by svanderwerff | 30 July 2015 By?Capt. Lewis Haynes?(1912-2001) [caption id="attachment_9207" align="aligncenter" width="470"] The survivors remained at sea for four days maneuvering through a gauntlet of sharks, intense heat, starvation and dehydration. Editor?s Note. July 30, 2015 marks the 70th anniversary of a harrowing event in naval history. On July 30, 1945, USS Indianapolis (CA-35) was returning from a secret mission (transporting the atomic bomb) to Tinian Island when it was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine and sank into the Philippine Sea.? The survivors remained at sea for four days maneuvering through a gauntlet of sharks, intense heat, starvation and dehydration. Of the ship?s original contingent of 1,196 crewmembers only 316 would survive this ordeal.? Among these was the ship?s medical officer, Lt. Lewis Haynes.? Years later, then retired Capt. Lewis Haynes (1912-2001), sat down with the BUMED History Office and shared his memories of surviving the Indianapolis tragedy.? The following is an excerpt from this session.(1) ?*** ?[As we were returning from Tinian, Cdr. Johns H.] ?Jack? Janney, the navigator, said that Japanese submarines had been spotted along our route and we were going to pass them during the night about midnight.? I was pretty tired because I had given the whole crew cholera shots all day.? I remember walking through the warrant officer's quarters. They had a poker game going and asked if I wanted to join in and I said no, I was tired.? I then went to bed. I awoke.? I was in the air.? My room was lit up with a bright flash of light.? I saw the bright light before I felt the concussion of the explosion that threw me up in the air almost to the overhead.? The explosion was under my room which was right under Number 2 barbette.? I had a lamp on my desk alongside me and it was in the air along with me.? I hit the edge of the bunk, hit the deck, stood up and then the second explosion came and knocked me down.? As I landed on the deck I thought, "I've got to get the hell out of here!"? I grabbed my lifejacket and started to go out the door.? There was fire in my room. My cabin and [Lcdr. Kenneth I.] Ken Stout's cabins shared a short little passageway the widths of our doors which we stepped into and then took two steps forward into the main passageway.? As I started out the door, Ken said, "Let's go."? He stepped ahead of me and I stepped into the passageway behind him and I was very close to him when he yelled, "Look out!" and threw his hands up.? I lifted the lifejacket in front of my face, and stepped back.? As I did, a wall of fire went "Whoosh!"? It burned my hair off, burned my face, and the back of my hands.? That's the last I saw of Ken. [caption id="attachment_9202" align="aligncenter" width="439"] USS Indianapolis (CA-35) was returning from a secret mission (transporting the atomic bomb) to Tinian Island when it was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine and sank into the Philippine Sea. I started out trying to go to the forward ladder and as I started to run forward.? Right in front of the dentist's room a lot of fire was coming up through the deck.? The explosion had to find its way out and it went down through the various passageways in a big ball of fire.? That's when I knew I couldn't go forward and turned and started to go aft.? As I did, I slipped and fell, landing on my hands.? I got third degree burns on my hands?my palms and all the tips of my fingers.? I still have the scars.? I was barefooted and the soles of my feet were burned off. I got out to try to go forward to go up on the fo'c'sle deck and the deck was afire forward.? Evidently the deck was ruptured. The next escape route, was through the barbette, which was the 8-inch gun right outside my cabin.? I looked in through the door and saw fire all around those shells. Then I turned aft to go back through the wardroom.? I was just two doors from the wardroom.? I would have to go through the wardroom and then down a long passageway to the quarterdeck but there was a terrible hazy smoke and it had a peculiar odor. I couldn't breathe.? I got to the wardroom and got lost.? Things were all over the place.? I kept bumping into lamps and what not and finally fell into this big easy chair.? I felt so comfortable.? I knew I was dying, but I really didn't care. Then someone standing over me said, "My God, I'm fainting!" and he fell on me.? Evidently that gave me a shot of adrenalin and I stood up and tried to find him but I couldn't.? Somebody was yelling, "Open a porthole!"? I can remember someone else yelling "Don't light a match!"? All the power was out and it was just a red haze. [caption id="attachment_9203" align="aligncenter" width="451"] I-58, The Japanese sub that sank Indianapolis. The ship was beginning to list and I went down to that side of the ship, got up on the transom and felt for a porthole.? I found one already open.? I thought it had been blown open by the explosion but I found out later that two other guys had gone out through it and had left a rope dangling.? When I stood up on that transom and stuck my head out the porthole, it was like putting your head in the deep freeze.? I gulped in some air and as I looked down I saw water rushing into the ship beneath me.? I thought about going out the porthole into the ocean but could see papers floating around in the water below.? So I knew I couldn't go in that way. Then this thing hit me in the face and I brushed it away.? And it hit me again and I grabbed it.? It was the rope the other Sailors had used that came from a floater net just above.? I pulled on it and it was solid so I went through the porthole like you deliver a baby?one arm first and then the other.? Holding on to the rope, I turned on my back and gradually worked my way out so I could stand up on the rim of the porthole and just reach the floater net above.? I then crawled across the floater net stood up and went back to the port hanger, which was my battle station.? There were a lot of casualties back there. It was still going along at least 10 knots.? They couldn't get word to the engine room to turn off the engines.? The engineer hadn't gotten word from the bridge so he kept plowing ahead like this.? It just filled up like a bucket. I remember fainting one time trying to take care of a patient who was on a cot.? I fell across him and he shoved me off and I stood up again.? We were trying to put dressings on people.? We were starting to give morphine to people who were badly burned when an officer came up and said, "Doctor, you'd better get life jackets on your patients." [caption id="attachment_9204" align="aligncenter" width="391"] When it finally sank, it was over a hundred yards from me. Most of the survivors were strung out for a half a mile or a mile behind the ship. All the men were at their stations at general quarters.? We got a whole bunch of life jackets and went back down and started to put them on the patients.? I remember I was putting it on a warrant officer.? I never used his name because I didn't want his family to know.? His skin was hanging in shreds and he was yelling "Don't touch me, don't touch me."? I kept telling him we had to get the jacket on.? And I was putting the jacket on when the ship lurched right over.? And he just slid away from me, he and all the patients and the plane on the catapult all went down in a big, tangling crash to the other side, which was now the low end of the ship.? I was standing right alongside the lifeline and I grabbed it and climbed through.? And by the time I did, the ship was on its side. I stood up on the side of the ship and slowly walked down the side.? Another kid came and said he didn't have a jacket.? I had an extra jacket, I handed it to him, and he put it on.? He was ahead of me.? He went to jump and he hit something on the side of the ship and fell in the water.? I went down and jumped into the water which was just fuel oil. When I jumped in the water and grabbed hold of my life jacket and held myself, I didn't want to get sucked down so I kicked my feet to get away.? And then the ship rose up like the ceiling there.? I thought it was going to come down and crush me.? And the ship kept leaning out away from me, the aft end rising up and leaning over as it stood up on its nose.? And as the screws went by, I vaguely remember seeing someone standing on the screws but I can't be sure. The ship was still going forward at probably three or four knots.? When it finally sank, it was over a hundred yards from me.? Most of the survivors were strung out for a half a mile or a mile behind the ship. For more on Navy Medical Oral Histories and the BUMED Oral History Project please click on link below. http://www.med.navy.mil/bumed/nmhistory/Pages/Oral-History.aspx Endnotes: (1)?? Herman, Jan. Oral history with Capt. Lewis Haynes, MC, USN (ret.), June 5, 12, and 22 June 1995.