The Backstory: The Deadliest Shark Attack in History

As we head out for our summer vacations, some of us are lucky enough to be headed to the ocean. Blue skies, sunshine, blue water to the horizon. But there's always that nagging fear, as Jaws taught us, that underneath those frothing white waves, sharks may be lurking. This is the story of the deadliest shark attack in history.

Feel free to DM me if you have a story you'd like me to cover . . On Facebook it's Patty Steele and on Instagram Real Patty Steele.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ah, the summer season is now fully underway. That means vacations,
sunshine and if you're nearby or lucky, trips to the beach.
But wait a minute, what about what's lurking in that
deep blue water. Yeah, we've all seen Jaws and a
bunch of other movies and shows, not to mention news
stories about shark attacks. While very rare, they are completely terrifying.

(00:25):
I'm Patty Steele. The deadliest shark attack in history happened
back in nineteen forty five, and that's where we're going
next on the backstory. The backstory is back, Okay, I
get it. Who doesn't love a trip to the beach,
sunny skies and endless horizon and those frothy white waves

(00:47):
to jump through. But let's be honest, sometimes there's a
little trepidation about what's out there under those breaking waves
that we can't see. Most of us have seen. We've
heard about the shark attacks along the New Jersey shore
that inspired the movie, and we've seen the news reports
about shark attacks around the world, but those usually just

(01:10):
involve one person or at worst several people. But the
deadliest shark attack in history happened as world War II
was coming to a close in the Pacific. Okay, it's
the summer of nineteen forty five. American forces are pushing
toward Japan, and one US Navy cruiser has just finished

(01:30):
one of the most important secret missions of the entire war.
It's the USS Indianapolis, and it has just delivered main
components for the atomic bomb that was about to be
dropped on Hiroshima. The crew actually has no idea that
they had just helped change history. But what they also

(01:51):
don't know is that within days they'll become part of
another horrifying chapter of history. On July thirtieth, nineteen forty five,
just after midnight, the Indianapolis is sailing through the Philippine Sea.
A Japanese submarine spots the cruiser and attacks. Two powerful
torpedoes hit the ship with devastating force. Explosions rouped through

(02:15):
the hull, and the Indianapolis begins sinking almost immediately. Within
just twelve minutes, the massive warship disappears beneath the waves.
Almost three hundred sailors went down with the ship, but
about nine hundred others survived the sinking and are in
the water for them. The Nightmare is only beginning now.

(02:37):
The Indianapolis is a major US vessel, so the men
expect rescue ships will be on the way really quickly.
Problem is, a series of communication failures means no rescue
mission is launched. There's no response to distress signals, so
the sailors find themselves stranded in the middle of the
Pacific Ocean with almost no food, very little fresh fresh water,

(03:00):
and just a handful of life rafts. Then dawn arrives.
The survivors see endless ocean in every direction, but they
also see something else. Sharks, at first just a few,
then more, then even more. Historians say they were mainly
oceanic white tip sharks and tiger sharks. Both are powerful predators,

(03:25):
and the explosions, debris and bodies in the water were
attracting them from miles away. It was utter terror. Now.
To be fair, sharks were not the only killer in
this story. Pop culture makes it look like it was
just an enormous feeding frenzy, but a lot of the
men were dying in the water from injuries suffered during

(03:46):
the sinking. Others were lost to dehydration, exhaustion, exposure, drowning,
or from drinking sea water. Sharks certainly are attacking many survivors,
but they also are going after newly dead bodies. So
it's a bit of a mystery as to how many
were actually killed by these giant predators. It suspected as

(04:07):
many as one hundred and fifty sailors were killed by sharks.
Whatever the number, it isn't any less terrifying. I mean,
think about it. Imagine floating for days in open water.
The tropical sun burns your skin during the day. At night,
temperatures drop and the water is freezing. Your lips crack
from thirst, salt water stings your eyes. One by one,

(04:31):
your friends begin to lose hope. Some sailors even start hallucinating,
claiming to see islands or rescue ships on the horizon.
Some simply start swimming away and never come back, but
all the while, the sharks continue to circle. Survivors later
remember hearing screams in the darkness or watching a ship

(04:52):
may suddenly disappear beneath the water. The psychological strain was unbearable.
Every ripple in the world water was a threat, Every
splash meant danger. This ordeal went on for four days
and five nights. No one came then On August second, late,
a Navy pilot is flying a routine patrol mission. He

(05:14):
spots an oil slick. He looks closer, he realized the
water below is covered with men, hundreds of them. The
rescue effort begins as soon as possible. Another pilot, against regulations,
lands his seaplane on the rough ocean. He packs as
many survivors as he can into his aircraft and even

(05:35):
ties men to the wings while waiting for rescue ships
to arrive. By the time the rescue operation ends, only
three hundred and sixteen of the ship's eleven hundred and
ninety five crew members are alive. A total of eight
hundred seventy nine sailors had lost their lives, one of
the worst disasters in US naval history. But it didn't

(05:56):
end there. Once the war was over, the ship's captain,
Charles McVeigh, was court martial. A lot of survivors felt
he was unfairly blamed, and decades later, after years of
campaigning by crew members and historians, the Navy officially cleared
his name. These days, if anybody remembers the USS Indianapolis,

(06:17):
they remember the sharks, but historians say we're missing the
deeper story about courage and endurance under unimaginable conditions. Teenagers
and young men stranded in one of the most hostile
environments on Earth, trying to stay alive for almost a week.
It's not a summer blockbuster. The sharks were real. The

(06:38):
fear was real, the sinking, the isolation, the thirst, the hallucinations,
the uncertainty about whether rescue might never arrive. More than
eighty years later, it's not only seen as the deadliest
shark attack in history, but as one of the most
extraordinary survival stories ever. And somewhere in the vast Pacific

(07:00):
Ocean where those sailors drifted under a burning sun, the
ocean continues to hide what's underneath. I hope you're enjoying
The Backstory with Patty Steele. Please leave a review and
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Also feel free to DM me if you have a
story you'd like me to cover. On Facebook, It's Patty

(07:22):
Steele and on Instagram Real Patty Steele. I'm Patty Steele.
The Backstory is a production of iHeartMedia, Premiere Networks, the
Elvis Duran Group, and Steel Trap Productions. Our producer is
Mike Pieseglia. Our writer is Jake Kushner. New episodes are

(07:46):
out every Tuesday and Friday, and feel free to reach
out to me with comments and story suggestions on Instagram
at Reel Patty Steele and on Facebook at Patty Steele.
Thanks for listening to the backstory with Patty Steele. This
is of history you didn't know you needed to know.