Three hundred men died in the initial catastrophe on July 30, 1945, then the survivors cast into the sea suffered unimaginable horrors, abandoned for days without food or water in shark-infested waters.
The new book "Indianapolis" is a bestseller, a testament not just to its novelistic style, but the enduring fascination with the tragedy.
Another book published about 15 years ago, "In Harm's Way," also was a best-seller. A feature film was released about the doomed ship two years ago. Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen spearheaded an expedition in August 2017 to discover the wreck at the bottom of the Pacific, and PBS aired a special of underwater footage of the majestic graveyard shortly thereafter.