Ordeal by Sea - The Tragedy of the USS Indianapolis
Thomas HelmMidnight, July 30, 1945: The heavy cruiser USS Indianapolis, having just delivered the Hiroshima atom bomb to the island of Tinian, hurried to rendezvous with the Pacific fleet. One minute later, a Japanese torpedo slammed into her starboard bow. The ship began sinking rapidly, the order to abandon ship was given, and 1,196 men went into the water. By the time rescue arrived, 317 remained.
What happened during those five awful days - including a series of terrifying shark attacks - would become the stuff of legend... and the survivors' worst nightmares. Filled with harrowing personal accounts from those survivors, and written by a veteran who served aboard the cruiser before the attack, Ordeal by Sea chronicles the stark human drama of the worst disaster in U.S. naval history, as well as the sensational aftermath for those who lived to tell the tale.