Indianapolis

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * “GRIPPING…THIS YARN HAS IT ALL.” —USA Today * “A WONDERFUL BOOK.” —Christian Science Monitor * “ENTHRALLING.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review) * “A MUST-READ.” —Booklist (starred review) A human drama unlike any other—the riveting and definitive full story of the worst sea disaster in United States naval history. Just after midnight on July 30,1945days after delivering the components of the atomic bomb from California to the Pacific Islands in the most highly classified naval mission of the warUSS 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 daysalmost three hundred miles from the nearest landthe men battle injuriessharksdehydrationinsanityand eventually each other. Only 316 will survive. For the better part of a centurythe story of USS Indianapolis has been understood as a sinking tale. The realityhoweveris far more complicated—and compelling. Nowfor the first timethanks to a decade of original research and interviews with 107 survivors and eyewit\u00adnessesLynn Vincent and Sara Vladic tell the complete story of the shipher crewand their final mission to save one of their own. It begins in 1932when Indianapolis is christened and launched as the ship of state for President Franklin Roosevelt. After Pearl HarborIndianapolis leads the charge to the Pacific Islandsnotching an unbroken string of victories in an uncharted theater of war. Thenunder orders from President Harry Trumanthe ship takes aboard a superspy and embarks on her final world-changing mission: delivering the core of the atomic bomb to the Pacific for the strike on Hiroshima. Vincent and Vladic provide a visceralmoment-by-moment account of the disaster that unfolds days later after the Japanese torpedo attackfrom the chaos on board the sinking ship to the first moments of shock as the crew plunge into the remote waters of the Philippine Seato the long days and nights during which terror and hunger morph into delusion and desperationand the men must band together to survive. Thenfor the first timethe authors go beyond the men’s rescue to chronicle Indianapolis’s extraordinary final mission: the survivors’ fifty-year fight for justice on behalf of their skipperCaptain Charles McVay IIIwho is wrongly court-martialed for the sinking. What follows is a captivating courtroom drama that weaves through generations of American presidentsfrom Harry Truman to George W. Bushand forever entwines the lives of three captains—McVaywhose life and career are never the same after the scandal; Mochitsura Hashimotothe Japanese sub commander who sinks Indianapolis but later joins the battle to exonerate McVay; and William Totithe captain of the modern-day submarine Indianapoliswho helps the survivors fight to vindicate their captain. A sweeping saga of survivalsacrificejusticeand loveIndianapolis stands as both groundbreaking naval history and spellbinding narrative—and brings the ship and her heroic crew back to fullvividunforgettable life. It is the definitive account of one of the most remarkable episodes in American history.