WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress has awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, its highest honor, to surviving crew members of the USS Indianapolis, the ship that delivered key components of the first nuclear bomb and was later sunk by Japan during World War II.

The ship, with 1,195 personnel aboard, delivered enriched uranium and other parts of the atomic bomb ”Little Boy” that was later dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, in August 1945.

Four days after delivering its top secret cargo, the ship was sunk by Japanese torpedoes on July 30, 1945. Of nearly 900 men who went into the Philippine Sea, just 316 survived before being rescued nearly five days later. The death toll of 879 was the largest single disaster at sea in U.S. Navy history.

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