Being from the coast, both you and I remember this well.
I’ve lost track of all the incidents I’ve heard of.
My wife’s X was fishing buddies with Eddie Brandon, son of Chase Brandon, the older of the two. The son said that his dad was not one to invent stuff for attention, and was an honest truthful man. Neither man ever wavered from their story one iota in all these years afterward. The son said it “changed” his dad and that he never was the same again till his death.
I think that experience would have the same effect on most of us.