Naval researchers announced Saturday that they have found the wreckage of the lost World War II cruiser USS Indianapolis on the floor of the Pacific Ocean, 72 years after the vessel sank in minutes after it was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine. A team of researchers led by Microsoft co-founder Paul G. Allen discovered wreckage from the USS Indianapolis resting on the floor of the North Pacific Ocean at a depth of some 5,500 metres (18,000 feet) – bringing to a close an epic search across some 1,500 square kilometres (600 square miles) of open ocean. “To be able to honour the brave men of the USS Indianapolis and their families through the discovery of a ship that played such a significant role in ending World War II is truly humbling,” Allen said in the news release. The USS Indianapolis was torpedoed and sunk by a Japanese submarine on 30 July 1945, just days after delivering components for the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima – but its final resting place had remained a mystery, until now. Story highlights It sank in 12 minutes, too quickly to send a distress signal

Most on board survived the sinking, only to die of exposure and drowning

(CNN) It's been 72 years since the USS Indianapolis went missing after a Japanese submarine torpedoed it in the final days of World War II. There was no time to send a distress signal, and four days passed before a bomber on routine patrol happened to spot the survivors in the water. Over the years numerous books recounted the ship’s disaster and its role in delivering key components of what would become the atomic bomb “Little Boy” to the island of Tinian, the take-off point for the bomber Enola Gay’s mission to Hiroshima in August 1945. Many researchers have looked for the wreck of the USS Indianapolis since it was lost more than 72 years ago, but the seeds of the current search were planted last year, when US naval historian Richard Hulver came across information of a sighting of the cruiser just hours before it was sunk.
The wreckage of the USS Indianapolis heavy cruiser, torpedoed by the Imperial Japanese Navy submarine I-58 and sunk in 1945 after delivering parts for the Little Boy atomic weapon, is discovered on the floor of the North Pacific Ocean. Only 317 of the U.S. Sailors/Marines who survived the sinking were finally rescued after 4–5 days in shark-infested waters.