The U.S.S. Indianapolis is notable for a few reasons. In the Second World War it transported key parts for the first atomic bomb- later dropped on Hiroshima August 6, 1945. The ship was attacked at 12:14 am July 30 by a Japanese submarine and became not only one of the last U.S. navy ships to be sunk during the war, but also the single worst loss of life at sea in the navy’s history. All pretty cool, right, but not really my focus here. My focus, rather, is on the 900 men who were left floating in the Philippine Sea for four days, without life rafts or food.
Twelve minutes after being hit by two Japanese torpedoes the surviving crew members of the Indy, who had been instructed to abandon ship, watched as the final visible parts of their ship succumbed to the ocean’s floor. They were alone… except for the SHARKS!
It wasn’t until late afternoon the following day the sharks arrived and the screams started. The disturbance caused by the torpedo hits and the sinking of the ship; the splashing around of 900 navy men fighting for food and life jackets; and the smell of blood and burnt flesh all must have forced the sharks’ sensory systems into overload. Oceanic Whitetip Sharks live in warm open water and are known to be aggressive and opportunistic and will often converge on one source of food. However, it is not the sharks’ bloodlust that leads to the eventual feeding frenzy, but its competitive and goal-oriented nature. The Whitetip would rather compete for and exploit a single source of food than seek an easier meal elsewhere.
Thus, for the next three days between 120 and 150 sharks competed over the remnants of the
Indy’s crew. Usually arriving in the late afternoon the sharks targeted the already dead. Limb, torsos, and chunks of flesh were scattered, if not missing altogether. Fear and desparation set in as the sailors struggled to survive. On occasion the sharks encountered a living loan sailor, who may have been pushed from the group due to a bleeding wound that was believed to attract sharks.
Most of those who died succumbed to a combination of exposure, dehydration, and drowning. Although, it is estimated that between 60 and 80 sailors were killed by sharks, of the 1,196 original crew members of the U.S.S. Indianapolis, 321 were rescued and 317 ultimately survived.
