This year is a big one for historical anniversaries. The years that end in fives and zeros tend to be that way. One is the 50th anniversary of the movie Jaws premiering in 1975.

I was just 9 years old that summer, and though I did have some young friends who got to go see it with their parents, mine weren’t keen on kids going to not-kid movies. I got the real-life experience of sharks showing up while I was still in the surf on a trip to Pawley’s Island.

It was several years later before I saw it when it was showing on HBO or something. The movie has become a cultural touchstone. But outside the terror of the menacing great white, the scene that struck me the most was Quint’s tale being aboard the U.S.S. Indianapolis when it was sunk, in 12 minutes, by Japanese torpedoes on July 30, 1945. Then and still the tale makes your hair stand on end.

Of course, I had never heard anything about it prior to this reference in a fictional story about a rampaging, oversized shark. A couple of things that emerged in the decades since the movie’s release are people caring a whole lot more about shark conservation and learning more about the fate of the Indianapolis.

The battleship had safely completed its mission of delivering top secret materials for the atomic bomb known as Fat Man. On its route from Guam to Leyte, she was traveling under orders for strict radio silence with 1,195 crew aboard. No distress signal went out. Approximately 300 went down with the ship, and the rest ended up in in the Philippine Sea. Of the 890 men who went into the water, only 316 made it back out nearly four days later. They died from drowning, ingesting salt water, dehydration, hypothermia and, in some cases, shark attacks, though the numbers attributed to the latter have often been exaggerated. Either way, the whole scene was a horror show.

Of the crew, 47 were from Tennessee, 24 from East Tennessee and among the dead, five were from Knox County:

  • Earl O’Dell Henry, Knoxville, Lt. Commander – Dentist
  • Glenn Evert Miller, Knoxville, Seaman Second Class
  • Kyle C. Moore, Knoxville, Lt. Commander
  • Joseph Raymond Sampson, Knoxville, Seaman Second Class
  • Carey Lee Underwood, Knoxville, Seaman First Class

Henry was a local dentist, naturalist, artist, amateur ornithologist and taxidermist. He lived in Old North Knoxville and had a dental office downtown. His collection of over 80 mounted bird specimens were donated to Ijams Nature Center. His life is honored annually here in Knoxville at the Earl Henry Memorial Dental Clinic.

Lt Commander Earl O. Henry

Moore was a football standout and graduate of Knoxville High School as the city’s tennis champion for two years. His plans for medical school were derailed by the Great Depression, so he became a reporter and photographer for The Knoxville Journal instead.

I’m still looking for more information on the other three.  Next week is the 80th anniversary of their passing with the loss of the Indianapolis.

Beth Kinnane writes a history feature for KnoxTNToday.com. It’s published each Tuesday and is one of our best-read features.

Sources: The Knoxville Journal digital archives, East Tennessee Veterans Memorial Association, Library of Congress

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