The ship that delivered the atomic bomb was torpedoed on its way home. 879 men made it into the water. The Navy didn't notice the ship was missing for four days. Only 316 survived.
In July 1945, the USS Indianapolis completed a top-secret mission: delivering the core components of the atomic bomb 'Little Boy' to Tinian Island in the Pacific. The ship made the delivery and departed for Leyte Gulf in the Philippines on July 28 — without an escort, as was standard for a fast heavy cruiser.
At 12:15 a.m. on July 30, 1945, a Japanese submarine fired two torpedoes into the Indianapolis. The ship sank in approximately 12 minutes. Of the 1,196 men aboard, about 300 went down with the ship. The remaining 879 made it into the water.
The men floated in the Philippine Sea with no lifeboats, minimal life preservers, little fresh water, and almost no food. The first day was survivable. By the second day, dehydration had men hallucinating and drinking saltwater, which accelerated their deterioration. Sharks — primarily oceanic whitetips — began circling and attacking.
The Navy did not know the ship was missing. The Indianapolis had not been required to report its arrival, and the failure to appear at Leyte was not flagged as significant. Men floated, died from exposure, drowned, and were taken by sharks for four full days before a passing aircraft spotted them by chance on August 2.
Of the 879 who entered the water, only 316 survived. It remains the greatest single loss of life at sea in U.S. Navy history. The survivors were rescued in a frantic two-day operation, many too weakened to climb rescue lines under their own power.
Captain Charles McVay III was court-martialed for 'hazarding his ship by failing to zigzag.' The Japanese submarine commander testified that zigzagging would have made no difference. McVay received hate mail from the public for decades. He died by suicide in 1968. Congress exonerated him in 2000.