Paul Allen’s deep sea ambition is discovering lost, sunken ships

The sinking of the USS Indianapolis has been a mystery since the end of the war, even a controversial topic. No one had been able to locate the final resting place of the WWII heavy cruiser ever since it was fired upon by a Japanese submarine and sunk on July 30, 1945.

Survivors of the attack were adrift for almost 5-days, many dying from exposure or shark attacks. The warship sank into the depths of the ocean, never to be seen again. Until now, thanks to Paul Allen’s deep sea exploration project, The Deepest Frontier.

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“The Indianapolis … was actually going into the forward battle area,” Rear Admiral Samuel Cox told KIRO Radio’s Ron and Don. “She was going from Guam to the Philippines, then to Okinawa where there were mass kamikaze attacks going on. She was not zigzagging, that’s true. The commanding officer Captain McVay had the discretion whether or not to zigzag in conditions of low visibility, which was the case that night. Unfortunately, it wasn’t low enough, long enough, and essentially the Japanese submarine got lucky, and McVay did not. And the Japanese submarine torpedoed and sank the Indianapolis.”

Cox said that because the sinking happened at the end of the war, and the fact the Navy made a few mistakes following the incident, the USS Indianapolis has had a bit of controversy surrounding it. The sailors, for example, were adrift too long before being discovered. Eventually, Captain Charles B. McVay was court marshaled for losing his ship. He was posthumously exonerated in 2000.

“It resulted in a media frenzy at the time,” Cox said. “The Navy decided someone had to be held accountable for this and they court marshaled Captain McVay for not zigzagging. He’s the only ship captain to be court marshaled for having his ship lost as a result of enemy action. It remained controversial  for along time.”

“My position is that if you look at what McVay did as the crew was adrift in the water … he actually remained in command of everything he could see, remained in control, exerted leadership all the way through the 5-day ordeal,” Cox said. “And there are a number of survivors who owe their lives to his leadership. In my view, the man is a hero. And the person who is responsible for the loss of the Indianapolis was Lt. Commander Hashimoto, the skipper of I-58, the Japanese submarine and he was just doing his duty.”

Deep sea discoveries

The USS Indianapolis is just one WWII era wreckage that Paul Allen’s Deepest Frontier has discovered. The effort has located the USS Helena, USS Ward, USS Cooper, USS Juno, and several Japanese war shops. Most recently, they have discovered the wreckage of the USS Lexington.

Cox is also the director of the Naval History and Heritage Command. When Allen and other explorers seek out these sunken ships, they have to first gain approval from his organization. Explorers can dive and research sunken ships if they have no intent to disturb the site.

“If you do have intent to disturb, then you are required to get a permit from me, from my command,” Cox said. “Some of the scavengers and salvagers don’t operate in accordance with the law. So we work with foreign governments and other parts of the US government to keep track as best we can to keep unauthorized salvaging and scavenging of these ships.”

The reason for that is that while the ships are now dormant under the ocean, they are considered memorials; grave sites of the sailors who went down with them.

“These are hallowed sites,” Cox said. “They are the last resting places of American sailors and we want them to be treated with respect. Which is what Paul Allen’s team has done very well.”