Check this out for the rest of the story - a lot of amazing facts were left out of the speech: http://www.ussindianapolis.org/pfinnstory.htm

Wow, Sojourner, that is amazing. Thanks for the link!

I read a book a couple years ago about the USS Indianapolis, fascinating story. As haunting as Quint's retelling was, reading the events of the few who survived is mindblowing. That said, I LOVE this scene (and the movie as a whole). It's the kind of dia/monologue actors would kill to read and act.

I heard that Shaw convinced Spielberg to let him play the scene actually drunk. Of course, that worked out about as well as you'd expect, and they reshot the version in the movie the next day.