Home > USS Indianapolis (CA-35)
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USS Indianapolis off Mare Island, 10 July 1945.
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| Career
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| Ordered:
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| Laid down:
| 31 March 1930
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| Launched:
| 7 November 1931
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| Commissioned:
| 15 November 1932
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| Fate:
| Sunk by a Japanese submarine 30 July 1945. Only 316 of 1,199 crew members survived.
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| Struck:
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| General Characteristics
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| Displacement:
| 9,800
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| Length:
| 610 ft
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| Beam:
| 66 ft
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| Draught:
| 17 ft 4 in
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| Propulsion:
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| Speed:
| 32 knots
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| Range:
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| Complement:
| 1,269 officers and enlisted
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| Armament:
| 9 x 8 in, 8 x 5 in guns
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| Aircraft:
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| Motto:
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The first USS Indianapolis (CA-35) was a heavy cruiser commissioned in 1932. It holds a place in history due to the notorious circumstances of her demise, which was the worst single loss of life in the history of the United States Navy. After delivering the first atomic bomb to the United States air base at Tinian Island on 26 July 1945, she was in the Philippine SeaThe Philippine Sea is a part of the western Pacific Ocean bordered by the Philippines and Taiwan to the west, Japan to the north, the Marianas to the east and Palau to the south. The Philippine Plate forms the floor of this sea and it subducts under the E when attacked at 12:14 a.m. on 30 July 1945, by a JapaneseJapan (, Nippon/Nihon literally "the origin of the sun") is a country in East Asia situated on a chain of islands east of the Asian continent on the western edge of the Pacific Ocean. The largest of these islands are, from north to south, Hokkaido , Honsh submarine. Most of the crew was lost to sharksee text Sharks are a group (superorder Selachimorpha of fish, with a full cartilaginous skeleton, a streamlined body plan with between 5 and 7 gill slits along the sides (most often) or side of the head (the first modified slit is behind the eye and call attacks, as they floated helplessly for several days, waiting for assistance.
1 Service before World War II
Indianapolis was laid down 31 March 1930 by the New York Shipbuilding Corp. , Camden, N.J.; launched 7 November 1931; sponsored by Miss Lucy Taggart, daughter of the late Senator Thomas Taggart, a former mayor of Indianapolis; and commissioned at the Philadelphia Navy Yard 15 November 1932, Captain John M. Smeallie in command.
Following shakedown, in the Atlantic and Guantanamo Bay until 23 February 1932, Indianapolis trained in the Panama Canal Zone and in Pacific off the Chilean coast. After overhaul at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, the heavy cruiser sailed to Maine to embark President Roosevelt at Campobello Island 1 July 1933. Getting underway the same day, Indianapolis arrived at Annapolis 2 days later where she entertained six members of the cabinet. After disembarking the President, she departed Annapolis 4 July 1933, and returned to the Philadelphia Navy Yard.
On 6 September 1933, Secretary of the Navy Claude A. Swanson broke his flag in Indianapolis for an inspection tour of the Pacific, visiting the Canal Zone, Hawaii, and the fleet in the San Pedro-San Diego area. He debarked at San Diego 27 October, and Indianapolis became flagship of the Scouting Force 1 November 1933. Following maneuvers off the West Coast, she departed Long Beach, Calif., 9 April 1934 and arrived New York City 29 May 1934. There she again embarked the President and his party for a review of the Fleet. She arrived Long Beach 9 November 1934 for tactical war problems with the Scouting Fleet.
Indianapolis acted as flagship for the remainder of her peacetime career, and again welcomed President Roosevelt at Charleston, S.C., 18 November 1936 for a "Good-Neighbor" cruise to South America. After carrying President Roosevelt to Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, and Montevideo for state visits, she returned to Charleston 15 December where the presidential party left the ship.
As international tension built up during ensuing years and the United States girded to meet aggression, the heavy cruiser's intensified training program fused ship and crew into a fighting machine of high efficiency ready to defend the United States from any enemy who might attack.
