Worst shark attack ever as 300 men are eaten alive after being stranded at sea

Irish Daily Mirror

29-06-2025

In the summer of 1945, the USS Indianapolis embarked on a fateful voyage from San Francisco to the small island of Tinian in the Northern Mariana Islands, carrying crucial components for 'Little Boy', the nuclear bomb that would devastate the Japanese city of Hiroshima on August 6 of that year.
The explosion would be a catastrophic event unlike any other, striking fear into the hearts of those who learned about it, a sentiment that endures 80 years on. However, the crew of the USS Indianapolis would face further unimaginable horror, falling victim to what is widely regarded as the worst shark attack in recorded history.
After delivering uranium and other materials to the Tinian Naval Base as part of a top-secret mission, the Portland-class heavy cruiser continued on its high-speed journey towards the Philippines. Disaster struck at 00:15 on July 30, when the Japanese submarine I-58 launched two Type 95 torpedoes into the starboard side of the prized US vessel.
In a mere 12 minutes, the USS Indianapolis, a ship spanning "two football fields in length", slipped beneath the waves, claiming the lives of approximately 300 crewmen. Of the nearly 1,200 men on board, around 900 were left stranded on the surface, with only a handful of life jackets and life rafts to shield them from the unforgiving ocean.
Unfortunately, the powerless men could do nothing as ravenous sharks began to circle in a bloody frenzy that left an indelible mark on the survivors, reports the Mirror.
Believed to be a mixture of oceanic whitetips and possibly tiger sharks, the creatures ravaged the corpses of the drowned sailors before turning their attention to those still alive.
Speaking to BBC News in 2013, survivor Loel Dean Cox, who was only 19 during the harrowing incident, recalled how he and his mates initially thought they could "hold out for a couple of days" until rescue arrived.
Sadly, because of communication blunders and additional problems, the USS Indianapolis was not reported missing when it failed to show up at Leyte Gulf on July 31 as expected. No one on shore was aware that the crew, many mere lads, were adrift in the open sea, clinging together and thrashing in a futile effort to fend off the relentless bite of the sharks.
Initially, the men tried to shoo away the deceased amongst them, believing that this might deter the sharks temporarily from attacking the living. Alas, the predators were too shrewd, leaving no reprieve from their enhanced senses.
Loel has memories of some creatures measuring a colossal "15ft long", and he witnessed them picking off "three or four each night and day". He shared, "You were constantly in fear because you'd see 'em all the time. Every few minutes, you'd see their fins - a dozen to two dozen fins in the water.
"They would come up and bump you. I was bumped a few times - you never know when they are going to attack you."
Harold Eck, another seaman who was just 18 at the time, recounted the first terrifying assault he saw, divulging: '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.'
It became clear that the sharks targeted those straying from the main group, prompting the men to stay as close as possible.
The World War II Museum records how Harlan Twible, fresh out of the US Naval Academy, coordinated "shark watches" to keep survivors in sizeable groups, repelling the incessant onslaughts by kicking and striking the predators.
Those who succumbed were severed from the collective and consigned to the open sea.
In desperate hunger, any man daring to open a tin of spam was swiftly snatched by the beasts, whilst others were paralysed by fear and chose not to eat. Under the scorching sun, some succumbed to thirst and drank seawater, falling into hallucinations amidst the perilous, shark-ridden waters, becoming even more susceptible.
US Marine Corporal Edgar Harrell vividly detailed the harrowing experiences in his 2014 memoir, 'Out Of The Depths': "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.
"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."
He went on to recount his personal ordeal amidst the chaos, saying: 'On numerous occasions, I recall seeing a large fin coming straight at me. 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."
Harrell reflected on how these terrifying moments left him in continuous fear: "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."
After an agonising four days and five nights adrift, the sailors were fortuitously spotted by a passing U.S. naval aircraft, entirely by chance. By then, their numbers had tragically fallen to just 316.
The US government chose to postpone the announcement of the incident until August 15, 1945, coinciding with the day the world learned of Japan's surrender, signalling the end of the grim era of World War II.
Decades on, the harrowing tale continues to shock. In 2016, the saga was retold for modern audiences in the film USS Indianapolis: Men of Courage, featuring Nicolas Cage.
In 2017, the final resting place of the USS Indianapolis was located at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, over three-and-a-half miles beneath the waves, by an expedition led by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen.
At that time, the entrepreneur remarked: "To be able to honour the brave men of the USS Indianapolis and their families through the discovery of a ship that played such a significant role in ending [the war] is truly humbling."