USS Indianapolis (CA-35)

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| Ship name = ''Indianapolis'' | Ship namesake = City of Indianapolis, Indiana | Ship ordered = 13 February 1929 | Ship awarded = 15 August 1929 | Ship builder = New York Shipbuilding Corporation, Camden, New Jersey | Ship original cost = $10,903,200 (contract price) | Ship laid down = 31 March 1930 | Ship launched = 7 November 1931 | Ship sponsor = Lucy M. Taggart | Ship acquired = | Ship completed = | Ship commissioned = 15 November 1932 | Ship decommissioned = | Ship struck = | Ship identification = *Hull symbol: CL-35 * Hull symbol: CA-35 * Code letters: NABD * | Ship nickname = "Indy" | Ship honors = 10 × battle stars | Ship fate = Torpedoed and sunk by Japanese submarine I-58 on 30 July 1945 | Ship notes = | Ship badge = }} | Ship class = | Ship type = | Ship displacement = (standard) | Ship length = * loa * lwl | Ship beam = | Ship draft = * (mean) * (max) | Ship power = * 8 × White-Forster boilers * | Ship propulsion = * 4 × Parsons reduction steam turbines * 4 × screws | Ship speed = | Ship range = at | Ship boats = | Ship complement = * 95 officers 857 enlisted (as designed) * 1,269 officers and men (wartime) * 1,195 crewmen at time of sinking | Ship sensors = | Ship EW = | Ship armament = * 9 × 8-inch (203mm)/55-caliber guns(3x3) * 8 × 5-inch (127mm)/25-caliber anti-aircraft guns * 2 × 3-pounder saluting guns | Ship armor = * Belt: * Deck: * Barbettes: * Turrets: * Conning tower: | Ship aircraft = 4 × floatplanes | Ship aircraft facilities = 2 × Amidship catapults | Ship notes = }} | Ship armament = * 9 × 8 in (203 mm)/55 caliber guns (3x3) * 8 × 5 in (127 mm)/25 caliber anti-aircraft guns * 2 × 3-pounder saluting guns * 6 × quad Bofors anti-aircraft guns *19 × single Oerlikon anti-aircraft cannons | Ship aircraft = 3 × floatplanes | Ship aircraft facilities = 1 × Amidship catapults (starboard catapult removed in 1945) }} |}

'''USS ''Indianapolis'' (CA-35''') was a heavy cruiser of the United States Navy, named for the city of Indianapolis, Indiana. Launched in 1931, it was the flagship of the commander of Scouting Force 1 for eight years, then flagship for Admiral Raymond Spruance from 1943 to 1945 while he commanded the Fifth Fleet in battles across the Central Pacific during World War II.

In July 1945, ''Indianapolis'' completed a top-secret high-speed trip to deliver uranium and other components for "Little Boy", the first nuclear weapon used in combat, to the Tinian Naval Base, and subsequently departed for the Philippines on training duty. At 0015 on 30 July, the ship was torpedoed by the Imperial Japanese Navy submarine , and sank in 12 minutes.

Of 1,195 crewmen aboard, about 300 went down with the ship. The remaining 890 faced exposure, dehydration, saltwater poisoning, and shark attacks while stranded in the open ocean with few lifeboats and almost no food or water.

The Navy learned of the sinking four days later, when survivors were spotted by the crew of a PV-1 Ventura on routine patrol. A U.S. Navy PBY flying boat crew landed to save those in the water. Only 316 survived. No U.S. warship sunk at sea has lost more sailors. and the troopship were lost with more American lives, but ''Arizona'' was in port at Pearl Harbor when sunk and ''Rohna'' was primarily carrying United States Army personnel, not U.S. Navy personnel, when it was sunk at sea. The complement of the aircraft carrier would also suffer upwards of 900 killed at sea throughout the war, although ''Franklin'' was not sunk. Additionally, the accidental loss of the steamboat , which exploded on the Mississippi River while carrying Union soldiers in the immediate aftermath the American Civil War, was the worst maritime disaster in U.S. history. The 1,700 U.S. military prisoners of war from the Philippines (out of a total of 1,773 Allied troops missing and killed) who died on the sunken Japanese hell ship from a torpedo launched by the submarine was the greatest loss of life from a single ship in U.S. military history.}}

On 19 August 2017, a search team financed by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen located the wreckage in the Philippine Sea lying at a depth of approximately . On 20 December 2018, the crew of ''Indianapolis'' was collectively awarded a Congressional Gold Medal. Provided by Wikipedia