Worst Shark Attack in History: USS Indianapolis

On July 30, 1945, a Japanese submarine torpedoed the USS Indianapolis in the Philippine Sea — nine hundred men were thrown into shark-infested waters, and the U.S. Navy didn't even know they were missing for four days. 📖 The book behind this story: In Harm's Way by Doug Stanton — https://geni.us/r4oc5 🎨 Visual Storytelling: This documentary features digital historical reconstructions and composite imagery to bring the past to life. After secretly delivering components for the atomic bomb that would destroy Hiroshima, the heavy cruiser USS Indianapolis CA-35 was torpedoed by Japanese submarine I-58 under Commander Mochitsura Hashimoto. The ship sank in just twelve minutes. Of the roughly 900 men who survived the sinking, only 316 were rescued — the rest were killed by dehydration, saltwater poisoning, exposure, hallucinations, and relentless oceanic whitetip shark attacks. A cascade of Navy communication failures meant no one searched for them until a patrol plane spotted an oil slick by accident on day four. Captain Charles McVay III was later court-martialed for the disaster — the only captain in U.S. Navy history convicted for losing his ship to enemy action — and took his own life in 1968. He was officially exonerated in 2001. 📚 SOURCES & FURTHER READING In Harm's Way by Doug Stanton — https://geni.us/r4oc5 Indianapolis: The True Story of the Worst Sea Disaster in U.S. Naval History by Lynn Vincent & Sara Vladic - https://geni.us/5rl2S3n Out of the Depths by Edgar Harrell with David Harrell - https://geni.us/z1T1M Naval History and Heritage Command (NHHC) Oral History Collection — history.navy.mil CINCPAC Official Investigation Report — Loss of USS Indianapolis (1945) Court-Martial Transcripts — Captain Charles B. McVay III (December 1945, NARA) Japanese Submarine I-58 Operational Records & Hashimoto Interrogation (NARA) Congressional Record — Senate Armed Services Committee Hearings on McVay Exoneration (September 14, 1999) National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2001, Section 1084 — govinfo.gov USS Indianapolis Wreck Discovery Documentation — Paul Allen / Vulcan Inc. (August 2017) Library of Congress Veterans History Project — loc.gov/vets Smithsonian Magazine — USS Indianapolis historical coverage National Museum of the Pacific War — pacificwarmuseum.org National Park Service — USS Indianapolis war grave documentation Indiana War Memorials — USS Indianapolis Memorial (1995) Thumbnail: U.S. Navy photo 80-G-425615 (Public Domain) 🔔 SUBSCRIBE for new true survival stories ⚠️ DISCLAIMER: Some links in this description are affiliate links. If you purchase through them, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. This supports the channel. Thank you! #wwii #survival #history #documentary The sinking of the USS Indianapolis on July 30, 1945, remains the deadliest single-ship disaster in United States Naval history. This documentary covers the secret atomic bomb mission to Tinian, the torpedo attack by submarine I-58, the four-day survival ordeal in the Philippine Sea, Lieutenant Adrian Marks' unauthorized PBY Catalina landing to rescue survivors, and the controversial court-martial of Captain McVay that took fifty-six years to overturn.