Signed Picture of USS Indianapolis Rescue Crew 34

Signed Picture of USS Indianapolis Rescue Crew 34

Hand signed 5x7 photograph by crew members of the USS Indianapolis Survivors Rescue Teams.  The signatures are all original hand signed by 5 veterans.  This photograph came from a USS Indianapolis / Atomic Bomb autograph collection and is related to Project Alberta and related efforts.  This is the ONLY photograph that I have of this kind and it's rare to see supporting signed items like this. Signatures include Floyd Etheridge, Roy Sutrov, Marion Smith, William Higbee and Fred Needham.

USS Indianapolis (CL/CA-35) was a Portland-class heavy cruiser of the United States Navy, named for the city of Indianapolis, Indiana. The vessel served as the flagship for the commander of Scouting Force 1 for eight pre-war years, then as flagship for Admiral Raymond Spruance, in 1943 and 1944, while he commanded the Fifth Fleet in battles across the Central Pacific in World War II.

USS Indianapolis (CA-35), 27 September 1939

In 1945, the sinking of Indianapolis led to the greatest single loss of life at sea, from a single ship, in the history of the US Navy. The ship had just finished a high-speed trip to United States Army Air Force Base at Tinian to deliver parts of Little Boy, the first nuclear weapon ever used in combat, and was on her way to the Philippines on training duty. At 0015 on 30 July 1945 the ship was torpedoed by the Imperial Japanese Navy submarine I-58, and sank in 12 minutes. Of 1,195 crewmen aboard, approximately 300 went down with the ship. The remaining 900 faced exposure, dehydration, saltwater poisoning, and shark attacks while floating with few lifeboats and almost no food or water. The Navy learned of the sinking when survivors were spotted four days later by the crew of a PV-1 Ventura on routine patrol. Only 316 survived.

Drowned sailors in the waters of the Pacific, fighting against sunburn, dehydration, while encircled by sharks. The predators came to the scene from miles around. A frenzy followed for the ever hungry sharks, attracted by the countless dead bodies and later they started attacking the survivors of which many were in the water. 

It was the largest Shark attack ever in naval history and the heroic role of a single PBY Catalina that arrived on the horror scene where hundreds of sailors were adrift in the open ocean for more than three days.

A USAAF Consolidated OA-10A Catalina (Army Air Forces designation of the Navy PBY) amphibious flying boat.

It all happened in the closing days of the Pacific war when the Heavy Cruiser USS Indianapolis was torpedoed by the Japanese submarine I-58, causing the second largest US naval disaster after the Pearl Harbor attack in December 1941. To make things worse, the mighty battleship sank so fast that no SOS/ distress signal could be sent out or was not picked up, leaving nearly 900 sailors adrift for days in the shark-infested waters of the mid-Pacific.

 Lt. Adrian Marks (4th from right) and his crew, in front of their Dumbo PBY-5A Catalina, the heroes involved in the rescue operation after the shipwrecking of the USS Indianapolis on 2 August 1945. Lieutenant Marks paid tribute to the sailors he rescued and to all others who had undergone this horrifying ordeal. Speaking at the 1975 survivors’ reunion, he said: ”I met you 30 years ago, I met you on a sparkling, sun-swept afternoon of horror. I have known you through a balmy tropic night of fear. I will never forget you.”

On 19 August 2017, a search team financed by Paul Allen located the wreckage of the sunken cruiser in the Philippine Sea lying at a depth of approximately 18,000 ft (5,500 m).

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