42 pages • 1 hour read
Pete NelsonLeft for Dead
Nonfiction | Book | YA | Published in 2002A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Preface and Chapters 1-2Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Preface Summary
The preface opens from the perspective of Hunter Scott, a then-sixteen-year-old student from Pensacola, Florida. Hunter recounts presenting his project on the sinking of the USS Indianapolis at a state School History Fair in July 1997, where he was surrounded by 10 or 20 veterans of the Indianapolis disaster. Because of this project, Hunter explains, he became involved in a legal battle in Washington DC as part of the campaign to clear the name of the captain of the USS Indianapolis: Charles B. McVay III.
Hunter decided to investigate the sinking of the USS Indianapolis for his upcoming school history fair project. To Hunter and his father’s fascination and chagrin, there was very little information on the sinking. Hunter decided to use a naval newspaper to try to locate survivors to interview for his project.
Hunter’s first interview was with Maurice Glenn Bell. Bell provided Hunter with a list of the other survivors, whom Hunter reached out to with requests for additional information and questionnaires. Bell believed that Captain McVay, who was held responsible for the disaster, had been treated unjustly. After reading the accounts of many more of the survivors, Hunter agreed and became determined to clear the captain’s name.
Hunter wrote letters to President Bill Clinton and to the Secretary of the Navy, John Dalton, requesting that McVay’s court-martial be reopened or that the President pardon McVay. After both men refused these requests, Hunter decided to bring attention to his cause by winning his school, county, state, and then the national history fair. Devastatingly, Hunter’s project was deemed ineligible at the state fair, due to his use of notebooks to document the experiences of the survivors (Hunter hadn’t been told that no notebooks were allowed to accompany projects).
Hunter was then approached by a congressman, Joe Scarborough, who offered to display Hunter’s project at his Pensacola office. This generated media attention, as did Hunter’s invitation to attend the Indianapolis’s survivors’ reunion as a guest of honor. Congressman Scarborough, convinced by Hunter’s project, drafted legislation to clear Captain McVay’s name. Through meetings and various radio and TV interviews once he arrived in Washington, Hunter managed to convince many other powerful members of Congress and lobbyists to join his cause to clear McVay’s name. As Hunter’s story gathered more national and international coverage and interest, individuals from around the world sent Hunter more information and testimonies, which allowed Hunter to further strengthen his case that Captain McVay was used as a scapegoat by the US Navy. Hunter and his team prepared a portfolio of proof which they distributed to members of the Senate and the House of Representatives. On September 14th, 1999, Hunter and his team convinced a Senate Armed Services Committee that Captain McVay’s court-martial should never have occurred. Furthermore, Hunter convinced those present that the crew of the USS Indianapolis should be awarded a Presidential Unit Citation in recognition of their courage in the face of “tremendous hardship” (Preface: xx).
Chapter 1 Summary: “The Sailor, July 1945”
Chapter 1 opens with the horror of the sailors’ predicament in the aftermath of the Indianapolis’s sinking. The sailors were in the ocean in the dark, surrounded by their shipmates’ screams, having just seen their ship—the Indianapolis—burn and then sink.
One such sailor, Cozell Lee Smith, is trying to save a man, Dronet, who can’t swim. Smith vomits as he tries to support both himself and Dronet in the water, after accidentally swallowing a mouthful of oily seawater. Smith had been on watch on the USS Indianapolis when he was nearly knocked off his feet by an explosion as one of the two Japanese torpedoes hit the ship. Smith grabbed onto a gun turret as the ship started to sink, hearing men’s bones and skulls breaking on gun turrets and other fixtures on the side of the ship as they fell into the water.
Now in the water after the sinking, Smith sees a man whose arms have been burned to the bone, begging those who are supporting him to let him sink into the water to die. When he does die, Smith takes the burned man’s life jacket off of him and gives it to Dronet. All around them, the air is filled with panicked and agonized screams of injured men. Many are badly burned and injured. When the sun rises the next morning, Smith sees floating bodies of dead men everywhere. To his horror, a body is suddenly pulled under and disappears as it is taken by a shark.
Chapter 2 Summary: “The Boy, November 1996”
Chapter 2 recounts the testimony of 71-year-old Maurice Bell during his interview with 11-year-old Hunter Scott. Bell shows Hunter his medal—a Purple Heart for being wounded in action—and tells Hunter about his time aboard the Indianapolis. Bell was in the Seventh Division, the Division responsible for manning the anti-aircraft guns and cleaning the decks. Bell was asleep when the first torpedo hit, and he assumed that one of the boilers had exploded. Bell’s life jacket was snatched away as he scrambled to the deck. The next thing he remembers is standing on one of the ship’s screws (propellers) contemplating the 40-foot drop into the water. Bell was scared of the ship’s suction as it sank and kicked hard to reach the surface.
Bell ended up in a large group of men floating around a group of rafts. Injured men were put on top of the rafts while the rest held onto the sides of the rafts. Bell recounts men screaming as they were pulled under by sharks, sometimes from underneath and sometimes from the side; the circle of men got “smaller and smaller” as the sharks continued to attack (13). Bell describes to Hunter the hallucinations which some men suffered from after days of exposure, thirst, and exhaustion, which would cause them to drink salt water or swim away from the group. On his fifth night in the water, Bell was finally rescued. Bell explains to Hunter that he does not blame the Japanese captain, Mochitsura Hashimoto, as he was only doing his duty. Bell only condemns the US Navy, who dishonored his Captain, Charles McVay, and by extension dishonored the crew of the Indianapolis.
Bell explains that Captain McVay came to the first survivors’ reunion with trepidation, worried that his men would blame him. On the contrary, he was received enthusiastically. However, many of the families of men killed aboard the Indianapolis sent Captain McVay hate mail for the rest of his life. Perhaps partly for this reason, Captain McVay died by suicide in 1968 at the age of 70.
Preface and Chapters 1-2 Analysis
The preface raises an important theme: perseverance in the face of adversity. This perseverance is two-fold: Hunter is inspired to persevere in his modern-day crusade by the incredible courage and perseverance which he learned about from the survivors, who endured horrific conditions in the days and nights after the sinking of the USS Indianapolis. Their stories of heroism inspire Hunter to continue to fight for the exoneration of Captain McVay. Hunter draws inspiration from the men and hopes to “honor a group of veterans to whom honor is everything” (Preface: xx).
Hunter was initially “heartbroken” at his history project’s rejection at the state level of the “Triumph and Tragedy” history competition, feeling that he had “let the men of the Indianapolis down” (Preface: xvii). In response, Hunter’s dad teaches him that “you learn more about a person’s character after a defeat than after a win” (Preface: xx). Spurred on by the survivors, Hunter decided that he could not give in. He publicized his story nationally and globally, determinedly gathering further information in the defense of Captain McVay—information which helped him to successfully lobby for the resolutions which recognized McVay’s innocence and the survivors’ bravery.
The preface and opening chapters also allude to the horrors of war. Survivor Smith conjures the sights, smells, and sounds which accompany the sinking of a torpedoed vessel: “a second man fell into the gun turret, and Smith could hear his bones break” (3). Smith’s memories of the man whose arms have been burned to the bone and of the air being filled with agonized and terrified screams further emphasize the horror of the situation. Similarly, Bell’s description of men being taken suddenly and mauled by sharks remind the reader of the horrific trials and tribulations faced by those involved in World War II.
These opening chapters also allude to the miscarriage of justice which took place in McVay’s court-martial, where he was essentially scapegoated by the US navy. Hunter and his father wanted to know “why the greatest sea disaster in naval history was not thoroughly discussed in the history books” (Preface: xiii). Their initial attempt at research on the sinking of the USS Indianapolis, which turned up very little information, foreshadows the ways that many vital parts of the case were intentionally suppressed by the US navy. Hunter helped to expose the fact that the navy was more interested in finding a convenient scapegoat than examining systemic flaws in naval operations.
Fighting for justice is one of the most pivotal themes in the book, which is explored through Hunter’s campaign for Captain McVay’s exoneration. This fight for justice is closely tied to Hunter’s belief in freedom and the power of American democracy. It is important to Hunter to remember and respect veterans who “put their lives on the line … to ensure that you and I and all Americans can enjoy liberty” (Preface: xx). Hunter believes that the privilege of his life of freedom comes with a responsibility to respect and honor those who helped to establish and defend democracy. For this reason, Hunter is unyielding in his campaign to see Captain McVay exonerated and the survivors of the USS Indianapolis recognized for their courage and bravery.
