Prior to this scene, publicly there wasn't very much known about the USS Indianapolis. Robert Shaw's delivery was near perfect.

Of course, I always thought the shark rammed the boat because of the singing!

Great choice!

Tom

Richard Kelly wrote an Indianapolis script a couple of years back, surprised it isn't in production.

I was reading in Blockbuster (book) that I think Bob Zemeckis was checking Spielberg out so he went to see Jaws and during Quint's death scene he stood up and applauded while everyone else in theatre was freaking out. He more or less said "Steven, you son of a bitch..." ha

Interesting to note that on IMDB, they have this as part of the writing credits for Jaws:

Howard Sackler (Indianapolis monologue) uncredited and
John Milius (Indianapolis monologue) uncredited and
Robert Shaw (Indianapolis monologue) uncredited.

Shaw perhaps for improvising, Milius perhaps for polishing the script, Sackler not sure -- however he did get credit for writing Jaws 2.