[oh8eleven]

No one recognized that the vessel was missing until more than a month had passed and it failed to show up at Pearl Harbor.
Soooo, the USS Indianapolis' demise wasn't unique.

[Bryanw92]

>>Soooo, the USS Indianapolis’ demise wasn’t unique.

In 1921, it wouldn’t have been so unique. By 1945, ships carried a lot more communications gear so it was more unique.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

No one recognized that the vessel was missing until more than a month had passed and it failed to show up at Pearl Harbor.

Soooo, the USS Indianapolis' demise wasn't unique.

It was only in the aftermath of the 15 April 1912 sinking of the Titanic that systematic monitoring of wireless communications was instituted. This was nine years later, and one might think that all ocean going vessels would been equipped for sending out an SOS by then. But, maybe an oceangoing tug seemed like it would not spend much time on a long cruise, and therefore retrofitting a radio transmitter on an existing tug was not a priority. Or else the captain was just not willing to call SOS until he got in over his head and the radio operator did not get the word out. Pretty clear that the crew was done for in any event.

The case of the Indianapolis was different in that there was tremendous overshadowing news in the dropping of the A-bombs and the surrender of Japan.