of the 1200 men on board, 400 of them died in the initial attack, that left 800 men in the water. with only about a dozen small rafts between them. very dire circumstances. drinking water, exhaustion, exposure, shark attacks, the men who survived floated out there for five days with nothing. and no one came to rescue them because when the cl a 35 went ounce, nobody had any idea it had sunk. there were no communications from the ship. they'd been on a secret mission where nobody knew where they were, it was only almost five days later when a bomber pilot happened to see a oil slick in the water, he buzzed lower, he called in a rescue. by the time the rescue name only 316 men were left alive. it was the navy's worst disaster