NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * âGRIPPINGâŚTHIS YARN HAS IT ALL.â âUSA TODAY * âA WONDERFUL BOOK.â âThe Christian Science Monitor * âENTHRALLING.â âKirkus Reviews (starred review) * âA MUST-READ.â âBooklist (starred review)
A human drama unlike any otherâthe riveting and definitive full story of the worst sea disaster in United States naval history.
Just after midnight on July 30, 1945, the USS Indianapolis is sailing alone in the Philippine Sea when she is sunk by two Japanese torpedoes. For the next five nights and four days, almost three hundred miles from the nearest land, nearly nine hundred men battle injuries, sharks, dehydration, insanity, and eventually each other. Only 316 will survive.
For the first time Lynn Vincent and Sara Vladic tell the complete story of the ship, her crew, and their final mission to save one of their own in âa wonderful bookâŚthat features grievous mistakes, extraordinary courage, unimaginable horror, and a cover-upâŚas complete an account of this tragic tale as we are likely to haveâ (The Christian Science Monitor). It begins in 1932, when Indianapolis is christened and continues through World War II, when the ship embarks on her final world-changing mission: delivering the core of the atomic bomb to the Pacific for the strike on Hiroshima.
âSimply outstandingâŚIndianapolis is a must-readâŚa tour de force of true human dramaâ (Booklist, starred review) that goes beyond the menâs rescue to chronicle the survivorsâ fifty-year fight for justice on behalf of their skipper, Captain Charles McVay III, who is wrongly court-martialed for the sinking. âEnthrallingâŚA gripping study of the greatest sea disaster in the history of the US Navy and its aftermathâ (Kirkus Reviews, starred review), Indianapolis stands as both groundbreaking naval history and spellbinding narrativeâand brings the ship and her heroic crew back to full, vivid, unforgettable life. âVincent and Vladic have delivered an account that stands out through its crisp writing and superb researchâŚIndianapolis is sure to hold its own for a long timeâ (USA TODAY).