# USS Indianapolis **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 5, 2003, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uss-indianapolis/199644 "2003-09-05T02:42:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![silentbear1283](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e0b2c6/32.png) [@silentbear1283](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silentbear1283)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2003, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uss-indianapolis/199644/1 "2003-09-05T02:42:41Z")
My college room mates and I were recently discussing Jaws and one of them brought up the idea that great whites were responsible for most of the deaths. However myself and others say that tiger sharks were responsible. Any help on this would be appreciated. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Eaton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/73ab20/32.png) [@Tom\_Eaton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Eaton)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2003, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uss-indianapolis/199644/2 "2003-09-05T04:37:37Z")
Most of which deaths? There were a significant number of sailors who never made it out of the ship, and simply drowned. There’s no way to know how many that was. Even among those who got out, a fair number died of exposure, dehydration, and drowning even outside of the danger of sharks. Some were killed by sharks. But considering how many survived for several days (more than several, actually; I think it was five days or more, but I can’t remember), the sharks were probably only the most frightening problem, not necessarily the deadliest. Yeah, but what kind of sharks, you’re asking? Well, I doubt it was great whites, because the survivors tell tales about kicking and hitting the sharks to try to make them go away. I don’t think that would work very well with a great white. But since there were no marine biologists on hand to record these details, I guess we’ll never know. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_T](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Gary\_T](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_T)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2003, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uss-indianapolis/199644/3 "2003-09-05T04:38:37Z")
This site - [http://www.elasmo-research.org/education/shark\_profiles/carcharhinidae.htm](http://www.elasmo-research.org/education/shark_profiles/carcharhinidae.htm) - which seems knowledgeable about sharks, if not necessarily about the Indianapolis, suggests yet a different species of shark: “The Oceanic Whitetip Shark (Carcharhinus longimanus) has been called “The most numerous large animal on earth”. Like many offshore sharks, this species is dangerously persistent, often charging repeatedly at divers or humans adrift in the open ocean. The Oceanic Whitetip is probably the species responsible for many of the shark casualties that occurred in the wake of the July 1945 torpedoing of the U.S.S. Indianapolis, immortalized by Quint’s (played by Robert Shaw) wonderfully spooky monologue in the movie JAWS.” These sites mention tiger sharks as the main or only specified culprits: [http://www.stjohns.edzone.net/hs/Interviews/Ramsay.htm](http://www.stjohns.edzone.net/hs/Interviews/Ramsay.htm) [http://www.augustachronicle.com/stories/102899/met\_124-1344.shtml](http://www.augustachronicle.com/stories/102899/met_124-1344.shtml) Googling on “USS Indianapolis” & “\_\_\_\_ sharks” yielded the most hits for tiger sharks, a few for bull sharks, and a very few for great whites. While “Jaws” had a great white shark and also had a story about the Indianapolis (in which only tiger sharks were mentioned), so far it doesn’t seem that anyone besides your roommate contends that great whites were involved with the Indianapolis. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2003, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uss-indianapolis/199644/4 "2003-09-05T05:16:57Z")
I can’t give a definitive reply, but the information I’ve found, so far, _seems_ to indicate that the Great White is usually found hanging around the continental shelf in temperate waters. This would seem to argue against the Great White being a major player far out in the Philipine Sea. On the other hand, a few Great Whites have been seen near the Philipine Islands, so they cannot be ruled out. [http://www.ncf.carleton.ca/~bz050/wsdistro.html](http://www.ncf.carleton.ca/~bz050/wsdistro.html) Tiger sharks are known to be tropical and to spend a lot of time in the open ocean. (This does not mean that the _Indianapolis_ definitely encountered tigers, but, if limited to only two species, the tiger woud seem to have the probable edge.) [http://pup.princeton.edu/birds/reference/sharks/r\_text.html](http://pup.princeton.edu/birds/reference/sharks/r_text.html) In preview, I see that **Gary T** has already found references that argue against _both_ species. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2003, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uss-indianapolis/199644/5 "2003-09-05T05:49:46Z")
Great Whites are solitary hunters, aren’t they? And fairly rare? Doesn’t sound like it would be Great Whites. ---
**Author:** ![Boo\_Boo\_Foo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@Boo\_Boo\_Foo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boo_Boo_Foo)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2003, 11:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uss-indianapolis/199644/6 "2003-09-05T11:29:06Z")
One thing’s for sure… an absolutely terrible way to go. Totally horrible. ---
**Author:** ![smam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/46a35a/32.png) [@smam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smam)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2003, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uss-indianapolis/199644/7 "2003-09-05T12:30:27Z")
A few other contenders are the Silky shark, Grey Reef and the Indian Lemon. ---
**Author:** ![Judith\_Prietht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b19c9b/32.png) [@Judith\_Prietht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Judith_Prietht)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2003, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uss-indianapolis/199644/8 "2003-09-05T13:49:39Z")
Based on “Anatomy of a Shark Bite,” the first program in Discovery’s pretty lackluster Shark Week 2003, the culprits were tiger sharks IIRC. This was based on the reconstruction of shark jaws out of steel (I think) and experimenting with bite pressure. The wounds the tiger shark jaws inflicted on prosthetic limbs and a side of lamb seemed, according to the scientist involved, to most resemble the testimony of survivors of the _Indianapolis_. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2003, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uss-indianapolis/199644/9 "2003-09-05T13:57:20Z")
Any reason it couldn’t have been a combination of different sharks? That is, will sharks tolerate different types in an area where feeding is plentiful or will the type dominating the area run off any other interlopers? ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_T](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Gary\_T](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_T)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2003, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uss-indianapolis/199644/10 "2003-09-05T15:28:22Z")
This site - [http://fishbull.noaa.gov/983/13.pdf](http://fishbull.noaa.gov/983/13.pdf) - describes great whites and tigers feeding together. From what I’ve seen, the only type of shark specifically mentioned in reports of the Indianapolis incident was the tiger. I don’t doubt that some other species may also have been involved, but I haven’t seen any contention other than the OP’s roommate’s that great whites were there. There’s no indication that great whites were responsible for any of the deaths by sharkbite, much less any support for the notion that they were responsible for the majority of them. ---
**Author:** ![Muldoon\_s\_Squishiness](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/13edae/32.png) [@Muldoon\_s\_Squishiness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muldoon_s_Squishiness)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2003, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uss-indianapolis/199644/11 "2003-09-06T01:19:14Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Whack-a-Mole \* > \*\*Any reason it couldn’t have been a combination of different sharks? That is, will sharks tolerate different types in an area where feeding is plentiful or will the type dominating the area run off any other interlopers? \*\* I’ve seen numerous Tv shows where there are several different species of sharks swimming together and not having at each other. As far as I know there is no proof that sharks have a defined territory that they will defend. As for Great White’s being rare, that is certainly true these days, but that is because of all the Asshats back in the 1970’s who saw Jaws and then decided to try and exterminate the species. Doubtless they were more plentiful back in the 1940’s. ---
**Author:** ![Daylon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/45deac/32.png) [@Daylon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daylon)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2003, 10:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uss-indianapolis/199644/12 "2003-09-07T10:43:22Z")
1. You’re in the ocean all alone, adrift. 2. it’s got teeth and it wants to eat you. 3. do you really care what the species it? “My look at those distinctive pectoral marki\…\…” Prolly not great whites…most likely tigers, makos…they are known to school…probably not hammerheads. Silkys i’d vote against…they can get big…but only 7-8 foot…not enough to cut you in half like the testimonials of the survivors said… I’d say tiger… D. ---
**Author:** ![Daylon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/45deac/32.png) [@Daylon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daylon)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2003, 10:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uss-indianapolis/199644/13 "2003-09-07T10:46:51Z")
P.s… only known great white schooling was filmed during a Shark Week show called Air Jaws…a bunch of them (10-15) went all frenzy on a whale carcass…as far as I know, that’s the only known footage of that many huge carnivores in one place. The videographer had a theory that whale carcasses were the focal point for mating for them… just a thought… If you’ve never seen the show, hella impressive… 18 foot great whites COMPLETELY out of the water hitting seals… amazing. D.