"Sailing across the Pacific, the battle-scarred heavy cruiser U.S.S. Indianapolis had just delivered a secret cargo that would trigger the end of World War II. As she was continuing westward, her captain asked for a destroyer escort. He was told it wasn't necessary. But it was. She was torpedoed and sunk by a Japanese submarine. In twelve minutes, some 300 men went down with her. More than 900 others spent four horrific days and five nights in the ocean with no water to drink, savaged by a pitiless sun and swarms of sharks. Incredibly, nobody knew they were out there until a Navy patrol plane accidently discovered them. Miraculously, 316 crewmen still survived. How could this have happened -- and why? This updated edition of Abandon Ship!, with a new introduction and afterword by Peter Maas, supplies the chilling answer."-- BOOK JACKET