New Navy ship reminds us it is not safe to go into the water

Secretary of the Navy Ray Maybus recently announced that the newest addition to the fleet will be a littoral combat ship to be named the USS Indianapolis. Littoral combat ships are designed to operate close to shore in support of ground combat. They're pretty futuristic and don't look much like traditional Navy vessels.

The name for this newest ship, though, is pretty cool and a nice nod to the past for such a futuristic ship. The original Indianapolis was a World War II cruiser with a unique place in history. Not only was it one of the last US ships sunk by a Japanese submarine, it went down on its way back from delivering the Hiroshima atomic bomb to the island of Tinian. The aftermath added a horrific chapter to Navy lore:

The cruiser Indianapolis sank just after midnight July 30, 1945, after being struck by two Japanese torpedoes. While about 900 men of a crew of roughly 1,200 made it into the water alive, they were not rescued for days. After shark attacks and the elements, fewer than 320 men survived, according to the survivors’ group. Fifteen of the nearly 40 men still alive attended a reunion Aug. 1 in Indianapolis.

The Indianapolis will be the 17th littoral combat ship in the fleet. These things are bad-ass, extremely high-tech and, we hope, will provide a near-shore combat ability for the Navy for decades to come. Plus they look cool:

Mabus made the announcement at a gathering of the survivors of the sinking of the original Indianapolis. Only about 40 remain. I suppose one of the most famous references to the original Indianapolis is the brilliant scene in Jaws where Robert Shaw as Quint delivers a monologue about his experience on the ship:

We certainly hope the new Indianapolis fares better, but if it doesn't, we hope it gets a treatment this good in a future movie. Damn, Robert Shaw was good.