 There is another similarity in the 1916 incident and the book where kids are attacked in a body of water other than the ocean - in the 1916 incident a child and an adult who attempted to save him were attacked and killed in Matawan Creek, a brackish/freshwater creek and in the film adaptation Mike Brody is nearly killed in the "pond" which in reality is a small inland cove that connects to the open ocean through a small tributary.Shortly before the book went to print, Benchley and Congdon needed to choose a title.Benchley had many working titles during development, many of which he calls "pretentious", such as "The Stillness in the Water" and "Leviathan Rising".