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Title details for Abandon Ship! by Richard F. Newcomb - Available

Abandon Ship!

The Saga of the U.S.S. Indianapolis, the Navy's Greatest Sea Disaster

by Richard F. Newcomb
Qarie Marshall
Audiobook
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Sailing across the Pacific, the battle-scarred heavy cruiser U.S.S. Indianapolis had just delivered a secret cargo that would trigger the end of World War II. Heading westward, she was sunk by a Japanese submarine. In twelve minutes, some 300 men went down with her. More than 900 others spent four horrific days and five nights in the ocean with no water to drink, savaged by a pitiless sun and swarms of sharks. Incredibly, no one knew they were there until a Navy patrol plane accidentally discovered them. In the end, only 316 crewmen survived. How could this have happened—and why? This updated edition of Abandon Ship!, with an introduction and afterword by Peter Maas, supplies the chilling answer. A harrowing account of military malfeasance and human tragedy, Abandon Ship! also scrutinizes the role of the U.S. Navy in the disaster, especially the court-martial of the ship's captain, Charles Butler McVay III. Maas reveals facts previously unavailable to Richard Newcomb and chronicles a forty-year crusade to right a wrong, a crusade Abandon Ship! inspired.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    November 5, 2019

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781666557541
      • File size: 311187 KB
      • Duration: 10:48:18

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Davidson's voice creates excitement, sadness, disbelief, and rebuke in his telling of a sea story of secrecy, suffering, survival, and sanctions following a torpedo attack on a U.S. cruiser during WWII. Memories of so many deaths woven into the narrative brings a chill to that hot July night near the Philippines. In a classic example of the military's eternal inability to deal with its own mistakes, authorities blame the captain of the sunken ship for the accident. The author and the reader dramatize the Navy's subsequent legal maneuvers, orchestrated to convict a scapegoat. When it was first published, this book was the first of several on the sinking. J.A.H. (c) AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      January 1, 2001
      In the mid-1990s, 11-year-old Hunter Scott, working on a project for a state history fair at his Florida school, began delving into an old WWII naval tragedy he had learned about by chanceDthe destruction of the heavy cruiser USS Indianapolis, which sank in only 12 minutes after being hit by a torpedo fired by a Japanese submarine. Hundreds of sailors died. The navy blamed the ship's captain, Charles Butler McVay III, charging that he failed to issue a timely warning to abandon his fast-sinking ship. The beleaguered McVay became the only commander ever court-martialed by the U.S. Navy for losing his vessel in wartime; despondent for years afterward, he eventually killed himself. The story of the Indianapolis and of the subsequent punishment of McVay, was the subject of this 1958 book by Associated Press editor Richard F. Newcomb (Iwo Jima, etc.), which spent 18 weeks on bestseller lists. Now, thanks in large part to the efforts of Scott, additional information has emerged to shed light on the sad saga of the Indianapolis, explicated in a foreword and afterword to this reissue by investigative journalist Maas (Serpico). The result is an even more compelling look at this long-ago tragedy, one that could lead to the exoneration of McVay. Photos not seen by PW. (Jan.) Forecast: Hunter Scott's sleuthing has received a lot of media attention, which will certainly be highlighted by Harper when the book is released. Young readers will be inspired by Scott's determination (though discretion should obviously be exercised regarding McVay's plight), and any reader interested in WWII will want a chance to weigh the evidence.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      In the waning months of WWII, the heavy cruiser USS INDIANAPOLIS delivered a top-secret cargo to Tinian island and then sailed for Guam and the Philippines. The cargo was the uranium for the atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima. But before the ship could reach the Philippines, she was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine and sank in 12 minutes. More than 900 men spent four days and five nights in the water. Only 316 survived. This harrowing tale was originally published in 1958. This new version includes material based on now declassified documents that show the Navy knew of a submarine threat in the area but was afraid to reveal this, lest the Japanese know the United States had broken a most secret code. Kevin Corcoran gives a solid reading. His slightly gravelly voice exactly fits Newcomb's spare style. The harrowing stories of the survivors need no vocal embellishment. R.C.G. (c) AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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