The summer of 1916 was a time when Americans were concerned with politics and war. The Great War was raging in Europe.
Pancho Villa led the Mexican revolution in New Mexico, and U.S. Marines invaded the Dominican Republic.
So, as July 1916 began, people were looking forward to a relaxing summer that would give them a reprieve from the concerns of war.
On July 1, a young stockbroker taking a short holiday with his family on the Jersey Shore stepped onto the beach for a swim before dinner.
He didn’t know that it would be the last few hours of his life, and he would start a hysteria along the East Coast that would eventually inspire Peter Benchley to write his novel, Jaws.
The Summer of the Shark Begins
In 1916, sharks were seen as harmless fish unless provoked. Scientists and researchers backed this up when they published a scientific bulletin on shark behavior that same year.
The bulletin assuaged the public fear of shark attacks and noted that there had been none on the East Coast. So, as Charles Vansant swam in the waters of Beach Haven, he was not concerned about anything, least of all sharks.
He had been playing with a dog in the area before he went into the water. So when some beachgoers heard him cry out, they thought he was calling for his dog.
But when a lifeguard saw him struggling to stay afloat, the lifeguard swam out and grabbed Vansant.
As he dragged him out of the water, horrified witnesses saw his legs and thigh were missing.
They took him to the hotel’s front desk to call for medical assistance while the staff tried to control the bleeding.
After two hours, Vansant bled to death at the hotel front desk. He was only 28 years old.
As the horrible news spread, many found the story unbelievable and refused to accept it. Those who believed it called it a freak accident. They thought it was a once-in-a-lifetime incident that would not happen again anytime soon.
Unsurprisingly, many people went back to their summertime habits. They strolled the beaches and enjoyed the cool refreshing waters of the Jersey Shore. But unbeknownst to them, another attack would happen several miles north of the well-to-do area of Beach Haven.
The Second Victim
Spring Lake was another popular area for beachgoers on the Jersey Shore. Just 45 miles away from Beach Haven, the area had many resorts and hotels. On July 6, Swiss immigrant Charles Bruder, a bellboy in the nearby Essex and Sussex Hotel, was taking his break.
He went in the water with his friends and swam away from his group, going beyond the lifelines set up by the lifeguards.
Soon, people on the shore were screaming because there was a long strip of red in the water. It looked like the hull of an upturned canoe, so two lifeguards took a boat and rowed out to the area.
As they approached Bruder, the lifeguards realized there was no boat, and the red color was Bruder’s blood. The young man was struggling to stay afloat. He screamed to the lifeguards that a shark had attacked him
.
They grabbed Bruder’s arms and pulled him up, only to find that both his legs below the knees were gone. The young man was also losing a lot of blood, so the lifeguards quickly rowed to bring him ashore.
Bruder died before reaching the shore. Terrified beachgoers panicked when they saw the young man on the beach. Afraid, many quickly bolted out of the water.
This time, the public reaction was panic and hysteria. Many people were afraid to go to the beach even though resorts and hotels promised them the security of anti-shark barriers and coastline watches to warn them of the presence of sharks.
Everyone, even the scientists, was confused as to the strange behavior of the shark or sharks. If it was a group of sharks, it was unheard of that they would attack people. Most man-eating sharks, such as the great white and the tiger shark, were solitary and often did not hunt in groups. Many sharks in the area were also largely not man-eaters.
So, was it possible that only one shark was attacking people? This question would soon be answered in the small town of Matawan.
