Of the nearly 1,200 men aboard, about 900 were left adrift in shark-infested waters.
In July 1945, the USS Indianapolis was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine shortly after delivering components of the atomic bomb to Tinian Island.
Of the nearly 1,200 men aboard, about 900 were left adrift in shark-infested waters.
Survivor Loel Dean Cox told the BBC in 2013, “You were constantly in fear because you’d see ‘em all the time… a dozen to two dozen fins in the water.” The sharks began feeding on the dead, then attacked the living. “They would come up and bump you. I was bumped a few times,” he added.
Another survivor, Harold Eck, recalled, “I saw him thrashing… then I just saw red, foamy water.” Men who drifted from the group were most vulnerable, prompting the formation of “shark watches.”
Corporal Edgar Harrell wrote in his memoir, Out of the Depths, “Sometimes I could feel a fin brush my body… these gut-wrenching encounters caused me to feel constantly tied up in a knot.”
Only 316 survived after being rescued four days later.