Paul Allen Finds Long-Lost World War II Cruiser, the USS Indianapolis (usni.org) 131
An anonymous reader quotes the US Naval Institute News:
Seventy-two years after two torpedoes fired from a Japanese submarine sunk cruiser USS Indianapolis (CA-35), the ship's wreckage was found resting on the seafloor on Saturday -- more than 18,000 feet below the Pacific Ocean's surface. Paul Allen, Microsoft co-founder and billionaire philanthropist, led a search team, assisted by historians from the Naval History and Heritage Command in Washington, D.C., to accomplish what past searches had failed to do -- find Indianapolis, considered the last great naval tragedy of World War II.
"To be able to honor the brave men of the USS Indianapolis and their families through the discovery of a ship that played such a significant role in ending World War II is truly humbling," said Allen in a statement provided to US Naval Institute News on Saturday... "I hope everyone connected to this historic ship will feel some measure of closure at this discovery so long in coming"... Allen's 13-person expedition team, on the R/V Petrel is in the process of surveying the full site and will conduct a live tour of the wreckage in the next few weeks. They are complying with U.S. law and respecting the sunken ship as a war grave, taking care not to disturb the site.
Paul Allen has shared some photos from the discovery on Twitter.
The ship had delivered components for the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima just four days before it was sunk. Only 317 of its 1,197-man crew survived, making it the worst at-sea disaster in the history of the U.S. Navy.
"To be able to honor the brave men of the USS Indianapolis and their families through the discovery of a ship that played such a significant role in ending World War II is truly humbling," said Allen in a statement provided to US Naval Institute News on Saturday... "I hope everyone connected to this historic ship will feel some measure of closure at this discovery so long in coming"... Allen's 13-person expedition team, on the R/V Petrel is in the process of surveying the full site and will conduct a live tour of the wreckage in the next few weeks. They are complying with U.S. law and respecting the sunken ship as a war grave, taking care not to disturb the site.
Paul Allen has shared some photos from the discovery on Twitter.
The ship had delivered components for the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima just four days before it was sunk. Only 317 of its 1,197-man crew survived, making it the worst at-sea disaster in the history of the U.S. Navy.
USS Arizona was worse (Score:1, Interesting)
From TFA: Only 317 of its 1,197-man crew survived, making it the worst disaster in the history of the U.S. Navy
1197 - 317 = 880 dead
1177 died on 12/7/1941 on the USS Arizona.
So the USS Indianapolis was not the worst.
Re:USS Arizona was worse (Score:4, Insightful)
So the USS Indianapolis was not the worst.
It's not a contest.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
It's not a contest.
But someone was wrong on the Internet [xkcd.com]!
Anyway, TFA doesn't say it was the "worst disaster in the history of the U.S. Navy". That incorrect factoid appears to have been fabricated by whoever wrote the summary.
Re: USS Arizona was worse (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
Correcting a mistake doesn't make something a contest. Facts do matter.
Re: (Score:2)
Well said.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Have you ever heard of this [wikipedia.org] ship?
I was not aware that German military transports were part of the US Navy - you learn something new every day!
Re: (Score:2)
"Have you ever heard of this ship?"
Yes. The grandfather of my teacher for German class was a survivor of it. (He was a German medic who was one of the passengers.)
He never got back on another ship for the rest of his life.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:1)
The USS Arizona was in port, whereas the USS Indianapolis was at sea (engaged in a combat mission).
By the time her magazine exploded, the crew of the USS Arizona had gone to general quarters, and anti-aircraft guns were manned and returning fire. So she was also engaged in combat.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
She was returning. She wasn't part of the "right" navy, however so they didn't care that she was missing which is why so many were lost. The whole way it was handled was wrong. Of course the Navy brought in the guy that sunk the ship to help convict the Captain in his court martial. Didn't matter what he did, that Jap captain would have had him. Text book shot.
Re: (Score:3)
making it the worst at-sea disaster [emphasis mine]
The Arizona was docked at the time. The water was so shallow her superstructure was above water after she sunk [wikipedia.org].
Re: (Score:2)
And you "tie up" to a pier. You don't fucking dock your ship at a pier.
Unless it's a space dock. Then you certainly do want to dock your ship, come aboard the station and gamble some money at Quark's [wikia.com].
Re: (Score:2)
And you "tie up" to a pier. You don't fucking dock your ship at a pier.
A ship ties up to a pier or a wharf. Piers run perpendicular to the shoreline. Wharfs run parallel to the shoreline.
Neither a pier nor a wharf is a "dock". The dock is the water next to a pier or wharf. The ship ties to a pier, while it sits in a dock.
At least, that is what I learned in boot camp.
There are also "dry docks" and floodable docks like the dock on an LSD [wikipedia.org].
Disclaimer: I once spent 8 weeks on an LSD. But as a Marine, I was considered part of the cargo, not part of the crew. Semper Fi.
Re: (Score:2)
True, but what the Slashdot summary that you are responding to said was this:
No it didn't. I pointed out the mistake, and the summary was later corrected.
War grave - do not disturb. (Score:3)
The ship is considered a war grave and protected by various country-specific laws. Unfortunately, "scavengers ain't got no respect [theguardian.com]."
Re: (Score:1)
18000 feet is 5.4 km deep - VERY deep. I don't think the tech exists capable to disturb it.
Re: (Score:2)
The tech exists today to disturb any site under the ocean - maybe not delicately explore or salvage, but we can disturb the hell out of anything, anywhere in the ocean, and send live video back while it's happening.
Re: (Score:2)
18000 feet is 5.4 km deep - VERY deep. I don't think the tech exists capable to disturb it.
But surely we still have plans for the Glomar Explorer, if we needed to rebuild it?
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah! If only they hadn't disturbed the wreck, those people could be alive now!
Re: (Score:2)
How do you do a live tour of the wreckage without disturbing it?
War graves can be visited (Score:2)
How do you do a live tour of the wreckage without disturbing it?
You don't enter the wreck, you stay outside. You do not remove anything from the site, you take photos/video.
Re: (Score:2)
Take photos?! They're going to steal the souls of those poor soldiers!
Re: (Score:2)
Sailors, you damned lubber!
Re: (Score:2)
There's non-military sailors too, you know. I call anyone enlisted to wage war a soldier. It doesn't matter if he fights underwater, on the water, on the ground, in the air or in space.
Total classic. (Score:2)
Guess where it was... behind the sofa. ;)
Re: (Score:2)
Someone set us up the bomb.
Re: (Score:2)
The Best Part of Jaws... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
Years ago I was on a Universal City Studio tour where we saw an animatronic shark from the movie. It looked so fake. I was embarrassed to think back on how scared shitless I'd been when I first saw the movie.
Re: (Score:2)
You were scared because the shark was so fake that they didn't use it more than absolutely necessary. Thus, you saw your shark in your mind, which was probably more terrifying than any real shark.
Re: (Score:2)
Where did you get the idea for your post?
While at the bus stop after my gym workout. I did a search for "Jaws", found no reference and posted my comment. Only later did I saw that someone posted a reference to the novel without using the title. I seriously wonder how many people knew that Peter Benchley was the author of "Jaws," or that he had a cameo in the movie as the television reporter on the beach. The link regarding the Indianapolis monologue was worth the five point moderation. :P
The real enemy (Score:5, Interesting)
The disgusting part of this disaster was the way the US Navy persecuted Captain McVay, railroading him in a court martial with trumped-up charges shown to be nonsense by testimony of the Japanese sub captain, and finally driving McVay to suicide. He was the final victim, 24 years delayed. It took an act of Congress to force the Navy, kicking and screaming, to finally clear his record of all findings of wrongdoing, 56 years too late.
The mismanagement of the stupidly, needlessly, and literally carelessly delayed search and rescue of survivors, as day after day drifting in the water dehydrating, starving, going mad, and being picked off by sharks, is also a huge part of the disaster. Something very similar happened at the Battle off Samar, in which hundreds of sailors from a small group of destroyers and escort carriers, after being pulverized by a huge Japanese battle fleet, were also left to drift for days, with many needless drowning and shark bite deaths.
Re: (Score:3)
Wow--after all that trolling, quibbling and backbiting, somebody shows up who reads things past the first paragraph. You must be an old fart like me.
Re: https://www.al-awa2el.com/taif-clean/255-carp (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: https://www.al-awa2el.com/taif-clean/255-carpe (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Exactly. Europeans hate it when someone else gets in on their thing. They hate sharing with others.
Re: (Score:3)
Hey asswipe, don't you need to go plant some flowers at Auschwitz, Srebrenica or along the Berlin Wall?
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
We don't need any Europeans pissing on the graves of American soldiers. We already have President Trump doing it.
http://www.politifact.com/trut... [politifact.com]
http://www.latimes.com/politic... [latimes.com]
Re: Screw the soldiers (Score:1)
If you don't like someone, say they're a Neo Nazi, the Internet will handle the rest.
Re: (Score:1)
We have an authentic genuine nazi, George Soros. The internet doesn't seem to care. He'll even tell you that the best years of his life was when he was with the nazis. Just check out his 20/20 interview, he says that. We don't need to look at Confederates, we have an actual living scumbag right there. However it seems he has a lot to do with their funding.
You can find plenty of graves in Europe (Score:4, Insightful)
As a European, I'm sick and tired of American aggression ... I would like to indicate my displeasure for American military aggression by traveling to the United States and urinating on the graves of soldiers.
You don't have to travel to America, there are plenty of American soldiers buried on the continent of Europe. They died so that you have the right to make your childish, myopic and ill-informed "statement".
Re: (Score:2)
I think Russian soldiers might want a word with you concerning the question who had to bear what burden of that victory... if dead people could talk.
Re: (Score:2)
I think Russian soldiers might want a word with you concerning the question who had to bear what burden of that victory... if dead people could talk.
Russian casualties had a large part to do with the incompetence of Russian generals, generals picked for loyalty to Stalin rather than military competence.
Russian soldiers were also able to endure and ultimately be victorious due to American supplies. Food for soldiers, high grade steel for the manufacture of T-34 tanks, aircraft for busting German armor and logistics.
The Russian soldiers also did not fight to liberate the continent of Europe. They fought to replace one mass murdering despot with a di
Re: (Score:2)
Russian casualties had a large part to do with the incompetence of Russian generals, generals picked for loyalty to Stalin rather than military competence.
That is true, but only part of it. One would be the large part of it was the simple fact that the vast majority of the German army was on the eastern front, where they did their thing for years before any Americans showed up to take all the credit.
The second large part would be the absolute ruthlessness of the Soviet generals. May I present you with the following quote from Georgy Zhukov: "If we come to a minefield, our infantry attacks exactly as it were not there."
Russian soldiers were also able to endure and ultimately be victorious due to American supplies. Food for soldiers, high grade steel for the manufacture of T-34 tanks, aircraft for busting German armor and logistics.
Again, true, but supplies themselves does
Re: (Score:1)
As a European, I'm sick and tired of American aggression. It is ruining the world, and it's time we put an end to it. I would like to indicate my displeasure for American military aggression by traveling to the United States and urinating on the graves of soldiers. If enough intelligent Europeans join me in this protest, perhaps we can show the Americans just how repugnant their aggression is to the rest of the world.
And guess what? If you want to piss on the graves of US soldiers, there are 100,000 US soldiers buried in Europe - where they died for YOUR freedom.
I notice you didn't post this in German or Russian.
YOU'RE FUCKING WELCOME!!
Re: (Score:1)
Re:Screw the soldiers (Score:4, Insightful)
You're feeding a troll, people...
Re: (Score:2)
America was trying to strangle Japan to halt its expansion. You needn't drop bombs on a country to wage war with it, provided you can tell half the world to not do business with someone.
For reference, see Cuba.
Fine, we'll stay home (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
A practitioner of Islam, you stupid fuck.
Re: (Score:1)
If the US had stayed out of the Great War, all of Europe would be speaking German today.
Re: (Score:1)
I think you'll have trouble finding enough intelligent Europeans to even consider making an impact. Three or four just ain't going to cut it.
Re: (Score:2)
Why bother coming to the US? There's a far more readily accessible graveyard of American soldiers in Colleville-sur-Mer, France.
Re: (Score:2)