Every year my family and I watch Shark Week on Discovery Channel. It's like a rite of summer. This year they start the week with Ocean of Fear: The worst shark attack ever. This is about the sinking of the USS Indianapolis and the infamous shark attacks on the survivors.

"Matt Hooper in Jaws, watch the gripping story of the USS Indianapolis, sunk by Japanese torpedoes in the Philippine Sea on the night of July 30, 1945. Of the 1,196-man crew, about 900 sailors, many maimed and burned, were plunged into the water ... and floated helplessly for four days, beset by hunger, driven mad by thirst and menaced by hundreds of sharks. Assisted by George Burgess, America's foremost investigator of shark attacks, Ocean of Fear examines why the sharks attacked the way they did, and investigates the survival strategies of the men in the water, including those who fought the sharks. Survivors recall their ordeal on camera and remarkable reconstructions, filmed with real sharks, reveal the drama from both the sharks' and humans' perspectives."

It airs July 29 from 9-11pm EST/PST.

Sounds like it will be worth a watch.

Thanks for the heads up Rodger.

Here is something related. Most of us are drawn to the Great White due to the movie. I remember swimming off the coast of Pisa that summer (74) and feeling an initial trepidation, then reassuring myself that Great Whites didn't habit the Mediterranean Sea. Well I was not only wrong, but "way" wrong. They do, and they like to hang around Italy, though thankfully the vast majority are around Algeria and in the Adriatic (east coast of Italy). For some reason, shark attacks are rare in the Sea. The last fatality was in 93 and it was by a GW 18 or so footer. But, they do seem to hate surfboards, and as pointed out in the article, seals don't habit the sea so that is not their normal prey.

So if you take a Mediterranean cruise, swim close to the shore and for pity sake stay away from surfboards and windsurfer rigs.

Blaster,

Good advice. I for one don't swim when there is a fish that can bite me. Swimming pool guy all the way here.

Frank as long as you know the rules it ain't that bad. Dusk and dawn are the absolute worst times because the little fish run near the shore so the big fish follow them. If you hit the beach, never go in before 10am and get out by 4PM. I have been up ad down the Atlantic, middle of California Pacific, in the San Francisco Bay and all over the Gulf of Mexico. O course I prefer pools to lakes and sea atr, when it gets in your mouth, it doesn't taste as bad.

Personally, as a good ex California kid, I prefer ocean water taste to pool water taste.

All the times I went swimming, and boogy boarding, in So Cal as a kid I never once thought about sharks. I probably broke every rule there was. I know the summer of 74, when Jaws was out, that all seemed to change.

The Sinking of USS Indianapolis
The USS Indianapolis (CA-35) was commissioned at the Philadelphia Navy Yard on 15 November 1932. The ship served with honor from Pearl Harbor through the last campaign of World War II, sinking in action two weeks before the end of the war. On 30 July 1945, while sailing from Guam to Leyte, Indianapolis was torpedoed by Japanese submarine I-58. The ship capsized and sank in twelve minutes. Survivors were spotted by a patrol aircraft on 2 August. All air and surface units capable of rescue operations were dispatched to the scene at once, and the surrounding waters were thoroughly searched for survivors. Upon completion of the day and night search on 8 August, 316 men were rescued out of the crew of 1,199.

All I can say is WOW!

I highly recommend reading any of the several books on the subject. I have In Harm's Way, which just about brought me to tears with the description on what those men went through.

The big problem was that the Indianapolis had brought the Atomic bombs to Tinian and that was so super secret that no one really knew what was up with her. They didn't know when she was due back to Ulithi, so it was several days after she went down before anyone even thought about where the hell was she.

Another book about this is "Fatal Voyage" by Dan Kurzman published in 1990. I know the family was still fighting to get CPT McVeigh exonerrated and get the crew awarded a Presidential Unit Citation bac then, I woder if that has had any change?

Hey All,

Watched this last night and I was surprised to learn that many of the people that died didn’t die from the sharks. They died from exposure and dehydration. Then the sharks feasted on the dead bodies...kind of gruesome

I just finished "Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors." That pretty much echos wthe experiences they had waiting for rescue of the coast of Leyte. On thing of interest, the survivors of Taffy 3 stated that fuel oil makes a good sunblock and an even better shark repellant. They didn't have trouble with sharks until the fuel oil broke up.

Isn't that an outstanding book Kenny? In Harm's Way is basically the same story, except most of the book is the aftermath, as opposed to just a few chapters in LSOTTCS.

The show did mention using the fuel oil as sun block, but didn't mention it's use as shark repellent. One guy seemed to have stumbled on the most effective method, punch the shark right in the eyes.

One thing I was very surprised to learn was how the life rafts worked. The slats on the floor, which anybody who has done PE probably recognize, was attached by ropes to the outside floating portion. When in use the slats would hang down several feet and acted as a floor for the men to stand on. It didn't protect them at all from the sharks, just gave them a way to float.

Sharks have been known to attack and overturn small boats and rafts. Who knows, maybe they have attacked larger ships as well. But as a GW can't overturn a Destroyer let alone a battleship, we'll never know. A lot of the scientists believe that the attack behavior on boats is territorial in nature. They see the boats as rivals in food hunting. Of course we have all heard of the "feeding frenzy" where they just go bezerk and attack any and everything in front of them. This would have been quitet logically induced by all the floating and bleeding dead bodies around the surviving crew.

Hey guy's

The Great whites in the Med mainly are found between Tunisia - Malta - Sicily. You also find Bull sharks in the Med in fact a total of 200 different types of shark can be found in those waters.

And for those visiting the UK we have just had the news papers full of photos of a Great White in the waters off Cornwall.

Ciao
Luciano