The ship that delivered the atomic bomb sank four days later

In July 1945 the cruiser USS Indianapolis secretly delivered parts for the Hiroshima bomb to a Pacific island base. Days later a Japanese submarine torpedoed her; she sank in about 12 minutes, too fast to send a clear distress call. Nearly 300 of her 1,195 crew died in the sinking, and most of the rest drifted for days facing exposure, thirst and shark attacks before a plane spotted them by chance. Only 316 men survived.

— Doug Stanton, In Harm's Way: The Sinking of the USS Indianapolis and the Extraordinary Story of Its Survivors — 2003
Go deeper: get the book →