RYAN JOHNSON | TRUTH VS. JAWS FOR INDIANAPOLIS MONTHLY
September 02, 2025 Ryan Johnson
Indianapolis Monthly and #lcmartist Ryan Johnson are solving the mystery relating the USS Indianapolis Memorial Highway and the classic film, Jaws. “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.
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