In a move that matches that of British former Royal Navy sailor Fernleigh Judge, former US sailor Eugene Morgan is buried at sea with his comrades. As Mr. Judge was a survivor of the sinking of HMS Royal Oak, Mr. Morgan was a survivor of the sinking of USS Indianapolis. Pictures here.
Of course, those words are pretty bland. How about a description from Indianapolis survivor Woody James, of just one day, Day 3?The Seattle man served aboard the Portland-class cruiser during World War II – including on July 30, 1945, when the ship came under attack from a Japanese submarine and sank in 12 minutes in the South Pacific in the worst loss of life at sea in U.S. naval history.
Morgan was one of 316 survivors among the crew of 1,196. Eventually, as anti-war sentiment waned in the decades following the Vietnam War, he began to share his story.
You can read the rest by clicking here.Day 3
The sun finally did rise and it got warmed up again. Some of the guys been drinkin salt water by now, and they were goin bezerk. They'd tell you big stories about the Indianapolis is not sunk, its' just right there under the surface. I was just down there and had a drink of water out of the drinkin fountain and the Geedunk is still open. The geedunk bein the commissary where you buy ice cream, cigarettes, candy, what have you, "it's still open" they'd tell ya. "Come on we'll go get a drink of water", and then 3 or 4 guys would believe this story and go with them.
The day wore on and the sharks were around, hundreds of them. You'd hear guys scream, especially late in the afternoon. Seemed like the sharks were the worst late in the afternoon than they were during the day. Then they fed at night too. Everything would be quiet and then you'd hear somebody scream and you knew a shark had got him.
It didn't ever get any cooler in the daytime. In fact, Newhall asked me, he said, "James, do you think it's' any hotter in hell than it is here?" I said, "I don't know, Jim, but if it is, I ain't goin."
We were hungry, thirsty, no water, no food, no sleep, getting dehydrated, water logged and more of the guys were goin bezerk. There was fights goin on so Jim and I decided to heck with this, we'll get away from this bunch before we get hurt. So he and I kind of drifted off by ourselves. We tied our life jackets together so we'd stay together. Jim was in pretty good shape to begin with, but he was burned like crazy. His hand was burned, he couldn't hold on to anything, couldn't touch anything.
As ever with an event of this magnitude, there is usually controversy - and there is here, too. The tangled web of delivering The Bomb to Tinian, the interrupted voyage home, and just who is to blame.
Now is the time at Castle Argghhh! when we dance: In Memoriam for Eugene Morgan, and the crew of USS Indianapolis.
H/t, Heartless LIbertarian for the pointer to the story.
