CRUISER INDIANAPOLIS WRECK FOUND

21 August 2017: Given the attention this event has enjoyed over the past few days, we almost decided not to publish the story here, but later relented due to the significance of the story and the role played by the ship in U.S. history. (And the story - at least of the sinking and its aftermath -even had a small role in the movie JAWS when actor Robert Shaw describes the survivors being attacked by sharks.) The following piece includes some images from the New York Times and the editorial content from USNI (US Naval Institute).

USS Indianapolis

Seventy-two years after two torpedoes fired from a Japanese submarine sank cruiser USS Indianapolis (CA-35), the ship’s wreckage was found resting on the seafloor on Saturday – more than 18,000 feet below the Pacific Ocean’s surface.
Paul Allen, Microsoft co-founder and billionaire philanthropist, led a search team, assisted by historians from the Naval History and Heritage Command (NHHC) in Washington, D.C., to accomplish what past searches had failed to do – find Indianapolis, considered the last great naval tragedy of World War II.
We’ve located wreckage of USS Indianapolis in Philippine Sea at 5500m below the sea. ’35’ on hull 1st confirmation: https://t.co/V29TLj1Ba4 pic.twitter.com/y5S7AU6OEl
— Paul Allen (@PaulGAllen) August 19, 2017
“To be able to honor the brave men of the USS Indianapolis and their families through the discovery of a ship that played such a significant role in ending World War II is truly humbling,” said Allen in a statement provided to USNI News on Saturday.
“As Americans, we all owe a debt of gratitude to the crew for their courage, persistence and sacrifice in the face of horrendous circumstances. While our search for the rest of the wreckage will continue, I hope everyone connected to this historic ship will feel some measure of closure at this discovery so long in coming.”

The hull number of Indianapolis and her anchor at 18,000 ft down!

On July 30, 1945, what turned out to be the final days of World War II, Indianapolis had just completed a secret mission to the island Tinian, delivering components of the atomic bomb “Little Boy” dropped on Hiroshima which would ultimately help end the war. The ship sunk in 12 minutes, before a distress signal could be sent or much of the life-saving equipment was deployed, according to a statement from the Naval History and Heritage Command in Washington, D.C. Because of the secrecy surrounding the mission, the ship wasn’t listed as overdue
Around 800 of the ship’s 1,196 sailors and Marines survived the sinking, but after four to five days in the water, suffering exposure, dehydration, drowning, and shark attacks, only 316 survived.
“I’m very happy that they found it. It’s been a long 72 years coming,” said a statement released by Indianapolis survivor Arthur Leenerman, 93 years-old from Mahomet, Ill. “I have wished for years that they would find it. The lost at sea families will feel pretty sad but I think finding the ship will also give them some closure. I’m glad that the search was successful. It will be interesting to see where it was found and how deep it was resting. ”

An interesting sidebar to the story of the Indianapolis is that her captain, Charles McVeigh, was court martialed (usual in the case of losing one's ship) and convicted of not zig-zagging. Even though the Japanese sub skipper testified it would have made no difference, he was still convicted and ultimately committed suicide. About 40 years later, he was exonerated. Sad.

Now one final note and not about Paul Allen finding the Indianapolis: Maritime Maunder is 3 years old today! During that time we have accumulated over 66,000 readers (thank you all!) and posted 254 articles for your reading pleasure. So, as we embark on our 4th year, we say thank you to our readers; we hope you have enjoyed at least some of the posts! We will be posting more on the lost Franklin expedition as well as some other follow-ons to previous posts. 

Until next time,
                                              Fair Winds.,
                                                   Old Salt

 

A SAD DAY FOR THE ROYAL NAVY

17 August 2017: In recognition of the world's newest aircraft carrier (currently without planes) arrival in Portsmouth England - yes, the HMS Queen Elizabeth - we thought we would offer some history about the daily "tot" of rum - or as the sailors referred to it in the 19th century, "Good Jamaica," and its ultimate demise on 31 July 1970. They hung in for a long time after the U.S. Navy stopped the use of liquor on their ships - 1 July 1914 - under orders from SecNav Josephus Daniels. In neither situation was the ban greeted with anything other than dismay and derision. But we're talking about the Royal Navy today, so herewith, a piece from the the Smithsonian Magazine which I found interesting...

On July 31, 1970, British sailors lined up to receive their final rum ration. “Mock funerals were staged, “ writes Wayne Curtis for The Daily Beast. Sailors wore black armbands. On one ship, imbibers threw their empty glasses–and the barrel–into the harbor. 

For a very long time, the daily rum ration was an essential part of life in the Royal Navy. But by the time Black Tot Day came around, Curtis writes, there weren’t many in the Navy who still took advantage of the privilege they still technically had. The Navy was no longer a body of men whose rations regularly went rotten (or at least tasted bad). It was a professionalized body of people who had more to do with nuclear technology and electronics than they did with cannonballs and cutlasses–and really, really needed to be sober. 

The Admiralty Board, which oversees the Navy, wrote:

The rum issue is no longer compatible with the high standards of efficiency required now that the individual's tasks in ships are concerned with complex, and often delicate, machinery and systems on the correct functioning of which people's lives may depend.

diorama of the traditional mixing the daily tot

But the rum ration was such an important part of naval tradition that it prompted a lengthy debate in the House of Commons, writes Georgie Evans for The Telegraph. One Member of Parliament argued that "in fact the rum enabled the sailors 'to face the coming action with greater strength and determination,'" Evans writes. Detractors pointed out that the "daily tot" was enough rum to raise a sailor's blood alcohol levels above the legal limit for operating a motor vehicle. They eventually won out.

Here are some of the reasons the daily alcohol ration was so important for so long:

Most food didn’t stay good for very long

Although the sailors of the 1700s and 1800s Royal Navy ate better than many accounts would have you believe, the food that lasted before refrigeration was still at best bland and at worst sort of rotten. “Records show that 18th- and 19th- century British sailors enjoyed a high-calorie, protein-packed diet superior to those of most working-class landlubbers,” writes Jennie Cohen for History.com. 

For all that, writes Curtis, what they ate didn’t taste amazing. “Water in the casks would often develop algae and taste putrid and sour,” he writes. Beer, which the Navy served before switching to rum, didn’t last when it was hot and humid.

Spirits like rum or brandy (which the sailors were served for a time) retained their good taste and didn’t spoil, so they might be the only tasty thing sailors got in a day. 

Scurvy

A big reason that the Royal Navy encouraged the rum ration was related to scurvy–an ailment that was common to sailors, who didn’t get much fresh produce that contained Vitamin C. Don’t get confused, though: Rum doesn’t naturally contain Vitamin C in any meaningful quantity. However, it goes well with lime juice, which ships carried and gave out to sailors daily.

In 1740, concerned by the drunkenness of sailors who received half a pint of rum per day, Admiral Sir Edward Vernon declared that the rum should be mixed with water, writes Harry Sword for Vice. To that mix was added the daily dose of lime and some sugar–although the connection between citrus and scurvy wasn’t formalized for more than 50 years.

Being a sailor was tedious–when it wasn’t terrifying

“No man will be a sailor who has contrivance enough to get himself into a jail; for being in a ship is being in a jail, with the chance of being drowned,” British humorist Samuel Johnson wrote in the latter half of the 1700s.

Like many funny people, Johnson had a talent for overstatement, but it was true that sailing was hard work. At sea for up to months at a time, doing backbreaking work in a highly disciplined environment where punishments like flogging could be meted out, sailing was no day at the beach. “There was no system of imprisonment, or financial penalty,” writes Andrew Lambert for BBC, “although the rum ration could be stopped.” At the same time, Britain spent much of the 1700s and 1800s at war, where chance of injury and death was relatively high.

The demands of such a life helped to make the rum ration “a vital part of the fabric of the Royal Navy–rationed, used as a currency, and a veritable way of life,” Sword writes.                       

                                        ~~~~~~~

So, there will be no rum or any other liquor served on HMS Queen Elizabeth - probably a good thing!

Until next time, then,

                                           Fair Winds

                                                Old Salt