It is believed that this connection began with a September 2001 New York Times article about fears over sharks, when the Times incorrectly stated that the 1916 shark attacks inspired the movie Jaws. Even though Jaws is not based on a true story, respected news outlets often cite the 1916 New Jersey shark attacks as being the main inspiration for the movie. No, at least not according to Jaws author Peter Benchley, though he was certainly aware of the 1916 attacks (they are mentioned in his novel). Was Jaws inspired by the 1916 New Jersey shark attacks? However, survivors like Marine guard Edgar Harrell described making nearly identical gruesome discoveries in the water ( The Ohio Valley Military Society). There was no one named Herbie Robinson on board the Indianapolis. The part of the speech where he talks about bumping into his friend "Herbie Robinson from Cleveland," whose bobbing body had been bitten in half below the waist, is fiction. As Quint (Robert Shaw) states in the movie Jaws, only 317 men survived, making it the worst disaster in the history of the U.S. With few lifeboats, the men were subjected to ongoing attacks by sharks (the frequency of the attacks and the number of men killed by sharks has been the subject of debate).Īfter fours days and five nights in the water, a bomber on an anti-submarine patrol spotted the oil slick and the survivors by accident. Of the 1,196 men aboard, approximately 300 men went under with the ship, and roughly 900 struggled to remain alive in shark-infested waters (dehydration, saltwater poisoning, exposure, and injuries sustained on the ship were also threats). Like Quint says, it sunk in just 12 minutes. Returning from a top-secret mission to deliver parts for the Hiroshima atomic bomb (dubbed Little Boy) to Tinian Island, the ship was struck in the side by two torpedoes from a Japanese submarine. More impressive than Shaw's delivery is the fact that the speech is nearly all true. Steven Spielberg has cited Robert Shaw's Indianapolis speech in Jaws as being the most powerful scene in the movie. "We couldn't find any swordfish," said Benchley, "but the ocean was littered with sharks, so we started catching them." - People Magazine I remember thinking at the time, Lord! What would happen if one of those monsters came into a resort community and wouldn't go away? I tucked the item into my wallet and, for the time being, forgot about it." Robert Shaw's character Quint was inspired by Frank Mundus, a shark hunter who became a shark conservationist later in life.Īuthor Peter Benchley's inspiration for Jaws can also be traced back to his youth, when he took part in family swordfishing expeditions off Nantucket. Benchley references the incident in the introduction to his book, ".in 1964, I read an item in a newspaper about a fisherman who harpooned a 4,500-pound great white shark off Long Island. The Jaws author had a lifelong fascination with sharks and said that he came up with the concept for the novel after reading about a great white shark that had been caught by fisherman Frank Mundus in 1964 (pictured below). It is based on Peter Benchley's novel of the same name.