You’re both right.
When John Milieus a history/military buff read a quote from a surviving crew member and dramatized it, gave the Indianapolis story international legs. Almost everyone on the planet soon knew the story via that scene.
But historians and military buffs had and would have known the story without seeing ‘Jaws’.
Thank you.
Poor choice of words there, Vaquero. :-(
I read the history of that Indianapolis incident back in the 1960s. A great book with many illustrations including those of the Japanese sub commander, and the photo of the US Navy destroying that sub.
One thing that I still remember, one sailor earlier had broken his foot and when he went into the water the cast pulled him down, and another lifeboat with dead sailors whose body fat had rendered into liquid lard in the tropical heat.
The Indianapolis went down so fast, the sub surfaced and saw nothing. They thought the ship had survived and sailed away.