Charles B . McVay III Rear Admiral Charles Butler McVay III ( July 30 , 1898 – November 6 , 1968 ) was the Commanding Officer of the when it was lost in action in 1945 , resulting in massive loss of life . He was the only commanding officer of a warship in the history of the U . S . Navy court - martialed for negligence resulting in the loss of his ship during wartime . After years of mental health problems , he committed suicide . Following years of efforts by some survivors and others to clear his name , Captain McVay was posthumously exonerated by the United States Congress in 2001 . In 1978 , the events surrounding McVay ' s court - martial were dramatized in " The Failure to ZigZag " by playwright John B . Ferzacca . Actor Stacy Keach portrayed McVay in the 1991 made - for - television movie " Mission of the Shark : The Saga of the U . S . S . Indianapolis " , which depicted the ordeal of the men of the " Indianapolis " during her last voyage . Education and career . Charles Butler McVay III was born in Ephrata , Pennsylvania on July 30 , 1898 to a Navy family . His father , Charles Butler McVay Jr . , had commanded the tender during the cruise of the Great White Fleet ( 1907 – 1909 ) , was an admiral in the United States Navy during World War I , and served as Commander - in - Chief of the Asiatic Fleet the early 1930s . Charles III was a 1920 graduate of the US Naval Academy at Annapolis , Maryland . Before taking command of the " Indianapolis " in November 1944 , Captain McVay was chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee of the Combined Chiefs of Staff in Washington , D . C . , the Allies ' highest intelligence unit . Earlier in World War II , he was awarded the Silver Star for displaying courage under fire . Captain McVay led the ship through the invasion of Iwo Jima , then the bombardment of Okinawa in the spring of 1945 , during which " Indianapolis " anti - aircraft guns shot down seven enemy planes before the ship was struck by a kamikaze on March 31 , inflicting heavy casualties , including 13 dead , and penetrating the ship ' s hull . McVay returned the ship safely to Mare Island in California for repairs . Sinking of the " Indianapolis " . Later that year , " Indianapolis " received orders to carry parts and nuclear material to be used in the atomic bomb s which were soon to be dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki to Tinian . After delivering her top secret cargo , the ship was en route to report for further duty off Okinawa . Early in the morning of July 30 , 1945 , she was attacked by the under Commander Mochitsura Hashimoto . Commander Hashimoto launched six torpedoes and hit the " Indianapolis " twice , the first removing over forty feet of her bow , the second hitting the starboard side at frame forty ( below the bridge ) . The " Indianapolis " immediately took a fifteen degree list , capsized and sank within 12 minutes . Of the crew of 1 , 196 men , 879 men died . It was the worst disaster at sea during the entire war for the US Navy . Delayed rescue . About 300 of the 1 , 196 men on board died in the initial attack . The rest of the crew , more than 880 men , were left floating in the water trying to survive without lifeboats until the rescue was completed four days ( 100 hours ) later . Because of Navy protocol regarding secret missions , the ship was not reported " overdue " and the rescue only came after survivors were spotted by pilot Lieutenant Wilber ( Chuck ) Gwinn and co - pilot Lieutenant Warren Colwell on a routine patrol flight . It has been part of folklore that most of the casualties of the survivors in the water were due to shark attacks ; however , most died from injuries sustained aboard the ship , dehydration , exhaustion , and the result of drinking salt water . Only 317 men survived . The tale was introduced to a new generation by way of Quint ' s monologue in the 1975 movie " Jaws " . The seas had been moderate , but visibility was not good . " Indianapolis " had been steaming at 15 . 7 knots ( 29 km / h ) . When the ship did not reach Leyte on the 31st , as scheduled , no report was made that she was overdue . This omission was officially recorded later as " due to a misunderstanding of the Movement Report System " . It was not until 10 : 25 on August 2 that the survivors were sighted , mostly held afloat by life jackets , although there were a few rafts which had been cut loose before the ship went down . They were sighted by a plane on routine patrol ; the pilot , LT Wilbur C . Gwinn , first spotted the oil slick and survivors in the water at about 11 a . m . on 2 August 1945 and radioed for help . A Catalina flying boat was directed to assist and arrived at about 3 : 30 p . m . En route , it passed over the destroyer escort Cecil J . Doyle and informed the captain of the distress call . On his own authority , Captain W . Graham Claytor , Jr . , diverted his ship to the scene , shining some searchlights on the survivors in the water and others straight up as a guide to other rescue vessels . Arriving hours ahead of the Doyle , Marks ' crew began dropping rubber rafts and supplies . While so engaged , they observed men being attacked by sharks . Disregarding standing orders not to land at sea , Marks landed and began taxiing to pick up the stragglers and lone swimmers who were at greatest risk of shark attack . Learning the men were the crew of the Indianapolis , he radioed the news , requesting immediate assistance . The Doyle responded she was enroute . When the fuselage of his aircraft was filled to capacity , Lt Marks had additional survivors lashed to the wings . All in all , his crew rescued 56 sailors that day , even though the wings of the PBY Catalina were so damaged that it had to be sunk . The Doyle arrived a few hours later to rescue 93 and recover 21 bodies . Other ships arrived during the night to complete the rescue ; the Doyle was the last to leave on 8 August . Future U . S . Secretary of the Navy W . Graham Claytor Jr . was commander of the destroyer escort . After receiving the location from the seaplane , without orders , Captain Claytor took the initiative to speed to the area to check the reports of men floating in the water . As he approached at night , he turned searchlights on the water and straight up on low clouds , lighting up the night and exposing his ship to possible attack by Japanese submarines , but rescuing almost 100 survivors of the sunken cruiser . Destroyers and were ordered from Ulithi , and the destroyer escort with attack transports and from the Philippine Frontier to the rescue scene , searching thoroughly for any survivors . Upon completion of rescue operations , August 8 , a radius of 100 miles ( 160 km ) had been combed by day and by night . However , the effort was able to save only 316 of the crew of 1 , 196 men . Controversy . McVay was wounded but survived and was among those rescued . He repeatedly asked the Navy why it took five days to rescue his men , and he never received an answer . The Navy long claimed that SOS messages were never received because the ship was operating under a policy of radio silence ; declassified records show that three SOS messages were received separately , but none were acted upon because it was thought by one commander to be a Japanese ruse , another had given orders not to be disturbed , and a third was drunk . There was much controversy over the incident . In November 1945 , McVay was court - martial ed and convicted of " hazarding his ship by failing to zigzag . " Hashimoto , the Japanese submarine commander who had sunk the Indianapolis , was on record as describing visibility at the time as fair ( which is corroborated by the fact that he was able to target and sink the Indianapolis in the first place ) . American submarine experts testified that " zigzagging " was a technique of negligible value in eluding enemy submarines . Hashimoto also testified to this effect . Despite that testimony , the official ruling was that visibility was good , and the court held McVay responsible for failing to zigzag . An additional point of controversy is evidence that the admirals in the United States Navy were primarily responsible for placing the ship in harm ' s way . For instance , Captain McVay requested a destroyer escort for the " Indianapolis " , but his request was denied because the priority for destroyers at the time was escorting transports to Okinawa , and picking up downed pilots in B - 29 raids on Japan . Also , naval command assumed McVay ' s route would be safe at that point in the war . Many ships , including most destroyers , were equipped with submarine detection equipment , but the " Indianapolis " was not so equipped , which casts the decision to deny McVay ' s request for an escort as a tragic mistake . On 24 July 1945 , just six days prior to the sinking of the " Indianapolis " , the destroyer had been attacked and sunk in the area by Japanese submarines . Yet McVay was never informed of this event , and several others , in part due to issues of classified intelligence . McVay was warned of the potential presence of Japanese subs , but not of the actual confirmed activity . After the torpedo attack , no rescue was initiated , because the Navy did not track the Indianapolis . Although 700 ships of the U . S . Navy were lost in combat in World War II , McVay was the only captain to be court - martial ed for the loss of his ship . It was widely felt that he had been a fall guy for the Navy . Despite McVay ' s promotion to rear admiral when he retired in 1949 , the conviction effectively ended McVay ' s career . On 6 November 1968 , McVay committed suicide by shooting himself with his service revolver at his home in Litchfield , Connecticut , holding in his hand a toy sailor given to him by his father . He was found just outside of his back porch by his gardener . Though a note was not left , McVay was known by those close to him to have suffered from loneliness , particularly after losing his wife to cancer . McVay also struggled throughout his life from vicious letters and phone calls he periodically received from grief - stricken relatives of dead crewmen aboard the " Indianapolis " . Exoneration . survivors organized , and many spent years attempting to clear their skipper ' s name . Many people , from son Charles McVay IV ( 1925 - 2012 ) , to author Dan Kurzman , who chronicled the " Indianapolis " incident in " Fatal Voyage " , to members of Congress , long believed Captain McVay was unfairly convicted . Paul Murphy , president of the USS " Indianapolis " Survivors Organization , said : " " Capt . McVay ' s court - martial was simply to divert attention from the terrible loss of life caused by procedural mistakes which never alerted anyone that we were missing . " " Over fifty years after the incident , a 12 - year - old schoolboy in Pensacola , Florida , Hunter Scott , was instrumental in raising awareness of the miscarriage of justice carried out at the captain ' s court - martial . As part of a school project for the National History Day program , the young man interviewed nearly 150 survivors of the " Indianapolis " sinking and reviewed 800 documents . His testimony before the US Congress brought national attention to the situation . In October 2000 , the United States Congress passed a resolution that Captain McVay ' s record should reflect that " he is exonerated for the loss of the USS " Indianapolis " . " President Clinton also signed the resolution . In July 2001 , Secretary of the Navy Gordon R . England ordered McVay ' s record cleared of all wrongdoing .