Posted on 07/30/2014 10:09:37 AM PDT by Saint X
In the closing days of World War II, torpedoes from a Japanese submarine slammed into the side of USS Indianapolis and doomed the heavy cruiser. The sailors who didn’t drown were left adrift on the open ocean for four days during which they battled the elements, starvation and shark attacks. Fewer than 320 from the ship’s original crew of 1,196 survived.
(Excerpt) Read more at usni.org ...
Watch later mark
The masters of their craft seem to have that ability. Some call it the Right Stuff.
I'll see if I can find it. I often wonder how many of the men on the video went down with that ship.
“I’ll never wear a life jacket again...”
—Quint
FWIW, after I caught a white tip off Maui, I did a little research:
Famed oceanographic researcher Jacques Cousteau described the oceanic whitetip as “the most dangerous of all sharks”. Despite the greater notoriety of the great white shark and other sharks habitually found nearer the shore, the oceanic whitetip is responsible for more fatal attacks on humans than all other species combined, as a result of predation on survivors of shipwrecks or downed aircraft. Such incidents are not included in common shark-attack indices for the 20th and 21st centuries, and as a result of this, the oceanic whitetip does not have the highest number of recorded incidents. Nonetheless, incidents involving the oceanic whitetip total in the thousands worldwide, with one incident alone, the torpedoing of USS Indianapolis on 30 July 1945, alleged to have accounting for 600 to 800 sailors, though the most reportedly died from exposure to the elements rather than from shark attacks.
http://www.amazon.com/Harms-Way-Indianapolis-Extraordinary-Survivors/dp/0805073663
An Outstanding Book!
Video on post 27, shows FDR standing up, attending Shellback Ceremony on USS Indianapolis.
Millions.
Don't you mean the "Right Sauce?" So many actors seem to have had 'dependency problems' that you wonder if it ties in with their predilection towards acting. A good comedic take on the subject was the movie "My Favorite Year" starring Peter O'Toole, who was probably playing himself much of the time.
I did some checking and it seems Spielberg backs up that version. So, they did do two takes, but only used the sober (hungover) version.
Here’s an interesting tidbit that I found from the interview:
“But then when I showed the script to my friend John Milius, John said, ‘Can I take a crack at this speech?’ and John wrote a 10-page monologue that was absolutely brilliant, but out-sized for the Jaws I was making! But it was brilliant and then Robert Shaw took the speech and Robert did the cut down … Robert took a crack at the speech and he brought it down to five pages.”
So one of the few right-wingers in Hollywood, John Milius (Red Dawn) wrote the original version of the Indianapolis speech!
Ping for later.
“So many actors seem to have had ‘dependency problems’ that you wonder if it ties in with their predilection towards acting.”
Anything that removes inhibitions can be helpful if you are trying to be creative, so that is one reason not just actors, but all kinds of artists get drawn to the stuff. Unfortunately, for a lot of them, it becomes a crutch.
Very much agree but there is a very dark echo to this story and that is the MIStreatment of the Captain of the USS Indianapolis, Charles Butler McVay III, by the Navy Department in making him the only ship captain courtmartialed for the actions leading to the loss of his ship out of 380 total! Although a USN destroyer had been sunk by the same Japanese submarine a few days earlier, the USS Indianapolis had not been informed. His conviction for failing to use evasion (Zip-Zag) techniques was also explainable by orders to make haste and steam direct to Leyte. Many still believe that he was made the fall-guy for a series of USN failures ranging from unreported SOS signals to failure to check for late arrival at Leyte.
While he committed suicide in 1968, his family and cremates (USS Indianapolis Survivors Organization) continued to agitate for reconsideration of his court-martial conviction. Yet in what appears to be the turning-point, it was a 12 year old school boy, Hunter Scott, who was in spired by the JAWS vignette and undertook a year-long research project that resulted in him testifying about the injustice before a US Congress Committee. In the year 2000, the US Congress passed a bill that was signed by President Clinton and in July 2001, the Secretary of the Navy ordered McVay's court-martial conviction expunged!
I was just commenting to someone else on here about this documentary they did on either discovery or national geographic about these shark guys that believed it was the bull. I don’t remember how they came to that conclusion, all I know is it isn’t the way I want to go out. You’ll never strap a life jacket on me chiefy.
I wonder if anybody has gone back to the site on this anniversary to see if there is a congregation of sharks there. You know, like that well known fact of sharks patrolling the slave trade routes from Africa?
The .org rather than a .gov extention kinda gives it away.
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