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Life aboard a United States Navy ship when it is underway soon
falls into a customary routine for all aboard and, surprisingly, despite
days at sea without sight of land, it is not a boring experience. The
operation of a vessel underway is an around- the-clock effort for all
aboard, usually divided into four hours on watch, (duty station), and
eight hours off with the result that one is on watch eight hours in a
twenty-four hour day. The most critical time for those aboard a warship
is when the alarm for General Quarters is sounded calling all
immediately to their battle stations. It is at this time that all
weapons are manned and ready for action; a time when all aboard are at
maximum alert and ready to perform the only tasks for which the vessel
was designed and that is to fight. During the long days at sea, training
for that moment is a constant task. When not at General Quarters, the
crew finds the food good. There is a ship’s library, nightly movies
below deck and much work to be done -- either training to wage war or to
keep the vessel clean and painted as protection from the rusting effects
of the sea’s salt spray. The captain alone bears full responsibility for
the ship, its discipline and well being. His is the undisputed and only
authority. The vessel represents the United States at all times and is a
manifestation of America’s national sovereignty. Any attack on an
American warship is deemed an attack on America.
On July 16, 1945 a U. S. Navy vessel left San Francisco for the
island of Tinian with a cargo so secret that Harry S Truman, President
of the United States and Commander-In-Chief of the armed forces, had
learned about it only some three months earlier and, only then, after
assuming the Presidency upon the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt on April
12th. The Heavy Cruiser Indianapolis was ordered to proceed to the
Mariana Islands at all possible speed and in doing so would break all
records for crossing 5,000 miles of the Pacific in ten days. The captain
had not been informed of the nature of his cargo but was told to keep it
under guard at all times. If something happened to the ship that would
keep it from reaching its destination he was cautioned to protect the
cargo at all cost even if it meant placing it in a lifeboat at the
expense of drowning sailors. The vessel arrived at Tinian on July 26th
and its cargo was discharged for what was to be an unknown and unheard
of use. The mysterious shipment was the material manifestation of one of
the greatest minds in the world and a product of thoughts that had
first conceived the power of the sun on a university blackboard. For
those who could understand, it was Albert Einstein's mathematical
expression that proves that small particles of matter correspond to
unimaginable quantities of energy. The formula E = MC2, when applied,
means that the energy released from a particular mass of material is
equal to the weight of the material multiplied by the square of the
speed of light expressed in centimeters per second, (the square of
186,000 miles per second). For example, one gram of matter is
equivalent to 25 million kilowatt hours or the energy of three thousand
tons of coal. At the time, very few people on Tinian, if any, knew this.
The sea and sky had dominated the visual world of the ship’s crew
since their departure from Pearl Harbor. Then the island appeared on the
horizon, a dark brooding mass in the mist of the early morning hours,
looming out of the sea like a mirage. Off in the distance, one aircraft
after the other glided through the morning sky, each slowly declining in
altitude. At first sight, one wondered what they could be; then, it
quickly became apparent. In a line stretching as far north as the eye
could see, hundreds of B-29 Superfortresses were returning to the
landing fields on Tinian after a fire bombing raid on Japan. As the
Indianapolis passed the southern end of the island, its destination was
now off the starboard side when the order was given to the helmsman,
“Come right to 010 degrees”. Then as all such orders are, it was
repeated by the sailor already turning the large, gray wheel on the
bridge, “Aye, Aye, Sir, Right 010 degrees” and the vessel, with its
secret cargo, started its swing to the north to steam up the
southwestern side of the island which now accommodated the busiest
airfields in the world. With several more course changes the ship made
its way into the small harbor. “All engines stop” was signaled on the
engine order telegraph as the anchor was dropped in the harbor.
Two days before the Indianapolis arrived at Tinian, General Carl
Spaatz, the new commander of Strategic Air Forces in the Pacific, was
issued his orders. "The 20th Air Force will deliver its first special
bomb as soon as weather permits visual bombing after 3 August, 1945 on
one of the following targets: Kokura, Hiroshima, Nigata or Nagasaki”.
These cities were selected since up to this time they had been spared
American incendiary attacks so that the full force and impact of the
“special” bomb could be observed by the Japanese.
The Indianapolis discharged its cargo of lead containers and the
bomb’s firing device at Tinian, placing the bomb components in a small
boat which carried the material to the dock. It then hoisted anchor and
steamed west, then turned south where it would make a brief call at
Guam, an American island recaptured a year earlier from the Japanese and
located 120 miles south of Tinian. The ship would then proceed to Leyte
in the Philippines for redeployment. Its estimated time of arrival was
scheduled for sunrise, August 1st. On July 28th the vessel departed Guam
and steamed westward at 16 knots toward Asia. The Indianapolis delivered
only the material for the first bomb. Fearing that something might
happen to the ship before it reached the island, and unknown to any
aboard the vessel, material for a second bomb of Plutonium had been
flown to Tinian by transports from the United States thus insuring that
at least one of the two atomic bombs in the American arsenal would reach
the assembly and launch area.
In breaking the speed record for distance covered between San
Francisco and Tinian it is almost certain that this achievement could
not have been accomplished if the vessel had engaged in zigzagging
maneuvers. The ship was now in waters frequented by enemy submarines.
Zigzagging is a common maneuver employed during wartime and particularly
when the possibility that enemy submarines could be in the vicinity. It
involves steaming on a particular course at one speed for a period of
time and then changing to another course, and sometimes a different
speed, and then repeating these changes, all the while moving in a
forward -- although angular movement -- from a straight base line
connecting the point of the vessel’s origin with its destination. This
technique of seamanship reduces the possibility that an enemy submarine
captain will locate the vessel and project its course and speed to a
point on the ocean surface for purposes of launching an attack.
Zigzagging can be an effective defense against a submarine attack on a
surface vessel. The vessel was steaming on a Great Circle Route which,
either on or below the surface of the ocean, is the shortest distance
between two points on the globe. It was along one such route code
named, "Peddie", that the Indianapolis headed westward on its course
between Guam and Leyte. This route intersects with a north-south route
between Palau and Okinawa and it was in this vicinity that Captain Iko
Machitsura Hashimoto's sleek sea knife lurked in wait for an enemy to
devour. The I-58 carried six human driven, suicide torpedoes which could
be launched while under water. They were known as Kaitens, or "changing
sky."
The submarine was also armed with six torpedo tubes.