Rating: 
Summary: MISFORTUNES OF WAR
Review: A GREAT TELLING OF THE SINKING OF THE USS INDIANAPOLIS WELL RESEARCHED AND WRITTEN. OF TWELVE HUNDRED MEMBERS OF THE CREW ONLY EIGHT HUNDRED MADE IT TO THE WATER AND ONLY 300 OR SO WERE RESCUED. GOOD DESCRIPTION OF LIFE IN THE WATER AND THE PROLONG EFFECT OF SUN AND SEA. GOOD ACCOUNT OF THE RESCUE EFFORT WHEN FOUND BY ACCIDENT. A GREAT ACCOUNTING OF THE AFTERMATH INCLUDING THE COURT MARITAL OF THE INDIANAPOLIS'S CAPTAIN. SHOW'S HOW GOOD INTENTION, ie not reporting overdue war ships, CAN RESULT IN UNEXPECTED RESULTS. SHOWS HOW COVERUP WAS ATTEMPTED TO INVOLVE OFFICER WHO DID NOT REPORT ARRIVAL BY PUBLICLY REPRIMANDING THEM ON RADIO AND THEN WHEN CONFRONTED WITH FACTS REMOVE FROM RECORDS WITHOUT ANNOUNCEMENT
Rating: 
Summary: If It Wasn't True, No One Would Believe It.....
Review: Abandon Ship! tells the story of the doomed ship U.S.S. Indianapolis, sunk by a Japanese Submarine on it's way home after delivering "Little Boy", the bomb that would destroy Hiroshima and end WWII. I have been fascinated by the story of the Indianapolis ever since I was a child, and heard about it in the movie "Jaws". Abandon Ship! was originally published in 1958, and this new edition has a new Introduction and Afterword by acclaimed Author Peter Maas, which brings the reader up-to-date on what has happened with the Indianapolis Case in the intervening Years. And a LOT has happened... After leaving "Little Boy" on the Isle of Tinian, Indianapolis was sunk by a Japanese Sub, leaving over 800 men in the water for over Four Days. (Over 1,200 men were on the Ship; 800 made it into the Water, slightly over 300 survived drowning, sharks, and exposure.) The book details the catastrophic chain of events that could allow an event of this magnitude to happen, including a foolish command that Combat Vessels not be reported as docking (So the Enemy doesn't know where the Combatant Vessels are...). This inevitably leads to not reporting the Indianapolis as NOT docking. The men are found completely by accident; after almost FIVE DAYS, no one had missed them yet. Author Richard Newcomb's style posed serious problems for me; after the first 75 pages I felt as if I were reading a Navy-only book. He packs the pages with Navy Jargon, never telling the reader what it means. I don't even know the Bow from the Stern, so I was lost a lot of the time, and since the whole point of the book, to me, was the 4+ Days spent in the water, I was dismayed to find Newcomb only devote around 30 pages to that portion of their ordeal. He also SERIOUSLY downplays the Shark Attacks; a peek at the Glossary will show that Shark attacks only merit ONE MENTION..... The book quickly becomes riveting reading when The Navy decides that, since SOMONE must be held accountable, they'll Court-Martial the Captain of The Indianapolis. The railroading of Captain Mcvay is shameful, and Maas' Afterword details the efforts of an 11-Year old (!) boy, as a result of his School History project, to clear Mcvay's name. The saga of The Indianapolis is truly one of the darkest moments in Military History, and this book, while not perfect, is a must-read.
Rating:
Summary: Damn That Torpedo
Review: As a teenager in the early sixties I caddied for Charlie McVay frequently at the Litchfield Country Club, in Litchfield, CT. We thought then that we knew the story of the sinking of the Indianapolis, and we thought then that we knew the man who had been held responsible for the tragic loss of life, hours before the end of World War II. But it wasn't until Richard Newcomb's Abandon Ship! that any of us who knew McVay were able to understand the Admiral's profound pathos. The military's bungling, its cover-up, its stonewalling, its court martial of an innocent man, culminating in its gross miscarriage of justice, are more often the stuff of fiction. But it wasn't fiction, and Newcomb gives us every damning detail to prove it. Peter Maas provides an afterward showing how McVay was eventually exonerated, 32 years too late to save the the Indianapolis' last victim, my old friend, Admiral McVay, who shot himself to escape his grief. Abandon Ship! is for anyone who values truth, and who is engaged by tragedy.
Rating:
Summary: Damn That Torpedo
Review: As a teenager in the early sixties I caddied for Charlie McVay frequently at the Litchfield Country Club, in Litchfield, CT. We thought then that we knew the story of the sinking of the Indianapolis, and we thought then that we knew the man who had been held responsible for the tragic loss of life, hours before the end of World War II. But it wasn't until Richard Newcomb's Abandon Ship! that any of us who knew McVay were able to understand the Admiral's profound pathos. The military's bungling, its cover-up, its stonewalling, its court martial of an innocent man, culminating in its gross miscarriage of justice, are more often the stuff of fiction. But it wasn't fiction, and Newcomb gives us every damning detail to prove it. Peter Maas provides an afterward showing how McVay was eventually exonerated, 32 years too late to save the the Indianapolis' last victim, my old friend, Admiral McVay, who shot himself to escape his grief. Abandon Ship! is for anyone who values truth, and who is engaged by tragedy.
Rating:
Summary: The Less You Know Now The More This Book Will Upset You
Review: At the back of this book is the list of men that survived not only the sinking of The Indianapolis on July 31st 1945, but also the days of suffering that followed. 316 men survived, which represents 26.4% of the crew. All the survivors agree that the majority of the crew safely evacuated the ship. If the number that reached the water was 850, only 37.1% survived the four and one half days they spent in the water. The men who survived, and how they and the tragedy were treated are the subject of this book, "Abandon Ship", by Mr. Richard F Newcomb. The survivors represented 40 of the then 48 States of The Nation. It is not much of a stretch to say that the nearly three fourths of the men that died would complete the list of 48 States, Native American Reservations, and possibly other locales as well. As this is the largest loss of life from a single ship, it may also be unique in that families in every single State were affected, I don't know this, I am making a presumption. I have often read of this ship when the subject of its cargo was raised. For this book, and the men that died and lived, what it carried is meaningless relative to their ordeal. To use this issue to glorify or to denigrate the sacrifice of these men is equally obscene, and misses the point. This is a book about human nature at its most brilliant, and its most pathetic. It is a story of a crusade that survivors carried on until the spring of 2000, the story of a 9th Grader who was integral to their efforts, and the bureaucracy that lobbied 55 years after the sinking to minimize any blame they deserved. The part of the Navy that is obsessive about placing blame as far from the top as possible appears to still be in working order. A few years ago a gun turret exploded on a battleship with loss of life, who was to blame, the easiest scapegoat they could find. I mean no disrespect to The Navy as a branch of armed forces that have defended us for hundreds of years. This is not about the "Navy" the institution; this is about the Navy as headed by insecure, politically paranoid, career bureaucrats. You will read of a four and one half day length of torture that is nearly unimaginable. Hundreds of men, many wounded, with virtually no food or water, and sharks and other flesh-eating creatures sharing their space. Reading about men, who wore life preservers that slowly drowned as the 48-hour useful life of the device ran out, is painful. What follows is even worse. The moronic policies, the preoccupation with placing blame on the most irrelevant of players, and the 55 year odyssey to clear the Captain's and the crew's name, is nauseating at its best. That after half a century the Navy was still more concerned with its history than the truth, is whatever comes after nauseating. The Captain took his own life in 1968 about an hour from where I write. The Navy had so vilified him that the letters accusing him of murder that continued for decades must have become too much. Only 134 of the original crew lived to see a Congress pushed, kicked, and dragged into passing resolutions that were the result of outrageous behavior 55 years before. And even when the resolution was passed, it was a resolution watered down by The Navy. The Navy that was protecting what? Tradition? What Tradition? The only people that were deluded enough to think that what was done in 1945 was legitimate sent sacrificial lambs to face the questioners, the accusers. The transcripts of some exchanges are included, and are so ridiculous as to be farce, and are in the best traditions of nothing. "Flags Of Our Fathers" is another book that has enjoyed well-deserved success. This story was originally published in 1958, and is as important now as it was then, perhaps more so. Time never runs out for the truth, no matter how blockaded it may be by self interested parties that are supposed to serve those they vilify or fail to vindicate. A spectacular book about amazing men.
Rating:
Summary: One of the Best
Review: Being in the military, this book struck a chord. I could never have imagined what happened in the aftermath of the sinking. I couldn't put it down. I read it every free minute I had. Deffinately one of the best books I have read in a very long time.
Rating:
Summary: A Fatal Voyage with a Tragic Ending
Review: During the last days of the Pacific War, the USS Indianapolis was steaming towards the Phillippines after delivering the components of the atomic bomb. On the night of July 30, 1945, two torpedoes struck the unsuspecting cruiser, and she sank in less than fifteen minutes. Almost 900 men managed to make their way into the water, but unfortunately for them, their ordeal was just beginning. For the next four days, these men were to face conditions almost unimaginable to civillians. The sun beat down on them mercilessly during the day, while at night, many fought hallucinations and sometimes each other. Shark attacks were common, and many men lost their lives to these predators. Meanwhile at Leyte, no one thought to check on the status of the Indianapolis, for it was not customary to report the unarrival of combatant vessels. If this rule had been modified or if any of the port authority personnel had thought to act on their own initiative instead of doing everything stictly by the book, many lives could have been saved. In the end, only 316 out of a crew of over 1100 survived. Captain Charles Butler McVay III was among the survivors, but if he had known what was about to transpire, he might have wished that he didn't survive. After an inquiry by the Navy, it was decided that Captain McVay would be court-martialed for failing to steer in a zigzag pattern and for failing to give the order to abandon ship in a timely fashion. The trial took place in Washington, and the prosecution brought the Japanese submarine commander who sunk the Indianapolis, Mochitsura Hashimoto, to testify against McVay. He claimed that it wouldn't have mattered if the Indianapolis was zigzagging or not. He still would have sunk her. However, despite convincing testimony from surviving crew members as well as an American submarine expert, McVay was convicted for failing to sail in a zigzag pattern. It was noted in the book that Hashimoto happened to surface his submarine at precisely the perfect moment when the Indianapolis was visible against the horizon. If Hashimoto would have waited even 10 minutes later, he wouldn't have spotted her. Luck was on Hashimoto's side that night; not on McVay's I was very impressed with this book. The events leading up to the sinking and the sinking itself are described very accurately, but the part of the book that impressed me the most was the excellent coverage of McVay's court-martial. Several chapters are devoted to the court-martial, and every aspect is covered. I've read many books about the Indianapolis, and this one covers the court-martial phase better than any other. The introduction and afterword by Peter Maas brings the reader up to date with events concerning the Indianapolis. It was the opinion of many that McVay was used as a scapegoat so the Navy could cover up their own mistakes, and Maas mentions a boy named Hunter Scott, who did a history project about the Indianapolis. After spending numerous hours interviewing survivors and lobbying members of Congress, his efforts to have McVay exonerated finally paid off. Even with the exoneration, the Navy will still have a black mark next to it for the way Captain McVay was mistreated. For more information on Hunter Scott's efforts, I recommend the book "Left for Dead", which deals with his efforts to have McVay exonerated. "Abandon Ship" is a fine piece of naval history. Read it and discover the tragic tale of the Indianapolis.
Rating:
Summary: A Fatal Voyage with a Tragic Ending
Review: During the last days of the Pacific War, the USS Indianapolis was steaming towards the Phillippines after delivering the components of the atomic bomb. On the night of July 30, 1945, two torpedoes struck the unsuspecting cruiser, and she sank in less than fifteen minutes. Almost 900 men managed to make their way into the water, but unfortunately for them, their ordeal was just beginning. For the next four days, these men were to face conditions almost unimaginable to civillians. The sun beat down on them mercilessly during the day, while at night, many fought hallucinations and sometimes each other. Shark attacks were common, and many men lost their lives to these predators. Meanwhile at Leyte, no one thought to check on the status of the Indianapolis, for it was not customary to report the unarrival of combatant vessels. If this rule had been modified or if any of the port authority personnel had thought to act on their own initiative instead of doing everything stictly by the book, many lives could have been saved. In the end, only 316 out of a crew of over 1100 survived. Captain Charles Butler McVay III was among the survivors, but if he had known what was about to transpire, he might have wished that he didn't survive. After an inquiry by the Navy, it was decided that Captain McVay would be court-martialed for failing to steer in a zigzag pattern and for failing to give the order to abandon ship in a timely fashion. The trial took place in Washington, and the prosecution brought the Japanese submarine commander who sunk the Indianapolis, Mochitsura Hashimoto, to testify against McVay. He claimed that it wouldn't have mattered if the Indianapolis was zigzagging or not. He still would have sunk her. However, despite convincing testimony from surviving crew members as well as an American submarine expert, McVay was convicted for failing to sail in a zigzag pattern. It was noted in the book that Hashimoto happened to surface his submarine at precisely the perfect moment when the Indianapolis was visible against the horizon. If Hashimoto would have waited even 10 minutes later, he wouldn't have spotted her. Luck was on Hashimoto's side that night; not on McVay's I was very impressed with this book. The events leading up to the sinking and the sinking itself are described very accurately, but the part of the book that impressed me the most was the excellent coverage of McVay's court-martial. Several chapters are devoted to the court-martial, and every aspect is covered. I've read many books about the Indianapolis, and this one covers the court-martial phase better than any other. The introduction and afterword by Peter Maas brings the reader up to date with events concerning the Indianapolis. It was the opinion of many that McVay was used as a scapegoat so the Navy could cover up their own mistakes, and Maas mentions a boy named Hunter Scott, who did a history project about the Indianapolis. After spending numerous hours interviewing survivors and lobbying members of Congress, his efforts to have McVay exonerated finally paid off. Even with the exoneration, the Navy will still have a black mark next to it for the way Captain McVay was mistreated. For more information on Hunter Scott's efforts, I recommend the book "Left for Dead", which deals with his efforts to have McVay exonerated. "Abandon Ship" is a fine piece of naval history. Read it and discover the tragic tale of the Indianapolis.
Rating:
Summary: Abandon ship; abandoned by the navy
Review: During WWII, sailors who heeded the command to Abandon ship did so with the assumption that everything that needed to be done in preparation for this drastic measure had been taken care of. Communications had been sent out, last known position had been given out as well as course and speed; usually some indication of when help would arrive would be received. If however the ship went down too fast for confirmation, it was a safe bet that once you were noticed missing a search would be launched. That was the belief, the expectation, the bedrock principle upon which sailors acted when they took the plunge and jumped overboard. ABANDON SHIP is the story of the betrayal of this trust, made all the more poignant when you realize that of the 1,196 men who went into the water, only 317 survived. The ordeal not being enough, the taste of it was made bitter for the survivors when the navy blamed one of their own - Captain Charles McVay for the tragedy. ABANDON SHIP was originally written in 1958 and reissued this year. The new introduction and afterword, we would expect, would tell us about the ways in which the navy has righted these wrongs over the intervening years, honoring the survivors, clearing Captain McVay's name, and telling the tale of the heroic deeds of the Indianapolis and her men. We would expect this. This however has proven to be as false a hope as the sailors had in 1945 when they believed that the navy would rescue them. The story remains relevant not only for the incredible tragedy that befell these sailors but also for their courage and endurance for surviving at all. To survive being adrift for 100 hours in the sea without protection from the salt and the sun and without sustenance is close to miraculous. Spirit alone, it seems to me, is part of the explanation. I can almost imagine the anger when the men realized that they had been abandoned; then their determination to survive if for no other reason than to tell this tale of massive, criminal neglect by a US institution. The book has a list of the names of the original survivors. As time has passed on so have many of these men. Hopefully it won't only be books like this one and others such as IN HARM'S WAY and the readers like us, who pay honor to these men; hopefully the navy will finally sail forward, and do right.
Rating:
Summary: Tragic Disaster Written With Finesse
Review: Excellently written, this book is a page turner. I read it in one day. This is the gripping true account of the U.S.S. Indianapolis and the bizzare chain of events which led to her demise and the lengths in which the United States Navy went to cover up their neglectful mistakes by using the Captain (who managed to survive) as its scapegoat. It is so unfortunate that the courtmartial was so widely publicized, while the overturn and clearing of Captain McVey's name and service record were downplayed to the point of obscurity. At the end of this book, my heart ached for ever single parent, spouse, sister, brother, child, friend/family member of each and every one of those brave men aboard her, and for those who perished and those who survived to endure years of mental anguish at the entire ordeal, the loss of their crewmates and the hours spent in those trecherous waters, forgotten, disregarded and overlooked by the entire Pacific Fleet. My compliments to the author who managed to recount this tragic disaster with such finesse!
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