'Worst shark attack ever' saw desperate crew feed dead to sharks as they circled in bloodbath

The 'worst shark attack ever' featured in the movie Jaws, and we're not talking about big Bruce chomping down on the residents of Amity Island.

One of the best scenes in the movie features Quint (Robert Shaw) telling Brody (Roy Schneider) and Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss) about surviving the sinking of the USS Indianapolis and surviving the shark attack that followed.

The tale Quint tells is very accurate to how the real sinking happened, as the US warship had been on a secret mission to deliver parts for the Little Boy atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima at the end of the Second World War.

On the return journey, it was hit by a Japanese submarine and sunk in a matter of minutes, with around 300 crewmen going down with the ship and around 900 more going into the water.

Of those who went into the water, only 316 survived, the others died from a mixture of exposure to the elements, a lack of food and water and being attacked by a swarm of sharks that set upon the survivors.

The USS Indianapolis was sunk during the Second World War, it was days before the survivors were rescued (PhotoQuest/Getty Images)

A group of oceanic whitetip sharks, known for being particularly aggressive towards humans, attacked the sailors and the death toll attributed to their attacks ranges from dozens to about 150 men.

The sailors formed themselves into large groups to more effectively fend off shark attacks, and according to Smithsonian, despite the reputation of the shark attack, more men died from other factors than the predators.

USS Indianapolis survivor Harlan Twible said the men in the water organised 'shark watches' to keep a lookout for the predators and keep them away from the groups.

He also said that they ended up cutting dead men off floating wreckage and pushed them out to sea so those who were still alive weren't constantly reminded of how they might end up, as well as to deter the sharks from the surviving crew members.

While the perception may be of men floating in the water for days under constant assault by the sharks. some of the survivors never even saw an oceanic whitetip during their time in the water, however, others were not so fortunate.

As many as 150 men were lost to the oceanic whitetip sharks (Getty Stock Photo)

Sunk 15 minutes after midnight on 30 July, 1945, it would be days before the men in the water were rescued.

US naval intelligence intercepted a message from the Japanese submarine that sunk the Indianapolis saying that it had sunk an American ship along the route, but officials ignored the intelligence they'd gained as they wrongly judged that the message was a trap to lure other ships into the area where they could be ambushed.

They were eventually spotted at around 11am on 2 August, their fourth day in the water, by a plane flying overhead which radioed for help with a seaplane and the USS Cecil Doyle arriving in the area to pick up survivors.

The wreckage of the Indianapolis was discovered at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean in 2017, and has been left undisturbed as it is a war grave for the hundreds of crew men who went down with the ship.