After the U.S. victory in June at the battle of Midway, which made a hero out of spry, fifty-five-year-old Admiral Raymond Spruance—to whom the Indy’s fate would soon be tied—the prediction seemed to be coming true. America’s worst defeat came two months later at the battle of Savo island in the Solomons east of New Guinea. Japanese forces sank four cruisers (one Australian) and one destroyer, killing 1,270 men.
