Tragedy

At 0014 hours on July 30, 1945, the American heavy cruiser USS Indianapolis was hit by two torpedoes launched from the Japanese submarine I-58. The ship capsized and sank in 12 minutes. The Indianapolis had just completed delivery of the "Little Boy" atomic bomb to Tinian and was sailing in secrecy. The captain of the Indianapolis, Charles Butler McVay III, had not been informed that the waters he was ordered to sail through were known to be infested with Japanese submarines.

About 300 men died in the initial attack, the rest of the crew, nearly 900 men, went into the water. Four days later, the survivors were spotted – by accident – and rescued. Only 321 men remained alive, 317 of those survived. Most died from exposure, apparently, and there are accounts from people who were there that dispute the claims that sharks attacked and killed many of the survivors. (There were multiple reports of mass hallucinations, however.)

I saw only one shark. I remember reaching out trying to grab hold of him. I thought maybe it would be food. However, when night came, things would bump against you in the dark or brush against your leg and you would wonder what it was. But honestly, in the entire 110 hours I was in the water I did not see a man attacked by a shark. However, the destroyers that picked up the bodies afterwards found a large number of those bodies. In the report I read 56 bodies were mutilated, Maybe the sharks were satisfied with the dead; they didn't have to bite the living. (Oral history of CAPT Lewis L. Haynes, chief medical officer of the Indianapolis who was in the "lifejacket group".)

We had sharks, or rather they had sharks down there [in the life preserver group]. We know that because we have two survivors who were bitten by sharks and as I told this one boy in the hospital. I said "You'd better take some castellan paint and put on that thing before it heals up because nobody will ever believe you've been bitten by a shark. You might as well outline the teeth mark and you will have it for the rest of your life and can say `I know I was bitten by a shark'." (Oral history of Captain Charles B. McVay, III.)

Captain McVay survived and was court martialed for the loss of his ship. The court convicted him despite evidence that should have exonerated him. It took many years for Congress to recognize the wrong done to McVay. But it came too late for him. He committed suicide in 1968.

The Discovery Channel will present Ocean of Fear: Worst Shark Attack Ever  about the Indianapolis tragedy tonight at 9pm EDT. It, of course, plays up the shark attack angle.