Last survivors of the Indianapolis
July 28, 2015 11:23 PM Subscribe
This story reads like a Spielberg film.
posted by clvrmnky at 3:24 AM on July 29, 2015 [4 favorites]
posted by clvrmnky at 3:24 AM on July 29, 2015 [4 favorites]
Interesting. Not sure about the heavy editorialising/spin of "It’s a story of victory", "It’s a story of healing" or whatever. It’s a story of a bunch of people in a war transporting parts for a weapon of mass destruction, who were left to die horribly - most of whom did - because their distress signals were ignored, and then covered up. It feels a bit of a stretch to make that all wonderfully positive and affirming.
posted by iotic at 3:29 AM on July 29, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by iotic at 3:29 AM on July 29, 2015 [2 favorites]
like a doll's eyes
posted by Halloween Jack at 4:42 AM on July 29, 2015 [4 favorites]
posted by Halloween Jack at 4:42 AM on July 29, 2015 [4 favorites]
It feels a bit of a stretch to make that all wonderfully positive and affirming.
Also the captain got a pretty raw deal... and eventually committed suicide
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 5:54 AM on July 29, 2015 [3 favorites]
Also the captain got a pretty raw deal... and eventually committed suicide
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 5:54 AM on July 29, 2015 [3 favorites]
Remembered seeing a film version back in the day which wasn't too bad. I'm guessing it was this. Have to track it down again some day.
Googling around to find the above I discovered there's another version in the works starring Nicolas Cage... oh boy.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 5:58 AM on July 29, 2015
Googling around to find the above I discovered there's another version in the works starring Nicolas Cage... oh boy.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 5:58 AM on July 29, 2015
Metafilter: starring Nicolas Cage... oh boy.
posted by Fizz at 6:01 AM on July 29, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by Fizz at 6:01 AM on July 29, 2015 [1 favorite]
Also the captain got a pretty raw deal... and eventually committed suicide
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 8:54 AM on July 29
The story of the captain is just heartbreaking.
posted by glaucon at 6:01 AM on July 29, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 8:54 AM on July 29
The story of the captain is just heartbreaking.
posted by glaucon at 6:01 AM on July 29, 2015 [3 favorites]
The craziest piece of movie trivia I know: Robert Shaw was 47 (!!!) when Jaws was made, and would have only been 18 at the time of the Indianapolis sinking.
posted by Ian A.T. at 6:08 AM on July 29, 2015
posted by Ian A.T. at 6:08 AM on July 29, 2015
I have read a couple of books about this event, and it's appalling on many levels. The treatment of the captain, the failure to notice the ship's absence, the suffering of the men in the water…sharks….ugh, such fractal terribleness.
posted by wenestvedt at 6:19 AM on July 29, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by wenestvedt at 6:19 AM on July 29, 2015 [2 favorites]
Well, now we all know why we had to go to war against the sharks in the Pacific.
posted by clvrmnky at 6:32 AM on July 29, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by clvrmnky at 6:32 AM on July 29, 2015 [2 favorites]
I have to wonder whether the reunions being in Indianapolis are less about the name of the ship and more about there not being any large bodies of water nearby.
posted by Etrigan at 6:57 AM on July 29, 2015 [4 favorites]
posted by Etrigan at 6:57 AM on July 29, 2015 [4 favorites]
I was in the Navy from 1960 to 1963. I served with a lot of combat veterans of WW2 and Korea. I heard a lot of true war stories but the saddest was the story of Dick. Dick was a 2nd class Motor Mac when I knew him. He'd been all up and down the ranking structure in the many years of his service and had a drinking problem. He was a sad man who'd lost a lot of shipmates during WW2.
Dick was a cruiser sailor before the war, he loved his cruisers. They were large and comfortable and a little chickenshit. They often carried a flag officer and were fussy about the uniforms and behavior regulations. But the food was good, and the liberty was in interesting places. They were ships to be proud of. He was a plank holder on the Helena, meaning he was a member of the commissioning crew. The first to sail her.
Helena was at Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, when the Japanese attacked. Helena was in the berth normally assigned to the battleship Pennsylvania, and thus became a prime target for the Japanese planes.
Within three minutes of the time the first bomb of the attack fell on Ford Island, a lone torpedo bomber launched a torpedo that hit Helena on the starboard side almost amidships, just as the crew raced to battle stations. Twenty men were killed. One engine room and one boiler room were flooded. Wiring to the main and secondary batteries was severed, but prompt action brought the forward diesel generator up within two minutes, making power available to all mounts. Dick was a Motor Mac and that was his motor.
The Helena refitted at Mare Island and rejoined the war at the battle of Guadalcanal. She performed heroically until the battle of Kula Gulf in July 1943. During a ferocious surface battle she took 3 torpedoes which sank her. The crew abandoned ship and were picked up piecemeal the last bunch spent 10 days in the shark infested water. Of the 900 men, 165 were lost.
Cano was reassigned to minesweeper duty. There were 40 minesweepers lost in WW2, Cano was aboard 3 of them when they were lost.
After being sunk three times in minesweepers he finally got assigned to his beloved Cruisers. He was assigned to the USS Indianapolis for what became her last cruise.
posted by shnarg at 7:38 AM on July 29, 2015 [18 favorites]
Dick was a cruiser sailor before the war, he loved his cruisers. They were large and comfortable and a little chickenshit. They often carried a flag officer and were fussy about the uniforms and behavior regulations. But the food was good, and the liberty was in interesting places. They were ships to be proud of. He was a plank holder on the Helena, meaning he was a member of the commissioning crew. The first to sail her.
Helena was at Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, when the Japanese attacked. Helena was in the berth normally assigned to the battleship Pennsylvania, and thus became a prime target for the Japanese planes.
Within three minutes of the time the first bomb of the attack fell on Ford Island, a lone torpedo bomber launched a torpedo that hit Helena on the starboard side almost amidships, just as the crew raced to battle stations. Twenty men were killed. One engine room and one boiler room were flooded. Wiring to the main and secondary batteries was severed, but prompt action brought the forward diesel generator up within two minutes, making power available to all mounts. Dick was a Motor Mac and that was his motor.
The Helena refitted at Mare Island and rejoined the war at the battle of Guadalcanal. She performed heroically until the battle of Kula Gulf in July 1943. During a ferocious surface battle she took 3 torpedoes which sank her. The crew abandoned ship and were picked up piecemeal the last bunch spent 10 days in the shark infested water. Of the 900 men, 165 were lost.
Cano was reassigned to minesweeper duty. There were 40 minesweepers lost in WW2, Cano was aboard 3 of them when they were lost.
After being sunk three times in minesweepers he finally got assigned to his beloved Cruisers. He was assigned to the USS Indianapolis for what became her last cruise.
posted by shnarg at 7:38 AM on July 29, 2015 [18 favorites]
The story of the USS Indianapolis is a horrifying one.
Etrigan: "I have to wonder whether the reunions being in Indianapolis are less about the name of the ship and more about there not being any large bodies of water nearby."
There aren't any large bodies of water here, but the White River and Fall Creek both flow through the city. We also have a lovely canal walk dating back to the 1800s when canals were all the rage. People like to say Indianapolis is "the largest city on a non-navigable waterway", but I doubt that's true.
I-465 has been officially known as the USS Indianapolis Memorial Highway since 2011, though everyone here still calls it "I-465".
posted by double block and bleed at 8:16 AM on July 29, 2015 [1 favorite]
Etrigan: "I have to wonder whether the reunions being in Indianapolis are less about the name of the ship and more about there not being any large bodies of water nearby."
There aren't any large bodies of water here, but the White River and Fall Creek both flow through the city. We also have a lovely canal walk dating back to the 1800s when canals were all the rage. People like to say Indianapolis is "the largest city on a non-navigable waterway", but I doubt that's true.
I-465 has been officially known as the USS Indianapolis Memorial Highway since 2011, though everyone here still calls it "I-465".
posted by double block and bleed at 8:16 AM on July 29, 2015 [1 favorite]
1998 NY Times obituary for Adrian Marks, the PBY pilot who was first to get to the survivors, with further details
posted by indices at 10:59 AM on July 29, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by indices at 10:59 AM on July 29, 2015 [1 favorite]
Ship sunk, cold saltwater, limited/no food, no shelter, oh, and sharks. Yeah, that might be an ordeal that nobody could really talk about for any number of reasons. I can only imagine how the rescuers were traumatized by it as well.
posted by Chuffy at 12:50 PM on July 29, 2015
posted by Chuffy at 12:50 PM on July 29, 2015
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posted by growabrain at 12:04 AM on July 29, 2015