Select the Lost at Sea crew member below to view letters from the family of the crew member to and from
Captain McVay.
Most of these letters have been transcribed by Project 888 team members from
catalog.archives.gov/id/290666130
Declassified Authority: NND947548
As much as possible, all misspellings, grammatical errors, and writing styles, have been preserved
from the original letters. These letters give us a unique view of the anguish most family members
endured following the news that their loved ones were lost at sea. The Navy did not provide any
details nor give any reasons for their loss, and most family members were desperate for information
regarding the circumstances surrounding the loss of USS
Indianapolis and their family member
on July 30th, 1945. (Also see
Unanswerable Questions.)