USS Indianapolis found after 72 years

Status
Not open for further replies.
Originally Posted By: PimTac
h The greatest single loss of life at sea for the US Navy.

Caused by a comedy of errors by the USN. And then trying to pin it on the captain to distract from the other blunders. Sadly McVay did not live to see the Court Martial removed.
 
I read an article which stated the destress calls were not taken seriously and ignored.

Is this true?

Is there actually a record of distress radio signals being received and ignored?
 
There are a lot of stories and accounts of what happened. Some of it we may never know the real truth. One part of the story that is true is how the Navy treated Capt. McVay. He became the sacrificial lamb and kept it to himself until he finally gave in and shot himself. The story of how the court martial was held is an interesting read.
 
Originally Posted By: PimTac
There are a lot of stories and accounts of what happened. Some of it we may never know the real truth. One part of the story that is true is how the Navy treated Capt. McVay. He became the sacrificial lamb and kept it to himself until he finally gave in and shot himself. The story of how the court martial was held is an interesting read.


Capt. McVay's story and life's ending was very sad. From what I read about it everything he did was right. Sad it took so many years for the court martial to be reversed, and he never lived to know.
 
Interestingly the wreck remains property of the Navy and so there'd be no salvage/ financial reason for finding it. Mr. Allen did it out of his own billionaire curiosity/ goodness/ hobby.
 
Originally Posted By: eljefino
Interestingly the wreck remains property of the Navy and so there'd be no salvage/ financial reason for finding it. Mr. Allen did it out of his own billionaire curiosity/ goodness/ hobby.


I'm happy it remains property of the USN. The ship should remain where it is, as it is, untouched. It is and should remain hallowed grounds.
 
Originally Posted By: PimTac
There are a lot of stories and accounts of what happened. Some of it we may never know the real truth. One part of the story that is true is how the Navy treated Capt. McVay. He became the sacrificial lamb and kept it to himself until he finally gave in and shot himself. The story of how the court martial was held is an interesting read.



Yeah, I believe in his court martial, they had the Japanese captain of the sub that sunk him testify against him.
 
At the time events like this happen in real time everyone does the best they can with the information they have. No one wants a tragedy to happen. No one is of ill will.
 
Originally Posted By: Wolf359
Originally Posted By: PimTac
There are a lot of stories and accounts of what happened. Some of it we may never know the real truth. One part of the story that is true is how the Navy treated Capt. McVay. He became the sacrificial lamb and kept it to himself until he finally gave in and shot himself. The story of how the court martial was held is an interesting read.


Yeah, I believe in his court martial, they had the Japanese captain of the sub that sunk him testify against him.


Even worse: the interpreter DELIBERATELY lied about what the submarine captain said! When he found out (years later), he was horrified.
 
Originally Posted By: Wolf359
Originally Posted By: PimTac
There are a lot of stories and accounts of what happened. Some of it we may never know the real truth. One part of the story that is true is how the Navy treated Capt. McVay. He became the sacrificial lamb and kept it to himself until he finally gave in and shot himself. The story of how the court martial was held is an interesting read.



Yeah, I believe in his court martial, they had the Japanese captain of the sub that sunk him testify against him.


Yes, the sub Captain has said that he could have hit the ship whether it was zigzagging or not. The lack of escort ships is one of the things that put the Indianapolis at risk but that was all just part of it being a secret mission.
 
Originally Posted By: demarpaint

I'm happy it remains property of the USN. The ship should remain where it is, as it is, untouched. It is and should remain hallowed grounds.


It is 18,000 feet down!

Who are you worried is going to disturb/tamper with it?
 
Originally Posted By: demarpaint
Originally Posted By: eljefino
Interestingly the wreck remains property of the Navy and so there'd be no salvage/ financial reason for finding it. Mr. Allen did it out of his own billionaire curiosity/ goodness/ hobby.


I'm happy it remains property of the USN. The ship should remain where it is, as it is, untouched. It is and should remain hallowed grounds.


Hopefully that would be the case for German, Japanese, etc ships as well.

I know there's lots of treasure hunting of much older shipwrecks in the Caribbean (likely most are non-combatants, though there are some from, say, the CW era), where there is opportunity for gold coinage. But in reality anyplace where people went down, in war or otherwise, should be left alone other than some very basic observation/mapping, IMO.

Originally Posted By: Linctex

It is 18,000 feet down!

Who are you worried is going to disturb/tamper with it?


Deep submergence vessels are becoming more prevalent as unmanned, autonomous technologies, as well as better performing energy storage is available. Still not in the grasp of non-billionaires. But the concern falls if/when wrecks are in shallower/more accessible waters.
 
Originally Posted By: demarpaint
Originally Posted By: eljefino
Interestingly the wreck remains property of the Navy and so there'd be no salvage/ financial reason for finding it. Mr. Allen did it out of his own billionaire curiosity/ goodness/ hobby.


I'm happy it remains property of the USN. The ship should remain where it is, as it is, untouched. It is and should remain hallowed grounds.


Yeah, this isn't a treasure ship off the Florida coast.

It has to remain untouched and no subs with robotic arms exploring the wreckage.
 
You people do understand that this ship was associated with the murder of numerous innocent civilians?
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted By: Vern_in_IL
You people do understand that this ship was associated with the murder of numerous innocent civilians?


War is [censored].

The Japs received a richly deserved comeuppance. The Emperor wouldn't surrender. A manned invasion of the homeland was estimated to cost 1,000,000 American casualties. God bless Harry Truman for having the balls to do the right thing.
 
Last edited:
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top