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All the Drowned Sailors
Raymond B. Lech Book Review

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Plot Summary of All the Drowned Sailors
"On July 30, 1945, four days after the USS Indianapolis delivered the first operational atomic bomb to the island of Tinian (and exactly a week before that bomb would be dropped on Hiroshima), the unescorted heavy cruiser was torpedoed on its way to the Philippines by a Japanese submarine. The Navy never noticed that the ship did not reach its destination; 300 sailors went down with the ship, and 900 others floundered in the water for four days -- starving, drowning, and attacked by sharks, before being accidentally spotted by a passing bomber. Only 316 members of the original 1,196-man crew survived. Several books have been published about the hapless ship and how the Navy courtmartialed and blamed its captain so that he died a broken and alcoholic man (and Quint, the crusty sea salt played by Robert Shaw, claims to be a survivor and recounts the basic tale in the movie "Jaws"). This is the only one I have read, so I don't know how it compares (and since Capt. McVay has only recently been officially rehabilitated by Congress, I gather the book is being republished in 2001 as _The Tragic Fate of the USS Indiapolis_), but it's competently written and the tale is irresistable. Some of the images make indelible imprints on the mind: "The doctor [Lt. Cmdr. Lewis Leavitt Haynes] continued to pronounce men dead. He would remove their jackets, recite the Lord's Prayer, and release the bodies. The water was very clear, and Doctor Haynes remembered the bodies looking like small dolls sinking in the deep sea. He watched them until they faded from sight.""
David Loftus, Resident Scholar



Review Analysis of All the Drowned Sailors
Our unique search engine provides a wealth of detail about books by breaking them down into many different literary elements, all of which are searchable (click here).
Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Kind Of History
Time of history: - 1940's
History of military? Yes
Armed Forces: - Navy
History of disaster/tragedy? Yes
Kind of disaster: - Boat/Dicaprio event
Nationality? - American--General
Specific war? - World War II

Subjects of this Historical Account
Is the portrayal sympathetic? - Sympathetic
From a certain profession/group? - naval soldiers

Setting
Asia/Pacific Yes
Asian country: - Pacific Islands
Water? Yes
Water: - warship - drowning - lifeboat - lost at sea - feeding sharks

Style
How much gore? - 4 ()
How fast-paced is the book? - 4 ()
Accounts of torture and death? - moderately detailed references to deaths
Book makes you feel... - depressed/sad
How much focus on stories of individuals? - Focuses mostly on history of key players
How much romance? - 1 ()
Minor characters feature lots of: - military
Length of book - 300-350 pages
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We Flew Alone: United States B-24 Squadrons in the Pacific by Alan C. Carey


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