Like most people, I first heard of the Indy from the movie “Jaws” but didn’t really know what happened or if it was just made up for the movies. But it did happen, and it is one of the worst disasters in naval history. Like most of the times that something like this happens, it is from more than one bad thing that seems to build up. They where alone without escort, no one knew they were leaving or where they were going or when to expect them.

On the 15th of July 1945, the USS Indianapolis had departed Gaum on a top-secret mission to deliver the first atomic bomb (little boy) to a Naval base on the Pacific island of Tinian. It would be used on the 6th of August, 1945, to level Hiroshima. It departed Tinian on the 28th of July and headed towards, Leyte Gulf in the Philippines to meet the Task Force being formed, for the invasion of mainland Japan.

On the 29th of July, the Indianapolis was making about 17 knots, and then just after midnight, a Japanese torpedo hit her starboard bow, blowing almost 65 feet of the ship’s bow out of the water and igniting a tank of 3,500 gallons of aviation fuel. Then another torpedo struck closer to midship, hitting the fuel tanks and the powder magazines. This set off a chain reaction of explosions that effectively ripped the Indianapolis in two. Still traveling at 17 knots, the Indianapolis began taking on massive amounts of water; the ship sank in just 12 minutes. Of the 1,196 men aboard, 900 made it into the water alive.

No one knows what drew the sharks in, but it is thought that the sound of the explosion, the man in the water and yes, the blood in the water. The first night, the sharks focused on the floating dead. But the survivors’ struggles in the water only attracted more and more sharks. As the sun rose on the 30th of July, the survivors bobbed in the water, and a lot of the rafts were no were to be found. The living searched for the dead and appropriated their lifejackets for the survivors that didn’t have one. The survivors began forming into groups, some small, some over 300.  Soon the sharks turned their attentions toward the living, especially the injured and the bleeding, sailors tried to quarantine themselves away from anyone with an open wound, and when someone died, they would push the body away, hoping to sacrifice the corpse in return. Many survivors were paralyzed with fear, unable even to eat or drink from the meager rations they had salvaged from their ship. One group of survivors made the mistake of opening a can of Spam—but before they could taste it, the scent of the meat drew a swarm of sharks around them. They got rid of their meat rations rather than risk a second swarming.

The sharks fed for days, and with no sign of rescue for the men. Navy intelligence had intercepted a message from the Japanese submarine that it had torpedoed the Indianapolis. Describing how it had sunk an American battleship along the Indianapolis’ route, but the message was disregarded as a trick to lure American rescue boats into an ambush. The Indianapolis survivors learned that they had the best odds in a group, and ideally in the center of the group. The men on the outsides or, worse, alone, were the most susceptible to the sharks.

As the days passed, many survivors succumbed to heat and thirst or suffered hallucinations that compelled them to drink the seawater around them—causing them to die from salt poisoning. Those who so slaked their thirst would slip into madness, foaming at the mouth as their tongues and lips swelled.

Around 11:00 a.m. on their fourth day, a Navy plane flying overhead spotted the Indianapolis survivors and radioed for help. Within hours, another seaplane, manned by Lieutenant Adrian Marks, returned to the scene and dropped rafts and survival supplies. When LT Marks saw men being attacked by sharks, he disobeyed orders and landed in the infested waters, and then began helping the wounded and stragglers, who were at the greatest risk. Most of the survivors said that one of the scariest times was waiting to get out of the water. A little after midnight, the USS Doyle arrived on the scene and helped to pull the last survivors from the water. Of the original 1,196-man crew, around 900 made it to the water alive, of that only 317 remained. Estimates of the number who died from shark attacks range from a few dozen to almost 150.

In November of 1945, Captain McVay was court-martialed for “hazarded his ship by failing to zigzag and failure to order to abandon ship fast enough” at the time torpedoes struck. The commander Hashimoto ( CO of the sub that sank the Indy) testified at the trial that he would have been able to sink the Indianapolis whether it had been zigzagging or not, testimony which appeared to fall ao deaf ears and had no impact at all on the court-martial board which found McVay guilty anyway. Like always, the military did not take any of this into account.

• The captain was never told that Jap Subs had been seen in the area.

• The Indy was cruiser with no sonar, and it usually had a destroy with it for anti-sub. But they were told they didn’t need one and to go alone.

• The Indy sent out three SOS, and all three were received. One group thought it was fake, one of the admirals on duty was drunk, and the third that was received, the” O” was asleep and had ordered everyone not wake him up.

In 1968 he committed suicide suffering from health issues for years. In 2001 he would be cleared of all charges. But it was too little too late. Like always, the military blamed someone. Of the over 300 ships that were sunk, during WW2 he was the only CO to be court-martialed for it.

www.ussindianapolis.org

Using a Compass on your wrist or on a Navigation/attack board is something that is taught when you first start diving in the military. But how much time have you really spent honing your navigational skills? Using an underwater compass can keep your dive on track, optimizing your bottom time as well as getting you to and from the target safely. I am going to walk thru a handheld compass as it has more parts than most compasses that are on Nav Boards.   

Knowing about your compass what it can and can’t do. Everyone knows that a compass points north. The part that handles that task is called the card. This is the spinning face of the compass that has N, E, S, and W printed on it. The edges of the cards are angled at 45 degrees. Around the perimeter of the compass is a movable ring called a bezel. The bezel has a line (sometimes a double line) running through the center called the lubber line. This line is your directional marker. One of the most important things to remember is to keep the compass as level as posable. Depending on where you are in the world, your compass hand will “dip.” That is caused by the different magnetic fields in the Earth pulling on the arm of the compass. This is different than setting your declination. Declination is where the arrow points. The inclination is the pull on the arm of the compass. All compasses are made for different parts of the world. If you buy a compass in the U.S., it was made for use in the U.S. Some companies produce what are called global compass. Those are made to be used worldwide. They have the least amount of dip of any other compasses. Truly the dip is really only a factor if you are covering long distances.  Most of that info was for a handheld compass. But as far as keeping a compass level, that is true no matter whether if you are on Sea, Air or Land. ( see what I did there) SEAL.

If you are using a compass on your wrist you will use the side window to aim the compass where you want to go or see at what bearing something is at. Once you orient the lubber line, with the side window of the compass, you will see a number on the card through that window. This is where the angled design of the card comes into play. As long as you are seeing this same number through the window, you are heading in the desired direction. If you see a different number, make small adjustments until your number comes back into the window.

You can also use landmarks, like piers, sandbars, rocks, whatever will not move to check your position. You can set these as waypoints or reset points. Look at your heading and then use that to reference a visible landmark that is on a straight line visually. When you arrive at this waypoint, you can look ahead to find the next one. These visual cues will work in conjunction with using an underwater compass and allow you to get where you want to be. It is just like doing it on the land so keep in mind that metal objects can interfere with your compass’s magnet, causing what is known as “deviation,” so if your compass starts to move around a lot, try and stay on heading and your compass will settle down once you pass it. Moving away from the object, either laterally or vertically should correct the problem. Recheck your headings, and you can get back on track.

A lot of younger diver like using a digital compass on Navigation boards. The same priceable apply for using a digital compass. Digital compasses should be calibrated for the area you are diving. Each calibration is basically taking a sample of the magnetic that surrounding the compass. A particular calibration is only valid for that location of the compass. Ferrous materials can cause heading inaccuracy. So, make sure when you do calibrate your compass you are away from metal. Ferrous material can also affect your compass on a dive. Since heading is based on the direction of the Earth’s horizontal field, a digital compass must be able to measure this field with lesser influence from other nearby magnetic sources or movement. A digital compass is like a traditional one. Both compasses use the Earth’s magnetic field to determine which way is North. The difference is that a standard compass can dip because of movement and may encounter interference from strong magnetic sources, so inaccuracy can be a problem. A digital compass is much more accurate because it will only use magnetic North. So, using an excellent waterproof compass can help make you a better combat swimmer.