USS Indianapolis Trivia

1. What type of warship was the Indianapolis?

From Quiz The Sinking of the USS Indianapolis

Answer: cruiser

The Indianapolis (CA-35) was a Portland class heavy cruiser.

From Quiz The Tragedy of the USS Indianapolis

Answer: Little Boy

The Indy carried a black cannister which held the radioactive material and a wooden crate that held essential parts of the bomb.

From Quiz The Sinking of the USS Indianapolis

Answer: delivering parts for the atomic bomb

The Indianapolis is best remembered for delivering componets of the atomic bomb to Tinian Island before her sinking.

From Quiz USS Indianapolis (CA-35)

Answer: suicide

Captain McVay (July 30, 1898 - November 6, 1968) was the tenth commanding officer of the USS Indianapolis. He assumed command on November 18, 1944. Captain McVay earned the Silver Star for action while on the USS Cleveland, during action off the Solomon Islands. He was court-martialed in November 1945. Upon retirement, in 1949, Captain McVay was promoted to rear admiral; however, the conviction ended McVay's career. Unfortunately, the relatives of many crew-members aboard the USS Indianapolis held McVay responsible for the deaths of their loved ones. McVay committed suicide by shooting himself with his service revolver at his home in Litchfield, Connecticut. (Reference: "On the Warpath in the Pacific: Admiral Jocko Clark and the Fast Carriers," New York: Reynolds, 2000) In October 2000, the United States Congress passed a resolution that Captain McVay's record should reflect that "he is exonerated for the loss of the USS Indianapolis." However, the court-martial verdict wasn't removed.

From Quiz The Tragedy of the USS Indianapolis

Answer: USS Pensacola

From Quiz The Sinking of the USS Indianapolis

Answer: she was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine

The Indianapolis was sunk by a Japanese submarine. Two torpedoes from the I-58 sank her in twelve minutes with a loss of 300 men.

From Quiz USS Indianapolis (CA-35)

Answer: components for atomic bomb

The USS Indianapolis delivered components and uranium of the atomic bomb known as "Little Boy." Afterwards, the USS Indianapolis departed Tinian for Guam. While at Guam they received orders to travel to Leyte, in the Philippines, to participate in target practice with the battleship USS Idaho (BB-42) in preparation for the invasion of Japan. Captain McVay requested an escort, from a destroyer, because his ship lacked anti-submarine detection equipment; however, his request was denied. On July 28, 1945, the USS Indianapolis departed Guam, thus becoming the only ship to transit across the Philippine Sea without an escort during the war. On August 6, 1945, "Little Boy" was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan. (Reference: "Clash of the Carriers : The True Story of the Marianas Turkey Shoot of World War II," New York: Coonts, 1998.)

From Quiz The Tragedy of the USS Indianapolis

Answer: Hiroshima

The other A-bomb, nicknamed 'Fat Man,' was dropped on Nagasaki. When 'Little Boy' was dropped on Hiroshima, it had written on its side, 'This is for the boys of the USS Indianapolis'.

From Quiz The Sinking of the USS Indianapolis

Answer: negligence

Three stations received the distress signal from the Indianapolis before she sank and none acted upon the call or bothered to investigate. This amounts to nothing less than negligence.

From Quiz USS Indianapolis (CA-35)

Answer: 12 minutes

The survivors of the USS Indianapolis estimate it took approximately 12 minutes for her to sink. The two Japanese torpedoes tore into her side, igniting an explosion that broke the ship in two. The ship dipped her bow, rolled to starboard and slip beneath the sea. The sinking happened so quickly that 880 of the 1,196 men are estimated to have never made it off. (Reference: "Only 317 Survived!" Indianapolis: Murphy, 2002.) Unfortunately, because of the speed of the sinking, most rafts went down with the ship. Most life jackets worn provided very little buoyancy. And, many crew members did not have a raft nor life jacket and simply had to tread water to survive. However, life jackets became available when shipmates died.

From Quiz The Tragedy of the USS Indianapolis

Answer: Tinian

Only a short time later, the plane 'Enola Gay', took off from Tinian headed for Hiroshima.

From Quiz The Sinking of the USS Indianapolis

Answer: nothing

When the Indianapolis failed to reach Leyte on 31 July 1945, nothing was done. It was assumed a warship the size of the Indianapolis would reach its destination on time. Someone failed to consider that this was a warzone and that Japan still had submarines.

From Quiz The Tragedy of the USS Indianapolis

Answer: I-58

The sinking of the USS Indy was the first enemy hit from the I-58, which had failed to see any action prior to that day.

From Quiz The Sinking of the USS Indianapolis

Answer: whitetip shark

It is commonly agreed upon that the predator responsible for the loss of life in this incident is the oceanic whitetip shark.

From Quiz USS Indianapolis (CA-35)

Answer: Franklin Delano Roosevelt

The USS Indianapolis was commissioned on November 15, 1932, and following an overhaul at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, sailed to Maine to pick-up President Roosevelt (January 30, 1882-April 12, 1945) at Campobello Island, New Brunswick, on July 1, 1933. And, again on November 18, 1936, President Roosevelt embarked on her in Charleston, South Carolina, for a cruise to South America. http://members.tripod.com/IndyMaru/indymaru2.htm

From Quiz The Tragedy of the USS Indianapolis

Answer: July 30, 1945

She was sunk on July 30, 1945, shortly after midnight. The men who were cast into the water would stay there for 4 days before accidentally being discovered by an American bomber.

From Quiz The Sinking of the USS Indianapolis

Answer: hypernatremia

Hypernatremia is a condition brought on by ingesting salt water. Dehydration more than likely induced the survivors to drink seawater.

From Quiz The Tragedy of the USS Indianapolis

Answer: Charles Butler McVay

He was unjustly courtmartialed by the Navy and convicted. He eventually committed suicide in 1968 due to the guilt he felt for the lives of the boys that were under his command. For the past 33 years, the men that survived the sinking have been working to clear their captain's name.

From Quiz The Sinking of the USS Indianapolis

Answer: he was court martialed

Charles McVay, the skipper of the Indianapolis was court martialed. He was the only skipper of a warship to be court martialed for losing his ship by sinking in a war zone during WWII.

From Quiz The Tragedy of the USS Indianapolis

Answer: 321

Three hundred and twentyone men came out of the water alive, although, 5 would later die in hospitals, leaving the total amount of survivors at 316.

From Quiz The Sinking of the USS Indianapolis

Answer: Captain Hashimoto

Captain Hashimoto, the skipper of the I-58 was brought in from Japan to testify against Captain McVay. Despite his insistence that zig zagging would have made no difference when his submarine sank the Indianapolis, Captain McVay was convicted anyway.

From Quiz USS Indianapolis (CA-35)

Answer: All are correct

Approx. 880 men went into the water, for five nights and four days, with very few lifeboats. Roughly 300 of the 1,196 men were killed when the two torpodoes initially hit the ship. Some reports state that 320 men came out of the water; however, only 317 ultimately survived. The Discovery Channel stated the sinking of the USS Indianapolis resulted in the most shark attacks on humans in history. The majority of the attacks were attributed to the oceanic whitetip shark. The impact of this unexpected disaster sent shock waves of hushed disbelief throughout Navy circles in the South Pacific. A public announcement of the loss of the Indianapolis was delayed for almost two weeks until August 15, thus insuring that it would be overshadowed in the news on the day when the Japanese surrender was announced by President Truman. (Reference: "Only 317 Survived!" Indianapolis: Murphy, 2002.)

From Quiz The Tragedy of the USS Indianapolis

Answer: 12

From Quiz The Sinking of the USS Indianapolis

Answer: USS Juneau

The sinking of the Juneau was very similiar to the Indianapolis. Both were criusers, both were sunk by submarines and both had a large number of the crew perish by shark attacks. Both also had the stranded crew exposed to the hazards of the sea by negligence.

From Quiz The Tragedy of the USS Indianapolis

Answer: yes

It was actually received by 3 different people, but all of the messages were somehow ignored or overlooked by the Naval officers in charge.

From Quiz The Tragedy of the USS Indianapolis

Answer: Lewis Haynes

Giles McCoy was a Marine assigned to the Indy, Mike Kuryla and Ed Brown were sailors in the Navy assigned to the ship. All 4 men survived the sinking. Captain Lewis Haynes, the ship's doctor, lead one of the groups of men in the water who had only life jackets to keep them afloat(other groups had life rafts or floater nets). Captain Haynes group suffered the most due to the fact that they were submerged in the water completely, leaving them extremely vulnerable to hypothermia and shark attacks.

From Quiz The Tragedy of the USS Indianapolis

Answer: 9

All but 9 perished in the sinking.

From Quiz The Tragedy of the USS Indianapolis

Answer: Jaws

The crazy boat captain who takes them out to catch the shark in the first movie talks about the horror of the sinking (although many of the 'facts' stated in the movie are incorrect).

From Quiz The Tragedy of the USS Indianapolis

Answer: night

Although the sharks hunted in the early morning and late evening, the worst time was at night, which is when sharks normally feed. The men said at night people disappeared without a sound and no one would know until morning.

From Quiz The Tragedy of the USS Indianapolis

Answer: Doug Stanton & Douglas Stanton

This book is amazing! Anyone who has not read it SHOULD.

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