no distress signal had been sent. They didn't even list us overdue for a week after first light, Chief, sharks come cruising by. So we formed ourselves into tight groups. You know, by the end of that first dawn, lost a hundred men. I don't know how many sharks there were. Maybe a thousand. I don't know many. I don't know how many men how many men? They average six an hour. Thursday morning, Chief, I bumped into a friend of mine, Herbie Robinson, from Cleveland. Baseball player, Bozen's mate. I thought he was asleep. I reached over to wake him up. He bobbed up and down in the water. He was kind of like a top. Upended. Well, he'd been bitten in half below the waist.

[Ash]

God.

[Elena]

And this is like real shit. It like, he just explained a very real scenario that happened.

[Ash]

Like, picture a thousand sharks. I can't picture 1,000 sharks and that.

[Elena]

You'Re just a sitting duck in the water.

[Ash]

I can't even picture 20 sharks without myself.

[Elena]

I can't imagine being on a boat and seeing a shark. I would be scared to see a shark in the water from a boat.

[Ash]

Absolutely. Because like you said, they just. They go to the depths of the ocean and then they shoot the powerhouse.

[Elena]

Up to the surface.

[Ash]

Oh, it's so scary. I'm never getting on a boat again, though.

[Elena]

No, it's real scary. And what's even worse is, like, that wasn't even the most of their problems, that the sharks were like, high on the list of problems.

[Ash]

What was worse?

[Elena]

There's a lot of that's going down. The bigger issue was they had eco. Complete lack of water to drink.

[Ash]

Oh, I literally forgot that, of course.

[Elena]

Because why would you even.

[Ash]

There's so many focused on the thousands of sharks personally.

[Elena]

In general, a person can survive without water for about three days, but the effects of dehydration, though, can set in fast. Like, you can survive, but at what cost?

[Ash]

But barely.

[Elena]

They set in fast, and they range from really strong thirst and headache. Headaches to confusion and hallucinations. Eventually, the body will go into complete shock and unconsciousness before it just shuts down systematically, like, slowly. Now, some of the rafts in the main group had managed to scavenge some of the water jugs that hadn't floated away, but that was really barely anything and definitely not enough to meet the needs of all the survivors.

[Ash]

Yeah, like, hundreds of them.

[Elena]

By Tuesday, those injured who hadn't been, you know, taken by sharks began to give up hope or just lose consciousness and simply would float away. Yeah, like, they would literally fall into unconsciousness and they would just float off.

[Ash]

Yeah.

[Elena]

Which is just really haunting to think. And a lot of them who were floating off would just remove their life jackets and let themselves drown. Oh, like that happened a lot because they just didn't want to prolong it anymore.

[Ash]

Yeah.

[Elena]

Now, Ensign Twibble later said, we tried to keep the men thinking that they would be saved. But there was no way in God's green earth that I knew we were going to be saved.

[Ash]

Right.

[Elena]

By the third night in the water, many among the crew had become delirious, suffering from heat stroke in the day or hypothermia at night, or dehydration all the time, or all three, probably. In McVeigh's group, a large number of men had tied themselves together using a length of rope secured to one of the rafts. He later said some of them lived through the period, but those who went out of their head earlier than, say, 48 to 60 hours didn't last. The people that were down in that group just gave up hope. So they feel that people just slipped out of their life jackets and just decided that they didn't want to face it any longer.

[Ash]

Oh, my God.

[Elena]

In Twibble's group, the effects of dehydration and madness had begun to affect many of the men around him. Lieutenant Richard Redmayne, once. Once one of the strongest among them, had been steadily declining over the course of the third day and was frequently heard crying out, I need to get to the engine room. Before trying to throw himself over the side of the raft. So he's just like hallucinating fully. Others were in a similarly hallucinatory state, muttering about seeing a water fountain down below, then diving beneath the surface. And some of them wouldn't come back up. I found an account by survivor Woody Eugene, and he said on that third day, this is his quote, he said the sun finally did rise and it got warmed up again. Some of the guys had been drinking salt water by now, and they were going berserk. They tell you big stories about the Indianapolis is not sunk. It's just right there beneath the surface. I was just down there and had a drink of water out of the drinking fountain. And the Gee Dunk is still open. The Gee Dunk being the commissary where you buy ice cream, cigarettes, candy, what have you. It's still open. They tell you, come on, we'll get a drink of water. And then three or four guys would believe this story and go with them. Them.

[Ash]

Oh, that's horrible. Which just like, that's heartbreaking.

[Elena]

My heart like shattered in my chest reading. Cuz you're just think like they're all just like, let's go get water and candy.

[Ash]

Like, oh my God.

[Elena]

Oh, it just like. And these are like, so like, oh.

[Ash]

Makes you want to cry.

[Elena]

I just like, want to hug their parents. Among the last of the injured to voluntarily give up his life was Commander Stanley Lipski. This is just so sad. He was the Indianapolis's gunnery officer. He had suffered serious burns in the explosion after the first torpedo strike. And by the time he hit the water, quote, the flesh on his hands had been burned down to the tendons and his eyes were burned closed. Oh, my God. Despite having remained in the water since abandoning ship, he had managed to avoid the shark and hold out longer than most of the others who'd been gravely injured. He was still there on the third day. Then on the afternoon of August 1, he looked to his friend Lewis Doc Haynes and said, I'm going now, Lou. Tell my wife I love her and I want to marry her again. Oh, I know that one, like, really got me.

[Ash]

No, no, no.

[Elena]

I almost just cried saying that.

[Ash]

Oh my God, you just ruined me.

[Elena]

I know. Tell my wife I want to marry her again.

[Ash]

Like, no, hold on.

[Elena]

I know that, like, really got me.

[Ash]

Like, that's awful.

[Elena]

And just your friend looking at you and being like, I'm going now. Like, it's just like for you to. And he looked at his friend because he was like, please remove my life jacket. Like, he couldn't because his hands were burned down to the tendons.

[Ash]

Oh, dude.

[Elena]

So Hanes said he, he knew, he's like, I. He was in pain. Like, he was miserable.

[Ash]

It would be awful to stop.

[Elena]

And he was like, he, his eyes are closed. And so he said he removed his friend's life jacket and allowed his body to slip under the surface of the.

[Ash]

Imagine being his wife and hearing that.

[Elena]

And like, thank goodness Hanes was later able to relay that message that, like, tell my wife I love her and I want to marry her again.

[Ash]

Stop saying that.

[Elena]

I know every time I say it I get a lump in my throat.

[Ash]

I know. That literally brought tears to my eyes now.

[Elena]

Throughout their four day ordeal on the open ocean, the survivors had seen several planes fly overhead, like I mentioned. And they made strong efforts to get the attention of the pilots, but obviously to no avail. In fact, by the last day, any fears of being captured by the Japanese had left most of their minds, to be honest. And all that mattered, most of their worries. Yeah. And all that mattered at this point was getting the fuck out of the water.

[Ash]

Right.

[Elena]

The Indianapolis was expected to arrive back in the Philippines on Tuesday, July 31. First. But when it failed to arrive, no one sounded the alarm. After all, they'd been on a top secret mission. And there were many reasons why they could have been delayed. So the few who were aware of their existence Saw no reason to be concerned.

[Ash]

Dear God.

[Elena]

Also, the control offices in Guam and the Philippines had been charting the Indianapolis's travel each day, using their last known coordinates and their speed to approximate the location.

[Ash]

Yeah.

[Elena]

Now, in truth, the US Navy had no idea where they were or that it had sank.

[Ash]

Yeah.

[Elena]

It's just the truth of the matter. By that time, the wreckage had sunk to the bottom of the ocean, which was nearly 10,000ft deep in that area.

[Ash]

Jesus Christ. I was looking up some of the pictures of when they eventually found it.

[Elena]

Yeah. So there wouldn't have been anything to indicate that the ship had ever even been there on the surface. And even if there was evidence of a ship being attacked in that location, that would have been very little help to the survivors of the Indianapolis, because by the time the Navy had become alarmed about the crew's failure to return, the survivors had drifted anywhere between 60 and 200 miles from the site of the attack. They were nowhere near where that happened. So a search of the area wouldn't have really led to their rescue. Really.

[Ash]

Yeah.

[Elena]

That the crew of the Indianapolis were rescued at all had more to do with luck and coincidence than it really did military policy and tracking people wondering.

[Ash]

How they were found.

[Elena]

On the morning of August 2nd, Wilbur Chuck Gwyn was flying over the Philippine sea in his PV1 Ventura bomber, conducting a sweep for enemy vessels. A new antenna had been installed on the bomber that morning, and it had snapped off a few minutes into the flight. So he had been told to come back to base so they could replace it. And then. So he ended up being, like, an hour behind schedule. And a little past 11am he was about 350 miles north of Palau at the tip of the Philippines, cruising at roughly 3,000ft. Because he had fallen behind schedule. His trajectory had him facing directly into the sun at that time of the day, but he could still see about 20 miles in every direction. He hadn't been out very long when the second antenna snapped. Oh, man. And it was only replaced, like, 10 minutes earlier, and it snapped off. And the radio men suggested he return and get a replacement for the replacement. So after turning the controls over to his co pilot, Warren Colwell, Gwyn ducked into the belly of the plane. And he was trying to secure the antenna wire to the plane to keep it from, like, damaging the tail.

[Ash]

Right.

[Elena]

So he grabbed a long length of rubber hose and then opened a small hatch to start reeling the wire back into the plane. When he looked down, though, he saw something, and he jumped to his feet and ran back to his co pilot, and he yelled to him, he said, look down. And when he looked down, it appeared to be an enemy submarine.

[Ash]

Oh.

[Elena]

Now, at that time of day, the sun had reflected really hard off the sub, the surface of the ocean, so it made it impossible to see like, anything, but like a general shape in the water. He had said, it's like glass down there. You can't see a thing. Assuming that what he was seeing was an enemy vessel, Gwyn ordered his co pilot to open the bomb bay doors and prepare to release one of the depth charges. Shut the fuck up. But the Ventura got descended and got into position, so it had to descend a little. And Gwyn realized he was not seeing an enemy ship. Thank goodness. He realized, yeah, but he's seeing a few hundred men floating in the water on rafts or some. Most, he said, were just bobbing on the surface alongside the lifeboats.

[Ash]

Can you imagine if they survived all.

[Elena]

Of that and then got bombed by their own men?

[Ash]

Accidentally bombed by their own men?

[Elena]

That would have been. I mean, I can't even now. By the fourth day in the water, the survivors had begun to accept that rescue wasn't likely going to come and they were going to die. Then late Thursday morning, Kenley Lanter, one of the men in Glenn Morgan's group, spotted something in the air coming in their direction. So Lanter called out, hey, Morgan, look. And he said, jerking his head in the direction of it, he said, do you see see it? And Morgan and the other one was going nuts. Yeah, well. And he was probably just like, look, another plane that's going to fly by us and not do anything. And so the other men on the rap looked up and they saw it and they were like, yeah, I see it. And he, at first he said, is it a bird? Cuz he was like, I couldn't really. Like, my eyes were so blurry and everything, I couldn't see. He's like, is it a bird? And they all squinted, they couldn't really make it out. And Morgan had just opened up his mouth to be like, yeah, it's a bird. When Lantern interrupted him and said, that's a fucking plane.

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[Elena]

Now. All the men in the rafts and many more in the water started shouting because they're not giving up. Like, if they see something, they're gonna try, of course. And they're all. And it's like their voices must have been so strained and harsh and like.

[Ash]

They'Ve had no water.

[Elena]

They've had cotton mouths and dry throats and just like. And have been screaming for four days, essentially. They're all waving their hands in the air. And as Gwyn's plane descended further, he could see them in the water. And he said they were covered in oil. And he said, and what surrounded them was a huge miles long oil slick.

[Ash]

Wow.

[Elena]

The amount of oil and the size of the crew in the water suggested to him that his ship had gone down. But Gwyn hadn't heard of any ship sinking because nobody knew. So he was like, this doesn't make sense. But he was like, regardless of how they got there, they were clearly in trouble. So he ordered the bay doors opened again and he started dropping the life raft and every life jacket they had on the plane and a buoy and all the buoys they had on board down to them to at least start the process. Like, here, here's what we have.

[Ash]

Gonna need more manpower, but at least here's this.

[Elena]

When he'd done that, he ran back to the cockpit and got on the radio to report. Many men in the water at that, at those coordinates. Now his antenna is broken, remember. So his message back to base came through really badly. Garbled, sounding like am circling life raft. But that's all that technicians could really make out. Fortunately, the closer they got, the more Gwen and the flight crew began to understand the scope of what they were seeing. And he returned to the radio to make additional reports which were better received, luckily. But at first it was like, are you kidding me? The communications staff moved quickly to set the rescue operation in motion. And they launched amphibian rescue vessels that if they made good Time could reach the men in about three hours.

[Ash]

But then they're also still in enemy water.

[Elena]

Exactly.

[Ash]

Can be hit by torpedoes.

[Elena]

Exactly. I'm terrified. A lot of attention is being put on this scene, so they're getting even scareder. At that time, the Cecil J. Doyle, a U.S. navy destroyer escort, was cruising about 50 miles off the coast of Palau. As one of the vessels dispatched from command base flew over the Doyle, the pilot, Adrian Marks, radioed to the ship below and alerted them to what was happening. They had not received any official orders to assist in the emergency. The ship's captain, though, Graham Claytor, knew it would be hours before a rescue team would reach those men in the water. So he made the decision, without even being ordered to, to change course and go aid the men from the Indianapolis. Which is like a badass decision.

[Ash]

Hell, yeah.

[Elena]

Although the official order came through to the crew of the Doyle an hour and a half later, according to one report, it is not possible to say how many lives Clayton stole in 90 minutes. Minutes saved.

[Ash]

Wow.

[Elena]

So, like, good on him for real. For several hours that morning, Seaman First Class Dick Thielen, who gives some interviews to that you can watch, and they're very fascinating. He had been drifting away from the larger group in the water, and then in late morning, he heard the sound of what he would later learn was Mark's plane flying overhead. Thielen watched with absolute astonishment as the cargo bay bay doors opened and the plane dropped a lifeboat about 50 yards from where he was floating. He said he called out to the three other men nearby, and they all started swimming towards the raft and were probably. I can't imagine the elation.

[Ash]

And they're just probably sitting there questioning if this is real.

[Elena]

Yeah. Like, are we being tricked? Like, what's happening? Are we hallucinating?

[Ash]

That's the thing. They probably thought they were.

[Elena]

By the time Thelen made it to the raft, two of the other men had already climbed in, but there was still no sign of his friend Robert Terry. Thelen looked back and spotted Robert Terry a few yards behind him. And he said he had stopped swimming and was clutching his chest. And he said his face was twisted in like a grimace.

[Ash]

Oh, no.

[Elena]

And Thielen thought Terry might be having a heart attack. And then all of a sudden, he just disappeared completely under the water.

[Ash]

Did a shark get him?

[Elena]

And he said a few seconds later, he appeared again above the water, and he was now swimming towards the raft. And Thielen called out to him, encouraging him, being like, you're gonna make it. You're gonna make it. Come on. And even got into the water to help him. Him. And he had just lowered himself into the water when he turned to see a large white tip bolt out of the water and grab Robert Terry, dragging him under the water. And he was gone.

[Ash]

He was that close to rescue.

[Elena]

He was that close to rescue that shark. I think that shark is a. I hate that shark.

[Ash]

I hate.

[Elena]

I love sharks.

[Ash]

I do too.

[Elena]

That shark's a ass.

[Ash]

That particular shark I hate.

[Elena]

Cuz that was a move. Move. That was like that to be. Are you kidding? You've had a feast for days, you piece of.

[Ash]

And he was that.

[Elena]

And he was so close. And. And for. And for his friend to watch his friend and be encouraging him, being like, come on, like we're almost there. And getting into the water to help him and then watch him be dragged under by a shark.

[Ash]

Oh, my God.

[Elena]

And you can't even, like, you can't even properly celebrate that you're being rescued.

[Ash]

Because you just watch your friend get eaten. And it's like, how do you ever get over that?

[Elena]

And Thelen said, like, he said that he was in complete shock. And he just sat in the water for a second in complete shock, like, couldn't overcome it. And he's like. And obviously I had to. And I managed to get myself back on the raft. Yeah.

[Ash]

Before another shock.

[Elena]

He's like, I can't let myself get dragged under now. Mark's plane was just the first of many to arrive at the scene. For the rest of the afternoon, a steady stream of planes flew overhead, Dropping rafts, life jackets, other supplies, Just making sure they could survive in the time before they could get them out. Knowing the rescue ships were still a ways off and that time was of the essence, Marx made a decision that would likely save a ton of people's lives, he decided. So to land a seaplane of that size on the open ocean and in such a small window to be, like, accessible to stranded survivors was very, very risky. It's just not something you can do. But Marx decided to. That he was gonna do that. He was gonna try it. So he descended to the lowest point he could and put the plane into a power stall, which is an aviation phenomenon that causes the plane to lose lift. And he brought the plane down on the surface of the ocean with three hard bounces. And he said, to his astonishment, the plane suffered only minor damage. And once he got the bay's doors open, Marx and the other crew members began loading in the most vulnerable men from the Indianapolis.

[Ash]

Wow.

[Elena]

So he, like, put himself at risk to make sure he could get at least the most trouble on damn the do. This is what I mean when you see like, you really see like the opposite ends of the spectrum of like humans being humans here. People shoving people off of life rafts, but then risking their own lives for each other.

[Ash]

Wow.

[Elena]

Now the Doyle was the first ship to reach the survivors a little after 9:30pm Given the size of the destroyer and the extent to which the men were scattered across the water, Claytor and the crew of the Doyle had to be extremely careful to not churn up the water and set them adrift. Yeah. Or run them down because he couldn't. It was night.

[Ash]

Yeah.

[Elena]

But that wasn't the only problem. Claytor had also received warnings of Japanese submarines patrolling the area. I had a feeling putting the pressure on them to get the men of the Indianapolis out of the fucking water as quickly as possible. Other ships arrived a short time later and working with only the light from the Doyle because they didn't want to draw attention, they worked diligently to pull every survivor out of the water.

[Ash]

Wow.

[Elena]

Corporal Edgar Harrell said most everyone was pretty much in my condition. You couldn't stand up. Even difficult to sit up. You were exhausted. Probably lost 20 to 25 pounds in four days. Yeah. Captain McVeigh's group never saw the planes fly overhead. But that evening, the USS Ringness, a high speed transport boat, spotted the group on their radar and slowly made their way over to them. Them. McVeigh heard one of the men say, my God, look at this. There are two destroyers bearing down on us. Why, they're almost on top of us. And he said when he turned, the ship was pulling up beside them and lowering the rescue equipment. And he said it was just like a view I can't even describe. Yeah. On the. On board the Ringness, the injured were tended to by the ship's doctors, and other men ate and drank to excess. They hadn't eaten in four days. The USS Indianapolis went down at around 12:15am on July 30, 1945, taking with it roughly 300 men. The remaining 890 crewmen spent four days and five nights in the water. By the time the rescue crew arrived on August 2nd, only 317 men had survived. 890 went into the water. 317 survived.

[Ash]

Wow.

[Elena]

In total, the rescue operation took nearly 24 hours. Years later, during an interview, Harlan Twibble said, saw some great heroism and I saw some great fright and I saw some things I wouldn't Ever want to talk about. And I can't imagine now. On August 6, 1945, the US dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, which was followed by the bombing of Nagasaki three days later. Although the Japanese wouldn't officially surrender for nearly a month, this basically effectively ended World War II. In all the enthusiasm over the end of the war, few people really gave a lot of thought about the missing men on the USS Indianapolis. The survivors were taken to hospitals on the closest islands, including the military base at Guam, where they started the long road to physical recovery. Meanwhile, the US Navy went into damage control modes, developing a strategy to deal with what was obviously a very botched mission.

[Ash]

Yeah. A metal misstep.

[Elena]

Yeah. Among other things, those in positions of Authority had denied McVeigh the military escort he'd requested when they set out from Hawaii, ignored the distress signals received by the Indianapolis at the time it began sinking, and failed to recognize the reports from late when the ship didn't arrive as expected.

[Ash]

So they did.

[Elena]

Did send us. In simple terms, my jaw is wide open. The entire situation made the Navy brass look incompetent at best and at worst liable for the deaths of hundreds of sailors.

[Ash]

I'd say so.

[Elena]

That kind of scandal and the fallout from any investigations not only reflected badly on the military, but also threatened to overshadow the enthusiasm over the US Victory in this Pacific. In fact, in Washington, high ranking military officials had already begun demanding answers and scheduling a hearing to determine the cause of sinking. A few days earlier, on August 13th, Captain Charles McVeigh found himself before the court of inquiry in in Guam, where he was intensely questioned as to the cause of the disaster. During the hearing, a lot of the surviving crew members who were well enough to appear testified as to their experience during and after the whole thing. When the hearing concluded, a few of the communications officers were lightly punished for failing to recognize the Indianapolis's absence when it didn't returned. So, like, they really just got like.

[Ash]

A slap on the.

[Elena]

Oh, like they didn't return on time and you didn't say anything like, bad job. But it was McVeigh who the court really went after.

[Ash]

Sorry, what?

[Elena]

Oh, his story is horrifically sad, but they do get justice for him later, I'll give you that.

[Ash]

Why did they go after him?

[Elena]

In their letter to the Judge Advocate General, which is the jag, military officials wrote full justification for ordering the trial springs from the fact that this case is of vital interest not only to the families of those who lost their lives, but also to the public at large. But when it came Time to making their case. Officials in Washington failed to mention the myriad ways in which they contributed to the tragedy themselves, choosing instead to lay blame completely at the feet of Captain McVeigh.

[Ash]

I don't understand how.

[Elena]

In their summary report, the JAG wrote, The court is of the opinion that a contributory responsibility for Los Indianapolis rests upon Captain Charles B. McVeigh III, U.S. navy, for failure to order zigzag courses to be steered and that a contributory responsibility rests upon Captain Charles B. McVeigh, 3rd, U.S. navy, for delay in connection with reporting the loss of the that ship due to failure to send out a distress message.

[Ash]

Both of those things are incorrect.

[Elena]

But a media blackout went into effect with only the most basic information about the disaster being released by the military. On August 15, 1945, an Associated Press article went out on the wire announcing that the Indianapolis had sunk in the pacific. And a few days earlier, the military reported 100% casualties and gave a version of events that directly contradicted the statements released a few days later. So it was just mayhem. Like things were being released that were just completely not true.

[Ash]

Yeah, like full falsehoods.

[Elena]

So the navy worked very hard to make the charge of failing to send out a distress signal stick. But it soon became apparent that they couldn't do that without implicating themselves. So instead, they went after him for failing to properly execute the zigzag maneuver. Maneuver? He was doing a zigzag maneuver before that, but he wasn't at the time of the attack. That's what they're hinging this on.

[Ash]

Okay?

[Elena]

And like I said before, it was precautionary what he was doing before, it wasn't even ordered. It wasn't necessary. Right. In support of the charge, the government subpoenaed commander Mochisura Hashimoto, the guy who ordered the captain of the submarine that fired on the Indianapolis.

[Ash]

And we're gonna. We're gonna trust that guy.

[Elena]

Oh. Get ready. In his testimony, Hashimoto acknowledged that McVeigh hadn't engaged the zigzag maneuver, but then said zigzagging would have made no change in the way he fired the torpedoes and that he would have sunk the defenseless. Defenseless ship either way.

[Ash]

Huh?

[Elena]

He's gonna come back later. Now, given this heavy censorship in the media blackout, the military was able to effectively control the narrative. Narrative?

[Ash]

That's not good.

[Elena]

They pin the institutional failures on McVeigh.

[Ash]

That's to have that man man his crew the way he did and his crew. All of that good.

[Elena]

His crew Comes out good. In November 1958, McVeigh was found guilty of negligence, shocking everyone familiar with this.

[Ash]

They just scapegoated him completely.

[Elena]

Reporter Paul McVee, McVie McGee, excuse me, Wrote the verdict came as complete surprise. The evidence in the case was believed by most to have indicated that instead of mcveigh being negligent, his ship was efficiently. It was an efficiently run vessel.

[Ash]

Yeah, and it was.

[Elena]

The decision to court martial Charles McVeigh pissed off the survivors of the Indianapolis, I bet, who all believed, generally all believed him to be a very strong leader and had no fault whatsoever for what happened. Twibble recalled, Once the captain was court martialed, my first thought was, how can we get these guys for doing this?

[Ash]

Good.

[Elena]

And name all. All the men started writing letters to congress and speaking out publicly on mcveigh's behalf, eventually finding an ally in New Hampshire, Senator Robert Smith, who called the court martial morally unsustainable. Unfortunately, Smith's attempts to overturn the verdict were unsuccessful, and the decision stood. It literally forever marred McVeigh's military record. And in the wake of the decision, McVeigh began receiving an endless, endless stream of angry letters from the public and civilians who blamed him for the tragedy. Now. And author Doug Stanton wrote, he read every letter he received and took them all personally. Oh, eventually, and this is very. This is very tragic. Eventually, the burden and shame unfairly thrust upon him, Charles McVeigh became too much to bear.

[Ash]

I can't imagine.

[Elena]

On. On November 6, 1968, Captain Charles McVeigh shot himself at his home, Connecticut.

[Ash]

Oh, that's so sad.

[Elena]

He had lost his wife to cancer several years earlier. And those who knew him best believed after she passed, he had nothing left to go on for.

[Ash]

Oh, God, that's awful.

[Elena]

Now, there is more after this. That is an awful, awful tragedy. But something does come out of it now, as was common of this era in that generation, the men who survived the sinking of the Indianapolis never spoke publicly about their appearance. Appearance, for the most part, at first. And they never talked about the effects of the trauma that they had endured. But after mcveigh's death and the passage of time, it inspired many of them to come forward and tell the world what really happened, because they were like that. He's not dying. He died in vain. Edgar Harrell said, it's not justifiable to put the blame on Captain McVeigh. They just broke him in more ways than one.

[Ash]

That's so up.

[Elena]

Harold was among several crewmen who, after, over the later decades of the 20th century told their stor through books, television interviews, oral history projects. He said, I can still see and feel the trauma of swimming those four days. I can still remember today as if it were just yesterday. As early as 1960, the survivors began getting together every year for a union and to remember those that they'd lost. Eventually, their group once again rallied to exonerate Charles McVeigh. And they finally succeeded in 2000 prison with the help of the most unlikely source you can imagine.

[Ash]

You said that guy was coming back.

[Elena]

54 years after he'd testified at Charles McVeigh's court martial, Mochi Tsara Hashimoto was again before the United States government. This time in order to help restore McVeigh's name and reputation.

[Ash]

Let me just say that's a full karmic circle.

[Elena]

That's a wild circle circle. In his testimony, Hashimoto said he wanted to join the brave men who survived the sinking of the Indianapolis in urging that your national legislature clear their captain's name. Our people have forgiven each other for that terrible war and its consequences. Perhaps it's time Your people forgave Captain McVeigh for the humiliation of his unjust conviction.

[Ash]

Wow. This is the man who essentially is responsible for sinking.

[Elena]

Yeah, he ordered the torpedoes, which he had to.

[Ash]

It's war. Like, that's what's awful.

[Elena]

I can't even. This is the man who ordered the torpedoes, and he is coming forward full circle and saying to the us, To Congress, he's saying, maybe it's time Your people forgive Captain McVeigh for the humiliation of his unjust conviction. Yeah, that's a mouthful.

[Ash]

Yeah, it is.

[Elena]

This time, the US Military was willing to listen. And moved by the testimony, Congress voted on October 12, 2000, to exonerate Captain Charles McVey.

[Ash]

You just wish that he was there to experience that.

[Elena]

Thirteen days later, Mochi Hashimoto passed away.

[Ash]

That is on some life that you just can't explain.

[Elena]

Like, that's the last thing you. You had to do that. Yeah. To clean.

[Ash]

I just feel like you gotta believe in something.

[Elena]

Something. I don't know what it is.

[Ash]

Like, I don't know exactly. I don't know what. But that makes you believe in something.

[Elena]

Holy Harrow later said just to have him exonerated meant something, but it didn't do him any good. And then he said, it certainly did us good.

[Ash]

That's good that, like, his crew got to see that happen. Like the.

[Elena]

Hopefully, wherever he is, hopefully he saw it happen.

[Ash]

I know. That's so sad that he lived the rest of his life being blamed for something that was not shouldering it. Yeah.

[Elena]

Reading every letter to the remaining survivors of The Indianapolis exonerating McKay was literally the last chapter of the Indianapolis story. Yeah. But 17 years later, the story got a kind of epilogue that no one was expecting. In the summer of 2017, a dive team led by Microsoft founder Paul Allen announced they had found unmistakable wreckage of the Indianapolis more than 18,000ft down in the Philippine Sea. He said in a statement, while our search for the rest of the wreckage will continue, I hope everyone connected to this historic ship will feel some measure of closure at this discovery so long in coming. By that time, only 19 of the original survivors remained, and most were too frail and too, you know, past the point of being able to make an appearance or comment on it. But instead, Captain William Todi, a spokesperson for the survivors, released a statement on their behalf. Half. For more than two decades, I've been working with the survivors. To a man, they have longed for the day when their ship would be found solving their final mystery. They all know this is now a war memorial.

[Ash]

Wow. I just sent chills down my back.

[Elena]

And that is the sinking of the USS Indianapolis.

[Ash]

What a story. From beginning to end.

[Elena]

And thank you to Dave for such amazing help with this research, because this is a. A. This is a. This is a ship in and of itself, of a. Of a. Of a research pile. And it's. There's so much to this and so.

[Ash]

Many different rabbit holes.

[Elena]

You can.

And I'm sure a lot of, like, you don't really. I never learned about Captain Charles McVeigh and the. And what had happened after that and what he went through and that it was Hashimoto who was the one who moved the US Military to exonerate him. Like, that's the story of the story. If you wrote that, people would be like, that's wild and, like, too fictitious. Ambitious to. To have.

[Ash]

Yeah.

[Elena]

Like, that's a. That's a story.

[Ash]

Seriously.

[Elena]

Blew my mind. I'm.

[Ash]

I'm absolutely mind blown right now.

[Elena]

Blew my mind.

[Ash]

I feel like I'm just gonna dive into, like, a hole.

[Elena]

I know.

[Ash]

I just. I want to go, like, find out even more. Yeah.

[Elena]

Because listen to these, like, survivors interviews and stuff and read their stuff. It's fascinating what they went through. And to hear all the different perspectives.

[Ash]

I can just, like, hear the History Channel playing in our house.

[Elena]

Yeah.

[Ash]

Papa always to the history. Or watches the History Channel. Know, I. Maybe that's why Charles McVeigh's name sounded familiar to me.

[Elena]

Actually, it probably did.

[Ash]

Yeah.

[Elena]

Yeah.

[Ash]

Go dive into the History Channel.

[Elena]

Go re. Go research this, guys. It's fascinating. Wow.

[Ash]

I'm like shocked. Yeah, That's a crazy tale.

[Elena]

Truly.

[Ash]

I don't know how to properly.

[Elena]

Harrowing.

[Ash]

Harrowing. I don't even properly know how to end this. So I guess I'll just say we.

[Elena]

Hope you keep listening and we hope you keep deep. It's weird. I mean, just guys be cool to one another.

[Ash]

Yeah. Sa.

[Elena]

If you like Morbid, you can listen early and ad free right now.

[Ash]

By joining Wondery plus in the Wondery.

[Elena]

App or on Apple Podcast Prime. Members can listen ad free on Amazon Music.

[Ash]

Before you go, tell us about yourself.

[Elena]

By filling out a short [e-mail] survey.

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[Elena]

This was not an operation that was performed. This was attempted murder.

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And there's Morbid, the hit podcast that's a lighthearted nightmare. With Wondery, you get access to exclusive bonus content too, allowing you to dive deeper into the cases you love. Like in Suspect, where an ordinary Halloween party turned into a terrifying murder mystery that left its mark on the community.

[Elena]

This case is one of those roller coaster rides where it's like, no, he did it for sure. No, he for sure he did it.

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