USS Indianapolis 1945
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Marker: recorded wreck position (Second World War).
Key facts
| Name | USS Indianapolis | Wikidata label |
|---|---|---|
| Year lost | 1945 | Wikidata P793 significant event, point-in-time qualifier |
| Era | Second World War | derived from year |
| Ship type | heavy cruiser | Wikidata P31 instance of |
| Cause of loss | War action | Keyword match in English Wikipedia lead sentence |
| Nationality / flag | United States | Wikidata P8047 country of registry |
| Operator | United States Navy | Wikidata P137 operator |
| Conflict | World War II | Wikidata P607 conflict |
| Sea / ocean | Philippine Sea | Natural Earth marine areas (public domain), point-in-polygon |
| Position | 12.0333, 134.8000 | Wikidata P625 coordinate location (CC0) |
About the wreck
USS Indianapolis (CL/CA-35) was a Portland-class heavy cruiser of the United States Navy, named for the city of Indianapolis, Indiana. Launched in 1931, she was the flagship of the commander of Scouting Force 1 for eight years, then flagship for Admiral Raymond Spruance from 1943 to 1945 while he commanded the Fifth Fleet in battles across the Central Pacific during World War II.
In July 1945, Indianapolis completed a top-secret high-speed trip to deliver uranium and other components for "Little Boy", the first nuclear weapon used in combat, to the Tinian Naval Base, and subsequently departed for the Philippines on training duty. At 0015 on 30 July, the ship was torpedoed by the Imperial Japanese Navy submarine I-58, and sank in 12 minutes.
Of 1,195 crewmen aboard, about 300 went down with the ship. The remaining 890 faced exposure, dehydration, saltwater poisoning, and shark attacks while stranded in the open ocean, with few lifeboats and almost no food or water.
Diving & visiting
The wreck of Indianapolis is in the Philippine Sea. In July–August 2001, an expedition sought to find the wreckage through the use of side-scan sonar and underwater cameras mounted on a remotely operated vehicle. Four Indianapolis survivors accompanied the expedition, which was not successful. In June 2005, a second expedition was mounted to find the wreck. National Geographic covered the story and released it in July. Submersibles were launched to find any sign of wreckage, although they only located pieces of metal that were not proven conclusively to be from the ship.
In July 2016, new information emerged regarding the possible location of Indianapolis when naval records were discovered indicating that the tank landing ship LST-779 recorded passing by Indianapolis…
The USS Indianapolis Museum had its grand opening on 7 July 2007, with its gallery in the Indiana War Memorial Museum at the Indiana World War Memorial Plaza.
Location
- Recorded position: 12.0333, 134.8000 (Wikidata P625 coordinate location (CC0); may be approximate)
- Sea / ocean: Philippine Sea
Wreck positions on this site are for interest only and are not for navigation. Many wrecks are war graves or legally protected: never disturb human remains or remove artefacts, and check local law before diving.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article USS Indianapolis (CA-35) (revision 1379986094), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section and section(s) “Wreck discovery”, “Memorials”; condensed by selecting paragraphs and trimming at sentence boundaries; citations and formatting removed. No text added. This excerpt is available under the same licence.
Wreck facts from Wikidata (CC0).
Other wrecks of the World War II
- USS LST-507 1944
- USS Tang 1944
- USS Tullibee 1944
- USS Turner 1944
- Yamashiro 1944
- German torpedo boat T3 1945
- German torpedo boat T9 1945
- HNLMS O 12 1945
- HNLMS O 19 1945
- Japanese cruiser Isuzu 1945
All 599 wrecks of the World War II →
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