harrowing event involving a shark attack and a naval ship:

Among the shark species, the oceanic whitetip was particularly aggressive. Reports from the survivors indicate that these sharks tended to attack live victims close to the surface. The oceanic whitetips could sense the sailors’ motions through their lateral lines—receptors along their bodies that pick up changes in pressure and movement from hundreds of yards away.

As the days went by, the sharks turned their attention toward the living, especially the injured and the bleeding. Sailors tried to quarantine themselves away from anyone with an open wound. When someone died, they would push the body away, hoping to sacrifice the corpse in return for a reprieve from a shark’s jaw.