Quint's Indianapolis Speech from Jaws
Robert Shaw portrays Quint in
Jaws, a shark hunter who is a
survivor of the USS Indianapolis, a ship
that was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine
during WWII and sank in just 12 minutes.
Of the 1,196 crewmen aboard the
Indianapolis, roughly 300 went down with
the ship and the remaining 900 struggled
to survive in shark-infested waters. In
addition to shark attacks, the crew
battled dehydration, saltwater poisoning,
and exposure. Some also eventually died
from injuries they had sustained when the
ship was hit. The USS Indianapolis had
been on a top-secret mission, having just
delivered parts for the first atomic bomb
to Tinian Island. As a result, it was
never missed and the survivors were
spotted by accident four days later by a
plane on a routine patrol. 317 men
survived, making it the single greatest
naval catastrophe in the history of the
U.S. Navy.
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