During the attack on December 7, 1941, the Indianapolis avoided damage because it was out on a training mission. It was stationed with the Pacific Fleet in Pearl Harbor in the lead-up to the war. Before the war, it transported President Roosevelt on various occasions, including on a tour of South America. The Indianapolis was one of two Portland-class cruisers built during the early 1930s. The ship’s secret mission, the questions surrounding its sinking, and the brutal trials endured by survivors have fascinated the public for decades. It was later sunk by a Japanese submarine in what became the worst naval disaster in US history. The USS Indianapolis (hull classification symbol CA-35) was a US Navy cruiser that delivered the components of the Little Boy atomic bomb to Tinian Island.
