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Ultimately, Harrell was among the only 317 of the 1,196 men on board to survive, making the incident the single largest loss of life from a single ship in the U.S. Navy’s history.<ref>[https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/2018/08/10/uss-indianapolis-edgar-harrell-tennessee-survivor/923478002/ Tennessee Marine earns his sergeant stripes 73 years after the sinking of USS Indianapolis]</ref>}}
Ultimately, Harrell was among the only 317 of the 1,196 men on board to survive, making the incident the single largest loss of life from a single ship in the U.S. Navy’s history.<ref>[https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/2018/08/10/uss-indianapolis-edgar-harrell-tennessee-survivor/923478002/ Tennessee Marine earns his sergeant stripes 73 years after the sinking of USS Indianapolis]</ref>}}
CBN News wrote about Edgar Harrell:
{{Cquote|Around 900 of the nearly 1,200-man crew who survived the initial attack found themselves oil-soaked, many with injuries, and clinging to kapok life jackets in the shark-infested waters.
"I thought of mom and dad back home; I thought of six younger brothers, an older sister and a younger sister, and I thought of this certain brunette that said that she would wait for me," Harrell recalled. "And I told the Lord, 'I don't want to die; I want to live!'"
Harrell, who was 20 at the time, said he began to think of scriptures.
"'I'll never leave you nor forsake you,'" Harrell quoted from the Bible. "Seemingly that came to mind, no audible voice, but I knew that the Lord was speaking to me. 'Lord, You're speaking to my heart. I'm going to make it.' Well, I didn't know I'm [sic] going to be out there four and a half days."
Four and a half days of unbelievable horror. No food; no water; and yet surrounded by water in all directions, along with sharks.
He said shipmates, who not in their right mind either because they were injured or because they drank salt water, began to hallucinate.
"He leaves the group," Harrell said, referencing a shipmate. "And he gets out 50 to 75 yards, and you hear a blood curdling scream, and you see that kapok go under. And then like a fish cork, then that kapok brings that body back up. But by now all the blood and more, more sharks, more fins, and they are kind of fighting over what was there."
Despite witnessing scenes like that, Harrell refused to give up hope.
He believes God directed him and several of his buddies to a crate of rotten potatoes. The "hearts" of the potatoes were still edible.
He also believes God sent a small rain cloud one day to provide desperately needed water.
"So what do you do? 'Thank You, Lord! Thank You, Lord! Thank You!' And that little rain cloud comes over; you get a few drops, maybe a few tablespoons full of water," Harrell explained...
Finally, a plane flew over the area low to the water -- a miracle because the pilot, Lt. Wilbur Gwinn, wasn't looking for the survivors. He didn't even know they were missing -- no one did.
"Lt. Gwinn goes aft; he opens the Bombay door, and in just a flash, he looks down at the ocean below, and what he saw was an oil slick," Harrell said.
Flying even lower, Gwinn, who they called "Angel," saw debris, sharks, and sharks attacking survivors.<ref>[https://www1.cbn.com/cbnnews/us/2014/may/out-of-the-depths-a-wwii-vets-miracle-of-survival An Indianapolis Survivor Shares His Miraculous Story]</ref>}}
Andrew Ferebee wrote about Harrell:
Andrew Ferebee wrote about Harrell: