More than 70 years after the cruiser USS Indianapolis (CA-35) was sunk, a new clue discovered by a Navy researcher could give expeditions hunting for the missing ship a better location to look, the US Navy said this week.
Searchers have looked for Indianapolis since the ship was sunk by Japanese submarine I-58 on July 30, 1945 shortly after delivering components for the atomic bomb Little Boy to the island Tinian. Of more than thousand men aboard, almost 800 survived the initial sinking but only about 320 survived days of exposure and shark attacks on the open ocean.
Since the sinking many have tried to find the ship and none have succeeded.
Now, Naval History and Heritage Command researcher Richard Hulver unearthed a log entry from the amphibious landing ship USS LST-779 which helped pinpoint time and location of Indianapolis only 11 hours before the ship was sunk by Japanese submarine I-58 on July 30, 1945.
According to the command, the information from LST-779’s log – which past the ship before a pair torpedoes at the close of the war sank it — can provide searchers with a more specific location to look for the missing cruiser.
