Final Voyage: USS Indianapolis CA-35

The USS Indianapolis was sunk fifteen days before the end of World War II. It went down unknown to the Navy and its surviving crew swam in shark infested waters for four and one half days before help arrived with L. Adrian Marks, his crew and their PB5Y. They landed in heavy swells and rescued 56 men before the destroyers arrived. The USS Indianapolis had just delivered the component parts for the Atomic bomb which were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The CA-35 left Tinian on its way to rendezvous with the American Navy for their final assault on Japan. These stories of heroics and valor are unparalleled in the history of the United States Navy.

1139 men were asleep in their bunks or standing watch on that fatal night, at a few minutes after midnight, in the black gloom of a tropical night, when suddenly their lives were changed forever. An estimated 800 to 900 got off the ship and into the water but only 316 were survivors after the harrowing experience in the waters of the South Pacific.

The Final Voyage recounts the testimony of the captain of the Indianapolis at his court marital, and the testimony of the Japanese submarine commander who fired the fatal torpedoes. Relive the harrowing experiences of Lt. Adrian Marks and his crew as they struggled in heavy seas to rescue 56 of the floating survivors with graphic eyewitness descriptions of the shark attacks they experienced and the terrible strife that the swimmers suffered.

This is the stuff of legends or fiction. The ship rests in the deepest part of the Marianas Trench. Searches with sonar have been made but so far the grave of the great ship remains a mystery. This book is a tribute to the brave men whose lives were changed forever by this experience.