In harm's way: the sinking of the USS Indianapolis and the extraordinary story of its survivors - Softcover

STANTON, Doug

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0593047400 ISBN 13: 9780593047408

Publisher: Bantam Press, 2001

Synopsis

Returning to America after delivering the fatal bomb for Gnola Gay, The USS Indianapolis was out of radio contact when it was torpedoed. Consequently its sinking remained undetected by the Navy for nearly five days as the 900 survivors of the impact were lost into the Pacific Ocean to face savage seas, hypothermia and sharks. Of the 1196 men on board, only 316 survived. Interweaving the stories of three survivors - the Captain, the ship's doctor and a young marine - this is an account of a little-known chapter in World War II history.

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Review

On July 26, 1945, the heavy cruiser Indianapolis steamed into port at the Pacific island of Tinian, carrying a cargo that would end World War II: the uranium that would be dropped on Hiroshima just three weeks later. Having delivered its load without incident, Indianapolis moved on toward the Philippines to join the great armada moving in on Japan. Though intelligence reports assured Captain Charles McVay that the route from Guam to Leyte was safe, there were Japanese submarines active in the area. On the night of July 29, having detected with sonar the clinking of dishes aboard the Indianapolis from a distance of more than a dozen miles, the submarine I-58 sank the American ship, killing nearly 900 sailors in the explosion and its terrible aftermath.

Captain McVay was quickly court-martialed for having failed to follow evasive maneuvers, "the first captain in the history of the U.S. Navy," Doug Stanton observes, "to be court-martialed subsequent to losing his ship in an act of war." Although the sailors under his command would insist that McVay had been scapegoated, and although I-58's commander testified before the court that "he would have sunk the Indianapolis no matter what course she was on," McVay was never able to clear his name. He committed suicide in 1968.

Stanton captures the drama of these events in his vigorous narrative, which augments and updates Richard Newcomb's Abandon Ship!. Stanton observes that although McVay was exonerated by an act of Congress in 2000, the conviction still stands in Navy records. Stanton's book makes a powerful case for why that conviction should be overturned, and why the captain and crew of the Indianapolis deserve honor. --Gregory McNamee

About the Author

Doug Stanton lives in Michigan, and has worked as a creative writing and English teacher and at Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan as writer-in-residence. He has also worked as a commercial fisherman, a caretaker of Robert Frost's house and travelled extensively as a contributing editor for Esquire, Men's Journal and Outside magazines. He has an MFA from the celebrated Iowa Writers' Workshop. In Harm's Way began as a lead feature story in Men's Journal which led to more letters to the editor than any other piece in the magazine's history.

About this edition

• Publisher: Bantam Press
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0593047400
• ISBN 13: 9780593047408
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 229