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Up next. The story of America's Worst Naval Disaster. It took a movie about a shark terrorizing a small New England town. In the summer of 1975, For millions of Americans to discover the story of the sinking of the USS Indianapolis. It was the night scene in Jaws in the cabin of the Orca.
As the intrepid shark hunters use some much-needed downtime to drink some booze. and swap some fish stories. It's a scene anyone not living under a rock for the past half century has seen. And it's worth sharing before telling the rest of the story of that fateful day back in late July of 1945. In the cabin sharing those fish stories was the town cop played by Roy Scheider.
The New Age Shark Hunter played by Richard Dreyfus. and the old school sea captain named Quint Played by Robert Shaw. The scene begins with some laughs. But when Quint tells the guys he'd been a crew member of the USS Indianapolis, Everything turned somber. He proceeded to tell the boys one of the most brutal fish stories of all time.
Here's Robert Shaw. 1100 men went into the water. Vessel went down in twelve minutes. Yeah. Didn't see the first shock for about half an hour.
Tiger. 13 footer. Very first light, Chief. Sharks come cruising.
So we formed ourselves into tight groups. The idea was Shark comes the nearest man there money start pounding and hollering and screaming.
Sometimes the shark go away.
Sometimes he wouldn't go away.
Sometimes that shark he looks right into you. Right into your eyes. You know the thing about a shock he's got Lifeless eyes, black eyes, like a doll's eyes. Yeah. I was a teenager when I saw that scene, and I was not unfamiliar with the costs of war.
My mother's only brother volunteered to join the army. He never came home. He is buried in a grave site. in Saint Laurent, France. The next day I went to my local library and started reading up.
Remarkably the scene was accurate in almost all aspects. It turns out the US Indianapolis was no stranger to adversity. The ship, commissioned in 1930, was struck by a kamikaze attack during the Battle of Okinawa. The ship was sent back to California for an overhaul and was soon at sea again, this time on a top-secret mission transporting critical components. of the atomic bomb to Tinian Island.
1500 miles from Japan. The uranium on the ship was nearly half of the total U.S. supply. The crew was unaware of the nature of the cargo or its intended use. but the commanding officers knew something urgent was happening.
They were under direct orders from President Truman that the ship was not to be diverted from its mission. for any reason. What was on that ship?
Well a week later the world would know the answer. The Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb on a city that was until then pretty much unknown. Yuroshima. After completing its mission, the Indianapolis headed back to sea. Shortly after midnight on July 30th, halfway between Guam and Leyte Gulf.
a Japanese sub blasted the unescorted Indianapolis. sparking an explosion that split the ship and caused it to sink. in twelve minutes, with three hundred men trapped inside. The nine hundred crew members not trapped in the wreckage found themselves in the water. One of those men, a real life Quint, was Corporal Edgar Harrell, a twenty year old Marine.
He and the surviving seamen were left out in the Pacific in the sweltering summer heat with nothing but a small capon life jacket. keep them afloat. Here is Harrell at Stanley Heights Baptist Church not long after he wrote his memoir Out of the Depths. talking about that first day lost at sea, The next morning, the first day, we had company. When I say we had company, at any given time, you could see a big fin cutting around and around.
There are about 80 of us. And you can imagine the fright from that. We had trouble staying together.
So we said, uh, you know, hook. You're jacking on to the next person that's former circle and try to keep everyone in. And when we'd go up on a swell, then you'd kind of drift together. But it isn't long until someone begins to hallucinate, maybe he's been injured. And he can see in his mind, he can see an oasis out there.
I had one to swing up to me. Hey, Marines, see that island over there? I just came from there. Captain Parks, Lieutenant Stomper's over there. They're having a picnic.
I want you to come over there. Come and join them. I knew better, but N nearly convincing. And Then I'd just see him swim away then to his imagination and hear a blood-curdling scream and see that Kapok go under, and then momentarily a Kapok would bring the body back to the surface. But you dared not go and check who your buddy is because you could see all kinds of fins coming to the blood.
And you steered clear completely, but sometime later maybe you took the dog tag off of that. Whomever that was. And uh In checking him, you find out the bottom torso is gone or he's disemboweled. Harold then told the story about the second day lost at sea. and about his marine buddy Spooner.
Spooner said to me, he said, Harold, We don't know Word got off the ship. No one's looking for us. And uh Spooner said, I can't take this anymore. He said, I'm going to commit suicide, sooner you're not. How are you going to do it?
He said, I'm going to swim down so far I'll drown before I come back up. I said, Spooner, there's only two Marines in this group, and there's going to be two Marines. when help comes and help will come. By day three, only seventeen of the original eighty men in Harold's group. remained alive.
Here is Harrel about that third day. things were looking grim. About one o'clock there that third day, we heard voices.
Now, may I say from experience There's times when you can hear something that's not there. There's times when you can see something out there that's not there, believe me. Third day at noon, seventeen of us. And we are praying. Everyone that would pray audibly would pray.
Some of us knew to whom we were praying. I remember this one sailor. God, if you're out there, I don't want to die. I've got a son back home I've never seen. We were desperate.
The next day, day four, while on a routine patrol in his P V one Ventura, Lieutenant Chuck Wynn spotted Harrel and his fellow seamen and Marines floating adrift in the Pacific. and immediately dropped a life raft and radio transmitter.
Soon all air and surface rescue units were dispatched to the scene. Of the eleven hundred and ninety six crew members on board the Indianapolis, only three hundred and sixteen survived. News of the tragedy wasn't released until august fifteenth. VJ Day. Questions remain about why the rescue took so long.
Some argue that no distress signal was sent. Others argued that it was fear that the messages were originated by the Japanese in an attempt. to ambush rescue ships. others still that communications lagged because of the top secret status. of the ship's mission.
The answer is still unclear. One thing is certain. The sinking of the Indianapolis was not just the worst naval disaster in American history. It was the worst mass shark attack. in world history.
And that's no fishtail. Farrell's autobiography can be found in indiesurvivor.com. On the website is a piece of scripture from Psalms he thought was worth sharing and is worth ending this story with. Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord. Lord, hear my voice.
Let thine ears be attentive. to the voice of my supplication. Harold died on May 8, 2021. in Murray, Kentucky. The age of 96.
He was the last surviving marine. from the USS Indianapolis. Corporal Edgar Harrell's Story The crew members of the Indianapolis story, the story of so many seamen lost at sea and in battle. Here. on our American story.
Um Yeah. Liberty has never been just a word to we Americans. It has guided every one of our endeavors for the past 250 years. And now it takes form in a new way. The 2026 Semi-Quincentennial Coin and Metal Program from the United States Mint.
It celebrates the founding ideals that have long shaped our coinage. Available one year only, this historic collection features new coin designs, limited edition releases, and reissues. Shop new official coins at usmint.gov forward slash semi-q. That's usmint.gov/slash S-E-M-I-Q. In football, you've got guys from everywhere.
Different backgrounds, different beliefs, all of it. You don't agree on everything. but you got each other's backs. That's how it works. And right now, off the field, hate's going up everywhere.
Different communities, different ways. And Jewish communities are getting hit hard. That's not how a team operates. The blue square is just one way of showing you've got people's backs. Go to bluesquarealliance.org, grab one, share it, be a good teammate.
When you own your own business, you own every decision. Catch the red eye or take the 6 a.m. Make a new hire or promote internally. Celebrate a win with the toast at the gate or unwind at the lounge. Big props to this team.
Some decisions are a win-win, like earning 8x points on Chase Travel, Chase Sapphire Reserve for Business, the business card that gives back all you put in. Visit chase.com/slash reserve business to learn more. Cards issued by J.P. Morgan Chase Bank and a member of FDIC subject to credit approval. Terms apply.
Professional wrestling fans, the action continues every week. You got it. Yes. TNA Thursday Night Impact every week on AMC. For showtimes and more information, visit TNA Wrestling.com.
