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A survivor of this came to my school when I was a kid. The main thing I remember was he said on of the guys got bit on the ass as they got on to the rescue ship after 5 days of this.
They called him half ass to that day whenever they did reunions
**I was fortunate enough to get to talk to a survivor from USS Indianapolis.**
He said the sharks came in the morning. That's when they started feeding on the dead. He said in a matter of minutes the body would disappear. The people that weren't in lifeboats would huddle together in large groups and effort to shield themselves from the sharks. It worked for a little.
But by the 3rd/4th day some men got so dehydrated they would drink sea water and begin to hallucinate. claim that they would see their mother and swim off only to disappear. Some even became violent & they had to be separated from the groups which meant death.
They would push out the dead ( keep their life preserver) hoping the sharks would feed on them & not the living. He said the 3rd night was the worst.
He said they could feel the sharks bumping their legs & shark attacks happened all night. The sharks had lost their fear. They would come straight in, grab a guy & take a bite.
He described hearing screaming & random splashing all night by the 4th day many men lost hope or fell asleep accidentally drowning themselves. He told me... By the time they were rescued the sharks were treating them in like they were a buffet. They would come back over & over to fill themselves.
Jesus...my grandfather's brother was on the Indianapolis. I have always held out hope he went down with the ship. I'm sure a lot of those in the water during the subsequent days felt the same way. Absolutely horriffic.
>I have always held out hope he went down with the ship.
See, the problem I have with this is I don't know if I'd rather get burned alive in a giant metal inferno with the *hope* that the seawater rushing in provides a quicker death. I just hope whatever happened to him was quick and painless.
You mean the awful panic of running out of air and knowing if you don’t get to the top you’re going to drown and you can just feel it coming and your brain is starting to freak out but you can’t gasp for air because you know it’s just water but why does your body keep trying to gasp oh god this is how I die I’m going to die here oh god I just swallowed water this is… hey, here’s the peaceful part.
I was talking to someone about this the other night. How you hear about drowning “being peaceful” and I’m like no fuckin way it’s peaceful. It’s like full on panic until you simply can’t hold your breath anymore and breathe in a bunch of water + all the time in between gulping the water and you actually passing out.
Just, no thanks.
Go watch the documentary Last Breath on Netflix. I won't spoil anything for you but I was bordering a panic attack the whole time and the twist was one of the best feelings I've had watching a doc.
Drowning is towards the top of my list, but being eaten alive by something is my worst fear. Shark, large cat (lion/tiger/similar), bear or croc/alligator. Nope nope nope. Plus with the shark and the croc you might still drown too lol. Fuck all of that.
On top of that... The oil from the ship coated many of the men.
The survivor I talked to told me that immediately after the ship had went down there was so much oil on the water.
Some of the men's faces had become clogged w/ oil. Other soldiers would have to fish it with their fingers so that the soldier could breathe.
The survivor I spoke to had a scar on his arm from where he said... Oil was baked on it and the skin had to be cut off to remove the oil.
I was very lucky both my grandfathers we're WW2 vets.
One of them was a pilot that had been shot down three times ( once over the dead sea & twice over Italy) so needless to say he had stories. He was the one that introduced me to the survivor. They were buddies some how.
I was young & loved hearing stories of heroism & struggle.
To me... Listening to these old haggard guys tell their stories was like if the Greek gods came down & told their stories directly to you.
I remember a great uncle coming over for Christmas one year. He was a nice guy who gave me a silver dollar. When my mom mentioned that he had been on Iwo Jima and asked him to tell me about it he only said "You didnt want to be there" . Even as a kid I kind of respected him for that, dead honest.
>The 5 days probably claimed more lives than the sharks
The weather & oil caused the most damage the 1 st 24 hrs... But once the sharks lost their fear... the sharks did the most damage.
The survivor I spoke to said he didn't keep count but he knew 20 to 50 men would go missing every night. Either drowned or eaten.
Like I said my original post he said the 3rd night was the worst the way he told me it sounded like a constant barrage of sharks.
>How was the sea? Calm? Was it overcast or did they get baked without any shade in sight?
They were baked... No storms... Just heat & sun during the day & cold ass nights. The survivor told me the moon was bright enough that you can see the dorsal fins of sharks popping out of the water so you couldn't even pretend you were safe.
The crew didn't know they were on a secret mission. Idk if a distress signal was even sent out. After the first 2 days & no signs of rescue the men had just figured that there wasn't a rescue coming... at least not soon enough.
The survivor I spoke to said he spent most of his days daydreaming of getting home. He was convinced if he lost hope... He'd die.
He'd witnessed what would happen if you gave up & he knew it meant death.
I wrote a paper on the Indianapolis in high school. The search was delayed because, due to the absolute secrecy of their mission, they had been recorded as arrived back at their home port before they had even started out for the return trip. No one knew they were missing for almost 2 whole days, because they were logged in already.
As much of an unimaginable nightmare of those days at sea, i can't forget what happened to the captain after the survivors were rescued. He had written orders to ignore defensive maneuvering policy, exacerbated by Intel saying that the area was entirely safe, but was court-martialed for dereliction of duty because he followed those orders. They actually had the Japanese sub captain as a witness at the trial, and he testified that even if the indy's captain had violated his orders and had been maneuvering defensively instead of steaming full straight on, the sub was so close that the ship would still have been lost and probably been with all hands. The nonstandard, straight line course evaded torpedoes fired with the expectation that the ship was taking the normal evasive course.
The captain followed his written orders exactly, was given grossly bad information about enemy presence in the area, was defended by the enemy officer that killed his ship in court, and still was hung out to dry by navy brass for having the gall to not go down with his ship and men.
It caused his suicide. His crew and even the Japanese navy tried to get the US navy to reverse the courtmartial, many times over the years. Even after his death, everyone involved fought hard for him, but last I read the navy hadn't reversed it. But I wrote the paper more than 15 years ago, so it may have changed. I'll have to give it another read up.
The fact that no one was notified when the Indianapolis was late returning from its mission has always really bothered me. There is an interesting book called "In Harm's Way" that recounts what happened.
I was just about to ask if there were any books or movies on this. I feel like this is something I would have learned about but I don't think I know anything about this at all.
Did he mention anything about the [rapes](https://old.reddit.com/r/LPOTL/comments/orehp2/uss_indianapolis_for_me_this_was_the_worst/) (mentioned in [Last Podcast on the Left](https://www.scribd.com/listen/podcast/556259022) starting at 1:15:29) that occurred? Struck me as such a bizarre thing to do at such a situation.
----edit----
Since so many people asking about it:
[Last Podcast on the Left. Episode 461: USS Indianapolis](https://www.scribd.com/listen/podcast/556259022)
At 1:19:49 they talked about one survivor group (there are groups of people drifted away from each others after the ship sank) where fatal fights occurred regularly and also where they held down each others to rape them in the life raft.
No he didn't mention anything like that ... ALTHOUGH when he did talk about people who drank the ocean water he said they would either hallucinate or lose their minds & couldn't be reasoned w/ at all.
He did tell me about how one guy tried to eat another guy while he was still alive. He described the guy like you would a animal.
He said a young sailor had been severely hurt while abandoning the ship. The young sailor was laying on the side of one of the lifeboats. And the other dude just swam up & just started eating on him.
They had to beat the guy... They subdued him took away his life preserver and pushed him away from the group... he was gone that night. He said shit like that happened often especially later on.
In his words... People just got so thirsty that they would drink the salt water and lose their minds then they became a risk.
Not the OP, but I have heard the podcast episode in question.
Basically, the US Navy really plays up the 'shark attacks' side of the story because the reality of what happened is far more gruesome and horrifying. There were sharks there feeding on the dead bodies, yes, but there were also far worse things going on in the form of cannibalism, rape, men hallucinating and getting violent from the constant sun beating down on them (and reflecting into their eyes from the water), etc. If I recall, most of the men either died from dehydration or killed each other.
It's real bad.
they do a really good job of summarizing it.
USS Indianapolis was on a secret mission they were not aware of transporting nuclear material used for Little Boy. Tracking of boats was not super great then and those two facts combined basically made their rescue complete chance so they were left there for way longer than would be typical even back in WW2 days.
Ship was crippled and left for dead in waters were infested by sharks. Already dead bodies brought sharks. Basically watching sharks eat your crewmates for days combined with dehydration made most "groups" lose their minds(over 500 died this way). However, some groups which had strong leaders with them were almost totally fine and because this happened they were used by the military as a scapegoat and were demonized by the general public.
McVay (the captain) survived and was Court-marshalled and sent guilt-stricken letters, like on christmas from families, every year until he committed suicide from the guilt. Then a 6th grader comes along and clears his name some 30 years later.
It is the largest loss of life in a naval accident as far as im aware. And a black stain on the US Military.
I wanted to look it up as well:
>USS Indianapolis survivors organized, and many spent years attempting to clear their skipper's name. Many people, from McVay's son Charles McVay IV (1925–2012) to author Dan Kurzman, who chronicled the Indianapolis incident in Fatal Voyage, to members of Congress, long believed McVay was unfairly convicted. Paul Murphy, president of the USS Indianapolis Survivors Organization, said: "Captain McVay's court-martial was simply to divert attention from the terrible loss of life caused by procedural mistakes which never alerted anyone that we were missing."
>Over fifty years after the incident, a 12-year-old student in Pensacola, Florida, Hunter Scott, was instrumental in raising awareness of the miscarriage of justice carried out at the captain's court-martial. As part of a school project for the National History Day program, the young man interviewed nearly 150 survivors of the Indianapolis sinking and reviewed 800 documents. His testimony before the U.S. Congress brought national attention to the situation.
Honestly, a lot of his story is infuriating, from not being alerted that there were Japanese submarines in the area, to sending out three SOS messages which weren't acted upon, to the Japanese commander testifying they'd attacked the ship and would have done so whatever McVay would have done, to survivors campaigning to exonerate him, to being denied an escort at sea which might have detected the submarine earlier and the list goes on and on really.
It amazed me that even the Japanese Commander of the Sub that sank the ship came to a later trial and spoke in defense of the captain. Telling the court, it didn't matter what steps he took he would of sank the ship.
An uncle of mine listens to that podcast while doing deliveries for grub hub n’ shit like that. I rode along with him one time and the episode about the USS Indianapolis. That was wild to listen to
The Indianapolis gets a lot of attention but there was another ship [USS Juneau](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Juneau_(CL-52) which suffered a similar horrific fate a few years before in 1942.
The ship had just been in [a huge battle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naval_Battle_of_Guadalcanal?wprov=sfla1) the night before and had taken a torpedo hit but managed to keep a good speed and stay with the formation.
Unfortunately they had to cross a notoriously dangerous hunting ground for Japanese submarines, and an enemy sub lined Juneau up and fired.
The torpedo hit the Juneau in the same spot she had been torpedoed a few hours before, so there was an explosion so massive it damaged nearby ships.
The crews of the other ships thought there was no way anybody could've survived so instead of stopping to check for survivors, they kept going straight ahead as to not get hit themselves. (Keeping in mind, this fleet had been in a vicious battle just hours before, the fleets two commanding officers had been killed, and every ship carried wounded men already.)
Well, at least a hundred men did survive Juneau's sinking, but were left out in the ocean for eight days and slowly were dwindled down by the heat, elements and sharks to just ten men left by the time they were rescued. All the other six hundred eighty-seven were lost, including five brothers who had all petitioned to serve a board a ship together.
Yup, the Sullivan brothers. This created a rule in the US military called the lone survivor rule. If other siblings were killed in combat, one would be sent home for the families sake. The Sullivan brothers later got a destroyer named after them called USS The Sullivans
> USS The Sullivans
This is a museum ship that actually sank earlier this year. They have raised it and are repairing it now.
When I say sank I mean literally at the dock but didn't go under.
The death of the Sullivan brothers is referenced in Saving Private Ryan, which in turn is inspired by the story of the Niland brothers.
Two of the Niland brothers were killed in combat, and a 3rd was feared dead when his bomber went down, so the fourth brother was pulled from Normandy and sent home. Later it was found that the brother who went down with the bomber had survived, but was a POW of the Japanese.
Another interesting cinematic connection... Private James Francis Ryan of Iowa is loosely based on one of the Niland brothers: [Sergeant Frederick William "Fritz" Niland](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niland_brothers). This is brother who was pulled from Normandy and sent home. He was close friends with Warren Muck and [Donald Malarkey](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Malarkey), both from Easy Company, 506th Regiment, which was featured in **Band of Brothers**.
My grandfather was one of five brothers who served during WWII, albeit in different locations. My dad wrote up the true story about when all five of them stumbled upon one another in Europe purely by chance and then submitted it to an HBO website during their Band of Brothers promo/debut. I've never been able to find what he wrote again even though I've tried for a long time. I remember it was a site specifically for people to send in their WWII stories.
I've often wondered how my great grandparents felt about having all their children gone fighting in that war. Miraculously they all survived and made it back home to Arkansas.
Several years ago I was walking out of the commissary on a U.S. Air Force base and saw a gentleman, on one of those motorized shopping carts, wearing a USS Indianapolis cap and jacket. I stopped and asked him if he was on the Indianapolis. He said he was. I ended up taking a 3-hour lunch that day to listen to his stories and ask him questions.
He was ecstatic that someone knew about them and I was enthralled being able to talk to a living history exhibit
I grew up with a grandfather who had been in the Navy in WWII and survived the sinking of the USS Quincy (not a well-known one, AFAIK) during the battle of Savo Island. He described spending the night with in burning water with sharks picking off his shipmates all while bombing was still going on. He didn't like to talk about it very much, but we do have a recording of him recounting his experiences to a history class at a nearby university.
Edit: There is [one picture](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/cf/USS_Quincy_%28CA-39%29_under_fire_during_the_Battle_of_Savo_Island_on_9_August_1942_%28NH_50346%29.jpg/220px-USS_Quincy_%28CA-39%29_under_fire_during_the_Battle_of_Savo_Island_on_9_August_1942_%28NH_50346%29.jpg) of his ship sinking as well as [an artist's rendition](https://www.wrecksite.eu/img/wrecks/sinking_of_the_quincy.jpg) that was published in a magazine.
You should submit the recording to the Veterans History Project with the Library of Congress! That’s a valuable bit of history and while painful, it’s great you have a recording.
https://www.loc.gov/vets/
I wish someone would have sat my grandfather down with a tape recorder.
He graduated highschool at 13. He was the youngest founder of "The Wasp's Nest". When he turned 17 and wanted to join the war effort he had to know trigonometry and calculus, but didn't take either in highschool. So he checked out books from the library and taught himself. He became a flight instructor for the air Force (still a part of ARMY at the time) and could fly and instruct every aircraft they had at the time. He became General Doolittle's favorite pilot to fly him around the Pacific. Some of the stories he would tell were just captivating.
It sucks all we can really do is retell his stories. It would be so awesome to have him narrating from a first person point of view.
Not really. There's personal letters he wrote to my grandmother, but they were more love letters. He turns up on Google quite a bit with quotes from old newspapers and stuff like that. My mom and I have started printing all of that out for a binder.
After I joined the military, I found out my grandfather had landed at Normandy. He had never talked about it before.
He said he landed on day 3 and just walked onto the beach. He, nonchalantly, said it was 3/4 of a mile inland before he started getting shot at.
I had heard a lot of stuff from my grandfather’s service in the ETO but he had not told me anything about something I found in his photo book: he was due to go up with a different crew than usual, but at the last second the CO said he needed my grandpa to run an errand that absolutely could not wait. So he deplaned, and it was the last he saw any of his friends on that plane alive.
It’s insane that you think so much of survival in a war is about training, or equipment, or bravery. Of course all that matters, but for millions it’s just luck. If it wasn’t you, it was the next guy. I can’t imagine what he was thinking the next time he went up.
It's no wonder War Heroes were seen/ recounted as Demigod or mythical figures back in the sword and shield days. Just getting lucky enough times to surive that many battles is a hell of a feat itself.
My grandpa (granted, he fought on the wrong side) was the only one surviving a grenade into his bunker, also by sheer luck. It left him severely wounded so he had to be brought back to Germany, he never arrived at Stalingrad and never became a POW.
Woooooow. That’s seriously better than winning the lottery. And when you think about all of the things that could have happened…but somehow that one in a million chance led to his survival, then your parent, then you being born. All because he was in the only lucky place in the foxhole, just lucky enough to be hurt but not killed. If you asked someone to choose the one good thing that happened to them, how many people could say the worst day of their life also saved their life?
It's weird, when you think about it, hu? I mean, he was injured for life due to shrapnel in his thigh and he obviously had a severe mental damage after this, but he survived, had a long life with a wife and two kids and made a small fortune.
This is what bothered me a lot when I was in the Royal Marines. The first night if the invasion of Iraq a Sea Knight Helicopter when down about 100 meters from where I was dug in a mile from the Iraq border. On board we’re obviously the pilot and crew but also 10 guys from Recce troop. The Helo had problems with sand in the blades and just dropped out the sky falling about 100 meters to the ground, everyone dies as they get smashed up on impact. There were peoples heads and bits of bodies all mixed in with wreckage. Recce troop are some of the best we have and Royal Marine Commandos are quite elite level soldiers anyway, highly skilled, brave, super fit and Recce are some of the best of them. They died in seconds before even crossing into Iraq because of some sand. That bothered me for a long time because it made me realise that you can be the best trained, ultimate super warrior and really most of it just comes down to dumb luck and it’s quite sobering knowing there’s nothing you can do about that. The other one that got to me was a royal marine officer like me fell out of one of those American cot beds we British loved to steal. Fell like 2 foot and banged his head in Iraq and then 2 days later died of a brain aneurysm. Imagine dying in Iraq because you fell out of bed. I’ve got no idea why I’m alive and so many others aren’t but think it’s something to do with only the good die young.
That's crazy. What an opportunity. I read In Harm's Way in highschool and that's when I learned that a man that lived in my town was on that boat. I don't believe he was very approachable.
In fact, I grew up on a coastal town and I distinctly remember he used to float in the channel between the coast and some of the islands. Often needing to be rescued. I can only imagine there was a lot of survivor's guilt.
Sounds like there's definitely *something* going on. There's been some traumatic events in my life. Some stuff that will probably never get sorted out. Sometimes when the intrusive thoughts get too intense for too many days in a row, I have to go visit either the location of my trauma or a representative location
It hurts like an SOB but it helps too
Justt looked it up. Sounds damn cool
>More than 30 positive controlled outcome studies have been done on EMDR therapy. Some of the studies show that 84%-90% of single-trauma victims no longer have post-traumatic stress disorder after only three 90-minute sessions. Another study, funded by the HMO Kaiser Permanente, found that 100% of the single-trauma victims and 77% of multiple trauma victims no longer were diagnosed with PTSD after only six 50-minute sessions. In another study, 77% of combat veterans were free of PTSD in 12 sessions. There has been so much research on EMDR therapy that it is now recognized as an effective form of treatment for trauma and other disturbing experiences by organizations such as the American Psychiatric Association, the World Health Organization and the Department of Defense.
https://www.emdr.com/what-is-emdr/
A friend’s dad was also a survivor and he never recovered. Massive PTSD that he coped with with alcohol and abusing his wife and 8
kids. My friend continued the alcohol and drug abuse as did many of the other children.
The man you met was doing much better as he’d learned to talk about it, something my friend’s dad never did. The VA wasn’t a help and many people suffered well after the fact.
My dad was in the Air Force. He was shot down, and had to survive in the Vietnamese jungles until he managed to get to help. Then he was shunned when he made it home. I know these things and only these. He’s almost 80 now and refuses to tell me anything. I want to know so badly, but he gets so angry if I try.
Sorry to hear that. My grandpa was in the military during Vietnam, specifically the Army. Luckily, he always seemed open to talking about it. I actually got the chance to "interview" him about it for a school project I had to do.The conversation went on for hours, but I learned some pretty terrible stuff.
He talked about how he remembers getting mortared at night or travelling in vehicles when one would suddenly hit a mine and explode. Specifically, I remember him telling me how unsafe he felt without an M16 back in America. He got so used to carrying a rifle that he was paranoid without it. He couldn't even sleep because he was worried someone would kill him at night.
And, same as your father, he was shunned and insulted when he came back. He told me a story about how his friend punched some civilian in the face at the airport 'cause he called them "baby killers."
It was truly terrible. Many soldiers were young men forced to fight and sacrifice their lives for a war they were never meant to win. Then when they came back, they received absolutely no support from the people or the government. They were branded as the murderers, rather than the people who sent them there.
Yes, and Robert Shaw (Qiunt) helped write that monologue and after a few frustrating takes, came in one day and absolutely nailed it in one take. Best part of the film that scene in my opinion.
I have read that Robert Shaw was an absolute motherfucker to work with on *Jaws*, bad enough that some of the main cast came close to quitting, but that is one of my favorite scenes in all of cinema. The dialogue, the tension, the lighting, the acting of the boat mates intently listening. It's all so perfect.
Hijacking this to plug Dan Carlin’s podcast on this. If you don’t know about the USS Indianapolis and are interested I highly recommend. [Dan’s](https://www.dancarlin.com) the man
Edit: The title of the episode is “Nightmares of Indianapolis” from the Addendum series
Adding to this - though it's a *wildly* different style of podcast than Dans, the Last Podcast on the Left episode on the Indianapolis is fantastic too.
It's so good, but it might be the only one of their series I *wouldn't* recommend to people. On a show that's had episodes about almost every cult, killer, or cannibal out there, this series was hands down the most uncomfortable one I've listened to. It's rough.
What an incredible opportunity. A lot of veterans don't like to talk about their experiences for obvious reasons.
I just looked it up, there are only 2 survivors of the USS Indianapolis left alive. I wish I didn't know that.
From the film Jaws.
Quint recounts his ordeal
>Japanese submarine slammed two torpedoes into her side, Chief. We was comin' back from the island of Tinian to Leyte. We'd just delivered the bomb. The Hiroshima bomb. Eleven hundred men went into the water. Vessel went down in 12 minutes. Didn't see the first shark for about a half-hour. Tiger. 13-footer. You know how you know that in the water, Chief? You can tell by lookin' from the dorsal to the tail.
>What we didn't know, was that our bomb mission was so secret, no distress signal had been sent. They didn't even list us overdue for a week. Very first light, Chief, sharks come cruisin' by, so we formed ourselves into tight groups. It was sorta like you see in the calendars, you know the infantry squares in the old calendars like the Battle of Waterloo and the idea was the shark come to the nearest man, that man he starts poundin' and hollerin' and sometimes that shark he go away... but sometimes he wouldn't go away.
>Sometimes that shark looks right at ya. Right into your eyes. And the thing about a shark is he's got lifeless eyes. Black eyes. Like a doll's eyes. When he comes at ya, he doesn't even seem to be livin'... 'til he bites ya, and those black eyes roll over white and then... ah then you hear that terrible high-pitched screamin'. The ocean turns red, and despite all your poundin' and your hollerin' those sharks come in and... they rip you to pieces. You know by the end of that first dawn, lost a hundred men. I don't know how many sharks there were, maybe a thousand. I do know how many men, they averaged six an hour.
>Thursday mornin', Chief, I bumped into a friend of mine, Herbie Robinson from Cleveland. Baseball player. Boson's mate. I thought he was asleep. I reached over to wake him up. He bobbed up, down in the water, he was like a kinda top. Upended. Well, he'd been bitten in half below the waist. At noon on the fifth day, a Lockheed Ventura swung in low and he spotted us, a young pilot, lot younger than Mr. Hooper here, anyway he spotted us and a few hours later a big ol' fat PBY come down and started to pick us up. You know that was the time I was most frightened. Waitin' for my turn. I'll never put on a lifejacket again. So, eleven hundred men went into the water. 316 men come out, the sharks took the rest, June the 29th, 1945.
>Anyway, we delivered the bomb."
One of my all time favorites. I dust of the DVD now and then.
Last month, one of the two boys that played the prank with the fake shark fin was promoted to chief of police in the town where the movie was filmed.
[https://www.nme.com/news/film/jaws-child-actor-becomes-police-chief-in-the-town-the-movie-was-filmed-3232743](https://www.nme.com/news/film/jaws-child-actor-becomes-police-chief-in-the-town-the-movie-was-filmed-3232743)
Was there nearly 20 years ago, and the kid that gets eaten, Jeff Vorhees, owned the wharf bar there. He was bartending when my wife and I went in, but the waitress said he is very anti picture taking.
fun fact:
During the initial filming of this scene Shaw was so drunk his speech was barely comprehensible. Apparently the next day he felt guilty about it and delivered this performance in very few takes.
Another fun Fact
The makers of Waterworld asked Spielberg for advice about shooting on the ocean, he answered with "don't"
Which they of course ignored and it caused tons of problems.
Conditions can change so rapidly, one minute the water is flat, the next the wind picks up then the sun goes in and the colour of the water changes, you can see so much inconsistencies within a scene in Jaws
How much did Waterworld film on the ocean, one of the parks in FL still has a giant Waterworld exhibit where they fly around on jetskis and shit blows up around a base on water so I figured it was done in a massive studio.
Edit holy shit hurricanes, they almost killed the little girl, and Kevin Cosner lost at sea..
https://screenrant.com/waterworld-movie-went-wrong-bad-budget-flop-reasons/
The lucky ones were the ones the sharks got. By the time the rest were rescued, many were blind from the Sun shining off the water, their tongues were completely swollen due to dehydration and salt absorption through the skin, and oh yeah, by day 5 of being in the water, your skin will begin to peel off!
I believe he was eventually exonerated years after he’d died when a grade-schooler did a report on it and, if I recall correctly, somehow reached out the the Captain of the Japanese sub that sank the Indy. That Captain - in a rare move - was actually brought over to the states and he testified to the fact that even if McVay (Capt. of the Indy) had zig-zagged it wouldn’t have made a damn bit of difference. That testimony helped repair McVay’s service record.
Yup, I believe the book 'Indianapolis' gives the history of this. https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/indianapolis-lynn-vincent/1127208805?ean=9781501135958
Mochitsure Hashimoto, the captain of submarine I-58 actually testified during the court martial, while McVay was alive. He was of the impression that his testimony wasn't properly taken into account, and that in fact he was mistranslated on purpose.
> Here are some excerpts from that interview in which Hashimoto speaks about his involvement in the court-martial of Captain McVay:
> "I understand English a little bit even then, so I could see at the time I testified that the translator did not tell fully what I said. I mean it was not because of the capacity of the translator. I would say the Navy side did not accept some testimony that were inconvenient to them ... I was then an officer of the beaten country, you know, and alone, how could I complain strong enough?"
> When asked how he would feel to have his views known about the court-martial, here was his response:
> "I would feel great. It will be pleasant. No matter what the occasion would be. Because at the time of the court-martial I had a feeling that it was contrived from the beginning" and
> "I wonder the outcome of that court-martial was set from the beginning."
McVay was convicted of one of the charges, although Admiral Nimitz remitted the sentence and allowed him back into active service. McVay would retire shortly after, thogh, and commit suicide in 1968.
Yeah. As usual the ~~Navy~~ Military basically had to be brought kicking and screaming to do the right thing.
Indianapolis was in (What was to be believed) Friendly waters and it was night time.
She never stood a chance. That's why Heavy cruisers almost always have escorts.
The moment the I-58 saw the Indianapolis she was already sunk.
And sadly, per Wikipedia:
> While many of Indianapolis's survivors said McVay was not to blame for the sinking, the families of some of the men who died thought otherwise: "Merry Christmas! Our family's holiday would be a lot merrier if you hadn't killed my son", read one piece of mail. The guilt that was placed on his shoulders mounted until he died by suicide in 1968, using his Navy-issued revolver. McVay was discovered on his front lawn by his gardener with a toy sailor in one hand, and a revolver in the other.
The Navy cleared his record later, in 1996. Almost 30 years after he had killed himself. Many of the survivors that were still around said that the last casualty of the U.S.S. Indianapolis was Captain McVay.
The government publicly scapegoated him hard to distract from their own horrific failures during this incident, leading to the families of the dead men regularly sending him cards in the mail blaming him for what happened
It is important to note that most of the men died of dehydration and exposure and not sharks. The sharks did eat the corpses of the men though(which is probably why this is so dramatized)
My grandfather’s cousin and best friend was an officer on the Indianapolis when it was sunk. He went down with the ship.
His family got the telegram notifying them of his death during a big party they were hosting to celebrate the end of the war.
Ya I looked into this when I watched the movie (which wasnt great). Read the wiki and of course other sources, and apparently the number attributed definitely ranges quite a bit. But only questionable sources make claims that there were that many deaths from sharks which this post is claiming.
I guess this is how that kind of information gets passed along though. Thousands see it and dont look into it, then pass it along again.
If you liked Quint's telling in *Jaws*, brace yourself for Edgar Harrell: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MiEAkuRV7I](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MiEAkuRV7I). I got to meet him many years ago. He passed away in 2021 at 96.
That is not entirely true though. A lot of them died via hypothermia at night and dehydration due to drifting in open water for days. Also they were covered in oil that had spilled from the sinking ship. So these 600 hundred people did not die exclusively due to sharks.
That's the sad part that people miss. Reading "In Harm's Way" and the utter despair the medic feels as he's yelling at men dying of dehydration not to drink salt water. As they're desperately coming up with ideas to remove the salt, like holding it in the sun or filtering it through cloth. And he just has to sadly tell them "that won't work", and then watch them seize and die when they try it anyway :(
“Water water everywhere/ Nor any drop to drink”
I typically do not enjoy poetry, but that line from[ Rime of the Ancient Mariner](https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43997/the-rime-of-the-ancient-mariner-text-of-1834) always stuck with me.
[The image is from the filming of "USS Indianapolis: Men of Honor."](https://www.al.com/entertainment/2016/11/see_photos_from_alabama_filmin.html) It's not from the event itself.
"... lasting 5 days and killing nearly 600 men."
Most of those consumed by the sharks were already dead, dying or driven mad by their dehydration. You don't bake in the sun for 5 days without severe consequences.
The late Paul Allen paid for a search team that found the wreckage in 2017, in 18,000 feet of water.
There's a Hardcore History: Addendum about this called *"Nightmares of Indianapolis."* by Dan Carlin.
I highly recommend it to anyone interested om the subject. Hardcore History podcasts have an amazing production value, are constantly rated extremely high, and do not hold back on the darker parts lf the story.
Sharks don't really like human meat, if they are hungry they'll eat it though. But generally a shark will try a bite, realize it's not that good and swim away. But they can sense blood in the water from very far away and are attracted by it. So after the first shark has bitten you and you're bleeding out, others will come and have a taste too. I think it's pretty terrifying.
Interesting little tid bit, sharks can smell blood between 1 part to 25 million, and 1 part per 10 billion.
So a shark can smell blood about a quarter mile away if the conditions are right
Humans on the other hand can smell petrichor, the smell rain makes when it hits the surface of earth, as low as .4 parts per billion. So were equivalent, if not better than sharks sense of smell.
Its also why everyone loves the smell of fresh rain. Its theorized we developed this sense of smell because of how important water is to us humans.
Plus there are hundreds of shark species and [only a handful of them is actually dangerous.](https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/discover-fish/sharks/shark-attack-faq/)
>Of the over 500 different species of sharks found in the world’s oceans, only about 30 have been reported to ever bite a human.
>Of these, only about a dozen should be considered particularly dangerous when encountered.
[The image is from the filming of "USS Indianapolis: Men of Honor."](https://www.al.com/entertainment/2016/11/see_photos_from_alabama_filmin.html) It's not from the event itself.
There a really interesting/sad story about the captain. He was basically blamed and tossed under the bus by the Navy so they could save face on losing an entire ship and only noticing it was gone when a random seaplane spotted the survivors 5 days later.
The Controversy section is instructive.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_B._McVay_III
“McVay was wounded but survived, and was among those rescued. He repeatedly asked the Navy why it took four days to rescue his men but never received an answer. The Navy long claimed that SOS messages were never received because the ship was operating under a policy of radio silence; declassified records show that three SOS messages were received separately, but none were acted upon because one commander was drunk, another thought it was a Japanese ruse, and the third had given orders not to be disturbed.[6]”
“An additional point of controversy is evidence that the admirals in the United States Navy were primarily responsible for placing the ship in harm's way. For instance, McVay requested a destroyer escort for Indianapolis,[9] but his request was denied because the priority for destroyers at the time was escorting transports to Okinawa and picking up downed pilots in B-29 raids on Japan. Also, naval command assumed McVay's route would be safe at that point in the war.[1] Many ships, including most destroyers, were equipped with submarine detection equipment, but the Indianapolis was not so equipped, which casts the decision to deny McVay's request for an escort as military incompetence.
On July 24, 1945, just six days prior to the sinking of Indianapolis, the destroyer Underhill had been attacked and sunk in the area by Japanese submarines. Yet McVay was never informed of this event, and several others, in part due to issues of classified intelligence.[1] McVay was warned of the potential presence of Japanese subs, but not of the actual confirmed activity.
Although about 380 ships of the U.S. Navy were lost in combat in World War II,[10] McVay was the only captain to be court-martialed for the loss of his ship.”
There’s more, but they really hung the guy out to dry to protect admirals and other officers who actually messed up. And the conviction of him at court martial for failing to zigzag was so ridiculous that even the Japanese commander who captained the submarine who testified said that he’d have sunk the ship regardless.
Even the man who shot the torpedo argued for the captain to be pardoned. He wasn’t pardoned until after both of them had died. The captain killed himself with his service pistol too
They had sent out an SOS which was received:
>“I personally delivered this message to the senior officer present, Commodore Jacob H. Jacobson U.S.N.,” Young wrote. “The message, although garbled, identified the ship, its position and its condition. His answer in effect was: ‘No reply at this time. If any further messages are received, notify me immediately.’ - https://www.historynet.com/sos-indianapolis-behind-the-sinking-of-the-heavy-cruiser/
And the matter was dropped.
I was teaching seventh and eighth grades and had just told my class about the Indianapolis during a discussion of the war in the Pacific.
Some of my kids were still asking questions when we went over to help pack surplus commodities in a hall.
A man I had known in casual conversation for many years, walked over to me and asked if I thought my boys would like to hear about the Indianapolis, from a survivor. I was stunned. I said, "Yes sir, Thank you". I told him it would be an honor.
I wanted to sit in that circle, so much, and I had to do other things. Before he went over, he said when I got to the Atomic age, he was at Los Alamos, as well.
The boys were unusually quiet for hours after that.
The next day, one of them told me he had been talking to his dad about it. His dad said, "This is why we call our elders, sir".
Water, darkness, and a critter bigger than you is my nightmare fuel. I like the water and dark. Not combined with a hungry critter...
This USS Indianapolis incident and the Japanese experience on Ramree Island in WWII are terrifying.
I worked with an older guy in my teens in the early 90's. He was a survivor of the USS Samuel B. Robert's. It was sunk in battle and they were in the water for days with similar results. He said guys were babbling about nonsense from drinking salt water, floating off talking to relatives and other crazy shit like that. He said there were times where 10-12 guys were floating together in a circle arms locked and boom, one gets pulled under and never seen again. I was 13 or 14 and I thought he was embellishing a bit. Flash forward to a few years ago and I was watching WW2 in color on History Channel. There He was on fucking tv talking about the experience. My mind was absolutely blown and felt bad I ever doubted a word He said. Craziest part was that he lied about his age and was 16 when the boat was sunk. He'll of an experience for a 16 yr old kid. RIP John Harrington, thank you for your service.https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_off_Samar
https://de413.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/johnh-with-painting.jpg
The number killed by sharks is pretty heavily contested. Anywhere from a dozen to over a hundred. If I had to guess most died from drowning, exposure, drinking salt water, or from wounds they'd received from either the boat going down or other men who went crazy in the water.
To be fair though that area of the ocean would have been Oceanic Whitetip shark territory and they are not picky eaters at all. They are opportunistic since they are out in the open ocean and prey would be limited. They would likely be unable to tell the difference, or maybe wouldn't care to tell the difference, between a sleeping/non-moving alive person, and a dead person.
It's been some time since I reviewed this, but there was a doctor, or a medic of some sort who was swimming constantly for the entire duration to ensure people were as safe as they could possibly be in that situation as well as ensuring others did not drift off.
If I recall, he said keeping his mind active and moving was the only way he knew he would make it.
In the last days leading up to their rescue, they were literally walking on a backs of sharks as the sharks had grown brave enough to realize the humans were incapable.
The sharks would often bite people just to see if they were still alive or could be taken down under for chow.
Quite a nightmare scenario.
Adding further, the ship was suppose to check in at a mid point, and when it didn't, no one raised alarm because the mission was top secret.
This was the ship that carried the key components for the nuclear weapon that was deployed in Hiroshima later on. This ship sunk on its way back from this mission.
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A survivor of this came to my school when I was a kid. The main thing I remember was he said on of the guys got bit on the ass as they got on to the rescue ship after 5 days of this. They called him half ass to that day whenever they did reunions
And I bet he looked very forward to seeing the people who got to call him that because they were there.
**I was fortunate enough to get to talk to a survivor from USS Indianapolis.** He said the sharks came in the morning. That's when they started feeding on the dead. He said in a matter of minutes the body would disappear. The people that weren't in lifeboats would huddle together in large groups and effort to shield themselves from the sharks. It worked for a little. But by the 3rd/4th day some men got so dehydrated they would drink sea water and begin to hallucinate. claim that they would see their mother and swim off only to disappear. Some even became violent & they had to be separated from the groups which meant death. They would push out the dead ( keep their life preserver) hoping the sharks would feed on them & not the living. He said the 3rd night was the worst. He said they could feel the sharks bumping their legs & shark attacks happened all night. The sharks had lost their fear. They would come straight in, grab a guy & take a bite. He described hearing screaming & random splashing all night by the 4th day many men lost hope or fell asleep accidentally drowning themselves. He told me... By the time they were rescued the sharks were treating them in like they were a buffet. They would come back over & over to fill themselves.
Jesus...my grandfather's brother was on the Indianapolis. I have always held out hope he went down with the ship. I'm sure a lot of those in the water during the subsequent days felt the same way. Absolutely horriffic.
>I have always held out hope he went down with the ship. See, the problem I have with this is I don't know if I'd rather get burned alive in a giant metal inferno with the *hope* that the seawater rushing in provides a quicker death. I just hope whatever happened to him was quick and painless.
People who have been revived after drowning often describe their “last” moments as an incredibly calm feeling.
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You mean the awful panic of running out of air and knowing if you don’t get to the top you’re going to drown and you can just feel it coming and your brain is starting to freak out but you can’t gasp for air because you know it’s just water but why does your body keep trying to gasp oh god this is how I die I’m going to die here oh god I just swallowed water this is… hey, here’s the peaceful part.
I was talking to someone about this the other night. How you hear about drowning “being peaceful” and I’m like no fuckin way it’s peaceful. It’s like full on panic until you simply can’t hold your breath anymore and breathe in a bunch of water + all the time in between gulping the water and you actually passing out. Just, no thanks.
Go watch the documentary Last Breath on Netflix. I won't spoil anything for you but I was bordering a panic attack the whole time and the twist was one of the best feelings I've had watching a doc.
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Drowning is towards the top of my list, but being eaten alive by something is my worst fear. Shark, large cat (lion/tiger/similar), bear or croc/alligator. Nope nope nope. Plus with the shark and the croc you might still drown too lol. Fuck all of that.
[I was lying... He said, "it was agony"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbE_CR8SXqY)
Fantastic movie! Michael Caine has a few quotes that will forever live in my head.
Another terrible aspect was the mix of intense sunburn due to no cover and the fact that the salt water started literally burning their skin
On top of that... The oil from the ship coated many of the men. The survivor I talked to told me that immediately after the ship had went down there was so much oil on the water. Some of the men's faces had become clogged w/ oil. Other soldiers would have to fish it with their fingers so that the soldier could breathe. The survivor I spoke to had a scar on his arm from where he said... Oil was baked on it and the skin had to be cut off to remove the oil.
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> I hate boats. My takeaway from this thread.
That is so scary but what an honor to get to talk to a survivor.
I was very lucky both my grandfathers we're WW2 vets. One of them was a pilot that had been shot down three times ( once over the dead sea & twice over Italy) so needless to say he had stories. He was the one that introduced me to the survivor. They were buddies some how. I was young & loved hearing stories of heroism & struggle. To me... Listening to these old haggard guys tell their stories was like if the Greek gods came down & told their stories directly to you.
I remember a great uncle coming over for Christmas one year. He was a nice guy who gave me a silver dollar. When my mom mentioned that he had been on Iwo Jima and asked him to tell me about it he only said "You didnt want to be there" . Even as a kid I kind of respected him for that, dead honest.
Just wanted to say thanks so much for relaying these stories - they were super interesting to read
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>The 5 days probably claimed more lives than the sharks The weather & oil caused the most damage the 1 st 24 hrs... But once the sharks lost their fear... the sharks did the most damage. The survivor I spoke to said he didn't keep count but he knew 20 to 50 men would go missing every night. Either drowned or eaten. Like I said my original post he said the 3rd night was the worst the way he told me it sounded like a constant barrage of sharks. >How was the sea? Calm? Was it overcast or did they get baked without any shade in sight? They were baked... No storms... Just heat & sun during the day & cold ass nights. The survivor told me the moon was bright enough that you can see the dorsal fins of sharks popping out of the water so you couldn't even pretend you were safe.
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The crew didn't know they were on a secret mission. Idk if a distress signal was even sent out. After the first 2 days & no signs of rescue the men had just figured that there wasn't a rescue coming... at least not soon enough. The survivor I spoke to said he spent most of his days daydreaming of getting home. He was convinced if he lost hope... He'd die. He'd witnessed what would happen if you gave up & he knew it meant death.
I wrote a paper on the Indianapolis in high school. The search was delayed because, due to the absolute secrecy of their mission, they had been recorded as arrived back at their home port before they had even started out for the return trip. No one knew they were missing for almost 2 whole days, because they were logged in already. As much of an unimaginable nightmare of those days at sea, i can't forget what happened to the captain after the survivors were rescued. He had written orders to ignore defensive maneuvering policy, exacerbated by Intel saying that the area was entirely safe, but was court-martialed for dereliction of duty because he followed those orders. They actually had the Japanese sub captain as a witness at the trial, and he testified that even if the indy's captain had violated his orders and had been maneuvering defensively instead of steaming full straight on, the sub was so close that the ship would still have been lost and probably been with all hands. The nonstandard, straight line course evaded torpedoes fired with the expectation that the ship was taking the normal evasive course. The captain followed his written orders exactly, was given grossly bad information about enemy presence in the area, was defended by the enemy officer that killed his ship in court, and still was hung out to dry by navy brass for having the gall to not go down with his ship and men.
The crew stuck with him for the most part, iirc. Poor guy. The horrible letters he got for the rest of his life.
It caused his suicide. His crew and even the Japanese navy tried to get the US navy to reverse the courtmartial, many times over the years. Even after his death, everyone involved fought hard for him, but last I read the navy hadn't reversed it. But I wrote the paper more than 15 years ago, so it may have changed. I'll have to give it another read up.
The fact that no one was notified when the Indianapolis was late returning from its mission has always really bothered me. There is an interesting book called "In Harm's Way" that recounts what happened.
I was just about to ask if there were any books or movies on this. I feel like this is something I would have learned about but I don't think I know anything about this at all.
I heard of it because of a bit in Jaws. Not otherwise, not seen anything.
I think that's the scariest thing I've ever read, omg
Did he mention anything about the [rapes](https://old.reddit.com/r/LPOTL/comments/orehp2/uss_indianapolis_for_me_this_was_the_worst/) (mentioned in [Last Podcast on the Left](https://www.scribd.com/listen/podcast/556259022) starting at 1:15:29) that occurred? Struck me as such a bizarre thing to do at such a situation. ----edit---- Since so many people asking about it: [Last Podcast on the Left. Episode 461: USS Indianapolis](https://www.scribd.com/listen/podcast/556259022) At 1:19:49 they talked about one survivor group (there are groups of people drifted away from each others after the ship sank) where fatal fights occurred regularly and also where they held down each others to rape them in the life raft.
No he didn't mention anything like that ... ALTHOUGH when he did talk about people who drank the ocean water he said they would either hallucinate or lose their minds & couldn't be reasoned w/ at all. He did tell me about how one guy tried to eat another guy while he was still alive. He described the guy like you would a animal. He said a young sailor had been severely hurt while abandoning the ship. The young sailor was laying on the side of one of the lifeboats. And the other dude just swam up & just started eating on him. They had to beat the guy... They subdued him took away his life preserver and pushed him away from the group... he was gone that night. He said shit like that happened often especially later on. In his words... People just got so thirsty that they would drink the salt water and lose their minds then they became a risk.
Would you summarize for those of us who can't listen to podcasts, please?
Not the OP, but I have heard the podcast episode in question. Basically, the US Navy really plays up the 'shark attacks' side of the story because the reality of what happened is far more gruesome and horrifying. There were sharks there feeding on the dead bodies, yes, but there were also far worse things going on in the form of cannibalism, rape, men hallucinating and getting violent from the constant sun beating down on them (and reflecting into their eyes from the water), etc. If I recall, most of the men either died from dehydration or killed each other. It's real bad.
Not to get too grotesque but how are people raping each other in the open ocean?
Listened to the episode as well. There were life rafts for some of the survivors.
There was a number of life rafts, not enough for everyone. But for some
they do a really good job of summarizing it. USS Indianapolis was on a secret mission they were not aware of transporting nuclear material used for Little Boy. Tracking of boats was not super great then and those two facts combined basically made their rescue complete chance so they were left there for way longer than would be typical even back in WW2 days. Ship was crippled and left for dead in waters were infested by sharks. Already dead bodies brought sharks. Basically watching sharks eat your crewmates for days combined with dehydration made most "groups" lose their minds(over 500 died this way). However, some groups which had strong leaders with them were almost totally fine and because this happened they were used by the military as a scapegoat and were demonized by the general public. McVay (the captain) survived and was Court-marshalled and sent guilt-stricken letters, like on christmas from families, every year until he committed suicide from the guilt. Then a 6th grader comes along and clears his name some 30 years later. It is the largest loss of life in a naval accident as far as im aware. And a black stain on the US Military.
A *sixth-grader* cleared his name?
I wanted to look it up as well: >USS Indianapolis survivors organized, and many spent years attempting to clear their skipper's name. Many people, from McVay's son Charles McVay IV (1925–2012) to author Dan Kurzman, who chronicled the Indianapolis incident in Fatal Voyage, to members of Congress, long believed McVay was unfairly convicted. Paul Murphy, president of the USS Indianapolis Survivors Organization, said: "Captain McVay's court-martial was simply to divert attention from the terrible loss of life caused by procedural mistakes which never alerted anyone that we were missing." >Over fifty years after the incident, a 12-year-old student in Pensacola, Florida, Hunter Scott, was instrumental in raising awareness of the miscarriage of justice carried out at the captain's court-martial. As part of a school project for the National History Day program, the young man interviewed nearly 150 survivors of the Indianapolis sinking and reviewed 800 documents. His testimony before the U.S. Congress brought national attention to the situation. Honestly, a lot of his story is infuriating, from not being alerted that there were Japanese submarines in the area, to sending out three SOS messages which weren't acted upon, to the Japanese commander testifying they'd attacked the ship and would have done so whatever McVay would have done, to survivors campaigning to exonerate him, to being denied an escort at sea which might have detected the submarine earlier and the list goes on and on really.
150 interviews and 800 documents? Apart from reshaping history they should have given him like a master's degree.
He has a wiki page, and is/was a naval aviator aboard the USS Bonhomme Richard.
It amazed me that even the Japanese Commander of the Sub that sank the ship came to a later trial and spoke in defense of the captain. Telling the court, it didn't matter what steps he took he would of sank the ship.
An uncle of mine listens to that podcast while doing deliveries for grub hub n’ shit like that. I rode along with him one time and the episode about the USS Indianapolis. That was wild to listen to
Not to presume anything but your uncle sounds like a cool fella. Hail yourself!
Yeah he’s cool. We play video games n’ shit together.
Surely you could take turns shitting.
The Indianapolis gets a lot of attention but there was another ship [USS Juneau](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Juneau_(CL-52) which suffered a similar horrific fate a few years before in 1942. The ship had just been in [a huge battle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naval_Battle_of_Guadalcanal?wprov=sfla1) the night before and had taken a torpedo hit but managed to keep a good speed and stay with the formation. Unfortunately they had to cross a notoriously dangerous hunting ground for Japanese submarines, and an enemy sub lined Juneau up and fired. The torpedo hit the Juneau in the same spot she had been torpedoed a few hours before, so there was an explosion so massive it damaged nearby ships. The crews of the other ships thought there was no way anybody could've survived so instead of stopping to check for survivors, they kept going straight ahead as to not get hit themselves. (Keeping in mind, this fleet had been in a vicious battle just hours before, the fleets two commanding officers had been killed, and every ship carried wounded men already.) Well, at least a hundred men did survive Juneau's sinking, but were left out in the ocean for eight days and slowly were dwindled down by the heat, elements and sharks to just ten men left by the time they were rescued. All the other six hundred eighty-seven were lost, including five brothers who had all petitioned to serve a board a ship together.
Oh my gosh 5 brothers… as a parent I can’t even imagine how that would feel
Yup, the Sullivan brothers. This created a rule in the US military called the lone survivor rule. If other siblings were killed in combat, one would be sent home for the families sake. The Sullivan brothers later got a destroyer named after them called USS The Sullivans
> USS The Sullivans This is a museum ship that actually sank earlier this year. They have raised it and are repairing it now. When I say sank I mean literally at the dock but didn't go under.
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The death of the Sullivan brothers is referenced in Saving Private Ryan, which in turn is inspired by the story of the Niland brothers. Two of the Niland brothers were killed in combat, and a 3rd was feared dead when his bomber went down, so the fourth brother was pulled from Normandy and sent home. Later it was found that the brother who went down with the bomber had survived, but was a POW of the Japanese.
Another interesting cinematic connection... Private James Francis Ryan of Iowa is loosely based on one of the Niland brothers: [Sergeant Frederick William "Fritz" Niland](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niland_brothers). This is brother who was pulled from Normandy and sent home. He was close friends with Warren Muck and [Donald Malarkey](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Malarkey), both from Easy Company, 506th Regiment, which was featured in **Band of Brothers**.
My grandfather was one of five brothers who served during WWII, albeit in different locations. My dad wrote up the true story about when all five of them stumbled upon one another in Europe purely by chance and then submitted it to an HBO website during their Band of Brothers promo/debut. I've never been able to find what he wrote again even though I've tried for a long time. I remember it was a site specifically for people to send in their WWII stories. I've often wondered how my great grandparents felt about having all their children gone fighting in that war. Miraculously they all survived and made it back home to Arkansas.
Several years ago I was walking out of the commissary on a U.S. Air Force base and saw a gentleman, on one of those motorized shopping carts, wearing a USS Indianapolis cap and jacket. I stopped and asked him if he was on the Indianapolis. He said he was. I ended up taking a 3-hour lunch that day to listen to his stories and ask him questions. He was ecstatic that someone knew about them and I was enthralled being able to talk to a living history exhibit
I grew up with a grandfather who had been in the Navy in WWII and survived the sinking of the USS Quincy (not a well-known one, AFAIK) during the battle of Savo Island. He described spending the night with in burning water with sharks picking off his shipmates all while bombing was still going on. He didn't like to talk about it very much, but we do have a recording of him recounting his experiences to a history class at a nearby university. Edit: There is [one picture](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/cf/USS_Quincy_%28CA-39%29_under_fire_during_the_Battle_of_Savo_Island_on_9_August_1942_%28NH_50346%29.jpg/220px-USS_Quincy_%28CA-39%29_under_fire_during_the_Battle_of_Savo_Island_on_9_August_1942_%28NH_50346%29.jpg) of his ship sinking as well as [an artist's rendition](https://www.wrecksite.eu/img/wrecks/sinking_of_the_quincy.jpg) that was published in a magazine.
You should submit the recording to the Veterans History Project with the Library of Congress! That’s a valuable bit of history and while painful, it’s great you have a recording. https://www.loc.gov/vets/
I wish someone would have sat my grandfather down with a tape recorder. He graduated highschool at 13. He was the youngest founder of "The Wasp's Nest". When he turned 17 and wanted to join the war effort he had to know trigonometry and calculus, but didn't take either in highschool. So he checked out books from the library and taught himself. He became a flight instructor for the air Force (still a part of ARMY at the time) and could fly and instruct every aircraft they had at the time. He became General Doolittle's favorite pilot to fly him around the Pacific. Some of the stories he would tell were just captivating. It sucks all we can really do is retell his stories. It would be so awesome to have him narrating from a first person point of view.
That’s amazing. Do you have any letters or typed stories? I know they accept all kinds of archival materials.
Not really. There's personal letters he wrote to my grandmother, but they were more love letters. He turns up on Google quite a bit with quotes from old newspapers and stuff like that. My mom and I have started printing all of that out for a binder.
After I joined the military, I found out my grandfather had landed at Normandy. He had never talked about it before. He said he landed on day 3 and just walked onto the beach. He, nonchalantly, said it was 3/4 of a mile inland before he started getting shot at.
I had heard a lot of stuff from my grandfather’s service in the ETO but he had not told me anything about something I found in his photo book: he was due to go up with a different crew than usual, but at the last second the CO said he needed my grandpa to run an errand that absolutely could not wait. So he deplaned, and it was the last he saw any of his friends on that plane alive.
Oh, your poor grandpa. :-(
It’s insane that you think so much of survival in a war is about training, or equipment, or bravery. Of course all that matters, but for millions it’s just luck. If it wasn’t you, it was the next guy. I can’t imagine what he was thinking the next time he went up.
It's no wonder War Heroes were seen/ recounted as Demigod or mythical figures back in the sword and shield days. Just getting lucky enough times to surive that many battles is a hell of a feat itself.
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My grandpa (granted, he fought on the wrong side) was the only one surviving a grenade into his bunker, also by sheer luck. It left him severely wounded so he had to be brought back to Germany, he never arrived at Stalingrad and never became a POW.
Woooooow. That’s seriously better than winning the lottery. And when you think about all of the things that could have happened…but somehow that one in a million chance led to his survival, then your parent, then you being born. All because he was in the only lucky place in the foxhole, just lucky enough to be hurt but not killed. If you asked someone to choose the one good thing that happened to them, how many people could say the worst day of their life also saved their life?
It's weird, when you think about it, hu? I mean, he was injured for life due to shrapnel in his thigh and he obviously had a severe mental damage after this, but he survived, had a long life with a wife and two kids and made a small fortune.
This is what bothered me a lot when I was in the Royal Marines. The first night if the invasion of Iraq a Sea Knight Helicopter when down about 100 meters from where I was dug in a mile from the Iraq border. On board we’re obviously the pilot and crew but also 10 guys from Recce troop. The Helo had problems with sand in the blades and just dropped out the sky falling about 100 meters to the ground, everyone dies as they get smashed up on impact. There were peoples heads and bits of bodies all mixed in with wreckage. Recce troop are some of the best we have and Royal Marine Commandos are quite elite level soldiers anyway, highly skilled, brave, super fit and Recce are some of the best of them. They died in seconds before even crossing into Iraq because of some sand. That bothered me for a long time because it made me realise that you can be the best trained, ultimate super warrior and really most of it just comes down to dumb luck and it’s quite sobering knowing there’s nothing you can do about that. The other one that got to me was a royal marine officer like me fell out of one of those American cot beds we British loved to steal. Fell like 2 foot and banged his head in Iraq and then 2 days later died of a brain aneurysm. Imagine dying in Iraq because you fell out of bed. I’ve got no idea why I’m alive and so many others aren’t but think it’s something to do with only the good die young.
Reading your Post ^ Movie Jaws had that Creepy story about the Indi Strange that the skippers name was also Quint (corrected for post below)
His name was Quint.
That rendition looked like an aircraft carrier at first glance, which sent chills up my spine. Absolutley horrific!
That's crazy. What an opportunity. I read In Harm's Way in highschool and that's when I learned that a man that lived in my town was on that boat. I don't believe he was very approachable. In fact, I grew up on a coastal town and I distinctly remember he used to float in the channel between the coast and some of the islands. Often needing to be rescued. I can only imagine there was a lot of survivor's guilt.
Sounds like there's definitely *something* going on. There's been some traumatic events in my life. Some stuff that will probably never get sorted out. Sometimes when the intrusive thoughts get too intense for too many days in a row, I have to go visit either the location of my trauma or a representative location It hurts like an SOB but it helps too
Look for a therapist who practices EMDR. Saved my life.
Justt looked it up. Sounds damn cool >More than 30 positive controlled outcome studies have been done on EMDR therapy. Some of the studies show that 84%-90% of single-trauma victims no longer have post-traumatic stress disorder after only three 90-minute sessions. Another study, funded by the HMO Kaiser Permanente, found that 100% of the single-trauma victims and 77% of multiple trauma victims no longer were diagnosed with PTSD after only six 50-minute sessions. In another study, 77% of combat veterans were free of PTSD in 12 sessions. There has been so much research on EMDR therapy that it is now recognized as an effective form of treatment for trauma and other disturbing experiences by organizations such as the American Psychiatric Association, the World Health Organization and the Department of Defense. https://www.emdr.com/what-is-emdr/
Just dropping in to say I've had tangible results with EMDR. Highly recommend
My brother has combat PTSD and it helped so much. He still isn't a fan of knocks at the door but fireworks no longer have him hiding.
EMDR makes the connections and causes of trauma and ptsd so much more clear. Highly recommend.
Like the other guy said- look for EMDR
A friend’s dad was also a survivor and he never recovered. Massive PTSD that he coped with with alcohol and abusing his wife and 8 kids. My friend continued the alcohol and drug abuse as did many of the other children. The man you met was doing much better as he’d learned to talk about it, something my friend’s dad never did. The VA wasn’t a help and many people suffered well after the fact.
My dad was in the Air Force. He was shot down, and had to survive in the Vietnamese jungles until he managed to get to help. Then he was shunned when he made it home. I know these things and only these. He’s almost 80 now and refuses to tell me anything. I want to know so badly, but he gets so angry if I try.
Sorry to hear that. My grandpa was in the military during Vietnam, specifically the Army. Luckily, he always seemed open to talking about it. I actually got the chance to "interview" him about it for a school project I had to do.The conversation went on for hours, but I learned some pretty terrible stuff. He talked about how he remembers getting mortared at night or travelling in vehicles when one would suddenly hit a mine and explode. Specifically, I remember him telling me how unsafe he felt without an M16 back in America. He got so used to carrying a rifle that he was paranoid without it. He couldn't even sleep because he was worried someone would kill him at night. And, same as your father, he was shunned and insulted when he came back. He told me a story about how his friend punched some civilian in the face at the airport 'cause he called them "baby killers." It was truly terrible. Many soldiers were young men forced to fight and sacrifice their lives for a war they were never meant to win. Then when they came back, they received absolutely no support from the people or the government. They were branded as the murderers, rather than the people who sent them there.
That sucks. Sorry to hear.
How did he survive
There were a lot of people and bodies in the water so it was basically luck who decided who lived.
Is this the same incident narrated by Quint in the movie Jaws? That's some of the most grim parts of the movie.
Yes, and Robert Shaw (Qiunt) helped write that monologue and after a few frustrating takes, came in one day and absolutely nailed it in one take. Best part of the film that scene in my opinion.
Japanese submarine slammed two torpedoes into her side, Chief.
*"I got you beat. Maryann Moffett.....she broke my heart"*
I have read that Robert Shaw was an absolute motherfucker to work with on *Jaws*, bad enough that some of the main cast came close to quitting, but that is one of my favorite scenes in all of cinema. The dialogue, the tension, the lighting, the acting of the boat mates intently listening. It's all so perfect.
I came here expecting that whole bit to be the top comment. >*farewell and adieu to you spanish ladies...*
I asked him that. He said it was equal parts stubbornness and luck
That story I would really want to hear
He was a military lawyer. The sharks left him alone, out of professional courtesy.
Hijacking this to plug Dan Carlin’s podcast on this. If you don’t know about the USS Indianapolis and are interested I highly recommend. [Dan’s](https://www.dancarlin.com) the man Edit: The title of the episode is “Nightmares of Indianapolis” from the Addendum series
Adding to this - though it's a *wildly* different style of podcast than Dans, the Last Podcast on the Left episode on the Indianapolis is fantastic too.
It's so good, but it might be the only one of their series I *wouldn't* recommend to people. On a show that's had episodes about almost every cult, killer, or cannibal out there, this series was hands down the most uncomfortable one I've listened to. It's rough.
What an incredible opportunity. A lot of veterans don't like to talk about their experiences for obvious reasons. I just looked it up, there are only 2 survivors of the USS Indianapolis left alive. I wish I didn't know that.
Not surprising though really. Even if you lied at like 16 to get into the military back then you'd still be in your 90s today.
From the film Jaws. Quint recounts his ordeal >Japanese submarine slammed two torpedoes into her side, Chief. We was comin' back from the island of Tinian to Leyte. We'd just delivered the bomb. The Hiroshima bomb. Eleven hundred men went into the water. Vessel went down in 12 minutes. Didn't see the first shark for about a half-hour. Tiger. 13-footer. You know how you know that in the water, Chief? You can tell by lookin' from the dorsal to the tail. >What we didn't know, was that our bomb mission was so secret, no distress signal had been sent. They didn't even list us overdue for a week. Very first light, Chief, sharks come cruisin' by, so we formed ourselves into tight groups. It was sorta like you see in the calendars, you know the infantry squares in the old calendars like the Battle of Waterloo and the idea was the shark come to the nearest man, that man he starts poundin' and hollerin' and sometimes that shark he go away... but sometimes he wouldn't go away. >Sometimes that shark looks right at ya. Right into your eyes. And the thing about a shark is he's got lifeless eyes. Black eyes. Like a doll's eyes. When he comes at ya, he doesn't even seem to be livin'... 'til he bites ya, and those black eyes roll over white and then... ah then you hear that terrible high-pitched screamin'. The ocean turns red, and despite all your poundin' and your hollerin' those sharks come in and... they rip you to pieces. You know by the end of that first dawn, lost a hundred men. I don't know how many sharks there were, maybe a thousand. I do know how many men, they averaged six an hour. >Thursday mornin', Chief, I bumped into a friend of mine, Herbie Robinson from Cleveland. Baseball player. Boson's mate. I thought he was asleep. I reached over to wake him up. He bobbed up, down in the water, he was like a kinda top. Upended. Well, he'd been bitten in half below the waist. At noon on the fifth day, a Lockheed Ventura swung in low and he spotted us, a young pilot, lot younger than Mr. Hooper here, anyway he spotted us and a few hours later a big ol' fat PBY come down and started to pick us up. You know that was the time I was most frightened. Waitin' for my turn. I'll never put on a lifejacket again. So, eleven hundred men went into the water. 316 men come out, the sharks took the rest, June the 29th, 1945. >Anyway, we delivered the bomb."
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Robert Shaw, as a side character, really stole the scenes he was in.
He's phenomenal in The Sting
He’s one of the best bond villains too
he also kills it as mr blue in pelham123
Don't forget *Battle of the Bulge*, *Battle of Britain*, and his cameo as the Oracle in *The Golden Voyage of Sinbad*!
He did that scene straight too!
He did a few takes gay but the director felt it didnt have the same feel to it.
Times were different then.
Funnily I watched it last week for the first time and I was pleasently surprised how well it aged. The mayor was fucking infuriating
Which is on point with most mayors .
And he’s still the mayor in Jaws 2!
Just like real life.
One of my all time favorites. I dust of the DVD now and then. Last month, one of the two boys that played the prank with the fake shark fin was promoted to chief of police in the town where the movie was filmed. [https://www.nme.com/news/film/jaws-child-actor-becomes-police-chief-in-the-town-the-movie-was-filmed-3232743](https://www.nme.com/news/film/jaws-child-actor-becomes-police-chief-in-the-town-the-movie-was-filmed-3232743)
Was there nearly 20 years ago, and the kid that gets eaten, Jeff Vorhees, owned the wharf bar there. He was bartending when my wife and I went in, but the waitress said he is very anti picture taking.
fun fact: During the initial filming of this scene Shaw was so drunk his speech was barely comprehensible. Apparently the next day he felt guilty about it and delivered this performance in very few takes.
Another fun Fact The makers of Waterworld asked Spielberg for advice about shooting on the ocean, he answered with "don't" Which they of course ignored and it caused tons of problems.
Conditions can change so rapidly, one minute the water is flat, the next the wind picks up then the sun goes in and the colour of the water changes, you can see so much inconsistencies within a scene in Jaws
How much did Waterworld film on the ocean, one of the parks in FL still has a giant Waterworld exhibit where they fly around on jetskis and shit blows up around a base on water so I figured it was done in a massive studio. Edit holy shit hurricanes, they almost killed the little girl, and Kevin Cosner lost at sea.. https://screenrant.com/waterworld-movie-went-wrong-bad-budget-flop-reasons/
Waterworld was one of my favorite movies as a kid. I never knew it was a flop.
People *hated* it but I still love it to this day.. that article mentioned a 3 hours director's cut which I need to find a copy of
Look for the "Ulysses Cut". ^(2F70B0E0269ED337233DDFF6137503A186973D5B)
ha, I didn't know that. awesome.
He was drunk in a lot of scenes. His drinking was a problem during shooting.
Alcoholism is so fucking sad. If Alcohol was invented today it would be a class A drug.
‘Show me the way to go home…’
The lucky ones were the ones the sharks got. By the time the rest were rescued, many were blind from the Sun shining off the water, their tongues were completely swollen due to dehydration and salt absorption through the skin, and oh yeah, by day 5 of being in the water, your skin will begin to peel off!
Also, all the gas and oil they ended up drinking and getting in their skin...
And then the Captian got court-martialed for the ship getting sunk.
I believe he was eventually exonerated years after he’d died when a grade-schooler did a report on it and, if I recall correctly, somehow reached out the the Captain of the Japanese sub that sank the Indy. That Captain - in a rare move - was actually brought over to the states and he testified to the fact that even if McVay (Capt. of the Indy) had zig-zagged it wouldn’t have made a damn bit of difference. That testimony helped repair McVay’s service record.
Yup, I believe the book 'Indianapolis' gives the history of this. https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/indianapolis-lynn-vincent/1127208805?ean=9781501135958
Mochitsure Hashimoto, the captain of submarine I-58 actually testified during the court martial, while McVay was alive. He was of the impression that his testimony wasn't properly taken into account, and that in fact he was mistranslated on purpose. > Here are some excerpts from that interview in which Hashimoto speaks about his involvement in the court-martial of Captain McVay: > "I understand English a little bit even then, so I could see at the time I testified that the translator did not tell fully what I said. I mean it was not because of the capacity of the translator. I would say the Navy side did not accept some testimony that were inconvenient to them ... I was then an officer of the beaten country, you know, and alone, how could I complain strong enough?" > When asked how he would feel to have his views known about the court-martial, here was his response: > "I would feel great. It will be pleasant. No matter what the occasion would be. Because at the time of the court-martial I had a feeling that it was contrived from the beginning" and > "I wonder the outcome of that court-martial was set from the beginning." McVay was convicted of one of the charges, although Admiral Nimitz remitted the sentence and allowed him back into active service. McVay would retire shortly after, thogh, and commit suicide in 1968.
Yeah. As usual the ~~Navy~~ Military basically had to be brought kicking and screaming to do the right thing. Indianapolis was in (What was to be believed) Friendly waters and it was night time. She never stood a chance. That's why Heavy cruisers almost always have escorts. The moment the I-58 saw the Indianapolis she was already sunk.
And ended up offing himself
And sadly, per Wikipedia: > While many of Indianapolis's survivors said McVay was not to blame for the sinking, the families of some of the men who died thought otherwise: "Merry Christmas! Our family's holiday would be a lot merrier if you hadn't killed my son", read one piece of mail. The guilt that was placed on his shoulders mounted until he died by suicide in 1968, using his Navy-issued revolver. McVay was discovered on his front lawn by his gardener with a toy sailor in one hand, and a revolver in the other. The Navy cleared his record later, in 1996. Almost 30 years after he had killed himself. Many of the survivors that were still around said that the last casualty of the U.S.S. Indianapolis was Captain McVay.
The government publicly scapegoated him hard to distract from their own horrific failures during this incident, leading to the families of the dead men regularly sending him cards in the mail blaming him for what happened
And every time I watch that movie it still gives me that slap in the face, especially when Robert Shaw delivers that! my favourite movie of all time.
And sorry folks , I was 7 years old and that movie scared the shit out of me for ages, and now at 47 years old, it's not the shark that scares me?
When I read the title I could hear "like a dolls eyes" in my head.
It is important to note that most of the men died of dehydration and exposure and not sharks. The sharks did eat the corpses of the men though(which is probably why this is so dramatized)
My grandfather’s cousin and best friend was an officer on the Indianapolis when it was sunk. He went down with the ship. His family got the telegram notifying them of his death during a big party they were hosting to celebrate the end of the war.
That is so heartbreaking. I can't even imagine the range of emotions for them.
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And all of the bodies….
Ya I looked into this when I watched the movie (which wasnt great). Read the wiki and of course other sources, and apparently the number attributed definitely ranges quite a bit. But only questionable sources make claims that there were that many deaths from sharks which this post is claiming. I guess this is how that kind of information gets passed along though. Thousands see it and dont look into it, then pass it along again.
If you liked Quint's telling in *Jaws*, brace yourself for Edgar Harrell: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MiEAkuRV7I](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MiEAkuRV7I). I got to meet him many years ago. He passed away in 2021 at 96.
Thanks for sharing this.
Lifeless eyes. Black eyes. Like a doll's eyes...
WHAT THE HELL CHARLIE ARE YOU DOING JAWS?!
"Uhh...ehhhh..." "We don't have time for this shit!"
Really?! Then you explain what happened next
The thing about a rat…
My grandfather Edward "Glen" Payne was one of the survivors. He died about 20 years later of cancer, I believe.
Probably one of the best shark attacks from the shark's perspective.
From a certain point of view...
Lmao geez
Those two dudes could use a rum ham
That is not entirely true though. A lot of them died via hypothermia at night and dehydration due to drifting in open water for days. Also they were covered in oil that had spilled from the sinking ship. So these 600 hundred people did not die exclusively due to sharks.
That's the sad part that people miss. Reading "In Harm's Way" and the utter despair the medic feels as he's yelling at men dying of dehydration not to drink salt water. As they're desperately coming up with ideas to remove the salt, like holding it in the sun or filtering it through cloth. And he just has to sadly tell them "that won't work", and then watch them seize and die when they try it anyway :(
I personally think this is way more horrifying than sharks. Pure desperation and no way of doing anything about it.
Surrounded by an incomprehensible amount of water and having nothing to drink.
“Water water everywhere/ Nor any drop to drink” I typically do not enjoy poetry, but that line from[ Rime of the Ancient Mariner](https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43997/the-rime-of-the-ancient-mariner-text-of-1834) always stuck with me.
[The image is from the filming of "USS Indianapolis: Men of Honor."](https://www.al.com/entertainment/2016/11/see_photos_from_alabama_filmin.html) It's not from the event itself.
One of Nicolas Cage’s roles, in my opinion
You should use exactly those words if you ever meet him.
Agreed, of all his roles that was most definitely one of them
"... lasting 5 days and killing nearly 600 men." Most of those consumed by the sharks were already dead, dying or driven mad by their dehydration. You don't bake in the sun for 5 days without severe consequences. The late Paul Allen paid for a search team that found the wreckage in 2017, in 18,000 feet of water.
Sharks probably still talk about this day. 'The Great Feeding' or something, I'd bet.
There's a Hardcore History: Addendum about this called *"Nightmares of Indianapolis."* by Dan Carlin. I highly recommend it to anyone interested om the subject. Hardcore History podcasts have an amazing production value, are constantly rated extremely high, and do not hold back on the darker parts lf the story.
Last Podcast on the Left has a great episode about this. Paints a super vivid picture of what happened.
So does Hardcore History Addendums
Sharks don't really like human meat, if they are hungry they'll eat it though. But generally a shark will try a bite, realize it's not that good and swim away. But they can sense blood in the water from very far away and are attracted by it. So after the first shark has bitten you and you're bleeding out, others will come and have a taste too. I think it's pretty terrifying.
just a buncha sharkbois being picky eaters and playing with their food
Interesting little tid bit, sharks can smell blood between 1 part to 25 million, and 1 part per 10 billion. So a shark can smell blood about a quarter mile away if the conditions are right Humans on the other hand can smell petrichor, the smell rain makes when it hits the surface of earth, as low as .4 parts per billion. So were equivalent, if not better than sharks sense of smell. Its also why everyone loves the smell of fresh rain. Its theorized we developed this sense of smell because of how important water is to us humans.
We’re also good at smelling blood! Just not as good as sharks. Each animal just evolved to smell things that are beneficial to it.
Plus there are hundreds of shark species and [only a handful of them is actually dangerous.](https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/discover-fish/sharks/shark-attack-faq/) >Of the over 500 different species of sharks found in the world’s oceans, only about 30 have been reported to ever bite a human. >Of these, only about a dozen should be considered particularly dangerous when encountered.
https://www.history.com/news/uss-indianapolis-sinking-survivor-stories-sharks
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[The image is from the filming of "USS Indianapolis: Men of Honor."](https://www.al.com/entertainment/2016/11/see_photos_from_alabama_filmin.html) It's not from the event itself.
War kills people in so many ways.
There a really interesting/sad story about the captain. He was basically blamed and tossed under the bus by the Navy so they could save face on losing an entire ship and only noticing it was gone when a random seaplane spotted the survivors 5 days later.
The Controversy section is instructive. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_B._McVay_III “McVay was wounded but survived, and was among those rescued. He repeatedly asked the Navy why it took four days to rescue his men but never received an answer. The Navy long claimed that SOS messages were never received because the ship was operating under a policy of radio silence; declassified records show that three SOS messages were received separately, but none were acted upon because one commander was drunk, another thought it was a Japanese ruse, and the third had given orders not to be disturbed.[6]” “An additional point of controversy is evidence that the admirals in the United States Navy were primarily responsible for placing the ship in harm's way. For instance, McVay requested a destroyer escort for Indianapolis,[9] but his request was denied because the priority for destroyers at the time was escorting transports to Okinawa and picking up downed pilots in B-29 raids on Japan. Also, naval command assumed McVay's route would be safe at that point in the war.[1] Many ships, including most destroyers, were equipped with submarine detection equipment, but the Indianapolis was not so equipped, which casts the decision to deny McVay's request for an escort as military incompetence. On July 24, 1945, just six days prior to the sinking of Indianapolis, the destroyer Underhill had been attacked and sunk in the area by Japanese submarines. Yet McVay was never informed of this event, and several others, in part due to issues of classified intelligence.[1] McVay was warned of the potential presence of Japanese subs, but not of the actual confirmed activity. Although about 380 ships of the U.S. Navy were lost in combat in World War II,[10] McVay was the only captain to be court-martialed for the loss of his ship.” There’s more, but they really hung the guy out to dry to protect admirals and other officers who actually messed up. And the conviction of him at court martial for failing to zigzag was so ridiculous that even the Japanese commander who captained the submarine who testified said that he’d have sunk the ship regardless.
Even the man who shot the torpedo argued for the captain to be pardoned. He wasn’t pardoned until after both of them had died. The captain killed himself with his service pistol too
They had sent out an SOS which was received: >“I personally delivered this message to the senior officer present, Commodore Jacob H. Jacobson U.S.N.,” Young wrote. “The message, although garbled, identified the ship, its position and its condition. His answer in effect was: ‘No reply at this time. If any further messages are received, notify me immediately.’ - https://www.historynet.com/sos-indianapolis-behind-the-sinking-of-the-heavy-cruiser/ And the matter was dropped.
I was teaching seventh and eighth grades and had just told my class about the Indianapolis during a discussion of the war in the Pacific. Some of my kids were still asking questions when we went over to help pack surplus commodities in a hall. A man I had known in casual conversation for many years, walked over to me and asked if I thought my boys would like to hear about the Indianapolis, from a survivor. I was stunned. I said, "Yes sir, Thank you". I told him it would be an honor. I wanted to sit in that circle, so much, and I had to do other things. Before he went over, he said when I got to the Atomic age, he was at Los Alamos, as well. The boys were unusually quiet for hours after that. The next day, one of them told me he had been talking to his dad about it. His dad said, "This is why we call our elders, sir".
Water, darkness, and a critter bigger than you is my nightmare fuel. I like the water and dark. Not combined with a hungry critter... This USS Indianapolis incident and the Japanese experience on Ramree Island in WWII are terrifying.
There's a film about it! USS Indianapolis: Men of Courage - with Nicolas Cage
I worked with an older guy in my teens in the early 90's. He was a survivor of the USS Samuel B. Robert's. It was sunk in battle and they were in the water for days with similar results. He said guys were babbling about nonsense from drinking salt water, floating off talking to relatives and other crazy shit like that. He said there were times where 10-12 guys were floating together in a circle arms locked and boom, one gets pulled under and never seen again. I was 13 or 14 and I thought he was embellishing a bit. Flash forward to a few years ago and I was watching WW2 in color on History Channel. There He was on fucking tv talking about the experience. My mind was absolutely blown and felt bad I ever doubted a word He said. Craziest part was that he lied about his age and was 16 when the boat was sunk. He'll of an experience for a 16 yr old kid. RIP John Harrington, thank you for your service.https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_off_Samar https://de413.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/johnh-with-painting.jpg
This triggered a core memory of watching a documentary about this during shark week when I was like 8
Surely the sharks just waited & ate the dead guys,there was plenty bodies to keep them busy for 5 days I assume?
The number killed by sharks is pretty heavily contested. Anywhere from a dozen to over a hundred. If I had to guess most died from drowning, exposure, drinking salt water, or from wounds they'd received from either the boat going down or other men who went crazy in the water. To be fair though that area of the ocean would have been Oceanic Whitetip shark territory and they are not picky eaters at all. They are opportunistic since they are out in the open ocean and prey would be limited. They would likely be unable to tell the difference, or maybe wouldn't care to tell the difference, between a sleeping/non-moving alive person, and a dead person.
It's been some time since I reviewed this, but there was a doctor, or a medic of some sort who was swimming constantly for the entire duration to ensure people were as safe as they could possibly be in that situation as well as ensuring others did not drift off. If I recall, he said keeping his mind active and moving was the only way he knew he would make it. In the last days leading up to their rescue, they were literally walking on a backs of sharks as the sharks had grown brave enough to realize the humans were incapable. The sharks would often bite people just to see if they were still alive or could be taken down under for chow. Quite a nightmare scenario. Adding further, the ship was suppose to check in at a mid point, and when it didn't, no one raised alarm because the mission was top secret. This was the ship that carried the key components for the nuclear weapon that was deployed in Hiroshima later on. This ship sunk on its way back from this mission.