The Sinking

   The Indianapolis sunk on July 20th, 1945 by a Japanese submarine called the I-58. The captain of the I-58 was Mochitsura Hashimoto. Hashimoto had not seen any action while he was patrolling the "Peddie" route and had not sunken any ships so far. He saw a ship drifting along in the distance and thought it was a prime opportunity to prove to his country that he was doing a good job as captain. Hashimoto shot his torpedoes at the USS Indianapolis. Two torpedoes hit the ship, causing it to sink. I thought that it was horrifying to read the stories the survivors had to tell. I don't blame Hashimoto, though. He was just doing his duty as captain and staying loyal to his country. What happened was fate. A horrifying, life-changing fate that took hundreds of lives. It took only twelve minutes, twelve minutes to kill about 300 men and send roughly 880 men into the shark-infested ocean water. The same water that posed as a grave for many of the men who died in its briny waves. A total of 880 men died and 317 men had survived, but had their lives changed forever. I thought that it was daunting how long the men suffered in the water, their last breaths weighing them down further into the deathly water. These men were some of the bravest men I have ever heard of. The last of the survivors were lifted out of the water 113 hours after the ship sank. These survivors used perseverance and will-power to keep themselves alive. These survivors are some of the toughest men out there.

McVay and Scott

Captain Charles McVay was the captain of the USS Indianapolis. 
Hunter Scott is a boy who did a report on the sinking of the Indianapolis and helped reveal a hidden truth about the Navy.
I included a picture so you can see what they looked like!

Captain McVay

              Captain McVay was a wonderful captain according to Peter Nelson and the crew from the Indianapolis. He was respected by one and all and by every member of the crew. None of the survivors believe that McVay was responsible for the deaths of so many people and the sinking of the ships. In fact, most blame the Navy. The Navy should have and could have given the Indianapolis  an escort ship to take down submarines because she didn't have radar enforcements to detect submarines but they said it was not necessary. The strange thing was that they had information of a separate ship had sunken near their route called "Convoy Route Peddie" and there had been submarine sightings in and around  the area. Another thing is that the Navy had been breaching Japanese messages and had information that Japanese submarines would be cruising the area. Because of not being told the important information about the Japanese subs, Captain McVay sailed right into the enemy. He was not informed of the vital information needed to avoid the subs because he was "not of rank."

The Indianapolis Description

              Peter Nelson gave a great, through description of the Indianapolis. " Her light weight, however, made her one of the fastest ships in the navy, with a flank speed of 32 knots." This is just one of the many iconographic details Nelson gives to describe. I felt as though I was there looking right at the ship in all it's resplendent glory. Nelson also includes the measurements that help you visualize the size of the grandiose ship. He gave a consummate description of the massive ship's ammunition and defensive mechanisms. The excellent description made it feel as though I was standing in front of the ship because of all the descriptive details included in the chapter. Nelson used his show-not-tell technique  really skillfully in this paragraph.

Online Review

http://ussindy.blogspot.com/2009/11/left-for-dead.html


I found this online review of my book very interesting and helpful and I hope you feel the same way.

The Indianapolis

This is what the ship the Indianapolis looked like. 

"Left for Dead"

             I've been reading this book called "Left for Dead" by Peter Nelson. So far, this book has been filled with shocking stories from the survivors from the ship the Indianapolis. This ship was sunk by Japanese torpedoes, but was such a secret voyage  that no one knew the ship had sunk. These men were extremely brave and carried on for days in shark-infested water covered in the oil spilt from their sunken ship. Only about 100 men survived. This sad tale is all true. The worst part is that the Navy blames the ship's captain, Captain McVay, for this tragedy. I feel that the captain should not have been blamed for this awful event. The Japanese were doing what they needed to for their country and McVay just happened to be on that ship that sunk. I was so shocked that anyone would blame the captain for this unfortunate event. The author also makes a point of stating how he feels that the captain should not have been blamed and I agree with him. Captain McVay hopefully gets the blame taken off his shoulders soon in the book.