USS Indianapolis – The worst shark attack in human history

Time stranded: 4 days

Distance traveled: Under 1 mile

Terrain types: Ocean

Deaths: 880

Situation ended: found by search plane

Location: Pacific ocean

In terms of the highest amount of human lives lost to sharks from a single incident, nothing comes close to the story of the USS Indianapolis. The ship was launched in 1931 after a year and a half of construction and named after the city in Indiana, to serve the US Navy as a heavy cruiser and to act as the flagship for Scout Force 1.

The Indianapolis served well throughout the Second World War and took part in various campaigns across the Pacific, and apart from a few minor scrapes was lucky enough to have never taken any real damage. It looked like the ship might just get through the war untouched, but at 00:15 on July 30th, she was spotted by an enemy submarine heading back to port after a delivery mission.

The Japanese sub was an I-58 and carried an armament of type 95 torpedoes, which are about 20 feet long and carry a half-ton warhead. Commander Mochitsura Hashimoto ordered his crew to fire and 2 torpedoes left their tubes and began screeching their way towards the Indianapolis.

Both torpedoes were perfect hits and the Indianapolis quickly began sinking. At the time of impact, there were 1,196 crew on board, but after the 12 minutes had passed for the ship to completely sink there were around 300 missing. The captain was later court-martialed for not trying to steer the ship away from the torpedoes, but this didn’t help the 850+ people now swimming in the water, and to make matters worse no one was able to radio for help before abandoning the ship.

None of the crew were able to gather any real amount of supplies and food and water were dangerously low, but drinking water was to be the least of their worries. After a few hours, the area was quiet, with the ship gone and any supplies that could be salvaged already found, people started to calm down and wait for rescue.

Suddenly and without any kind of warning, several of the wounded crew members floating in the water were violently pulled down, an event that caused great panic among the survivors who didn’t take long to realize they were being attacked by sharks. Since there was such confusion and panic no one has any accurate details as to how many people died and when, but at least 100 people were known to have died before the first night came.

Over the next 4 days, the survivors would be taken one by one under the water, only for a swirl of blood to rise from where they were floating. This proved to be too much for some of the crew who didn’t hesitate to kill themselves before the sharks could get them. The other major problem was the lack of food and fresh water that was causing people to pass out and fall into the water, and since no one had the energy to rescue them everyone was powerless to do anything but watch.

This psychological hell went on for almost 4 whole days, but on the morning of August 2nd, a Lockheed Ventura flown by Lieutenant Wilbur Gwinn spotted the survivors during a routine patrol flight and dropped a life raft in the water. As soon as Gwinn radioed their position and numbers back to command, every single ship and plane in the area that could help was dispatched, with the first reaching them within a few hours.

After this rescue planes and ships came in thick and fast and took all the survivors they could find. Out of the 1,196 people on board the USS Indianapolis, only 316 survived the event and were taken to safety, though a number of the survivors died later on from their conditions. To date, this event is the single biggest loss of life to shark attacks in a single incident, though the true number of how many people killed by them will never be known.