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Glossy 10 x 8 photo of the heavy cruiser USS Indianapolis underway in Tinian Island harbor, the last known image of the vessel, signed in blue and black felt tip by 33 surviving crewmen and members of her U.S. Marine detachment, the majority adding their rate and rank. The photograph was issued as part of a World War II 50th Anniversary Tribute. In fine condition.
The USS Indianapolis delivered the components of ‘Little Boy’ — the uranium bomb dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 — to Tinian Island, completing the classified mission on July 26, 1945. The photograph captures the ship in port at Tinian at that precise moment, one of the most consequential stops in the Pacific War. Departing Tinian on July 28 for Leyte Gulf in the Philippines, the Indianapolis was struck by two Type 95 torpedoes from the Japanese submarine I-58 shortly after midnight on July 30, 1945. The cruiser sank in approximately twelve minutes, carrying an estimated 300 men down with her. Roughly 900 men entered the water. Three separate naval communications stations failed to act on the distress call, and the ship's non-arrival at Leyte went unreported for nearly four days. When a PV-1 Ventura aircraft on routine patrol accidentally spotted survivors on August 2, only 321 men remained alive. The intervening days had claimed hundreds of lives to exposure, dehydration, saltwater poisoning, and oceanic whitetip and tiger shark attacks — the largest documented shark predation event in recorded history.
