The ‘real’ Jaws...
The summer of 1916 on the eastern United States was extraordinarily hot. This, along with a growing polio epidemic, sent many Americans to seek refuge at breezy seaside resorts.
On July 1st, 1916, the Jersey Shore was experiencing a huge influx of tourists. There was also another visitor to the waters, just off the coastline. Over the next two weeks a shark, or sharks (to this day there is no conclusive evidence either way) would leave four people dead and one severely injured, all in a small geographical area.
The Jersey Shore shark attacks from July 1st to the 12th, 1916 were used as a template for Peter Benchley’s seminal book, and the subsequent movie, Jaws.
The first attack occurred on July 1st in the resort town of Beach Haven. Located on the southern coast of New Jersey, Beach Haven is situated on Long Beach Island roughly twenty miles north of Atlantic City.
Charles Vansant, a twenty-five year old resident of Philadelphia was holidaying with his family when he decided to go for a swim while his dog played on the beach (shades of the dog, Pippet, in the movie, Jaws].
Charles began screaming and many beachgoers confused thought he was yelling at his dog, while actually a shark was chewing his legs. A lifeguard quickly came to his rescue and pulled him out of the water but the flesh had been completely ripped off of his left thigh. Charles was carried into a beach hotel where he bled to death on the hotel manager’s desk.
Despite the attack and sightings of swarms of sharks off of the New Jersey coast, the beaches stayed open (again, like the movie). On July 6th the second attack occurred when Charles Bruder, a bellman from The Essex Hotel, Spring Lake, New Jersey, was swimming just over 100 yards from shore.
A shark bit him in the abdomen and then ripped off both of his legs. Lifeguards retrieved his remains but he was dead before they reached shore. The attack occurred forty-five miles north of the first attack.
The next two attacks occurred in the most unlikely of spots. Matawan Creek, located near the town of Keyport, New Jersey, was not a seaside resort and was miles inland from the ocean. On July 12th, several local boys were swimming in the creek, despite previous reports that a large shark had been spotted in the nearby freshwater.
As the boys swam, they spotted a shark’s dorsal fin. All but one of the boys was able to escape the water. Eleven-year-old Lester Stillwell was pulled under.
His friends quickly ran to town to get help. Among those who returned to help was twenty-four-year-old Watson Fisher. Believing the epileptic Lester had drowned after suffering a seizure, Watson jumped into the water to recover his body. Watson was immediately set upon by the shark in full sight of his fellow rescuers. Watson’s thigh was severely mangled, and he would later bleed to death at the hospital. Lester’s body was recovered two days later about 150 feet upstream from where he was attacked.
The final attack occurred 30 minutes after the Watson and Lester attack and a half-mile away. Fourteen-year-old Joseph Dunn, from New York City was swimming with his brother when a shark grabbed hold of his leg. His brother managed to pull him out of the shark’s grasp. Unlike the other victims, Joseph would recover, despite losing his leg.
Several theories circulated regarding the man-eater responsible for this series of attacks, including the theory of a single rogue shark swimming it’s way northward, a la ‘Jaws’. Several fishermen claimed to have caught the culprit including a blue shark caught July 14th near the final attacks (blue sharks are notoriously shy fish) and a sandbar shark (similar profile, shy and not a ‘man eater’) caught four days later near the mouth of Matawan Creek.
Matawan Creek bridge...
‘Jaws’ estuary attack bridge...
Fisherman Michael Schleisser also pulled an 8-foot great white shark out of the water, claiming it nearly took down his boat in the process (Quint?).
Cutting open the great white, they found suspicious bones and viscera. Although others speculate that there was more than one shark and that a bull shark carried out the attacks in Matawan Creek. Swimming in the ocean in 1916 was a relatively new pastime for Americans at the time. The attacks stirred a massive shark hunt which many believe to be the largest animal hunt in history.
Although Benchley never made a direct connection between his 1974 novel and the shark attacks of 1916, Spielberg (Jaws’ director) did reference them a number of times in this film, specifically Chief Brody’s line, “And it’s going to happen again, it happened before! The Jersey Beach, 1916. Five people chewed up on the surf!”
Just like the attacks of 1916, Spielberg’s 1975 film instilled a universal (excuse the pun) fear of sharks, in spite of how infrequently attacks actually occur.
Anyway, just a thought. Certainly enough material that if either Benchley or Spielberg had wanted to, they could have legitimately claimed that Jaws, unlikely as it seems, was “based on a true story...”
