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#OTD in 1945, the trial began for Capt. Charles McVay over the loss of USS Indianapolis. Of all the CO's who lost ships during WWII, McVay was the only one court-martialed. McVay was charged with hazarding his ship by not using the technique of zigzagging to avoid sub attacks.
Mochitsura Hashimoto, who sank the Indianapolis as CO of the sub I-58, was called to be a witness for the prosecution but testified that zigzagging would not have prevented him from making his successful torpedo attack. However, McVay was still found guilty of negligence.
The entire ordeal weighed heavily on McVay who committed suicide in 1968. Survivors of the Indianapolis maintained that his conviction was unjust. They campaigned for decades to clear his name. McVay was posthumously exonerated in 2001.
Nicolas Cage portrayed McVay in the 2016 film "USS Indianapolis: Men of Courage". Stacy Keach portrayed McVay in the 1991 TV movie "Mission of the Shark: The Saga of the U.S.S. Indianapolis".
Millions of people first learned about the tragedy of USS Indianapolis through the 1975 film "Jaws". The character Quint is a surivivor of the sinking of the ship. He provides a vivid account of his harrowing experience with the sharks that attacked sailors adrift in the ocean.
