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The Jersey Shore shark attacks of 1916 were a series of shark attacks along the coast of New Jersey between July 1 and July 12, 1916, in which four people were killed and one injured. Since 1916, scholars have inconclusively debated which shark species was responsible and whether one animal was involved. The attacks occurred during a deadly summer heat wave and polio epidemic in the northeastern United States that drove thousands of people to the seaside resorts of the Jersey Shore. Shark attacks on the Atlantic Coast of the United States outside of the semitropical states of Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas were rare, but scholars believe that the increased presence of humans in the water led to the attacks in 1916.

Local and national reaction to the attacks involved a wave of panic that led to shark hunts aimed at eradicating the population of "man-eating" sharks and protecting the economies of New Jersey's seaside communities. Many resort towns enclosed their public beaches with steel nets to protect swimmers. Scientific knowledge about sharks prior to 1916 was based on conjecture and speculation. The attacks forced ichthyologists to reassess widely held beliefs about the abilities of sharks and the nature of shark attacks. Medical doctors likewise learned vital information about the treatment of shark bites.

The Jersey Shore attacks immediately entered into American popular culture where sharks became common symbols in editorial cartoons representing danger. The attacks inspired Peter Benchley's novel Jaws (1974), an account of a great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias) that torments the fictional coastal community of Amity Island. Jaws was made into an influential film in 1975 by Steven Spielberg. Both works reference the Jersey Shore attacks of 1916.

Contents 1 Background 2 Attacks and victims 3 Reaction 4 Identifying the "Jersey man-eater" 5 Revising science 6 Influence on popular culture 7 Notes 8 Sources 9 Further reading 10 External links

[edit] Background

As researcher Richard G. Fernicola points out, the Jersey Shore shark attacks "did not take place in a vacuum."^[1] Between 1880 and 1920, the standard of living of working-class Americans in urban areas like Philadelphia and New York improved considerably. Housing, food, fuel, and clothing consumed most families' income, according to historian Kathy Peiss, and "the working-class family as a unit could afford only the cheapest of amusements."^[2] Single working-class men and women often turned to nickelodeon movie theaters, bars and saloons, dance halls, and excursions to the amusement parks and beaches at Coney Island and the Jersey Shore.^[3][4] In this time period, sea bathing became a popular recreational activity. Bathing areas were equipped with poles and an open area of hanging ropes. Bathers clung to the ropes, bobbing up and down—"fanny dunking"—or allowing the waves to break upon them.^[5]

In early 1916, President Woodrow Wilson discussed making Asbury Park, New Jersey, his summer residence while World War I raged in Europe and Americans questioned the nation's isolationism. The summer of 1916 in the northeastern United States proved deadly for residents of Philadelphia and New York who suffered through an intense heat wave and polio epidemic. Thousands traveled to New Jersey beaches daily by rail lines that connected large cities to resort towns like Long Branch, Asbury Park, Ocean Grove, and Atlantic City.^[6] People visited beaches in record numbers and sea bathers worried about sharks, according to Michael Capuzzo, even though "most Americans had never seen a shark, except for scattered photographs in newspapers and drawings [from fictional works such as Herman Melville's Moby-Dick (1851) or Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (1870)]."^[7]

Prior to 1916, American scholars doubted that sharks would attack a living person in temperate waters without provocation. One skeptical scientist wrote, "There is a great difference between being attacked by a shark and being bitten by one." He believed that sharks tangled in fishing nets or feeding on offal might accidentally bite a nearby human.^[8] In 1891, millionaire banker and adventurer Hermann Oelrichs offered a $500 reward in the New York Sun "for an authenticated case of a man having been attacked by a shark in [the] temperate waters" north of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina.^[9] He wanted proof that "in temperate waters even one man, woman, or child, while alive, was ever attacked by a shark."^[10] The reward went unclaimed and scientists remained convinced that America's East Coast was inhabited by harmless species of sharks. ^[11][12]

Academics were skeptical that a shark could produce fatal wounds on human victims. The State Fish Commissioner of Pennsylvania and former director of the Philadelphia Aquarium, James M. Meehan, argued that only harmless sharks inhabited near-shore waters. Ichthyologist Henry Weed Fowler and curator Henry Skinner of the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia asserted that a shark's jaws did not have the power to sever a human leg in a single bite.^[13] Frederic Augustus Lucas, director of the American Museum of Natural History, questioned whether a shark as large as 30 feet (9 meters) could snap a human bone. He told the Philadelphia Inquirer in early 1916 that "it is beyond the power even of the largest Carcharodon to sever the leg of an adult man." Lucas summed up his argument by pointing to Oelrichs's unclaimed reward and that the chances of being attacked by a shark were "infinitely less than that of being struck by lightning and that there is practically no danger of an attack from a shark about our coasts."^[14]

[edit] Attacks and victims

Between July 1 and July 12, 1916, five people were attacked along the coast of New Jersey by a shark. Only one of the victims survived. The first attack occurred on Saturday, July 1 at Beach Haven, a resort town established on Long Beach Island off the southern coast of New Jersey. Charles Epting Vansant, 25, of Philadelphia was on vacation at the Engleside Hotel with his father and two sisters. Prior to dinner, Vansant decided to take a quick swim in the Atlantic with a Chesapeake Bay Retriever that was playing on the beach. Shortly after entering the water Vansant began shouting. Bathers believed he was calling to the dog, but a shark was actually biting Vansant's legs. He was rescued by lifeguard Alexander Ott who claimed the shark followed him to shore as he pulled the bleeding Vansant from the water. Vansant's left thigh was stripped of its flesh; he died of progressive-hemorrhagic shock on the manager's desk of the Engleside Hotel at 6:45 p.m.^[15]

Despite the Vansant incident, beaches along the Jersey Shore remained open. Sightings of large sharks swarming off the coast of New Jersey were reported by sea captains entering the ports of Newark and New York City were dismissed. The second attack occurred 55 miles (88.5 kilometers) north of Beach Haven at a resort town called Spring Lake. The victim was Charles Bruder, 27, a Swiss bellhop at the Essex & Sussex Hotel. Bruder was killed on Thursday, July 6, 1916, while swimming 130 yards (118 meters) from shore. After hearing two screams, a woman on the beach notified the lifeguard that a canoe had capsized. She told the lifeguard that the canoe's hull was painted red and floating just at the surface of the water. A shark had bitten Bruder in the abdomen and severed his legs and his blood was turning the water red. Lifeguards Chris Anderson and George White rowed to Bruder in a lifeboat and pulled him from the water. He died en route to shore from irreversible circulatory shock. According to the New York Times, "women [were] panic-stricken [and fainted] as [Bruder's] mutilated body ... [was] brought ashore." Guests and workers at the Essex & Sussex and neighboring hotels later raised money to send to Bruder's mother in Switzerland.^[16][17]

The final attacks took place in Matawan Creek near the town of Matawan on Wednesday, July 12. Located 30 miles (48 kilometers) north of Spring Lake and 16 miles (26 kilometers) inland, Matawan resembled a Midwestern town rather than an Atlantic beach resort.^[18] Matawan's location made it an unlikely site for a shark attack and when Thomas Cottrell, an old sea captain and Matawan resident, spotted an 8-foot-long (2.5 meters) shark in the creek the town dismissed him.^[19] Around 2:00 p.m. local boys, including Lester Stillwell, 12, were playing in the creek at an area called the Wyckoff dock when they saw what appeared to be an "old black weather-beaten board or a weathered log." A dorsal fin appeared in the water and the boys realized it was a shark. Before Stillwell could climb from the creek, the shark attacked him, pulling him underwater.^[20]

The boys ran to town for help and several men, including local businessman Watson Stanley Fisher, 24, came to investigate. Fisher and others dived into the creek to find Stillwell's body, and he too was attacked by the shark in front of the gathered townspeople. Fisher was pulled from the creek without recovering Stillwell's body. His right thigh was severely injured and he bled to death at Monmouth Memorial Hospital in Long Branch at 5:30 p.m.^[21] Stillwell's body was recovered 150 feet (46 meters) upstream from the Wyckoff dock on July 14.^[22]

The fifth victim, Joseph Dunn, 12, of New York City was attacked a half mile from the Wyckoff dock nearly 30 minutes after the attacks on Stillwell and Fisher. The shark bit his left leg, but Dunn was rescued by Matawan residents warning other creek bathers and taken to Saint Peter's University Hospital in New Brunswick. He was released September 15, 1916, fully recovered.^[23]

[edit] Reaction

As national media descended upon Beach Haven, Spring Lake, and Matawan, the Jersey Shore attacks sparked a shark panic. According to Capuzzo, this panic was "unrivaled in American history," "sweeping along the coasts of New York and New Jersey and spreading by telephone and wireless, letter and postcard."^[24] At first, after the Beach Haven attack, scientists and the press reluctantly blamed the death of Charles Vansant on a shark.^[25] The New York Times reported that Vansant "was badly bitten in the surf ... by a fish, presumably a shark."^[26] Still, James Meehan asserted in the Philadelphia Public Ledger that the shark was preying on the dog, but attacked Vansant by mistake.^[27] He specifically deemphasized the threat sharks posed to humans:

Despite the death of Charles Vansant and the report that two sharks having been caught in that vicinity recently, I do not believe there is any reason why people should hesitate to go in swimming at the beaches for fear of man-eaters. The information in regard to the sharks is indefinite and I hardly believe that Vansant was attacked by a man-eater. Vansant was in the surf playing with a dog and it may be that a small shark had drifted in at high water, and was marooned by the tide. Being unable to move quickly and without food, he had come in to attack the dog and snapped at the man in passing.^[28]

The media's response to the second attack was more sensational. Major American newspapers such as the Boston Herald, Chicago Sun-Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, Washington Post, and San Francisco Chronicle placed the story on the front page. The New York Times headline read, "SHARK KILLS BATHER OFF JERSEY BEACH".^[17] A press conference was convened on July 8, 1916, at the American Museum of Natural History with scientists Frederic Lucas, John T. Nichols, and Robert Cushman Murphy as panelists. In an attempt to calm a growing panic, the three men stressed that a third attack was unlikely although they were admittedly surprised that sharks had attacked at all. Nevertheless, Nichols—the only ichthyologist in the trio—warned swimmers not to venture too far from shore and to take advantage of the netted bathing areas installed at public beaches after the first attack.^[29]

Shark sightings increased along the Mid-Atlantic Coast following the attacks. On July 8, armed motorboats patrolling the beach at Spring Creek chased an animal they thought to be a shark and Asbury Park's Asbury Avenue Beach was closed after lifeguard Benjamin Everingham claimed to have beaten off a 12-foot-long (4 meter) shark with an oar. Sharks were seen near Bayonne, New Jersey, Rocky Point, New York, Bridgeport, Connecticut, Jacksonville, Florida, and Mobile, Alabama, and a columnist from Field & Stream captured a sandbar shark (Carcharhinus plumbeus) in the surf at Beach Haven.^[30][31] Actress Gertrude Hoffman was swimming at the beach at Coney Island after the Matawan attacks when she claims to have encountered a shark. The New York Times noted that Hoffman "had the presence of mind to remember that she had read in the Times that a bather can scare away a shark by splashing, and she beat up the water furiously." Hoffman was certain she was going to be devoured by the "Jersey man-eater", but later admitted she was "not sure ... whether she had had her trouble for nothing or had barely escaped death."^[32][33]

Local governments made efforts to protect bathers and the economy from man-eating sharks.^[34] The Fourth Avenue Beach at Asbury Park was enclosed with a steel-wire-mesh fence and patrolled by armed motorboats and remained the only beach open following the Everingham incident. After the attacks on Stillwell, Fisher, and Dunn, residents of Matawan lined Matawan Creek with nets and detonated dynamite in an attempt to kill the shark. Matawan mayor Arris B. Henderson ordered the Matawan Journal to print wanted posters offering a $100 reward to anyone killing a shark in the creek. Despite the town's efforts, a shark was not captured or killed in the creek.^[35]

Resort communities along the Jersey Shore petitioned the federal government to aid local efforts to protect beaches and hunt sharks. The House of Representatives appropriated $5,000 for eradicating the New Jersey shark threat and President Wilson scheduled a meeting with his Cabinet to discuss the attacks. Treasury secretary William Gibbs McAdoo suggested that the Coast Guard be mobilized to patrol the Jersey Shore and protect bathers.^[36] Shark hunts ensued across the Jersey Shore, as the Atlanta Constitution reported on July 14, 1916, "Armed shark hunters in motor boats patrolled the New York and New Jersey coasts today while others lined the beaches in a concerted effort to exterminate the man-eaters ...."^[37] New Jersey governor James Fairman Fielder and several municipalities offered bounties to individuals hunting sharks.^[38]

[edit] Identifying the "Jersey man-eater"

No one knew which species of shark was responsible for the Jersey Shore attacks or whether multiple sharks were involved, but several fisherman claimed to have caught the "Jersey man-eater". Witnesses of the Beach Haven attack estimated that the shark was 9 feet (2.7 meters) long. A sea captain who saw the attack believed it was a Spanish shark (Carcharias taurus) driven from the Caribbean Sea decades earlier by bombings during the Spanish-American War.^[39]

Skeptical individuals continued to offer alternate hypotheses. In a letter to the New York Times, Barrett P. Smith of Sound Beach, New York, wrote:

Having read with much interest the account of the fatality off Spring Lake, N.J., I should like to offer a suggestion somewhat at variance with the shark theory. In my opinion it is most unlikely that a shark was responsible, and I believe it much more likely that the attack was made by a sea turtle. I have spent much time at sea and along shore, and have several times seen turtles large enough to inflict just such wounds. These creatures are of a vicious disposition, and when annoyed are extremely dangerous to approach, and it is my idea that Bruder may have disturbed one while it was asleep on or close to the surface.^[40]

A letter to the New York Times blamed the shark infestation on the maneuvers of German U-boats along America's East Coast. The anonymous A. M. E. claimed that "These sharks may have devoured human bodies in the waters of the German war zone and followed liners to this coast, or even followed the Deutschland herself, expecting the usual toll of drowning men, women, and children." The writer concluded, "This would account for their boldness and their craving for human flesh."^[41]

[edit] Revising science

Following the Jersey Shore attacks, scientists in the United States revised their assumptions that sharks were timid and powerless. Robert Murphy and John Nichols wrote in October 1916:

There is something peculiarly sinister in the shark's make-up. The sight of his dark, lean [dorsal] fin lazily cutting zig-zags in the surface of some quiet, sparkling summer sea, and then slipping out of sight not to appear again, suggests an evil spirit. His leering, chinless face, his great mouth with its rows of knife-like teeth, which he knows too well to use on the fisherman's gear; the relentless fury with which, when his last hour has come, he thrashes on deck and snaps at his enemies; his toughness, his brutal, nerveless vitality and insensibility to physical injury, fail to elicit the admiration one feels for the dashing, brilliant, destructive, gastronomic bluefish, tunny, or salmon.^[42]

[edit] Influence on popular culture

Subject of three studies, Richard G. Fernicola's In Search of the "Jersey Man-Eater" (1987) and Twelve Days of Terror (2001) and Michael Capuzzo's Close to Shore (2001). Fernicola's research is the basis of the Discovery Channel's docudrama 12 Days of Terror (2004) and an episode of the History Channel's documentary series History's Mysteries titled Shark Attack 1916 (2001).

[edit] Notes

[edit] Sources

[edit] Further reading

[edit] External links

• "The Case of the New Jersey Man-Eater" at the ReefQuest Centre for Shark Research
• Bibliography
• A detailed account of the attacks
• NJ History Mysteries: Matawan Shark Attack
• WeirdNJ Matawan Man Eater
• Close to Shore

[[Category:1916 in the United States]] [[Category:Deaths due to animal attacks]] [[Category:History of New Jersey]] [[Category:History of the United States (1865–1918)]] [[Category:Sharks]] [[pl:Ataki rekinów z New Jersey]]