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reported the capture of a "man-eating" shark off the Jersey Shore after the attacks.The Jersey Shore shark attacks of 1916 were a series of shark 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 debated which shark species was responsible and whether one animal was involved. The attacks occurred during a deadly summer heat wave and Poliomyelitis epidemic in the northeastern United States that drove thousands of people to the seaside resorts of the Jersey Shore. List of fatal, unprovoked shark attacks in the United States by decade on the East Coast of the United States outside the Subtropics states of Florida, Georgia (U.S. state), and the Carolinas were rare, but scholars believe that the increased presence of sharks and 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. Resort towns enclosed their public beaches with steel nets to protect swimmers. Scientific knowledge about sharks before 1916 was based on conjecture and speculation. The attacks forced Ichthyologys to reassess common beliefs about the abilities of sharks and the nature of shark attacks.

The Jersey Shore attacks immediately entered into American popular culture, where sharks became caricatures in editorial cartoons representing danger. The attacks inspired Peter Benchley's novel Peter Benchley#Jaws (1974), an account of a great white shark that torments the fictional coastal community of Amity Island. Jaws was made into an influential Jaws (film) in 1975 by Steven Spielberg. The attacks became the subject of documentaries for the History Channel, Discovery Channel, and National Geographic Channel.

Background In 1916, people from all social class descended on the beaches of New York and New Jersey, and as researcher Richard G. Fernicola points out, the Jersey Shore shark attacks "did not take place in a vacuum."Richard G. Fernicola, Twelve Days of Terror (Guilford, Conn.: The Lyons Press, 2002), p. xvii, ISBN 1-58574-575-8. Between 1880 and 1920, the standard of living of working-class Americans in urban areas like Philadelphia and New York City improved considerably, but housing, food, fuel, and clothing consumed most families' incomes. According to historian Kathy Peiss, "the working-class family as a unit could afford only the cheapest of amusements."Kathy Peiss, Cheap Amusements: Working Women and Leisure in Turn-of-the-Century New York (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1986), p. 12, ISBN 0-87722-500-1. Single working-class men and women often turned to nickelodeon movie theaters, bars and saloons, dance halls, and excursions to the convenient amusement parks and beaches at Coney Island and the Jersey Shore. Wealthy Americans likewise traveled to the coast during the summer to escape heat and congested cities.Peiss, Cheap Amusements, chap. 5.Gary S. Cross and John K. Walton, The Playful Crowd: Pleasure Places in the Twentieth Century (New York: Columbia University Press, 2005), chap. 1, ISBN 0-231-12724-3. During this 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 on them.Fernicola, Twelve Days of Terror, pp. xxxiv–xxxv.

, c. 1902, featured boardwalk pavilions (left) and roped beaches for "fanny dunking".

The summer of 1916 in the Northeast proved deadly for residents of Philadelphia and New York, who suffered through an intense heat wave and polio epidemic. Seeking relief, thousands traveled to New Jersey beaches daily by rail lines that connected large cities to resort towns like Long Branch, New Jersey, Asbury Park, New Jersey, Ocean Grove, New Jersey, and Atlantic City, New Jersey.Fernicola, Twelve Days of Terror, pp. xxxii, xxxvii. As World War I raged in Europe, vacationers watched for German Empire U-boats reportedly maneuvering off the coast.Fernicola, Twelve Days of Terror, p. 15.

People visited beaches in record numbers. Sea bathers worried about sharks, according to researcher Michael Capuzzo, but did not view the animals as a major threat. Capuzzo adds that "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).Michael Capuzzo, Close to Shore (New York: Broadway Books, 2001), pp. 17, 27, ISBN 0-7679-0413-3. Before 1916, American scholars doubted that sharks would attack a living person in temperate waters without provocation. Even reports of incidents in the tropical waters of the West Indies, Mumbai, the Hawaiian Islands, and Fiji were dismissed as aberrations. The events that transpired on the Jersey Shore in the summer of 1916 surprised and shocked tourists and academics alike.Fernicola, Twelve Days of Terror, p. xxvi.

Attacks and victims Between July 1 and July 12 1916, five people were attacked along the coast of New Jersey by sharks; only one of the victims survived. The first attack occurred on Saturday, July 1 at Beach Haven, New Jersey, 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 family. Before 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 bleeding on the manager's desk of the Engleside Hotel at 6:45 p.m.Fernicola, Twelve Days of Terror, pp. 1–9; Capuzzo, Close to Shore, pp. 88–103; Thomas B. Allen, Shadows in the Sea: The Sharks, Skates, and Rays, (1963; Guilford, Conn.: The Lyons Press, 1996), pp. 3–4, ISBN 1-55821-518-2.

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, New Jersey and New York City but were dismissed. The second attack occurred 45 miles (72.4 km) north of Beach Haven at the resort town of Spring Lake, New Jersey. The victim was Charles Bruder, 27, a Swiss (people) bellhop at the Essex & Sussex Hotel. Bruder was killed on Thursday, July 6 1916, while swimming 130 yards (119 m) from shore. A shark bit him in the abdomen and severed his legs; Bruder's blood turned the water red. After hearing screams, a woman notified a lifeguard that a canoe with a red hull (watercraft) had capsized and was floating just at the water's surface. Lifeguards Chris Anderson and George White rowed to Bruder in a lifeboat and realized he had been bitten by a shark. They pulled him from the water, but he bled to death en route to shore. According to The New York Times, "women panic-stricken fainted as mutilated body … brought ashore." Guests and workers at the Essex & Sussex and neighboring hotels raised money for Bruder's mother in Switzerland.Fernicola, Twelve Days of Terror, pp. 13–21, 29; Capuzzo, Close to Shore, pp. 136–146; Allen, Shadows in the Sea, pp. 4–6.

The final attacks took place in Matawan Creek near the town of Matawan, New Jersey on Wednesday, July 12. Located 30 miles (48 km) north of Spring Lake and 16 miles (26 km) inland, Matawan resembled a Midwestern United States town rather than an Atlantic beach resort.Fernicola, Twelve Days of Terror, pp. 33–34. Matawan's location made it an unlikely site for shark attacks; indeed, the attack in Matawan marks the furthest inland shark attack in recorded history. When Thomas Cottrell, a sea captain and Matawan resident, spotted an long shark in the creek, the town dismissed him.Fernicola, Twelve Days of Terror, p. 45. 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 and pulled him underwater.Fernicola, Twelve Days of Terror, pp. 45–50.

The boys ran to town for help, and several men, including local businessman Watson Stanley Fisher, 24, came to investigate. Fisher and others dove into the creek to find Stillwell's body, and he too was attacked by the shark in front of the 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, New Jersey at 5:30 p.m.Fernicola, Twelve Days of Terror, pp. 45–56. Stillwell's body was recovered 150 feet (46 m) upstream from the Wyckoff dock on July 14.Fernicola, Twelve Days of Terror, pp. 83–84; Capuzzo, Close to Shore, pp. 205–248; Allen, Shadows in the Sea, pp. 8–12.

The fifth victim, Joseph Dunn, 14, 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 while warning other creek bathers and was taken to Saint Peter's University Hospital in New Brunswick, New Jersey. He recovered and was released September 15 1916.Fernicola, Twelve Days of Terror, pp. 56–57, 158, 176; Allen, Shadows in the Sea, p. 12, lists Dunn as 14, not 12; The New York Times reported his age at 12 ("Shark Kills 2 Bathers, Maims 1, Near New York," July 13, 1916, p. 1); see also Joseph Dunn's census and hospital records for his age at the time of the attacks; last accessed September 1 2007.

Reaction As the national media descended on Beach Haven, Spring Lake, and Matawan, the Jersey Shore attacks started 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 telegraphy, letter and postcard."Capuzzo, Close to Shore, p. 269. At first, after the Beach Haven attack, scientists and the press reluctantly blamed the death of Charles Vansant on a shark.Fernicola, Twelve Days of Terror, p. 9. The New York Times reported that Vansant "was badly bitten in the surf … by a fish, presumably a shark.""Dies After Attack By Fish," The New York Times, July 3, 1916, p. 18. Still, Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission of Pennsylvania and former director of the Philadelphia Aquarium James M. Meehan asserted in the Philadelphia Public Ledger that the shark was preying on the dog, but attacked Vansant by mistake.Fernicola, Twelve Days of Terror, pp. 7–11. He specifically de-emphasized the threat sharks posed to humans:

The media's response to the second attack was more sensational. Major American newspapers such as the Boston Herald, Chicago Sun-Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The 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". The growing panic had cost New Jersey resort owners an estimated $250,000 in lost tourism, and bathing had declined 75 percent in some areas.Allen, Shadows in the Sea, p. 7. A press conference was convened on July 8 1916 at the American Museum of Natural History with scientists Frederic Augustus Lucas, John T. Nichols, and Robert Cushman Murphy as panelists. To calm the 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 Ichthyology in the trio—warned swimmers to stay close to shore and to take advantage of the netted bathing areas installed at public beaches after the first attack.Fernicola, Twelve Days of Terror, pp. 22–23.

coverage of the attacks at Matawan, New Jersey with portraits of Stanley Fisher (bottom right) and Lester Stillwell

Shark sightings increased along the Mid-Atlantic States 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, New Jersey's Asbury Avenue Beach was closed after lifeguard Benjamin Everingham claimed to have beaten off a long shark with an oar. Sharks were spotted 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 in the surf at Beach Haven."Motor Boats Hunt Man-Eating Sharks Off Jersey Coast," Atlanta Constitution, July 14, 1916, p. 3.Fernicola, Twelve Days of Terror, p. 26–27. Actress Gertrude Hoffman was swimming at the Coney Island beach shortly after the Matawan attacks when she claimed 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."Capuzzo, Close to Shore, p. 267–269."Many See Sharks, But All Get Away," The New York Times, July 14, 1916, pp. 1, 3.

Local New Jersey governments made efforts to protect bathers and the economy from man-eating sharks."Shark Guards Out At Beach Resorts; Wire Nets Set Against Supposed Man-Eater That Killed Spring Lake Bather," The New York Times, July 8, 1916, p. 18. The Fourth Avenue Beach at Asbury Park was enclosed with a steel-wire-mesh fence and patrolled by armed motorboats; it 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 catch and 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, no sharks were captured or killed in Matawan Creek.Fernicola, Twelve Days of Terror, p. 67.

Resort communities along the Jersey Shore petitioned the federal government to aid local efforts to protect beaches and hunt sharks. The United States House of Representatives appropriated $5,000 for eradicating the New Jersey shark threat, and President of the United States Woodrow Wilson scheduled a meeting with his United States Cabinet to discuss the attacks. United States Secretary of the Treasury William Gibbs McAdoo suggested that the United States Coast Guard be mobilized to patrol the Jersey Shore and protect bathers.Fernicola, Twelve Days of Terror, pp. 67–70. Shark hunts ensued across the coasts of New Jersey and New York; as the The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported on July 14, "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 … ""Motor Boats Hunt Man-Eating Sharks Off Jersey Coast," Atlanta Constitution, p. 1.New Jersey Governor of New Jersey James Fairman Fielder and local municipalities offered bounties to individuals hunting sharks.Fernicola, Twelve Days of Terror, p. 81. Hundreds of sharks were captured on the East Coast of the United States as a result of the attacks. The East Coast shark hunt is described as "the largest scale animal hunt in history."Fernicola, Twelve Days of Terror, p. 72.

Identifying the "Jersey man-eater" After the second incident, scientists and the public presented theories to explain which species of shark was responsible for the Jersey Shore attacks or whether multiple sharks were involved. Lucas and Nichols proposed that a northward-swimming wikt:rogue shark committed the attacks. They believed it would eventually arrive along New York's coast: "Unless the shark came through the New York Harbor and went through the north through Hell Gate and Long Island Sound, it was presumed it would swim along the South Shore (Long Island) of Long Island and the first deep water inlet it reaches will be the Jamaica Bay."Nichols in the New York American, quoted in Fernicola, Twelve Days of Terror, p. 151.

caught in Raritan Bay purported to be the "Jersey man-eater" as seen in the Bronx Home News

Witnesses of the Beach Haven attack estimated that the shark was long. A sea captain who saw the attack believed it was a Grey nurse shark driven from the Caribbean Sea decades earlier by bombings during the Spanish-American War.Fernicola, Twelve Days of Terror, p. 7–8. Several fishermen claimed to have caught the "Jersey man-eater" in the days following the attacks. A blue shark was captured on July 14 1916 near Long Branch, and four days later the same Thomas Cottrell who had seen the shark in Matawan Creek claimed to have captured a sandbar shark with a gillnet near the mouth of the creek.Fernicola, Twelve Days of Terror, pp. 144–145.

On July 14, Harlem Taxidermy and Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus Lion taming Michael Schleisser caught a 7.5 foot (2.3 m), 325 pound (147 kg) shark while fishing in Raritan Bay only a few miles from the mouth of Matawan Creek. The shark nearly sank the boat before Schleisser killed it with a broken oar. When he opened the shark's belly, he removed a "suspicious fleshy material and bones" that took up "about two-thirds of a milk crate" and "together weighed fifteen pounds."Fernicola, Twelve Days of Terror, p. 151–156. Scientists identified the shark as a young great white and the ingested remains as human.Fernicola, Twelve Days of Terror, p. 163. Schleisser mounted the shark and placed it on display in the window of a Manhattan shop on Broadway (New York City) but it was later lost. The only surviving photograph appeared in the Bronx Home News.Fernicola, Twelve Days of Terror, pp. 163–164.

No further attacks were reported along the Jersey Shore in the summer of 1916 after the capture of Schleisser's shark. Murphy and Lucas declared the great white to be the "Jersey man-eater".Capuzzo, Close to Shore, pp. 296–297; Fernicola, Twelve Days of Terror, p. 179. Skeptical individuals, however, offered alternate hypotheses. In a letter to The New York Times, Barrett P. Smith of Sound Beach, New York wrote:

Another letter to The New York Times blamed the shark infestation on the maneuvers of German Empire U-boats near America's East Coast. The anonymous writer claimed, "These sharks may have devoured human bodies in the waters of the German war zone and followed Ocean liner to this coast, or even followed the Deutschland (1916) 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."A. M. E., "Sharks and Submarines," The New York Times, July 15, 1916, p. 8.

Decades later, there is no consensus among researchers over Murphy and Lucas's investigation and findings. Richard G. Fernicola published two studies of the event, and notes that "there are many theories behind the New Jersey attacks," and all are inconclusive.Fernicola, Twelve Days of Terror, p. 184. Researchers such as Thomas Helm, Harold W. McCormick, Thomas B. Allen (author), William Young, Jean Campbell Butler, and Michael Capuzzo generally agree with Murphy and Lucas.Thomas Helm, Shark!: Unpredictable Killer of the Sea (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1962), ; Harold W. McCormick, Thomas B. Allen, and William Young, Shadows in the Sea: The Sharks, Skates, and Rays (Philadelphia: Chilton Books, 1963), ; Jean Campbell Butler, Danger, Shark! (Boston: Little, Brown, 1964), ; for a summary of these researchers' findings, see Fernicola, Twelve Days of Terror, pp. 179–180. However, the National Geographic Society reported in 2002 that "some experts are suggesting that the great white may not in fact be responsible for many of the attacks pinned on the species. These people say the real culprit behind many of the reported incidents—including the famous 1916 shark attacks in New Jersey that may have served as inspiration for Jaws—may be the lesser known bull shark."Brian Handwerk, "Great Whites May Be Taking the Rap for Bull Shark Attacks," August 2, 2002, National Geographic News; last accessed July 29 2007.

Biologists George A. Llano and Richard Ellis (biologist) suggest that a bull shark could have been responsible for the Jersey Shore attacks. Bull sharks swim from the ocean into freshwater rivers and streams and have attacked people around the world. In his book Sharks: Attacks on Man (1975), Llano writes,

Ellis points out that the great white "is an oceanic species, and Schleisser's shark was caught in the ocean. To find it swimming in a tidal creek is, to say the least, unusual, and may even be impossible. The bull shark, however, is infamous for its freshwater meanderings, as well as for its pugnacious and aggressive nature." He admits that "the bull shark is not a common species in New Jersey waters, but it does occur more frequently than the white."Richard Ellis, The Book of Sharks (San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1983), p. 186, ISBN 0-15-613552-3.

In an interview with Michael Capuzzo, ichthyologist George H. Burgess surmises, "The species involved has always been doubtful and likely will continue to generate spirited debate." Burgess, however, does not discount the great white:

The casualties of the 1916 attacks are listed in the International Shark Attack File—of which Burgess is director—as victims of a great white.See the graphic map, "1916–2006 United States (incl. Hawaii) Confirmed Unprovoked Attacks by White Sharks", International Shark Attack File; last accessed July 28 2007.

The increased presence of humans in the water proved a factor in the attacks: "As the worldwide human population continues to rise year after year, so does … interest in aquatic recreation. The number of shark attacks in any given year or region is highly influenced by the number of people entering the water."George Burgess, "The Relative Risk of Shark Attacks to Humans: More People Mean More Attacks," International Shark Attack File; last accessed July 31 2007. However, the likelihood that one shark was involved is contested. Scientists such as Victor M. Coppleson and Jean Butler, relying on evidence presented by Lucas and Murphy in 1916, assert that a single shark was the attacker.Victor M. Coppleson, Shark Attack (Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1959) OCLC 1547643, and Butler, Danger, Shark!, both cited in Fernicola, Twelve Days of Terror, p. 248. On the other hand, Richard Fernicola notes that 1916 was a "shark year" as fishermen and captains were reporting hundreds of sharks swimming in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States.Fernicola, Twelve Days of Terror, pp. 229–231. Ellis remarks that "to try to make the facts as we know them conform to the 'rogue shark' theory is stretching sensationalism and credibility beyond reasonable limits." He admits, "The evidence is long gone, and we will never really know if it was one shark or several, one species or another, that was responsible."Ellis, Book of Sharks, p. 187.

Revising science Before 1916, American scholars doubted that sharks would attack a living person in the temperate waters of the United States 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.Frederic Lucas, quoted in Fernicola, Twelve Days of Terror, p. xxix. In 1891, millionaire banker and adventurer Hermann Oelrichs offered a $500 reward in the The New York Sun (historical) "for an authenticated case of a man having been attacked by a shark in temperate waters" north of Cape Hatteras.Hermann Oelrichs, quoted in Fernicola, Twelve Days of Terror, p. xxv. He wanted proof that "in temperate waters even one man, woman, or child, while alive, was ever attacked by a shark."Oelrichs, quoted in Capuzzo, Close to Shore, p. 22. The reward went unclaimed and scientists remained convinced that America's East Coast was inhabited by harmless sharks.Fernicola, Twelve Days of Terror, xxv.Capuzzo, Close to Shore, p. 26.

in New York City debated the threat posed by sharks before and after the 1916 Jersey Shore attacks.

Academics were skeptical that a shark could produce fatal wounds on human victims. Ichthyologist Henry Weed Fowler and curator Henry Skinner of the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia asserted that a shark's mandible did not have the power to sever a human leg in a single bite.Fernicola, Twelve Days of Terror, pp. xxvi–xxviii. Frederic Lucas, director of the American Museum of Natural History, questioned whether a shark as large as 30 feet (9 m) could snap a human bone. He told the Philadelphia Inquirer in early 1916 that "it is beyond the power even of the largest Great white shark 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."Frederic Lucas, quoted in Fernicola, Twelve Days of Terror, p. xxx.

The Jersey Shore attacks compelled scientists in the United States to revise their assumptions that sharks were timid and powerless. In July 1916, ichthyologist and editor for the National Geographic Society Hugh McCormick Smith published an article in the The Star-Ledger describing some shark species as "harmless as doves and others the incarnation of ferocity." He continued, "One of the most prodigious, and perhaps the most formidable of sharks is the man-eater, great white shark. It roams through all temperate and tropical seas, and everywhere is an object of dread. Its maximum length is forty feet and its teeth are three inches long."Hugh M. Smith, "Great Shark May Have Swallowed Jonah: Scientist Shows Biblical 'Great Fish' Has Counterpart in Present-Day Monster," Newark Star-Eagle, quoted in Fernicola, Twelve Days of Terror, p. 160.

By the end of July 1916, John Nichols and Robert Murphy were taking the great white more seriously. In Scientific American, Murphy wrote that the "white shark is perhaps the rarest of all noteworthy sharks … their habits are little known, but they are said to feed to some extent on big sea turtles … Judging from its physical make-up, it would not hesitate to attack a man in open water." He concluded that "because it is evident that even a relatively small white shark, weighing two or three hundred pounds, might readily snap the largest human bones by a jerk of its body, after it has bitten through the flesh."Murphy, Scientific American, July 1916, quoted in Fernicola, Twelve Days of Terror, 171.

Robert Murphy and John Nichols wrote in October 1916:

After the Matawan attacks, Frederic Lucas admitted on the front page of The New York Times that he had underestimated sharks. The paper reported that "the foremost authority on sharks in this country has doubted that any shark ever attacked a human being, and has published his doubts, but the recent cases have changed his view."

Cultural impact While sharks had been seen as harmless, the pendulum of public opinion quickly swung to the other extreme, and sharks quickly came to be viewed not only as eating machines, but also as fearless, ruthless killers. That shark attack has been debunked, albeit only partially, in recent years.

After the first attack, Editorial cartoon began using sharks as caricatures for political figures, German U-boats, Victorian morality and Victorian fashion, polio, and the deadly heat wave threatening the Northeast. Fernicola notes, "Since 1916 was among the years that Americans were trying to break away from the rigidity and conservatism of the Victorian era, one comic depicted a risqué polka-dot bathing suit and advertised it as the secret weapon to keep sharks away from our swimmers." Another cartoon depicted "an exasperated individual at the end of a dock that displays a DANGER: NO SWIMMING sign and mentions the three most emphasized 'danger' topics of the day: 'Infantile Paralysis (polio), Epidemic Heat Wave, and Sharks in the Ocean'." The cartoon is entitled "What's a Family Man to Do?"Fernicola, Twelve Days of Terror, p. 27. With America's growing distrust of German Empire in 1916, cartoonists depicted U-boats with the mouth and fins of a shark assaulting Uncle Sam while he wades in the water.Fernicola, Twelve Days of Terror, p. 33.

In 1974, writer Peter Benchley published Peter Benchley#Jaws, a novel about a rogue great white shark that terrorizes the fictional coastal community of Amity Island. Chief of police Martin Brody, biologist Matt Hooper, and fisherman Quint (Jaws character) hunt the shark after it kills four people. The novel was adapted as the film Jaws (film) by Steven Spielberg in 1975. Spielberg's film references the attacks: Brody (Roy Scheider) and Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss) urge Amity's Mayor Vaughn (Murray Hamilton) to close the beaches on the Independence Day (United States) after the deaths of two swimmers and a fisherman. Hooper explains to the mayor, "Look, the situation is that apparently a great white shark has staked a claim in the waters off Amity Island. And he's going to continue to feed here as long as there is food in the water." Brody adds, "And there's no limit to what he's gonna do! I mean we've already had three incidents, two people killed inside of a week. And it's gonna happen again, it happened before! The Jersey beach! … 1916! Five people chewed up on the surf!"Jaws, dir. Steven Spielberg (Universal Pictures, 1975). Richard Ellis, Richard Fernicola, and Michael Capuzzo suggest that the 1916 Jersey Shore attacks, Coppleson's rogue shark theory, and the exploits of New York fisherman Frank Mundus inspired Benchley.Ellis, Book of Sharks, p. 209; Fernicola, Twelve Days of Terror, p. 180; Capuzzo, Close to Shore, p. 297. The attacks are also briefly referenced in Benchley's novel White Shark (1994).Peter Benchley, White Shark (New York: St. Martin's, 1994), p. 51, ISBN 0-312-95573-1.

The 1916 attacks are the 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). Capuzzo offers an in-depth dramatization of the incident, and Fernicola examines the scientific, medical, and social aspects of the attacks.Adam Dunn, "Review: A biting history on the roots of 'Jaws'," review of Close to Shore, CNN.com; last accessed July 28 2007.Lane Hartill, "My, what nice teeth you have," The Christian Science Monitor, June 21, 2001, p. 16. Fernicola's research is the basis of an episode of the The History Channel's documentary film series In Search of... titled Shark Attack 1916 (2001) and the Discovery Channel's docudrama 12 Days of Terror (2004).Shark Attack 1916, dir. David Ackroyd, In Search of … (A&E Television, 2001).12 Days of Terror, dir. Jack Sholder (Discovery Fox Television, 2004). Fernicola also wrote and directed a 90-minute documentary called Tracking the Jersey Man-Eater. It was produced by the George Marine Library in 1991; however, it was never widely released and is no longer available.Tracking the Jersey Man-Eater, dir. Richarg G. Fernicola (George Marine Library, 1991). The attacks at Matawan are the subject of the National Geographic Channel documentary Attacks of the Mystery Shark (2002), which examines the possibility that a bull shark was responsible for killing Stanley Fisher and Lester Stillwell.

Notes Further reading

External links

reported the capture of a "man-eating" shark off the Jersey Shore after the attacks.The Jersey Shore shark attacks of 1916 were a series of shark 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 debated which shark species was responsible and whether one animal was involved. The attacks occurred during a deadly summer heat wave and Poliomyelitis epidemic in the northeastern United States that drove thousands of people to the seaside resorts of the Jersey Shore. List of fatal, unprovoked shark attacks in the United States by decade on the East Coast of the United States outside the Subtropics states of Florida, Georgia (U.S. state), and the Carolinas were rare, but scholars believe that the increased presence of sharks and 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. Resort towns enclosed their public beaches with steel nets to protect swimmers. Scientific knowledge about sharks before 1916 was based on conjecture and speculation. The attacks forced Ichthyologys to reassess common beliefs about the abilities of sharks and the nature of shark attacks.

The Jersey Shore attacks immediately entered into American popular culture, where sharks became caricatures in editorial cartoons representing danger. The attacks inspired Peter Benchley's novel Peter Benchley#Jaws (1974), an account of a great white shark that torments the fictional coastal community of Amity Island. Jaws was made into an influential Jaws (film) in 1975 by Steven Spielberg. The attacks became the subject of documentaries for the History Channel, Discovery Channel, and National Geographic Channel.

Background In 1916, people from all social class descended on the beaches of New York and New Jersey, and as researcher Richard G. Fernicola points out, the Jersey Shore shark attacks "did not take place in a vacuum."Richard G. Fernicola, Twelve Days of Terror (Guilford, Conn.: The Lyons Press, 2002), p. xvii, ISBN 1-58574-575-8. Between 1880 and 1920, the standard of living of working-class Americans in urban areas like Philadelphia and New York City improved considerably, but housing, food, fuel, and clothing consumed most families' incomes. According to historian Kathy Peiss, "the working-class family as a unit could afford only the cheapest of amusements."Kathy Peiss, Cheap Amusements: Working Women and Leisure in Turn-of-the-Century New York (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1986), p. 12, ISBN 0-87722-500-1. Single working-class men and women often turned to nickelodeon movie theaters, bars and saloons, dance halls, and excursions to the convenient amusement parks and beaches at Coney Island and the Jersey Shore. Wealthy Americans likewise traveled to the coast during the summer to escape heat and congested cities.Peiss, Cheap Amusements, chap. 5.Gary S. Cross and John K. Walton, The Playful Crowd: Pleasure Places in the Twentieth Century (New York: Columbia University Press, 2005), chap. 1, ISBN 0-231-12724-3. During this 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 on them.Fernicola, Twelve Days of Terror, pp. xxxiv–xxxv.

, c. 1902, featured boardwalk pavilions (left) and roped beaches for "fanny dunking".

The summer of 1916 in the Northeast proved deadly for residents of Philadelphia and New York, who suffered through an intense heat wave and polio epidemic. Seeking relief, thousands traveled to New Jersey beaches daily by rail lines that connected large cities to resort towns like Long Branch, New Jersey, Asbury Park, New Jersey, Ocean Grove, New Jersey, and Atlantic City, New Jersey.Fernicola, Twelve Days of Terror, pp. xxxii, xxxvii. As World War I raged in Europe, vacationers watched for German Empire U-boats reportedly maneuvering off the coast.Fernicola, Twelve Days of Terror, p. 15.

People visited beaches in record numbers. Sea bathers worried about sharks, according to researcher Michael Capuzzo, but did not view the animals as a major threat. Capuzzo adds that "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).Michael Capuzzo, Close to Shore (New York: Broadway Books, 2001), pp. 17, 27, ISBN 0-7679-0413-3. Before 1916, American scholars doubted that sharks would attack a living person in temperate waters without provocation. Even reports of incidents in the tropical waters of the West Indies, Mumbai, the Hawaiian Islands, and Fiji were dismissed as aberrations. The events that transpired on the Jersey Shore in the summer of 1916 surprised and shocked tourists and academics alike.Fernicola, Twelve Days of Terror, p. xxvi.

Attacks and victims Between July 1 and July 12 1916, five people were attacked along the coast of New Jersey by sharks; only one of the victims survived. The first attack occurred on Saturday, July 1 at Beach Haven, New Jersey, 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 family. Before 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 bleeding on the manager's desk of the Engleside Hotel at 6:45 p.m.Fernicola, Twelve Days of Terror, pp. 1–9; Capuzzo, Close to Shore, pp. 88–103; Thomas B. Allen, Shadows in the Sea: The Sharks, Skates, and Rays, (1963; Guilford, Conn.: The Lyons Press, 1996), pp. 3–4, ISBN 1-55821-518-2.

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, New Jersey and New York City but were dismissed. The second attack occurred 45 miles (72.4 km) north of Beach Haven at the resort town of Spring Lake, New Jersey. The victim was Charles Bruder, 27, a Swiss (people) bellhop at the Essex & Sussex Hotel. Bruder was killed on Thursday, July 6 1916, while swimming 130 yards (119 m) from shore. A shark bit him in the abdomen and severed his legs; Bruder's blood turned the water red. After hearing screams, a woman notified a lifeguard that a canoe with a red hull (watercraft) had capsized and was floating just at the water's surface. Lifeguards Chris Anderson and George White rowed to Bruder in a lifeboat and realized he had been bitten by a shark. They pulled him from the water, but he bled to death en route to shore. According to The New York Times, "women panic-stricken fainted as mutilated body … brought ashore." Guests and workers at the Essex & Sussex and neighboring hotels raised money for Bruder's mother in Switzerland.Fernicola, Twelve Days of Terror, pp. 13–21, 29; Capuzzo, Close to Shore, pp. 136–146; Allen, Shadows in the Sea, pp. 4–6.

The final attacks took place in Matawan Creek near the town of Matawan, New Jersey on Wednesday, July 12. Located 30 miles (48 km) north of Spring Lake and 16 miles (26 km) inland, Matawan resembled a Midwestern United States town rather than an Atlantic beach resort.Fernicola, Twelve Days of Terror, pp. 33–34. Matawan's location made it an unlikely site for shark attacks; indeed, the attack in Matawan marks the furthest inland shark attack in recorded history. When Thomas Cottrell, a sea captain and Matawan resident, spotted an long shark in the creek, the town dismissed him.Fernicola, Twelve Days of Terror, p. 45. 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 and pulled him underwater.Fernicola, Twelve Days of Terror, pp. 45–50.

The boys ran to town for help, and several men, including local businessman Watson Stanley Fisher, 24, came to investigate. Fisher and others dove into the creek to find Stillwell's body, and he too was attacked by the shark in front of the 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, New Jersey at 5:30 p.m.Fernicola, Twelve Days of Terror, pp. 45–56. Stillwell's body was recovered 150 feet (46 m) upstream from the Wyckoff dock on July 14.Fernicola, Twelve Days of Terror, pp. 83–84; Capuzzo, Close to Shore, pp. 205–248; Allen, Shadows in the Sea, pp. 8–12.

The fifth victim, Joseph Dunn, 14, 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 while warning other creek bathers and was taken to Saint Peter's University Hospital in New Brunswick, New Jersey. He recovered and was released September 15 1916.Fernicola, Twelve Days of Terror, pp. 56–57, 158, 176; Allen, Shadows in the Sea, p. 12, lists Dunn as 14, not 12; The New York Times reported his age at 12 ("Shark Kills 2 Bathers, Maims 1, Near New York," July 13, 1916, p. 1); see also Joseph Dunn's census and hospital records for his age at the time of the attacks; last accessed September 1 2007.

Reaction As the national media descended on Beach Haven, Spring Lake, and Matawan, the Jersey Shore attacks started 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 telegraphy, letter and postcard."Capuzzo, Close to Shore, p. 269. At first, after the Beach Haven attack, scientists and the press reluctantly blamed the death of Charles Vansant on a shark.Fernicola, Twelve Days of Terror, p. 9. The New York Times reported that Vansant "was badly bitten in the surf … by a fish, presumably a shark.""Dies After Attack By Fish," The New York Times, July 3, 1916, p. 18. Still, Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission of Pennsylvania and former director of the Philadelphia Aquarium James M. Meehan asserted in the Philadelphia Public Ledger that the shark was preying on the dog, but attacked Vansant by mistake.Fernicola, Twelve Days of Terror, pp. 7–11. He specifically de-emphasized the threat sharks posed to humans:

The media's response to the second attack was more sensational. Major American newspapers such as the Boston Herald, Chicago Sun-Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The 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". The growing panic had cost New Jersey resort owners an estimated $250,000 in lost tourism, and bathing had declined 75 percent in some areas.Allen, Shadows in the Sea, p. 7. A press conference was convened on July 8 1916 at the American Museum of Natural History with scientists Frederic Augustus Lucas, John T. Nichols, and Robert Cushman Murphy as panelists. To calm the 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 Ichthyology in the trio—warned swimmers to stay close to shore and to take advantage of the netted bathing areas installed at public beaches after the first attack.Fernicola, Twelve Days of Terror, pp. 22–23.

coverage of the attacks at Matawan, New Jersey with portraits of Stanley Fisher (bottom right) and Lester Stillwell

Shark sightings increased along the Mid-Atlantic States 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, New Jersey's Asbury Avenue Beach was closed after lifeguard Benjamin Everingham claimed to have beaten off a long shark with an oar. Sharks were spotted 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 in the surf at Beach Haven."Motor Boats Hunt Man-Eating Sharks Off Jersey Coast," Atlanta Constitution, July 14, 1916, p. 3.Fernicola, Twelve Days of Terror, p. 26–27. Actress Gertrude Hoffman was swimming at the Coney Island beach shortly after the Matawan attacks when she claimed 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."Capuzzo, Close to Shore, p. 267–269."Many See Sharks, But All Get Away," The New York Times, July 14, 1916, pp. 1, 3.

Local New Jersey governments made efforts to protect bathers and the economy from man-eating sharks."Shark Guards Out At Beach Resorts; Wire Nets Set Against Supposed Man-Eater That Killed Spring Lake Bather," The New York Times, July 8, 1916, p. 18. The Fourth Avenue Beach at Asbury Park was enclosed with a steel-wire-mesh fence and patrolled by armed motorboats; it 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 catch and 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, no sharks were captured or killed in Matawan Creek.Fernicola, Twelve Days of Terror, p. 67.

Resort communities along the Jersey Shore petitioned the federal government to aid local efforts to protect beaches and hunt sharks. The United States House of Representatives appropriated $5,000 for eradicating the New Jersey shark threat, and President of the United States Woodrow Wilson scheduled a meeting with his United States Cabinet to discuss the attacks. United States Secretary of the Treasury William Gibbs McAdoo suggested that the United States Coast Guard be mobilized to patrol the Jersey Shore and protect bathers.Fernicola, Twelve Days of Terror, pp. 67–70. Shark hunts ensued across the coasts of New Jersey and New York; as the The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported on July 14, "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 … ""Motor Boats Hunt Man-Eating Sharks Off Jersey Coast," Atlanta Constitution, p. 1.New Jersey Governor of New Jersey James Fairman Fielder and local municipalities offered bounties to individuals hunting sharks.Fernicola, Twelve Days of Terror, p. 81. Hundreds of sharks were captured on the East Coast of the United States as a result of the attacks. The East Coast shark hunt is described as "the largest scale animal hunt in history."Fernicola, Twelve Days of Terror, p. 72.

Identifying the "Jersey man-eater" After the second incident, scientists and the public presented theories to explain which species of shark was responsible for the Jersey Shore attacks or whether multiple sharks were involved. Lucas and Nichols proposed that a northward-swimming wikt:rogue shark committed the attacks. They believed it would eventually arrive along New York's coast: "Unless the shark came through the New York Harbor and went through the north through Hell Gate and Long Island Sound, it was presumed it would swim along the South Shore (Long Island) of Long Island and the first deep water inlet it reaches will be the Jamaica Bay."Nichols in the New York American, quoted in Fernicola, Twelve Days of Terror, p. 151.

caught in Raritan Bay purported to be the "Jersey man-eater" as seen in the Bronx Home News

Witnesses of the Beach Haven attack estimated that the shark was long. A sea captain who saw the attack believed it was a Grey nurse shark driven from the Caribbean Sea decades earlier by bombings during the Spanish-American War.Fernicola, Twelve Days of Terror, p. 7–8. Several fishermen claimed to have caught the "Jersey man-eater" in the days following the attacks. A blue shark was captured on July 14 1916 near Long Branch, and four days later the same Thomas Cottrell who had seen the shark in Matawan Creek claimed to have captured a sandbar shark with a gillnet near the mouth of the creek.Fernicola, Twelve Days of Terror, pp. 144–145.

On July 14, Harlem Taxidermy and Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus Lion taming Michael Schleisser caught a 7.5 foot (2.3 m), 325 pound (147 kg) shark while fishing in Raritan Bay only a few miles from the mouth of Matawan Creek. The shark nearly sank the boat before Schleisser killed it with a broken oar. When he opened the shark's belly, he removed a "suspicious fleshy material and bones" that took up "about two-thirds of a milk crate" and "together weighed fifteen pounds."Fernicola, Twelve Days of Terror, p. 151–156. Scientists identified the shark as a young great white and the ingested remains as human.Fernicola, Twelve Days of Terror, p. 163. Schleisser mounted the shark and placed it on display in the window of a Manhattan shop on Broadway (New York City) but it was later lost. The only surviving photograph appeared in the Bronx Home News.Fernicola, Twelve Days of Terror, pp. 163–164.

No further attacks were reported along the Jersey Shore in the summer of 1916 after the capture of Schleisser's shark. Murphy and Lucas declared the great white to be the "Jersey man-eater".Capuzzo, Close to Shore, pp. 296–297; Fernicola, Twelve Days of Terror, p. 179. Skeptical individuals, however, offered alternate hypotheses. In a letter to The New York Times, Barrett P. Smith of Sound Beach, New York wrote:

Another letter to The New York Times blamed the shark infestation on the maneuvers of German Empire U-boats near America's East Coast. The anonymous writer claimed, "These sharks may have devoured human bodies in the waters of the German war zone and followed Ocean liner to this coast, or even followed the Deutschland (1916) 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."A. M. E., "Sharks and Submarines," The New York Times, July 15, 1916, p. 8.

Decades later, there is no consensus among researchers over Murphy and Lucas's investigation and findings. Richard G. Fernicola published two studies of the event, and notes that "there are many theories behind the New Jersey attacks," and all are inconclusive.Fernicola, Twelve Days of Terror, p. 184. Researchers such as Thomas Helm, Harold W. McCormick, Thomas B. Allen (author), William Young, Jean Campbell Butler, and Michael Capuzzo generally agree with Murphy and Lucas.Thomas Helm, Shark!: Unpredictable Killer of the Sea (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1962), ; Harold W. McCormick, Thomas B. Allen, and William Young, Shadows in the Sea: The Sharks, Skates, and Rays (Philadelphia: Chilton Books, 1963), ; Jean Campbell Butler, Danger, Shark! (Boston: Little, Brown, 1964), ; for a summary of these researchers' findings, see Fernicola, Twelve Days of Terror, pp. 179–180. However, the National Geographic Society reported in 2002 that "some experts are suggesting that the great white may not in fact be responsible for many of the attacks pinned on the species. These people say the real culprit behind many of the reported incidents—including the famous 1916 shark attacks in New Jersey that may have served as inspiration for Jaws—may be the lesser known bull shark."Brian Handwerk, "Great Whites May Be Taking the Rap for Bull Shark Attacks," August 2, 2002, National Geographic News; last accessed July 29 2007.

Biologists George A. Llano and Richard Ellis (biologist) suggest that a bull shark could have been responsible for the Jersey Shore attacks. Bull sharks swim from the ocean into freshwater rivers and streams and have attacked people around the world. In his book Sharks: Attacks on Man (1975), Llano writes,

Ellis points out that the great white "is an oceanic species, and Schleisser's shark was caught in the ocean. To find it swimming in a tidal creek is, to say the least, unusual, and may even be impossible. The bull shark, however, is infamous for its freshwater meanderings, as well as for its pugnacious and aggressive nature." He admits that "the bull shark is not a common species in New Jersey waters, but it does occur more frequently than the white."Richard Ellis, The Book of Sharks (San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1983), p. 186, ISBN 0-15-613552-3.

In an interview with Michael Capuzzo, ichthyologist George H. Burgess surmises, "The species involved has always been doubtful and likely will continue to generate spirited debate." Burgess, however, does not discount the great white:

The casualties of the 1916 attacks are listed in the International Shark Attack File—of which Burgess is director—as victims of a great white.See the graphic map, "1916–2006 United States (incl. Hawaii) Confirmed Unprovoked Attacks by White Sharks", International Shark Attack File; last accessed July 28 2007.

The increased presence of humans in the water proved a factor in the attacks: "As the worldwide human population continues to rise year after year, so does … interest in aquatic recreation. The number of shark attacks in any given year or region is highly influenced by the number of people entering the water."George Burgess, "The Relative Risk of Shark Attacks to Humans: More People Mean More Attacks," International Shark Attack File; last accessed July 31 2007. However, the likelihood that one shark was involved is contested. Scientists such as Victor M. Coppleson and Jean Butler, relying on evidence presented by Lucas and Murphy in 1916, assert that a single shark was the attacker.Victor M. Coppleson, Shark Attack (Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1959) OCLC 1547643, and Butler, Danger, Shark!, both cited in Fernicola, Twelve Days of Terror, p. 248. On the other hand, Richard Fernicola notes that 1916 was a "shark year" as fishermen and captains were reporting hundreds of sharks swimming in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States.Fernicola, Twelve Days of Terror, pp. 229–231. Ellis remarks that "to try to make the facts as we know them conform to the 'rogue shark' theory is stretching sensationalism and credibility beyond reasonable limits." He admits, "The evidence is long gone, and we will never really know if it was one shark or several, one species or another, that was responsible."Ellis, Book of Sharks, p. 187.

Revising science Before 1916, American scholars doubted that sharks would attack a living person in the temperate waters of the United States 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.Frederic Lucas, quoted in Fernicola, Twelve Days of Terror, p. xxix. In 1891, millionaire banker and adventurer Hermann Oelrichs offered a $500 reward in the The New York Sun (historical) "for an authenticated case of a man having been attacked by a shark in temperate waters" north of Cape Hatteras.Hermann Oelrichs, quoted in Fernicola, Twelve Days of Terror, p. xxv. He wanted proof that "in temperate waters even one man, woman, or child, while alive, was ever attacked by a shark."Oelrichs, quoted in Capuzzo, Close to Shore, p. 22. The reward went unclaimed and scientists remained convinced that America's East Coast was inhabited by harmless sharks.Fernicola, Twelve Days of Terror, xxv.Capuzzo, Close to Shore, p. 26.

in New York City debated the threat posed by sharks before and after the 1916 Jersey Shore attacks.

Academics were skeptical that a shark could produce fatal wounds on human victims. Ichthyologist Henry Weed Fowler and curator Henry Skinner of the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia asserted that a shark's mandible did not have the power to sever a human leg in a single bite.Fernicola, Twelve Days of Terror, pp. xxvi–xxviii. Frederic Lucas, director of the American Museum of Natural History, questioned whether a shark as large as 30 feet (9 m) could snap a human bone. He told the Philadelphia Inquirer in early 1916 that "it is beyond the power even of the largest Great white shark 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."Frederic Lucas, quoted in Fernicola, Twelve Days of Terror, p. xxx.

The Jersey Shore attacks compelled scientists in the United States to revise their assumptions that sharks were timid and powerless. In July 1916, ichthyologist and editor for the National Geographic Society Hugh McCormick Smith published an article in the The Star-Ledger describing some shark species as "harmless as doves and others the incarnation of ferocity." He continued, "One of the most prodigious, and perhaps the most formidable of sharks is the man-eater, great white shark. It roams through all temperate and tropical seas, and everywhere is an object of dread. Its maximum length is forty feet and its teeth are three inches long."Hugh M. Smith, "Great Shark May Have Swallowed Jonah: Scientist Shows Biblical 'Great Fish' Has Counterpart in Present-Day Monster," Newark Star-Eagle, quoted in Fernicola, Twelve Days of Terror, p. 160.

By the end of July 1916, John Nichols and Robert Murphy were taking the great white more seriously. In Scientific American, Murphy wrote that the "white shark is perhaps the rarest of all noteworthy sharks … their habits are little known, but they are said to feed to some extent on big sea turtles … Judging from its physical make-up, it would not hesitate to attack a man in open water." He concluded that "because it is evident that even a relatively small white shark, weighing two or three hundred pounds, might readily snap the largest human bones by a jerk of its body, after it has bitten through the flesh."Murphy, Scientific American, July 1916, quoted in Fernicola, Twelve Days of Terror, 171.

Robert Murphy and John Nichols wrote in October 1916:

After the Matawan attacks, Frederic Lucas admitted on the front page of The New York Times that he had underestimated sharks. The paper reported that "the foremost authority on sharks in this country has doubted that any shark ever attacked a human being, and has published his doubts, but the recent cases have changed his view."

Cultural impact While sharks had been seen as harmless, the pendulum of public opinion quickly swung to the other extreme, and sharks quickly came to be viewed not only as eating machines, but also as fearless, ruthless killers. That shark attack has been debunked, albeit only partially, in recent years.

After the first attack, Editorial cartoon began using sharks as caricatures for political figures, German U-boats, Victorian morality and Victorian fashion, polio, and the deadly heat wave threatening the Northeast. Fernicola notes, "Since 1916 was among the years that Americans were trying to break away from the rigidity and conservatism of the Victorian era, one comic depicted a risqué polka-dot bathing suit and advertised it as the secret weapon to keep sharks away from our swimmers." Another cartoon depicted "an exasperated individual at the end of a dock that displays a DANGER: NO SWIMMING sign and mentions the three most emphasized 'danger' topics of the day: 'Infantile Paralysis (polio), Epidemic Heat Wave, and Sharks in the Ocean'." The cartoon is entitled "What's a Family Man to Do?"Fernicola, Twelve Days of Terror, p. 27. With America's growing distrust of German Empire in 1916, cartoonists depicted U-boats with the mouth and fins of a shark assaulting Uncle Sam while he wades in the water.Fernicola, Twelve Days of Terror, p. 33.

In 1974, writer Peter Benchley published Peter Benchley#Jaws, a novel about a rogue great white shark that terrorizes the fictional coastal community of Amity Island. Chief of police Martin Brody, biologist Matt Hooper, and fisherman Quint (Jaws character) hunt the shark after it kills four people. The novel was adapted as the film Jaws (film) by Steven Spielberg in 1975. Spielberg's film references the attacks: Brody (Roy Scheider) and Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss) urge Amity's Mayor Vaughn (Murray Hamilton) to close the beaches on the Independence Day (United States) after the deaths of two swimmers and a fisherman. Hooper explains to the mayor, "Look, the situation is that apparently a great white shark has staked a claim in the waters off Amity Island. And he's going to continue to feed here as long as there is food in the water." Brody adds, "And there's no limit to what he's gonna do! I mean we've already had three incidents, two people killed inside of a week. And it's gonna happen again, it happened before! The Jersey beach! … 1916! Five people chewed up on the surf!"Jaws, dir. Steven Spielberg (Universal Pictures, 1975). Richard Ellis, Richard Fernicola, and Michael Capuzzo suggest that the 1916 Jersey Shore attacks, Coppleson's rogue shark theory, and the exploits of New York fisherman Frank Mundus inspired Benchley.Ellis, Book of Sharks, p. 209; Fernicola, Twelve Days of Terror, p. 180; Capuzzo, Close to Shore, p. 297. The attacks are also briefly referenced in Benchley's novel White Shark (1994).Peter Benchley, White Shark (New York: St. Martin's, 1994), p. 51, ISBN 0-312-95573-1.

The 1916 attacks are the 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). Capuzzo offers an in-depth dramatization of the incident, and Fernicola examines the scientific, medical, and social aspects of the attacks.Adam Dunn, "Review: A biting history on the roots of 'Jaws'," review of Close to Shore, CNN.com; last accessed July 28 2007.Lane Hartill, "My, what nice teeth you have," The Christian Science Monitor, June 21, 2001, p. 16. Fernicola's research is the basis of an episode of the The History Channel's documentary film series In Search of... titled Shark Attack 1916 (2001) and the Discovery Channel's docudrama 12 Days of Terror (2004).Shark Attack 1916, dir. David Ackroyd, In Search of … (A&E Television, 2001).12 Days of Terror, dir. Jack Sholder (Discovery Fox Television, 2004). Fernicola also wrote and directed a 90-minute documentary called Tracking the Jersey Man-Eater. It was produced by the George Marine Library in 1991; however, it was never widely released and is no longer available.Tracking the Jersey Man-Eater, dir. Richarg G. Fernicola (George Marine Library, 1991). The attacks at Matawan are the subject of the National Geographic Channel documentary Attacks of the Mystery Shark (2002), which examines the possibility that a bull shark was responsible for killing Stanley Fisher and Lester Stillwell.

Notes Further reading

External links



 

Jersey Shore Shark Attacks Of 1916



 
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