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From: Richard Krebes
Date: 7/30/2005
Time: 6:22:07 PM
Remote Name: 12.215.95.135
In honor of the 60th, let us go back in time for a moment to when the Indy was going down, as viewed from Captain McVay's point of view (note: this is an excerpt from the first completed bit I am satisfied with from my story "Demons And Captains", which centers on McVay but dramatizes the whole saga.
"July 30th, 1945...
High up in the forward superstructure of a heavy cruiser out alone in the midst of the Philippine Sea, her name the USS Indianapolis, Captain Charles McVay III, USN, stepped out of the emergency cabin aft of the bridge, tying a kapok life jacket about his torso. Walking down the short companionway from the cabin to the bridge, the heat from the hot day just past still radiating out of the steel, making his temples pulse, McVay saw a shadowy form emerge from the gloom of the darkened bridge, now tilted slightly due to the ship’s list of three degrees to starboard. “Charlie, have you got a spare life preserver?” It was his friend, Captain Crouch, who was traveling along as a passenger rather than take a plane to the ship’s destination, the island of Leyte in the Philippines. Concern for his friend pulsing in his heart, McVay replied. “Yes I have. I’ve got a pneumatic life preserver.”, remembering the one back in the emergency cabin that he had discarded in favor of the kapok jacket. “Thank you, Charlie.” “I will go back and get someone to bring it to you. I need to get to Radio One and see if we got a message out.” “Good luck, Charlie.” “Good luck, Crouch. ” They shook hands, and McVay dashed back to his cabin. “You there!” he called out as he emerged again from the emergency cabin once more, inflatable life belt in hand. “Who is that?” “Quartermaster Harrison, sir.” replied the sailor. “Inflate this and find Captain Crouch up there on the bridge and give it to him.” “Aye sir!” Quickly taking the life belt, Harrison vanished forward into the gloom. McVay quickly headed out onto the starboard bridge wing and began climbing down the ladder leading to the signal bridge, thinking Now if I can find out if we got an SOS off... At that moment, the ship suddenly began to tilt to starboard even more. My God! Alarm pierced his gut and began sloshing about inside him, and he gritted his teeth as his fingers locked tight about the rungs. Five...Six...he found himself computing mentally as the ship tilted, hanging on for dear life. Seven...Eight...Nine...Ten...Eleven...my God, are we capsizing already? He tensed, awaiting the end. His scalp tingling at the antiicpation of being either crushed or drowned, whichever got him first. His throat ached, it was so dry from the tension filling his every pore as this great nightmare surrounded him, engulfed him, seized him and would not let go. Twelve...Thirteen...Fourteen... The ship stopped heeling over, as if a giant had seized the ship and was enjoying rolling it over slowly, yet surely, with his hands. Fifteen degrees now! McVay noted, sweat trickling down his forehead and staining his shirt at the armpits. He continued down the ladder now, and reached the signal bridge. Before he had a chance to catch his breath, the ship began tilting to starboard again. Hanging on again for dear life, now to a railing, McVay again began computing the degree of list, throat aching, screaming for a drink of water to cleanse it’s parchedness. Sixteen...Seventeen...Eighteen...Nineteen... The end was coming, fast, and he was powerless to do anything about it now."
(Note: I based this part of my story upon factual information contained in McVay's own narrative of the events, a copy of which is posted at:
http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq30-7.htm
Most of the dialogue, and McVay's own thoughts and feelings, is spun from poetic license, albiet of the type that points to the truth, rather than away from it.)
God bless all who died today and during the next four days adrift sixty years ago. Remember the Indianapolis!
Richard Krebes