Karma? This takes some beating
It was comin' back, from the island of Tinian Delady, just delivered the bomb. The Hiroshima bomb. Eleven hundred men went into the water. Vessel went down in twelve minutes. Didn't see the first shark for about a half an hour. Tiger. Thirteen footer. You know, you know that when you're in the water, chief? You tell by lookin' from the dorsal to the tail. Well, we didn't know. `Cause our bomb mission had been so secret, no distress signal had been sent. Huh huh. They didn't even list us overdue for a week. Very first light, chief. The sharks come cruisin'. So we formed ourselves into tight groups. You know it's... kinda like `ol squares in battle like a, you see on a calendar, like the battle of Waterloo. And the idea was, the shark would go for nearest man and then he'd start poundin' and hollerin' and screamin' and sometimes the shark would go away. Sometimes he wouldn't go away. Sometimes that shark, he looks right into you. Right into your eyes. You know the thing about a shark, he's got...lifeless eyes, black eyes, like a doll's eye. When he comes at ya, doesn't seem to be livin'. Until he bites ya and those black eyes roll over white. And then, ah then you hear that terrible high pitch screamin' and the ocean turns red and spite of all the poundin' and the hollerin' they all come in and rip you to pieces.
Y'know by the end of that first dawn, lost a hundred men! I don't know how many sharks, maybe a thousand! I don't know how many men, they averaged six an hour. On Thursday mornin' chief, I bumped into a friend of mine, Herbie Robinson from Cleveland. Baseball player, boson's mate. I thought he was asleep, reached over to wake him up. Bobbed up and down in the water, just like a kinda top. Up ended. Well... he'd been bitten in half below the waist. Noon the fifth day, Mr. Hooper, a Lockheed Ventura saw us, he swung in low and he saw us. He'd a young pilot, a lot younger than Mr. Hooper, anyway he saw us and come in low. And three hours later a big fat PBY comes down and start to pick us up. You know that was the time I was most frightened? Waitin' for my turn. I'll never put on a lifejacket again. So, eleven hundred men went in the water, three hundred and sixteen men come out, the sharks ttook the rest, June the 29, 1945. Anyway, we delivered the bomb.
(frankspencer, Mon 25 Feb 2008, 11:50, 5 replies)

We're gonna need a bigger boat!
Robert Shaw wrote that speech himself. Great stuff.
(MrC. Having the most boring username on b3ta since 2004, Mon 25 Feb 2008, 12:04, closed)

"Eeee-Noooo-laaa Gay"
Had the destroyer (I need to be reminded of the name) been torpedoed on the way out, the bomb would have been lost forever, for it was welded to the superstructure of the ship until it arrived in Tinian.
(Bicycle Repairman "you're also a bit of a wanker", Mon 25 Feb 2008, 12:37, closed)

^^^USS Indianapolis

(MrC. Having the most boring username on b3ta since 2004, Mon 25 Feb 2008, 12:44, closed)

I thought I recognized this...
Great speech and great film.
( girlinthehole, Mon 25 Feb 2008, 13:21, closed)

And a true story.
Really made the film.
(Random Ferret, Tue 26 Feb 2008, 18:36, closed)