Indianapolis

The Indianapolis: The True Story of the Worst Sea Disaster in U.S. Naval History and the Fifty-Year Fight to Exonerate an Innocent Man- Lynn Vincent & Sara Vladic
Simon & Schuster
Release Date: July 10, 2018

Rating:
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Synopsis: Just after midnight on July 30, 1945, days after delivering the components of the atomic bomb from California to the Pacific Islands in the most highly classified naval mission of the war, USS Indianapolis is sailing alone in the center of the Philippine Sea when she is struck by two Japanese torpedoes. The ship is instantly transformed into a fiery cauldron and sinks within minutes. Some 300 men go down with the ship. Nearly 900 make it into the water alive. For the next five nights and four days, almost three hundred miles from the nearest land, the men battle injuries, sharks, dehydration, insanity, and eventually each other. Only 316 will survive.

For the better part of a century, the story of USS Indianapolis has been understood as a sinking tale. The reality, however, is far more complicated—and compelling. Now, for the first time, thanks to a decade of original research and interviews with 107 survivors and eyewit­nesses, Lynn Vincent and Sara Vladic tell the complete story of the ship, her crew, and their final mission to save one of their own.

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Most people today know the story of the Indianapolis, if they know it at all, from the movie Jaws.  While hunting a great white shark, boat captain Quint tells Hooper and Brody of being on the Indy (as she was known by the crew) when she sunk, sharks circling until the men were pulled from the water after delivering "the bomb".  The full story, told here for the first time, is much more complex, dramatic, and heartbreaking.  Lynn Vincent and Sara Vladic do full justice to the story of the Indy, her crew, and her captain in this new book, The Indianapolis: The True Story of the Worst Sea Disaster in U.S. Naval History and the Fifty-Year Fight to Exonerate an Innocent Man.  

Vincent and Vladic have done incredible, in-depth research with only primary sources- including speaking with survivors- to piece together a saga every bit as gripping and full of personal drama as the sinking of the Titanic or Lusitania.  The stories of the crew, how they lived, how they came to be on Indy in the first place, their families and plans for the future connect you to them intimately.  Indy's final, famous mission was a series of coincidences and Naval negligence from first to last.  Originally she was not slated to carry uranium for the first atomic bomb, but due to damage from a kamikaze strike she was in California finishing repairs and called into action because of the sterling reputation of her captain, Charles McVay III.  After successfully delivering the uranium, Indy was slated to travel to Guam for training. Despite knowing there was submarine activity in the route McVay was to take, he was told by authorities the route was safe, and given no escort.  The recounting of the torpedo strikes, the sinking, and the five nights the survivors spent in the water are told in a straightforward piecing together of memories.  No additional drama is needed to make the tale emotional, dramatic,, and viscerally terrifying and heartbreaking.

The story of the Indianapolis does not end when the 316 survivors were pulled out of the water.  Vincent and Vladic follow the crew back to the States, and then all too troubling tale of the courtmarshal of Captain McVay for negligence in allowing his ship to be sunk.  It took over fifty years and an amazing amount of intense battling before this injustice was rectified and McVay's record cleared.  

Thoroughly researched and deeply moving, the story of the Indianapolis is a tale of courage, strength, and determination in the face of overwhelming odds. Despite Vincent and Vladic's prose occasionally falling victim to non-fiction book's tendency of dramatically foreshadowing what is to come (the typical "it was a mistake they would soon come to regret" type of chapter ending) and the fact that they can't seem to go more than three sentences without using similes or metaphors in describing anything, The Indianapolis is a well told, compelling story. 

Fans of Erik Larson's Dead Wake will appreciate the attention to detail not only from the American point of view, but the Japanese as well.  An absolute must-read for military history buffs, naval history buffs, or anyone curious about the story behind the tale told in Jaws, The Indianapolis is a powerful, fast-paced, emotionally moving, account of the greatest disaster in U.S. naval history.  

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review