11 USS Indianapolis was all but forgotten until mentioned in the film Jaws
USS Indianapolis served in the Pacific throughout World War II, often as the flagship for Admiral Raymond Spruance when he commanded the United States Fifth Fleet in the drive across the Pacific. After suffering heavy damage during the Battle of Okinawa from a Japanese aerial bomb, Indianapolis refit at the Mare Island Shipyard before undertaking a secret mission. The ship was dispatched to Tinian carrying parts of the Little Boy atomic bomb, including enriched uranium to be used as the fissionable material in the highly classified weapon. After delivering its cargo (it set a speed record between San Francisco and Tinian) Indianapolis deployed to Leyte, sailing without escort. The ship was torpedoed enroute and sank rapidly. About 800 men survived the sinking.
The horrors encountered by the survivors, whose numbers dwindled daily, were understandably downplayed by the Navy’s official accounts. The survivors were exposed to attacks by sharks, dehydration, hypothermia, and hunger. About five hundred men who survived the sinking died in the water while awaiting rescue. In the twenty-first century several expeditions were launched by National Geographic and others in an attempt to find the ship. It was eventually discovered in August 2017 by an expedition led by Paul Allen, and a map of the wreck site and debris field was released later that year. The expedition reported the wreck to be in a well preserved state, attributed to the great depth at which it lies, 18,000 feet beneath the surface.
