Inside the ‘worst shark attack in history’ that saw US navy sailors picked off one-by-one after warship sinking with terrified victims forced to feed their dead comrades to predators to keep them away

It was a mission cloaked in secrecy, a high-speed dash across the Pacific carrying the most devastating weapon the world had ever seen. The USS Indianapolis had just delivered components of the atomic bomb that would soon flatten Hiroshima, racing from San Francisco to the tiny island of Tinian in a record-breaking ten days.

But just days later, just after midnight on July 30, 1945, as they sailed toward the Philippines, the celebrated warship was ripped apart in the dead of night, leaving nearly 900 men stranded in open ocean, clinging to wreckage in one of the worst naval disasters in US history.

In just 12 minutes, the Indianapolis had disappeared – swallowed by the sea. But for those who survived the sinking, the real nightmare was about to begin. They were not alone. 

As dawn broke over the vast, empty Pacific, the men, scattered across miles of open water, began to notice shadows beneath them. Many had not had time to find their lifejackets and very few life rafts could be found in the chaos which followed the Japanese onslaught.

The Indianapolis had been sailing alone – without an escort – on its way to meet the USS Idaho in the Leyte Gulf, where the Allies were preparing for an invasion of Japan.

Out of the darkness, a Japanese submarine fired two torpedoes. The first tore off the ship’s starboard bow, igniting a towering inferno as aviation fuel exploded. Moments later, a second torpedo hit midship, striking the fuel tanks and ammunition stores, triggering a catastrophic chain reaction. 

‘I’ll never forget the fires, the horrified faces and the cacophony of screams. I can still hear the explosions and the screeching metal being twisted and torn by the tons of water the ship was taking on,’ recalled Edgar Harrell, a US, Marine corporal who described his experiences in his 2014 book, Out Of The Depths.

At first, sharks – drawn by the sound of explosions, the scent of blood, and the frantic splashing – focused on the floating dead. But it wasn’t long before they turned their attention to the living.

Tiger sharks and oceanic whitetip sharks killed the surviving crew in the biggest attack on humans ever recorded. (Pictured: USS Indianapolis: Men of Courage, 2016)

The sharks which attacked the USS Indianapolis crew were oceanic whitetips, and possibly tiger sharks (reenactment)

Of the 1,200 men aboard USS Indianapolis a quarter went down with her. Many of the rest were eaten by sharks

Survivors described the horrific scene – a feeding frenzy unlike anything ever recorded. It is believed the predators were made up of oceanic whitetip sharks and possibly tiger sharks.

‘Every now and then, like lightning, a shark would come straight up and take a sailor and take him straight down,’ Loel Dean Cox, one of the few men to live through the ordeal, told BBC News in 2013.

At first, the sailors tried to push the dead away, hoping to distract the predators. But the sharks weren’t fooled. They could sense movement through their lateral lines – a series of receptors along their bodies that detect even the smallest vibrations.

The men realised too late that they were being hunted.

‘There soon were hundreds of fins around us,’ recalled Harold Eck, an 18-year-old seaman at the time. 

‘The first attack I saw was on a sailor who had drifted away from the group. I heard yelling and screaming and saw him thrashing… then I just saw red, foamy water.’

Another survivor said: ‘They were upon us every three or four hours.’ 

Bugler First Class Donald Mack would never forget those screams and the realisation: ‘There was one less man to be rescued.’

The survivors quickly learned that isolation meant death. Those who drifted alone were picked off first, their screams echoing across the waves before they were dragged under, never to be seen again.

Those who stuck together fared only slightly better. They huddled in groups of hundreds, desperately kicking and splashing to ward off the sharks. But it was hopeless.

‘The sharks were around, hundreds of them,’ said one survivor. ‘Everything would be quiet, and then someone would scream – and they’d be gone.’

Some sailors were so paralysed by fear that they refused to eat, terrified that even the smell of food would attract more sharks. 

One group made the fatal mistake of opening a can of Spam but within minutes, the scent had drawn a fresh swarm of the predators. 

They immediately threw their rations away, knowing that survival depended on staying invisible. But the sharks could wait.

As the Pacific sun beat down, thirst and exhaustion took their toll. 

Many men began to hallucinate, convinced they saw fresh water just below the surface. Some drank the seawater, sealing their fate. 

The USS Indianapolis was torpedoed in 1945, leaving some 1,200 men stranded in the middle of the Pacific Ocean surrounded by bloodthirsty sharks (Pictured: Channel 4 reenactment)

Many members of the crew who were not devoured by sharks were left delirious with hunger and thirst and several died from salt poisoning after drinking seawater 

Those who drifted alone were picked off first, their screams echoing across the waves before they were dragged under, never to be seen again (Channel 4 re-enactment)

At first, the sailors tried to push the dead away, hoping to distract the predators. But the sharks weren’t fooled (Pictured: USS Indianapolis: Men of Courage, 2016)

‘With our minds becoming unhinged, our tongues swollen and our throats squeezing shut, it’s easy to understand why some of the survivors began drinking the saltwater,’ wrote Harrell. 

‘The boys who fell into this trap soon had violent fits, whooping and hollering and twisting around in the water with flailing arms. Suddenly, as if an explosion had taken place, they would fall into a coma and go limp. Sometimes this would happen in the middle of a ring of sharks.’ 

At one point, a brief spell of rain saw them opening their mouths heavenwards, eagerly swallowing what precious drops of fresh water they could catch. 

Within hours, they became delirious. They attacked their own comrades, dragging them down in their madness.

‘The real young ones – you take away their hope, you take away their water and food – they would drink salt water, and then would go fast,’ recalled Lewis Haynes, the ship’s chief medical officer.

Some survivors described seeing men willingly swimming away, believing they had reached land. 

Others watched in horror as those who had lost their minds drifted off into the water- only to be immediately devoured.

‘On numerous occasions, I recall seeing a large fin coming straight at me,’ wrote Edgar Harrell. ‘In horror, I would take what I thought would be my last breath and bend my knees up to my chest.

‘Sometimes I could feel a fin brush my body. Other times I would merely feel the wake of the massive beast streaking through the water just underneath me.

‘These gut-wrenching encounters caused me to feel as though I was constantly tied up in a knot and my abdominal muscles became completely exhausted, leaving my legs to dangle helplessly in the path of the mighty marauders.’

For four days and nights, the sharks continued their relentless attack. 

Hundreds of men perished – not from their injuries, not from dehydration, but from the jaws of the ocean’s most ruthless predators. 

Survivors of USS Indianapolis en route to hospital after being rescued in August 1945

The crew (pictured) had just delivered the atomic bombs, which would be dropped on Japan, to the island of Tinian

Captain Charles B McVay III was blamed for the disaster. Haunted by guilt, the captain took his own life in 1968, reportedly clutching a toy sailor gifted to him by his father in his hand

The sinking of the USS Indianapolis triggered the worst shark attack in history in the final weeks of World War II after two Japanese torpedo’s sank the American heavy cruiser

Navy officials later estimated that at least 150 men were killed by sharks, though many survivors believed the number was far higher.

Adding to the tragedy, no one had realised the crew were missing.

Despite intelligence intercepting a Japanese message describing the sinking, US officials dismissed it as a trick. No rescue mission was launched. The men of the Indianapolis were left to die alone.

It wasn’t until around 11am on August 2 – four days after the attack – that a passing Navy plane spotted the survivors by sheer chance. 

The pilot immediately radioed for help. Lieutenant Adrian Marks, defying orders, landed his seaplane in shark-infested waters and began pulling the weakest men aboard.

In the early hours of August 3, the rescue ships had eventually started to arrive. 

By then, it was too late. Of the 1,196 men aboard the USS Indianapolis, only 316 survived. The rest had perished – devoured by sharks, lost to exhaustion, or driven to madness by thirst and despair.

It remains the deadliest shark attack in human history.

Even after their rescue, the survivors faced another battle. The US Navy court-martialed Captain Charles B. McVay III, blaming him for the disaster. 

Despite testimony from the Japanese submarine commander himself, who admitted that nothing could have prevented the attack, McVay was convicted.

Haunted by guilt, the captain took his own life in 1968, reportedly clutching a toy sailor gifted to him by his father in his hand.

His name was only cleared in 2001, but by then, it was far too late.    

The wreckage of the USS Indianapolis lay undiscovered for over 70 years, until a research team led by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen found it in 2017. 

Today, it rests on the ocean floor – a war grave for hundreds of men, many of whom were never given the chance to fight back.

In 2016, a movie, titled USS Indianapolis: Men of Courage, was released based on the tragic events of the sinking of USS Indianapolis. However, it received terrible reviews in the States and was deemed shoddily made and badly scripted, and a great disservice to the gripping testimony of the survivors.

The shark attacks of the USS Indianapolis remain a chilling reminder of the true horrors of the deep. A story not just of survival, but of a tragedy that should never have happened.

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