the USS Indianapolis, d the Hiroshima bomb

Indianopolis amidships and such was their devastating power that the crew had time only to send a hasty Mayday signal before the huge vessel turned turtle and began to sink.

Nearly 400 went down with the ship while the rest were cast into the shark-infested waters of the Philippine Sea McVay was the last to leave the ship, calmly walking off the underbelly as it nosedived into the inky depths

Because of a series of mistakes and incompetent communications, the sinking went unnoticed by the US Navy and for four agonising days the 800 survivors were at the mercy of the storm-tossed waves, the blistering sun...and of course the sharks that turned up in huge shoals to feast upon the luckless seamen

Their plight was featured by Capt Quint, a fictional survivor, in the film Jaws. Quint, played by Robert Shaw gave a doom-laden, albeit true account of how the sailors formed large circles in the water in a bid to ward off the ferocious beasts.

But up to 150 men were reportedly taken by sharks The survivors were finally rescued when an alert US pilot on routine patrol spotted ‘bobbing heads” in the middle of the ocean

Only 316 who went into the water survived

The disaster was quickly covered up by the US military when it was realised that no-one had bothered to report the glaring fact that one of their most prestigious vessels had been missing for four days without anyone, apparently, noticing

The cover-up continued when announcement of the tragedy was made on the same day as President Truman told the American people that the war was over Capt McVay, although he did no wrong, was ultimately made the scapegoat and was court marshalled. And although he was later exonerated, he never got over the shame Hi biggest regret, as he told friends, was not going down with his ship.