Eighty one years after the USS Indianapolis sank during World War II, the final eight sailors whose fates remained uncertain have been identified. The historic confirmation closes the last known gaps surrounding the men lost in one of the U.S. Navy’s darkest disasters.

The discovery carries a painful twist. According to the USS Indianapolis Legacy Organization, the eight men had been recovered and identified through fingerprints decades ago, but “no documentation has been found confirming their families were ever notified.”

The organization is now searching for surviving relatives and descendants of the sailors. Its goal is to close the remaining unknowns, properly honor the men and provide their families with answers that apparently never reached them.

“After 81 years, having answers about the fate of these eight men is incredibly meaningful, especially for the families whose loved ones never came home,” Sara Vladic, honorary survivor and board member of the USS Indianapolis Legacy Organization, said in the release.

“But our work isn’t finished. We’re still searching for several of these sailors’ families, and we hope that by sharing this story, we can reach them and offer some measure of peace,” Vladic said.

The Indianapolis disaster began just after midnight on Monday, July 30, 1945, when a Japanese torpedo struck the heavy cruiser’s starboard bow. A second torpedo followed, and the ship sank within 12 minutes, carrying hundreds of crew members down with it.

The cruiser had recently completed a top secret mission to Tinian, one of the Northern Mariana Islands. It delivered components for the “Little Boy” atomic bomb that would later be dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, though none of the crew, including commander Capt. Charles B. McVay III, knew the specifics of the cargo.

After completing the delivery, Indianapolis sailed to Guam and then departed for the Philippines. Of the original 1,195 men aboard, only 316 survived, making the sinking the greatest loss of life at sea in American military history.

About 300 sailors were trapped inside the ship as it disappeared beneath the surface, while 880 men were thrown into the dark ocean. During the next five nights and four days, roughly 300 survivors gathered into one large group as they waited for rescue.

Some men had only life jackets, while others had nothing. A number of survivors found floater nets and rafts containing meager rations, flares, fishing supplies and flashlights, according to Lynn Vincent and Vladic’s book, Indianapolis: The True Story of the Worst Sea Disaster in U.S. Naval History and the Fifty-Year Fight to Exonerate an Innocent Man.

Harold Bray, now the last living survivor of the catastrophe, recalled the grim expectations among the stranded sailors. “Everyone thought we would be picked up the next day or in a few hours. Well, none of that came to be true.”

Bray described relentless heat during the day, cold at night, saltwater sores, blisters and men drinking seawater. Wounded and burned sailors died quickly, while some men began behaving strangely around the third day.

Sharks also moved among the survivors, with as many as 150 sailors possibly killed in attacks. Bray said he stayed to himself and positioned himself in the middle of a net at night so he would not float away if he fell asleep.

Rescue began after Wilbur “Chuck” Gwinn, a U.S. Navy pilot, happened to fly over the Philippine Sea on the morning of Aug. 2 in a Lockheed PV-1 Ventura bomber. While helping his crew untangle a new trailing antenna, Gwinn looked down and spotted people in the water.

Calls for help followed that sighting, and Bray later told Military Times that he knew he would survive when he saw Gwinn’s PV-1. Rescue ships ultimately recovered 91 bodies and buried them at sea, with many of those sailors initially unidentified.

Most of the 91 were identified over the following decades, including 13 previously unknown sailors identified in 2022. That work left eight men still unaccounted for until investigators gained access to previously unavailable government records.

Chief Rick Stone and the Family Charitable Foundation worked with the USS Indianapolis Legacy Organization to find the answers. Stone’s investigators even established the exact recovery time, ship and geographical coordinates connected to one sailor’s burial at sea.

“This was a spectacular accomplishment by our team,” Stone said in the release. He added, “Hopefully [this] will now bring final closure to all eight families.”