binge eating
Up to 150 men were devoured in the worst shark attack in history
In the final weeks of World War II, the USS Indianapolis was hit hard by Japanese torpedoes. 900 men survived the explosion. Then came the sharks.
Published18. May 2023, 2:33 pm
The USS Indianapolis was a Portland-class heavy cruiser. Commissioned in 1932, she had a crew of 1,195 men.
US Navy/PD
The USS Indianapolis played a key role in the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. In July 1945, she delivered nuclear components to Tinian Island, which was of strategic importance to the Americans as they counterattacked the Japanese.
US Navy/PD
On July 30, 1945, two Japanese torpedoes hit the USS Indianapolis, severely damaging her. 300 men were knocked out with it, 900 remained swimming on the surface of the sea.
US Navy/PD
It wasn’t long before hundreds of sharks noticed the helpless men in the sea.
imago images/Oceans Image/Charles Hood
Today it is assumed that the attackers were mainly oceanic whitetips, possibly with the odd tiger shark in the middle. About 150 sailors from the USS Indianapolis were eaten by sharks.
imago images/Masa Ushioda
Whitetip sharks are powerful hunters that can grow to 3.9 meters in length, but generally stay under 3 meters. Deep sea fishing is responsible for species considered critically endangered today.
imago images/Masa Ushioda
The agony of the sailors came to theaters in the 2016 film USS Indianapolis: Men of Courage, starring Nicolas Cage.
imago images/Everett Collection
Lieutenant Wilber C. Chuck Gwinn was the pilot who sighted the survivors four days after the USS Indianapolis sank in the Pacific.
IMAGO/piemags
Survivors of the USS Indianapolis on Guam in August 1945.
DP
In the mid-1990s, a memorial honoring crew members of the USS Indianapolis was erected in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Wikimedia Commons/Mingusboodle/CC0
In 2017, researchers discovered the wreckage of the USS Indianapolis at a depth of 5.4 kilometers.
Paul G Allen
The sinking of the battleship represents the largest loss at sea for the US Navy to date: nearly 900 people died at the time.
Paul G Allen
The wreck was found by the crew of the research vessel Petrel, which belonged to late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen.
Paul G Allen
On July 30, 1945, the USS Indianapolis was sunk by the Japanese.
About 900 men subsequently floated out to sea.
Attracted by the explosion and the smell of blood, hundreds of sharks appeared at the crash site.
Men were at the mercy of the mighty oceanic whitetips.
Help arrived four days later.
Only 316 men from the USS Indianapolis survived.
Shark attacks on humans are extremely rare. But when they do happen, they usually make headlines around the world. Usually it is individuals who are attacked by a single shark. This is because sharks are generally solitary animals that also hunt alone. But when the opportunity arises, sharks also show up in packs, which can result in a fatal feeding frenzy.
Such was the case in the hours and days after the sinking of the USS Indianapolis in the Pacific in late July 1945. The US Navy warship recently delivered uranium and other materials to Tinian Island for the construction of the first atomic bomb used in a war. The bomb called Little Boy was later dropped on Hiroshima. As per his order, the Indianapolis was on its way to the Philippines.
Japanese surprise attack on the USS Indianapolis
Then, shortly after midnight on July 30, two torpedoes from the Japanese submarine I-58 hit Indianapolis, damaging her so badly that she sank in just 12 minutes. About 300 of the 1,195 men on board were taken down with her. About 900 Navy personnel were left behind in the Pacific. As few lifeboats survived the sinking of the Indianapolis, most of them were adrift in the open sea.
Hundreds of men struggling to stay afloat in the middle of the ocean were easy prey for sharks. First, predators went after the dead and wounded. And there were more and more of them. Because there was no drinking water and almost nothing to eat except a few portions of corned beef and biscuits. Some who drank salt water out of sheer helplessness died of hypernatremia, that is, too much salt in the blood. Anyone who didn’t drink was at risk of dying of thirst. And while it was hot during the day, many died of hypothermia at night.
Memories of bloodcurdling screams
Survivors reported that their comrades were attacked by sharks near the surface of the water, suggesting that the attackers were oceanic whitetip sharks, which prefer to stay in the layers of warm water near the surface. Some of the sailors may also have been attacked by tiger sharks.
In addition to oceanic tip sharks, sailors have probably also been attacked by tiger sharks. And they have it all, as these photos from Hawaii show.
Instagram/juansharks
“We had sharks the first morning,” one of the survivors, Corporal Edgar Harrell, told the Indianapolis Star in 2014: “When the men were pulled away from the group, they targeted the sharks. You hear a horrifying scream, then the body disappears into the water and a little later the life jacket appears again.” Faced with the rich prey, the sharks went into a real feeding frenzy.
“Sharks often go into a feeding frenzy when there is a sudden abundance of food, such as when a school of fish is trapped in a small area,” said Nico Booyens, a marine biologist and research director at the Shark Research Unit in South Africa. . livescience. with. “The smell of blood and the savage beating of prey can trigger a feeding frenzy.” Sharks would come from all directions, become very aggressive and also attack each other. Under these circumstances, the sailors on the USS Indianapolis didn’t stand a chance against oceanic whitetip sharks, which were over ten feet long. Around 150 men were eaten by the sharks, some of whom were probably already dead.
316 men from the USS Indianapolis survived
The shark attacks lasted four days. That’s how long it took US Navy planes to locate the castaways. Although the Indianapolis crew made an emergency call, those in charge thought it was a trap by the Japanese. As a result, food, water and lifeboats for the survivors were dropped, with one raft breaking up and others falling into the water too far from the survivors.
Finally, against the rules, a pilot landed his seaplane in the high waves of the Pacific and took on board as many survivors as there was room in the plane. More were brought to the wings and tied there with parachute rope. A total of 59 men managed to escape the sharks in this way, even though the plane could no longer take off. They were eventually picked up, like the rest of the survivors, by the USS Cecil J. Doyle. In the end, there were still 316 men left.
Whether this survival trick would have helped the sailors of the USS Indianapolis remains to be seen. But against a single shark you definitely have a chance.
20 minutes/with story
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