USS Indianapolis CA-35 wreckage found

[BRNG ITT]

Historical discovery with an amazing story.

Of the 1,196 crew members, only 317 were rescued. Just a handful are alive today.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/08/1...s-wreckage-discovered-by-paul-allen-crew.html

 

[Silverstrike]

The original I-58 sub commander when he spotted the Indy originally was wondering just why it wasn't zig zaggy but just going straight. He also wanted to send two Kaitens but decided against it and instead sent a magnetic tip warhead torp and a regular longlance into her instead since her course was so predictable.

But during the inquiry he the Japanese captain, even said that if the USS Indianapolis was zig zagging he still would of at least struck her once, just that he would of had to fan 4 torps and get in a little closer. It was just bad luck that the two ships met right at that time.


I always wondered how history would of changed if I-58 met the Indy a full week earlier when they had Littleboy on board. Not on if the bomb would of went off but just losing it beneath the waves as she sunk. As an invasion would of been planned and implimented.

 

[VegasMichael]

Japanese submarine slammed two torpedoes into our side, Chief. We was comin' back from the island of Tinian to Leyte, just delivered the bomb. The Hiroshima bomb. Eleven hundred men went into the water. Vessel went down in twelve minutes. Didn't see the first shark for about a half an hour. Tiger. Thirteen-footer. You know how you know that when you're in the water, Chief? You tell by lookin' from the dorsal to the tail. What we didn't know... was our bomb mission had been so secret, no distress signal had been sent. Heh.

[he pauses and takes a drink]

Quint: They didn't even list us overdue for a week. Very first light, Chief, sharks come cruisin'. So we formed ourselves into tight groups. Y'know, it's... kinda like ol' squares in a battle like, uh, you see in a calendar, like the Battle of Waterloo, and the idea was, shark comes to the nearest man and that man, he'd start poundin' and hollerin' and screamin', and sometimes the shark'd go away... sometimes he wouldn't go away. Sometimes that shark, he looks right into ya. Right into your eyes. Y'know the thing about a shark, he's got... lifeless eyes, black eyes, like a doll's eyes. When he comes at ya, doesn't seem to be livin'... until he bites ya. And those black eyes roll over white, and then... oh, then you hear that terrible high-pitch screamin', the ocean turns red, and spite of all the poundin' and the hollerin', they all come in and they... rip you to pieces.

[he pauses]

Quint: Y'know, by the end of that first dawn... lost a hundred men. I dunno how many sharks. Maybe a thousand. I dunno how many men, they averaged six an hour. On Thursday mornin', Chief, I bumped into a friend of mine, Herbie Robinson from Cleveland. Baseball player. Bosun's mate. I thought he was asleep. Reached over to wake him up. Bobbed up and down in the water just like a kinda top. Upended. Well... he'd been bitten in half below the waist. Noon the fifth day, Mr. Hooper, a Lockheed Ventura saw us, he swung in low and he saw us. Young pilot, a lot younger than Mr. Hooper. Anyway, he saw us and come in low and three hours later, a big fat PBY comes down and start to pick us up. Y'know, that was the time I was most frightened, waitin' for my turn. I'll never put on a life jacket again. So, eleven hundred men went into the water, three hundred sixteen men come out, and the sharks took the rest, June the 29th, 1945.

 

[TK1299]

Japanese submarine slammed two torpedoes into our side, Chief. We was comin' back from the island of Tinian to Leyte, just delivered the bomb. The Hiroshima bomb. Eleven hundred men went into the water. Vessel went down in twelve minutes. Didn't see the first shark for about a half an hour. Tiger. Thirteen-footer. You know how you know that when you're in the water, Chief? You tell by lookin' from the dorsal to the tail. What we didn't know... was our bomb mission had been so secret, no distress signal had been sent. Heh.

[he pauses and takes a drink]

Quint: They didn't even list us overdue for a week. Very first light, Chief, sharks come cruisin'. So we formed ourselves into tight groups. Y'know, it's... kinda like ol' squares in a battle like, uh, you see in a calendar, like the Battle of Waterloo, and the idea was, shark comes to the nearest man and that man, he'd start poundin' and hollerin' and screamin', and sometimes the shark'd go away... sometimes he wouldn't go away. Sometimes that shark, he looks right into ya. Right into your eyes. Y'know the thing about a shark, he's got... lifeless eyes, black eyes, like a doll's eyes. When he comes at ya, doesn't seem to be livin'... until he bites ya. And those black eyes roll over white, and then... oh, then you hear that terrible high-pitch screamin', the ocean turns red, and spite of all the poundin' and the hollerin', they all come in and they... rip you to pieces.

[he pauses]

Quint: Y'know, by the end of that first dawn... lost a hundred men. I dunno how many sharks. Maybe a thousand. I dunno how many men, they averaged six an hour. On Thursday mornin', Chief, I bumped into a friend of mine, Herbie Robinson from Cleveland. Baseball player. Bosun's mate. I thought he was asleep. Reached over to wake him up. Bobbed up and down in the water just like a kinda top. Upended. Well... he'd been bitten in half below the waist. Noon the fifth day, Mr. Hooper, a Lockheed Ventura saw us, he swung in low and he saw us. Young pilot, a lot younger than Mr. Hooper. Anyway, he saw us and come in low and three hours later, a big fat PBY comes down and start to pick us up. Y'know, that was the time I was most frightened, waitin' for my turn. I'll never put on a life jacket again. So, eleven hundred men went into the water, three hundred sixteen men come out, and the sharks took the rest, June the 29th, 1945.

What a great character in a movie.

 

[Stevenbekah]

So true, and I read he was hammered drunk when he did that scene in the movie. So memorable

Sent from my SM-G935P using Tapatalk

 

[PhoenixM3]

Historical discovery with an amazing story.

Of the 1,196 crew members, only 317 were rescued. Just a handful are alive today.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/08/1...s-wreckage-discovered-by-paul-allen-crew.html

Very cool. I served on the USS INDIANAPOLIS SSN-697, my first submarine 30 years ago. It was the Navy's second ship to bear the name. It too is gone, but de-commissioned and scrapped vice torpedoed.

 

[Double"O"]

So true, and I read he was hammered drunk when he did that scene in the movie. So memorable

Sent from my SM-G935P using Tapatalk

He was the night before the first time they tried to shoot it...he came back the next day and nailed it one take

 

[TK1299]

This thread didn't take long to get off topic lol.

 

[VegasMichael]

The actor who played Quint in the movie Jaws, Robert Shaw, was in fact an alcoholic. His father was too. Robert died in his early 50s. He also played the evil Russian assassin in the Bond movie From Russia with Love. But to un-derail the thread and get it back to the OP's point, I think it's comforting that the Indy has been found. I wonder if some of the deceased who were trapped in the innards of the ship can be identified. If there are some.