America's WORST Sea Disaster, and the Captain They Wrongly Blamed

This ship delivered the atomic bomb. Days later, its crew faced the worst shark ordeal in American history.

July 1945. The USS Indianapolis secretly carries parts for the Hiroshima bomb across the Pacific. Mission done, she sails on alone, with no escort.

Just after midnight, a Japanese submarine torpedoes her. She sinks in twelve minutes. Of nearly 1,200 men, about 900 make it into the water. Then, for four days, with no rescue coming, the sharks arrive. By the time help finally finds them, only 316 are still alive.

The Navy needed someone to blame, and charged the surviving captain with losing his ship. He was court-martialed, even though a distress call went unanswered and he was never warned of enemy submarines in the area.

Decades later, a 12-year-old's school project helped clear his name. Congress finally exonerated the captain, more than 50 years too late.

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