In 1916, the shark took America by storm.
July 1st, 1916, a beautiful day all along the American Atlantic coast, and New Jersey is no exception. At some point in the early afternoon, Charles Van Sant arrived at Beach Haven resort N.J. and decided to head straight into the water to cool off after a long train ride.
He was a strong swimmer, and he swam out to a point about one hundred yards offshore. It was not until he turned to swim back to shore that spectators on the beach noticed an ominous shadow cruising in the surf behind him. By the time anyone could yell a warning to him, the shark had latched onto his legs, and he was pulled under amisdt a pool of blood.
As fate would have it, a member of the U.S. Olympic swim team, Alexander Ott, was on the beach that day, and he quickly went out to aid Van Sant. Ott kicked at the shark until it let go of Van Sant's mangled leg, and dragged him back to shore.Sadly, despite the heroic efforts of his rescuer, Van Sant did not survive his wounds, dying on the beach shortly after the attack.
Imediately the papers began reporting of the attack, as noone could ever remember a case of a shark attacking a man. It was simply unheard of before that time. Remember that sharks were known mostly to sailors and those close to the sea. It was generally 'known' that a shark would attack a dead body, but never a live, active swimmer. Thus the attack on Mr. Van Sant was dismissed as a 'large fish' by many so-called experts in the field. Five days later the popular theory of sharks was about to be put to the test.
Forty-five miles south of Beach Haven is a little resort community of Spring Lake. The popular and ever friendly waiter Charles Bruder went for a swim after work on July 6th.
He was known to be a good swimmer, so nobody paid much attention to him as he swam out past the breakers. A short time later, a woman was heard screaming, "The man in the red canoe has upset!" Two lifeguards, George White and Chris Anderson, ran towards their boat, for they knew it was not an upset canoe that was seen, it was a shark in a pool of blood. As soon as the men reached the area where Bruder went under, he submerged, allowing the lifeguards to pull him towards the boat. Before he could be pulled in, he gasped, "Shark got me....bit my legs off..." Bruder, just as in the Van Sant case, died on the beach from his wounds.
By now, the news of the attacks was picking up a bit more momentum, so much so that many beaches along the New Jersey coast had to close either from closed beaches, or simply no guests. People were starting to finally notice the shark. Beaches all up and down the Atlantic coast were deserted. As far as most were concerned, the shark was a 'madman', and noone wanted to take any chances.
This is when the story takes a historic turn, making this the most famous story of shark attack in recorded history.
Mattawan Creek is roughly twenty miles north of Spring Lake, nesseled inside Raritan Bay, the creek being the runoff point. On July 12th, a retired sea captain ran into Mattawan screaming that while crossing a bridge over the creek, he had seen a large shark swimming upstream towards town, and a few swimming spots for kids. Needless to say, his words were not taken too seriously, Mattawan being some ten miles from the open ocean. He was laughed out of town.
A little after noon that day, a group of kids went to an abandoned steamer pier to go for a quick swim. Among them was 10 year old Lester Stilwell.
The boys played in the creek on a regular basis, coming here after work at the local factory (In those days, it was not uncommon for a ten year old boy to work in a factory). As they continued to play around in the shallows, Lester was heard to say "hey guys, watch me float!". As soon as the words came out of his mouth, one of the boys felt a hard 'bump' from some large thing in the water, and looked down to see the shark move right towards Lester. In front of the horrified eyes of the boys, the shark grabbed Lester around the chest and dragged him under the water.
The boys ran into town screaming of the shark attack and of the disapearance on Lester Stilwell. Soon, townsfolk were running down the country road to try and help out as best they could. Stanley Fisher, a local businessman, bravely swam out to the spot the boys had seen Lester go under. Stan made a number of dives to the bottom, searching the deeper parts of the creek. Arthur Van Buskirk, the local deputy, was in his boat, searching from the surface, when there was great thrashing and an ever-widening blood stain in the waters on the far shore of the creek. No sooner did he get to the spot, Stanley Fisher appeared in the middle of the commotion.The deputy helped him into the boat, and was horrified by what he saw. Stanleys left leg was missing all the flesh and muscle from the knee to the groin. On the shore, Stanley was able to state what happened. On the bottom of Mattawan creek, He had found Lester in the jaws of the shark, and attempted to wrestle his body from the beast. Stanley Fisher died from his wounds. Lester Stilwell was never found.
Townspeople immediately were sucumb by a feeling of deep sadness, and extreme anger. Many took to boats to find and kill the shark. The bottom of the creek was closed off to prevent the sharks escape back to sea. At one spot, a group of men was setting up dynomite in hopes of blasting th animal to bits. Just before they could get the last charge set, a boat came rushing down the creek, in it, a young boy named Joseph Dunn, yet ANOTHER victim of the now named, Jersey Maneater. Joseph was swimming about a mile and a half upstream. As him and some other boys were swimming, someone saw the shark aproaching and warned them out of the water. Joseph was climbing the ladder to dock when the shark grabbed a hold of his leg. With the help of the others he escaped the sharks' jaws, and has since recovered from his wounds.
After eleven days, the 'Jersey Maneater' had taken four lives, and injured another.
There have been many theories put forward about the above account, the most important point being whether these attacks were committed by a single shark. The shark that attacked the bathers in Mattawan creek was most definately one shark. A large great white was caught in Raritan bay with fifteen lbs of human flesh in it's stomach. Although the parts were never identified, it was generally assumed that this was the Maneater.
The two attacks on the coast of New Jersey may be completely unrelated to the Mattawan incident. We will never be sure. The theory of the 'rogue shark' was put forward by Dr. Victor Coppelson while he was trying to explain a rash of attacks off the Australian coast. He states a rogue is " a killer which, having experienced the deadly sport of killing or mauling a human, goes in search of similar game".
I propose a new theory. Weather patterns that summer may have influenced the normally ocean going sharks in to shore to hunt. This has been known to happen. Therefore, more sharks closer to bathers, posing perhaps a more likely scenario where one is more likely to be injured. This would explain the attacks on Mr. Van Sant and Mr. Bruder on the N.J. coast, therfore I believe these two cases to be no more than unlikely coincedence. The Mattawan attacks were almost positively done by one shark. This shark however, had entered a shallow creek, effectively cutting off his own food supply. The only living things in this small creek were tiny fish, and unfortunately, humans. This may account for the seemingly viciousness of the shark.
Sadly, we will never truly know what happened that hot summer in 1916.