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If you asked me 20 years ago about the USS Indianapolis, I would have told you it was the ship in Quint’s monologue from Jaws. Robert Shaw in his whiskey and cigarette-rich voice delivered the semi-factual tale of what took place.
“Japanese submarine slammed two torpedoes into our side, chief. It was comin’ back, from the island of Tinian to Laytee, just delivered the bomb. The Hiroshima bomb. Eleven hundred men went into the water. The vessel went down in twelve minutes. Didn’t see the first shark for about a half an hour. Tiger. Thirteen footer… Very first light, chief. The sharks come cruisin’. So we formed ourselves into tight groups… the shark comes to the nearest man and that man, he’d start poundin’ and hollerin’ and screamin’ and sometimes the shark would go away. Sometimes he wouldn’t go away. Sometimes that shark, he looks right into you. Right into your eyes. You know the thing about a shark, he’s got…lifeless eyes, black eyes, like a doll’s eye. When he comes at ya, doesn’t seem to be livin’...”
A few years later, I learned Quint had a few things wrong with his story, but it was a powerful enough tale to embed the story of the USS Indianapolis in our imaginations.
The Indianapolis received orders to undertake a top-secret mission; proceed to Tinian island carrying the enriched uranium (about half of the world’s supply of uranium-235 at the time) and other parts required for the assembly of the atomic bomb codenamed “Little Boy”, which would be dropped on Hiroshima a few weeks later.
In the early hours of June 30, 1945, the USS Indianapolis was returning from its drop. A Japanese submarine attacked the U.S. vessel; hitting her with two Type 95 torpedoes. The ship sank in less than 15 minutes. Of the 1197 crew members, only 317 survived. Only nine of the 39 Marines aboard the ship survived. Death came in various forms; the initial attack and sinking, drowning, shock, or shark attacks.
One of the surviving Marines from the fatal voyage was Edgar A. Harrell. After the war, he returned to his home in Kentucky. Upon his retirement, Harrell moved to Paris, Tennessee and later to Clarksville.
In his later years, he shared his story of survival and memories of his fallen comrades. Harrell died May 8, 2021, he was the last surviving Marine of the USS Indianapolis.
“I still remember my first impression when I boarded the Indy, as she was affectionately called: This thing is big—really big! It was like a floating city. For a country boy from Kentucky, it was overwhelming. The sight of the massive guns gave me goosebumps. Never having seen guns larger than a double-barreled shotgun, I remember laughing to myself, thinking, My, my, my. We can win the war just by ourselves with these monsters!” said Harrell in his autobiography, “Out of the Depths’’.
The story of Sergeant Edgar Harrell’s harrowing starts near midnight of June 29, 1945, as he was relieved from his watch and made his way to the ship’s deck. With temperatures above 100 degrees, the crew was permitted to sleep on the deck.
As he bedded down under the barrels of the number one gun turret, a massive explosion interrupted his slumber. A few seconds later, a second explosion rocked the ship followed by a third (the powder magazine under number one turret). Harrell could hear the ship’s bulkheads breaking. Crewmen covered in blood with flesh hanging from their arms and faces emerging from below deck; each begging for help.
Marine Lieutenant Edward Stauffer refused Harrell’s request to cut down the canvas bangs containing hundreds of life jackets. The lieutenant insisted the bags not be opened until the order to abandon ship was given.
“As I waited for word to abandon ship it seemed it would never come, and you could see the ship was sinking,” recalled Harrell in a July 2002 interview.
Captain Charles McVay was advised by executive officer Commander Joseph Flynn and Lieutenant Commander Casey Moore the USS Indianapolis was going down.
“It looked as if we were going down with the ship, then suddenly word came that the Captain had given the word, ‘Abandon Ship!’” Harrell lamented.
“I was too scared to jump,” said Harrell about hanging onto the rail, watching men jumping into the ocean on top of those who jumped before them.
“I just hung on to that rail and prayed. You see, I need hope and assurance as I looked out into what I thought could be an eternity.” Despite the fear, he felt a strong presence of the Lord.
As Harrell entered the water and swam to a group of about 80 other crew members, Captain McVay made his way to the communications deck of the ship which was titled at 60 degrees on her starboard side. Seconds later, the USS Indianapolis had listed 90 degrees and Captain McVay went to the rear of the ship and submerged into the water.
According to the captain’s records, “I...looked around and heard a swish and the ship was gone.” Approximately 900 men made it into the water, the others were taken in the initial attack or were to abandon the ship being sucked down with the vessel.