In one of the most harrowing episodes of World War II, a US Navy ship was destroyed within minutes, leaving its crew stranded in the Pacific Ocean, only to face even greater dangers from relentless sharks. Harlan Twible, a 23-year-old sailor aboard the USS Indianapolis, found himself thrust into a desperate struggle for survival after the ship was sunk by two Japanese torpedoes on 30 July 1945.
Destruction of the USS Indianapolis
Twible’s ship had just completed a secret mission to deliver vital components for the atomic bomb to scientists on Tinian when disaster struck. Cruising at 17 knots, the Indianapolis was struck by two torpedoes launched from the Japanese submarine I-58, tearing the vessel apart. The first hit the bow, and the second targeted the powder magazine, causing a catastrophic explosion that split the ship in two.
The explosion was swift and deadly. In just 12 minutes, the ship sank, claiming 300 lives. Twible, who had immediately taken command, ordered the crew to abandon ship. He recalls the chaos as survivors scrambled to the water. “I told them to hang on to anything they could. When the tilt became too great, I gave the order to abandon ship. Nobody abandoned, then I yelled, ‘Follow me!’” he said, recalling the bodies that piled in as men tried to escape.
Approximately 900 men managed to survive the ship’s sinking, but the nightmare had just begun. Stranded in the vast Pacific, the survivors were soon surrounded by the sea’s most fearsome predators—sharks.
Sharks and Survival
For several days, Twible and his fellow sailors battled not just exhaustion and despair but also the terrifying presence of sharks circling in the water. “Everybody was scared to death,” Twible recalls, describing the fear among the young sailors, many of whom were just 18 or 19 years old. As the survivors floated, some isolated individuals became easy targets for the sharks, which attacked repeatedly.
Twible, determined to save as many lives as possible, organized “shark watches” to ward off the predators. He even resorted to removing the bodies of the deceased from the floating wreckage and casting them into the sea, hoping to distract the sharks and buy time for the living.
As the days passed, the number of survivors dwindled. By the morning of 2 August, only 325 men remained. Yet, despite the overwhelming odds, hope was rekindled when a US Navy aircraft, on a routine patrol, finally spotted the remaining survivors. After a nightmarish ordeal lasting four days and five nights, the crew was rescued, though only 316 men made it through. It remains one of the most catastrophic losses in US Naval history.
Reflecting on the life-or-death decisions he had to make during the crisis, Twible shared: “What decision could I ever make that was anywhere near as important as the decision to tell those men to throw their lives into the water? That was one of the biggest decisions I ever made. I was gambling everybody’s life that we were going to win.”
