Basically, he wanted to use Robert Shaw’s infamous monologue about the USS Indianapolis as inspiration for what essentially would have been Saving Private Ryan with sharks.
With the benefit of hindsight, it’s very easy to see why Steven Spielberg thought this would make a great story for Jaws 2.
The USS Indianapolis, which was on a secret mission to deliver parts for the infamous Hiroshima bombing, did actually sink on July 30, 1945, and hundreds of men died.
Instead, it was Nicolas Cage who starred in 2016’s USS Indianapolis: Men of Courage, as directed by Mario Van Peebles.