Lisa’s Reviews > In Harm's Way > Status Update

JFC: The court primarily blamed the sinking and ensuing deaths of the crew in two things: McVay’s failure to zigzag in conditions that it considered ‘good with intermittent moonlight’; and his failure to send out a distress message.

After being fed fruit and water, the survivors were treated for exhaustion, dehydration, shark bites, saltwater ulcers, shocks, burns, and malnutrition. (A healthy 19 year old boy usually carries about 20% body fat; many of the survivors had lost an estimated 14% of theirs. Over the course of the 4 days, one sailor had lost more than 35 pounds.)

The sharks attacked around dawn on Tuesday.

As Twible was issuing an order to remove shoes so as to swim more easily, Miner looked down and saw something flash beneath his feet. One moment the image was there, and then it was gone. He gave it no more thought.

The first torpedo had smashed one gas tank containing 3,500 gallons of high-octane aviation fuel, igniting a burning river that reduced the bulkheads and doors to red-hot slabs of steel.

The torpedo carried 1,210 pounds of explosives and was configured with a preset firing range of 1,640 yards, a little under a mile. This was enough firepower to take out an entire city block. Hashimoto fired six of these, and they left the ship at three second intervals, in a widening fan of white lines.

Even though I know how this ends, my stomach drops every time someone ignores or incorrectly decodes a message on the whereabouts of the Indianapolis.