Q: I-465 is also the USS Indianapolis Memorial Highway. Every time I see that sign, I wonder: Is the bit in Jaws true?
A: The heavy cruiser Indianapolis was sunk by Japanese torpedoes 80 years ago this month, going down in 12 minutes and plunging its crew into the Philippine Sea. It took rescuers four days to arrive. Quint’s monologue in Jaws— “Eleven-hundred men went into the water, 316 men come out. The sharks took the rest”—isn’t entirely true. Several hundred of the cruiser’s complement of 1,195 went down with the ship. Many of the rest died of injuries, hypothermia, or ingesting saltwater or fuel oil. But possibly as many as 150 were indeed eaten alive by the oceanic whitetip sharks that swarmed the site. So Jaws oversold the shark component, but the truth is still horrific. The USS Indianapolis represents both the U.S. Navy’s largest-ever single loss of life and the worst shark attack in history.
