1916 New Jersey Shark Attacks Part 1

As thousands flocked to the Jersey shore in the summer of 1916 none could anticipate the horrors that awaited them. At least in part because no one at the time believed that sharks were dangerous. Indeed never before in American history was their an officially recorded incident of a shark attacking a person. That however would change when over the span of 12 days 5 people would be attacked by a shark or sharks. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
My name is Aric Gaskell, and you're listening to the
Distorted History podcast and program I can't give you Mary
Nails and Joy and Blunder. Hey, look, I'm Raisling. I'm

(00:23):
got the Bara. A long struggle for freedom. It really
is a revolution. Our tale starts on the first of
July nineteen sixteen on Long Beach Island, about twenty miles
north of Atlantic City off the New Jersey Coast. More specifically,

(00:47):
our focuses on the summer resort town of beech Even,
a place known for spristine Whore's low lying dunes and
it's welcoming boardwalk for visitors to stroll along, taking in
the views as they enjoy the cool sea breeze. Features.
Dunning's exactly known among Jersey resort towns of the time,
but what made Beechaven unique was by being located on
Long Beach Island, it was even further separated from the

(01:08):
hustle and bustle of everyday life as it sat some
five miles out at sea, a location chosen specifically for
this purpose by archellis Ridgeway Farrow, the founder of the
Tuckerton Railway. Beach Haven then soon after its founding would
become the home of fancy hotels at the Perry House,
the Bay View House in the Ingleside Hotel, and with
such accommodations, it wasn't long before the resort to became

(01:30):
a favorite vacation spot for residents of South Jersey and Pennsylvania.
Nineteen sixteen in particular, looked to Bean especially portentious here
for the seaside community is not only were their new
express trains running from Philadelphia to beech Haven, shortening the
travel time to under two hours, but they were also
in the midst of widening and lengthening their boardwalk, all

(01:50):
of which was practically guaranteed to make the resort community
all that much more attractive to visitors. Indeed, the fourth
of July weekend saw all of beech Haven's hotels fully
blood plus since the fourth fell on a Tuesday that year,
it meant that the holiday weekend would be extended. The
first of July then was the official start of the weekend,
as it fell on a Saturday, and among the thousands

(02:11):
of visitors flocking down to the shore that weekend was
Charles Apting van Zandt, the twenty five year old son
of an old and prominent Philadelphia family, the van Zandt
family u see, had long roots in the city, which
in and of itself put them in rarefied company. This
long family lineage, in fact ensuring a place for Charles
and his father among the ranks of elite groups like
the Society of Founders and the Patriots of America. Which

(02:34):
is not to say that they weren't without accomplishments on
their own, as Charles's father, doctor Eugene van Zandt, for example,
was a prominent Nosen third physician. As for the young
twenty five year old Charles, he had been a notable
student at the University of Pennsylvania, as he had been
a member of the school's glee club in addition to
being the business manager of the school's paper, as well
as being on both the varsity golf and junior varsity

(02:56):
baseball teams. Then, since graduating from the Pristige Just School,
Charles had taken a job at the full Well Brothers
brokerage firm in Philadelphia, where he was described as being tall,
dark haired, and handsome, as well as being a man
of quote unusual promise with an exceptionally winning personality and
charm of a manner which brought him many friends and admirers.
Philadelphia then was the vans And family home, but on

(03:19):
the summer weekend it was decided that they would flee
the city so as to escape the heat. Now, if
you are unfamiliar with the region, despite nominally being in
the northeast, the area around Philadelphia in the summer can
be crushingly hot and even more importantly, oppressively humid for
extended periods of time. Indeed, on the Dane question, the
temperature in Philly was close to ninety degrees. The thing

(03:41):
was even in those days before the widespread availability of
air conditioning. Relief was still possible, as down by the
shore the temperature was just seventy eight degrees. Charles's father,
Dot Eugene van Zandt, was especially in need of a
vacation at this point, and not just because of the heat.
As you see, the Taalkny American Miracles Jociation at the
time was focused on sending up preparedness camps so as

(04:03):
to train American doctors for field service should the country
join the war that was currently raging in Europe, a
conflict in which all the horrors of modern weaponry were
unleashed against men using generations old tactics, a conflict in
which doctor van Zan was too old to take pardon,
but one in which his son was still very much
of age to face those horrors. That, however, wouldn't have

(04:25):
been the only thing on doctor van Zan's mind that summer,
as there was also the news of the polio epidemic
that was currently raging in New York City, which was
far too close for comfort. Indeed, the doctor had a
history of treating such cases, and thus he knew how
terrible it could be, as sore thoats, headaches, fever, and
nausea could progress to paralysis of the limbs and even

(04:45):
the muscles of the larynx, a development which would lead
to death by asphyxiation. This, then, was a horrifying disease
to deal with, especially since doctors were largely helpless to
do anything about it until vaccines were developed in the
nineteen fifties. Surprisingly, then, doctor van Zant not only needed
a break from dealing with such thoughts himself, but even

(05:05):
more importantly, he wanted to get his daughter's twenty two
year old Mary Eugenia, seventeen year old Louise, and eleven
year old Eleanor to someplace safer than the city, as
cities in general warm believed of being environments that supported
and helped to spread diseases like polio, in contrast to
the cool breezes of the shore, which were in turn
believed to help treat or prevent such illnesses. The Van

(05:27):
Santz then arrived on Long Beach on the Number eight
train on the afternoon of the first a ride that
both father and son fully expected to undertake quite a
bit that summer, as he anticipated traveling by this express
train from their jobs in the city to the shore
with some frequency. Seeing a sui to our ride made
it more convenient than ever to escape the heat of
the city with more irregularity, while the women in a

(05:48):
family like Charles's mother and his sister's Eugenia, Louise and
Eleanor would remain in the resort community where it would
be both cooler and presumably safer. Upon just embarking from
the train, the van Sande family had for the Ingleside Hotel,
a four story structure complete with a grand spire that
was covered with Boer leaves of ocean waves, which was
probably the grandest of the island's hotels. It was late

(06:10):
in the afternoon then when the family checked in, but
they still had time to kill before their evening meal,
as the Beachhaven Hotel only served dinner at six thirty
and eight. During this downtime, Charles asked if his sister
Luise would join him on a walk along the beach
so as to pass some time, during which Charles intended
to take a pre dinner dip into the ocean, as
was customary among the young men of his age. As

(06:31):
you see, going into the ocean was seen as a
manly thing to do. Indeed, it was practically expected that
young men would take a dip in the ocean at
least once every day they were on vacation at the shore,
regardless all the weather or the temperature of the water. Charles, then,
after slipping into his customary swim tights in one of
the bath houses that line the boardwalk for exactly that purpose,
began making his way across the sand to the ocean.

(06:54):
Along the way, the young men happened to come across
a friendly Chesapeake Bay retriever who was all too willing
to keep him company. While Charles, for his part, was
just as drawn to the dog as it was to him,
as he had grown up having dogs his pets, and
he longed to have one again, so the chance to
play with his friendly Popper was not an offer he
was about to pass up. On the way to the shoreline,

(07:15):
Charles also paused to wave to Alexander at the lifeguard
on duty, who he was apparently friends with. Alexander was
likely a reassuring presence for many of the people cooling
off in the surf, as he had been a member
of the nineteen ten Olympic swim team and since that
time he had become a regular site on the Jersey
shore as he had been serving as a lifeguard there
for several summers at this point. Now, Alexander was nearing

(07:39):
the end of his shift that day, but he was
not off duty quite yet, so other than waving back
to his friend, he kept his eyes focused on the
people bobbing in the waves. Meanwhile, as Charles was just
starting to wait into the surf, his father, doctor van Zandt,
and his sister Louise arrived to watch him near the
lifeguard stand. Everything then was perfectly fine and normal for

(07:59):
several months as they watched a young twenty five year
old with so much promise and so much life ahead
of him, playing the surf with the retriever he had
just met, acting much like the boy had been not
all that long ago. After a few minutes of this
playful exercise, Charles made the decision to swim up past
the lifeline that the nervous bathers could cling to for support.

(08:19):
As he did so, though it has to be said
that the winter out there was still only chest deep.
His new friend, however, had no interest following Charles any
deeper into the waves. Indeed, as Charles called down in
an attempt to encourage his new K nine pal to
follow him and continue their playful fun, the dog opted
to retreat back to the beach. As he did so,
seemingly no one paid much attention to Charles's shouts at

(08:42):
this point. That being said, there were apparently some people
on the shore who were paying attention to a strange
dark object in the witters just beyond the surf, an
object that, as it came closer, took on the shape
of a black fin, a black fin that appeared to
be heading straight for the young man who was now
standing beyond the lifeline, still calling for the dog as
he tried to get it to come out and play

(09:02):
with him some more. Now, at first glance, his fin
might as seemed like that of a porpoise, a fairly
common sight in the waters along the Jersey coast. However,
as his fin drew ever closer, it became apparent that
this was something different. The people then, who were following
the progress on this ominous site, soon started shining themselves
as they tried to get Charles's attention to alert him

(09:23):
all the danger that seemed to be heading straight for him. Charles, however,
did not seem to hear them, possibly because, as he
began to swim back the shore of his own accord,
his head was turning in and out of the water,
thereby limiting his ability to hear anything. The young man, though,
had not yet made it back to the life long
when all of a sudden his shatza had previously been
directed that the dog took on a much different tone

(09:45):
as he increased in both volume and pitch. When some
fifty large and s rated teeth dug into his leg
above the knee, Charles, who at this point was still
some fifty yards away from the shore, screamed and splashed
about frantically as he tried to escape his invisible assailant,
while at the same time the winners all around him
took on a noticeable and ominous red hue. And was

(10:07):
at this point that even more people along the shoreline
realized that something was truly wrong. As one Philadelphia businessman
who was on the beach that day would later recall, quote,
we thought he was joking until we saw the blood
red in the water. Meanwhile, Charles's sister Louise, who was
watching on from beside the lifeguard stand, would later recall
these moments vividly, as she recounted quote, everyone was horrified

(10:29):
to see my brother fashion about in the water as
if he were struggling with some monster under the surface.
He fought desperately, and as we rushed toward him, we
could see great quantities of blood. Among those who took
notice of Charles when he came within forty yards of
the shoreline was Alexander Aunt, the lifeguard on duty and
Charles's friend. As he did, unlike the others, immediately recognized

(10:49):
that something was very wrong and that Charles was in
serious danger. At this Alexander took off across the beach
sprinting straight from the man, who was increasingly surrounded by
a crimson water, then dove into the surf without a
single thought for his own safety as he tried to
rescue the young man. Alexander then somehow matted to bring
the panicked and flailing Charles close to the shore, doing

(11:10):
so while, according to at least semi witnesses, the shark
continued its attack on the young man, as it appeared
to some to still be attached to Charles's thigh. Indeed,
according to W. K. Barkley, who saw everything transpiring from
the beach, the shark did not let the young man
go until its belly was scraping the sandy bottom, a
tale apparently confirmed by Alexander Odd himself, as he would

(11:31):
later tell a son of how when he was rescuing
a friend from a shark attack, Throughout the time he
was hauling his friend back to the shore, the shark
remained right next to them, swimming through the pull of
blood all the way to the beach, suggesting that even
if the shark was not still actively attached to Charles,
and at the very least remained nearby, potentially winning to
attack again. Regardless, his aunt finally managed to pull Charles

(11:52):
into waste. Steve Butter, a pair of local men waited
out to assist the lifeguard and lifting the twenty five
year old onto the beach, assistance which was increasingly necessary
as it was apparent that Charles was incapable of assisting
in any way, since the life was literally pouring out
of the young man. Indeed, his sister Luise would vividly
remember standing there, frozen and horrified as a large stream

(12:14):
of her brother's blood float along the sand past her feet,
because at that point, the quote terrible story was revealed
his left leg had been nearly torn off. Charles's own father,
doctor van Zant, and a medical student would quickly rush
to the wooded man's side, while Alexander Aunt, also trying
to help as best he could, grabbed and rimped the
skirt of a nearby woman's bathing suit, creating a length

(12:36):
of fabric that he then used to make a tourniquet,
which slowed the loss of blood somewhat. Unfortunately, though, it
was not enough because the wound itself was so gruesome.
As you see, a huge chunk of flesh was missing
from Charles's left thigh, leaving the bone underneath exposed. Basically,
all the flesh along the back of his leg from
his hip to his knee had been stripped off, while

(12:57):
there was also another deep gash along his right thigh
as well. Not knowing what else to do and wanted
to get him someplace more manageable than on the beach
surrounded by onlookers, Charles was carried into hotel manager Robert
fry Ingall's office at the Ingle Side Hotel, as at
least there they would have access to bandages, water and
so because yes, by this point geram theory was a thing,

(13:17):
and so they recognized the dangers of infection and the
necessity of sterilization. At the same time, though medicine still
had a long way to go. For example, they didn't
have antibiotics yet, something that was illustrated the following year
as he swine flew epidemic killed many due to secondary
bacterial pneumonia that could have been treated with antibiotics had
they existed. At the same time, while they did have antiseptics,

(13:40):
which improved a patient's chance of surviving surgery, blood transfusions
were only just becoming a thing, and they had not
yet developed any of the modern techniques of dealing with
massive blood loss and preventing the body from going into shock. Regardless,
Charles would be carried into the hotel manager's office and
laid atop the desk inside. It was here then where
doctor Herbert was Willis and doctor Joseph Neff, the former

(14:01):
director of public health in Philadelphia, joined in the efforts
to try and save the young man's life by offering
one assistance they could, with the most pressing issue, of
course being trying to find some way to stop the
blood from pumping out of the horrific wounds on his legs.
The doctor Zen did what they could do clean and
bantage of the wound, but still the bleeding continued. Meanwhile,
there was some thought of trying to get Charles to

(14:23):
the community hospital on Tom's River. However, doctor Willis quickly
came to the conclusion that there was no way that
the young man could survive the bumpy thirty mile journey
due to the amount of blood he had already lost.
As remember, these are nineteen sixteen cars that were talking about,
meaning that their shock absorbers were not what you would
call good, which was especially an issue seeing as how

(14:44):
the roads at the time were often some combination of
dirt and gravel, Plus it very much did not look
like time was on their side, seeing as how Charles
continued to lose blood in spite of their best efforts. Indeed,
it seems that the young man had passed out from
blood loss before he ever reached the shore, and he
would never regain consciousness, as he would be pronounced at
six forty five, succumbing to his wounds just an hour

(15:06):
and forty five minutes after suffering them. Charles van Zant's
death certificate would then be filled out by doctor Willis,
who would list the cause of death as quote hemorrhage
from feberal artery left side, a wound that he would
note was the result of being quote bitten by a
shark while bathing. It is then, with this official document
that Charles van Zand had the unfortunate distinction of being

(15:28):
the first person who had a shark bite listed as
the official cause of death in US history, which means,
for as exceedingly rare as such an occurrence by definition was,
there was little to no doubt for doctor Willis what
happened in the wood that day or what was responsible. Meanwhile,
Charles's father and doctor van Zand was equally convinced as
what to happened, as he would state that the quote

(15:49):
shark virtually tore at Charles's left leg from his body,
as we will see, though not everyone, for various reasons,
would be so convinced as to the identity of the
culprit of this attack. It also has to be said
that for his gruesome of a wound that Charles suffered
that summer afternoon, the tragic fact is that he was
as much a victim of the state of medicine at
the time as he was a shark. As half a

(16:10):
century later, such a wound, if treaty immediately, would be
entirely survivable thanks to modern medicinal procedures like modern techniques
and ways to deal with blood boss that prevent the
body from going at the shock, which, when combined with
faster and more reliable forms of transportation, would have made
his wounds much more survivable. Regardless, Charles van Zette was

(16:31):
now the first person to officially be killed as a
result of a shark attack in American history. This, however,
was just the first in a series of shark attacks
that would take place along the Jersey Shore that year,
a series of events which notably would go on to
provide inspiration for Peter Benchley's nineteen seventy four novel and
subsequent nineteen seventy four blockbuster movie, Jaws. Yet, before we

(16:52):
talk about the other attacks and more immediately the world
in which they took place. First, like always, I want
to acknowledge my sources for this series, which include Michael
Capuso's Close to Shore, the Terrifying Shark Attacks of nineteen sixteen,
Richard G. F Nicola's Twelve Days of Terror at Definitive
Investigation of the nineteen sixteen New Jersey Shark attacks, and
Thomas b. Allen's Shark Attacks their causes an avoidance, and

(17:16):
like always, these and any additional sources that I use
like websites, will be listed on this podcast Blue Sky
and KOFE pages. Plus for anyone who doesn't feel like
skipping through commercials, there is always an ad free feed
to subscribers at patreon dot com slash Distorted History. And
with all that being said, let's begin. Since we're discussing

(17:55):
shark attacks, the first thing we should be talking about
is sharks themselves. Shark that witnesses had seemed stubbornly attached
itself to the left thigh. A twenty five year old
Charles van Zandt, was described as being approximately nine feet
long and bluish gray or black in color, while weighing
something like five hundred pounds, a creature that the people
on the beach repoortedly first noticed due to its large

(18:16):
triangular dorsal fin that cut through the waves that the
shark pursued the young men who had placed himself all
alone past a safety line. Now, according to a sea
captain who was reportedly among the witnesses that day, the
shark in question was what he called a Spanish shark,
which would be a sand tiger shark, a type of
shark that he had never seen along the New Jersey shore.

(18:37):
That being said, it's unclear if the sea captain actually
existed or not. Ass The popular myth at the time
was that so called Spanish sharks had been driven from
the tropical waters that they normally called home by naval
bombings that were a part of the Spanish American mor As. Such,
the presence of such a shark would neatly fit in
with popular narratives and thus may have simply been the

(18:57):
creation of reporters less interested in fact and a good story.
In a potentially similar vein, the popular story about the
nineteen sixteen Jersey Shore attacks is that a singular rogue
shark was responsible. For example, Michael Carpuso, in his book
Close to Shore would write that quote, the evidence suggests
the juvenile great white, driven by necessity or insanity, was

(19:19):
deliberately stalking undesirable prey for which competition was scarce human flesh.
No sharks in history have been known to travel so
far to locate and consume so much human flesh. The shark, then,
was an aberration of some sort that did not behave
like others of its kind, and its repeated attacks and
pursuit of human prey a story that we will investigate

(19:40):
further once our tale is done. But for the moment,
let's establish the popular identity of our corpriate. While some
scientists have suggested that other types of sharks might have
been responsible, they generally accepted tell for decades has been
that a great white shark had been the culpriate, specifically
a juvenile great white. Michael Capuso takes as a step
further and close to shit, or as he presents detail

(20:01):
of a juvenile great white that had been struggled to
sustain itself under normal conditions, a situation that was only
made more dire when it was suddenly and unexpectedly due
to something like a flute current cast out of the
gulf stream that it had been following. This then lefty
creature even more desperate, as he prayed that it typically
would have hunted in the gulf stream or now nowhere
to be found, or at least pray that it had

(20:23):
grown us to hunting as a young shark that Capusa
the crimes had primarily hunted close to the surface and
thus did not think to explore the depths where prey
like great cotton poor geese could be found. Alternatively, Capusa
suggest that the shark in question might have been attacked
at some point, which in turn might have forced a
young predator to alter its behavior, regardless of the reasonless

(20:45):
loss confused or injured shark then swam close to the shore,
an area that it would have known well from its
days as a smaller shark, and which it would have
known was often abundant with prey also acting as a
potential lore for this supposed shark was the fact that
Long Beach Island, the sight of our first shark attack,
was also the home to a thriving fishing industry, with
fishermen operating a little ways off the island annually catching

(21:07):
something like ten million pounds of fish fish and often
needed to be gutted and cleaned before they could be sold,
with the byproducts of this process typically being flushed into
the waters around the island, which obviously would have served
as a powerful lure for a shark. Furthermore, it is
believed that the amount of splashing Charles van Zan hadry
portly been doing prior to the attack, as he played

(21:27):
with the dog and also as he tried to get
his attention, might have also served as a lure for
the shark, As such noise and movement would have suggested
a fairly sizable and possibly wounded prey. Plus, it seems
that the very fact that he had been swimming with
the dog might not have helped matters much either, as
according to ichthyologist George Burgess of the International Shark Attack
File Quote, the regular swimming actions of animals are extremely

(21:50):
attractive to sharks. The front Pall's Doggie paddling, creating a
maximum splash the rear legs. Bicycle paddling for rabidly moving
legs making a blending motion at these surface couldn't be
a whole lot more attractive. Indeed, the aforementioned shark attack
file is apparently filled with accounts of attacks on humans
happening when a dog is swimming nearby. Plus, Charles had

(22:10):
further made himself a tempting target by being further out
of the sea than the rest of the people bathing in
the waters of the Atlantic Ocean that afternoon. To the shark,
then here was a creature that was both alone and vulnerable,
thereby making himself the ideal target for such a predator.
Bean Walt's also been suggested that these swimsuits that were
most popularly worn during those days were a contributing factor
as well, since they in general tended to be simply

(22:31):
black in color. Granted, there were some with more interesting
designs and colors being produced, much to the disapproval of
conservative traditionalists, not the most common swimsuits of those days,
as we will see, were black, which is important because
a worldwide study of one hundred and seventy nine great
white shark attacks found that nine out of ten human
victims were wearing dark colors when they were attacked, with

(22:53):
seventy four percent of these individuals wearing black, a fact
which some beliefs suggests that the sharks mistook humans for
their normal prey, which are thus starkly colored. For example,
these people might have looked like seals, an animal that sharks,
like the Great white in particular, regularly haunt. Now sharks
in general seem to hold a special place of terror
in the human mind. Some of this comes from the
movie Jaws, which again was very much inspired by the

(23:15):
nineteen sixteen shark attacks that we are covering in this series. However,
it is also likely because we are a species that
as a whole isn't especially vulnerable to predators anymore, so
encountering a creature that is very much capable of killing
us can be especially frightening. Likely. Further adding to this
dread is the environment that one would by definition, encounter
a shark in. As such an environment is potentially just

(23:36):
as hostile to us as the attacking shark might be,
because if you're encountering a shark, you are by definition
not in your own environment, you are in its turf.
You are then any place you are not well adapted
to while it very much is, which doesn't even get
into the fact that you could very likely be intact
without ever seeing the creature attacking you. Yet, despite the

(23:57):
myriad of reasons for why we are afraid of sharks,
based upon information gathered from twenty twelve to twenty nineteen,
it's estimated that the number of sharks killed by humans
per year has gone off from seventy six million and
twenty twelve to one hundred and one million in twenty nineteen.
This despite bands in the practice of finning, where sharks
were caught only to have their fins cut off to
be used in shark fin soup before being released still

(24:20):
alive but condemned to die soon. This is because now
fishermen catch sharks and keep them so as to sell
all their meat and not just the fins, which, while
less wasteful, stall results in numerous dead sharks. This number
of deaths is especially noneable because sharks have a low
birth rate, as a gestation period can be quite long,
and they don't tend to have many pups at a time. Therefore,

(24:42):
it's hard to nearly impossible for them to bounce back
from such significant losses. In contrast, tend to at most
thirty people die annually from shark attacks. Indeed, you are
far more likely to die from things like snake bites, beastings,
in car crashes than a shark attack. In fact, you
are statistically thirty times more likely to be struck by
lightning then to be attacked by a shark. Now, when

(25:03):
shark attacks do occur, the most common type is a
hit and run variety that often take place in murky wooters,
which suggests that the person was like the mistaken for
typical shark prey, like sea turtles, seals, sea lines, or
various types of fish. These attacks are usually fairly minor,
as the injuries are typically limited to lacerations. In contrast,
the so called bomp and bite attacks are far less common.

(25:25):
These are attacks for the sharks bomp into a person
prior to making several vicious bites. As such, they don't
seem accidental, but deliberate and purposeful. Such attacks, though, are rare,
as they usually take place in deeper wooters and involve divers,
down pilots, or shipwrecked sailors. That all being said, there
is debate on the degree to which sharks do or
do not target humans. As you see the phenomenon of

(25:47):
sharks attacking just once, the hit and run style is
to some scientists, as previously mentioned, a sign that they
likely just mistook the person for another creature. The reason
they don't continue the attack after the first bite, then,
is they don't fight humans to be appealing prey, like
we either don't taste good to them, or more specifically,
we don't have the sufficient amount of fat in or
two bony to fill their needs. Not all agree with

(26:09):
this assumption, however, as others suggest, the behavior is more
indicative of the shark's hunting style. Great whites, for example,
seem to be opportunity predators. As such, it's possible that
this biden hesitate pattern is not them designing to not
continue the attack. Instead, they're simply waiting for the creature
they just bit to die more than anything. Then, according
to this hypothesis, the way that people react to getting bit,

(26:32):
the thrashing about and the like, cause the shark to
back off, not wanting to endanger itself. The shark, then,
in this theory, is content to wait until the struggling
stops to resume its attack. The reason then that we
don't see them bite multiple times is because people are
now being rescued before the sharks find it safe to
continue their attack. It is then off for debate whether
great whites, for example, are picky eaters who take exploratory

(26:54):
bites to figure out what exactly it is before them,
or if they are simply aggressive creatures at lash album violently.
That being said, even the author of Jaws, Peter Benchley,
has sought to undemonize sharks, great whites and particular as
While he doesn't so much regret the writing of the book,
he does admit that were he to rainey story today
involving an animal of any kind, it would not be

(27:15):
the villain but the victim. Still, though you can understand
his choice at the time to make a shark the
main antagonist of his book, as sharks are in some
ways a perfect predator. They are flexible and muscular, with
a tough sand pepper like high to protect themselves, all
the while also being shaped essentially like a bullet or
a torpedo so as to cut through the water. Combine

(27:35):
this with their powerful jaws capable of exerting forty two
thousand pounds of pressure, jaws that are notably filled with
throes of knife like teeth, and the fact that they
can detect one part of blood and twenty five million
parts of water, and you hand the recipe for a
terrifying creature. Indeed, it's believed that sharks can detect sense
from up to a mile away. The scent of blood, garbage, feces,
or even vomit can then attract sharks. Plus, their hearing

(27:58):
is also said to be extremely sensitive, as they can
to tact vibrations from one thousand feet away. For example,
the sound of a fish in distress or something that
may sound similar to it can summon sharks to that location. Meanwhile,
their eyesight, while not great, is drawn to fast movement
or contrasting colors. Mike say, for example, tamlines are dark
swimsuits at contrast against pale skin. To be clear, though,

(28:20):
of the five hundred or so shark species, eighty percent,
when fully grown, are less than five feet long, and
many of them rarely, if ever, encountered people. There are
then relatively few species that are seen as truly dangerous
and thus the likely suspects for attacks on people. Among
these species that are seen as likely suspects are, of course,
none other than the great white sharks that are thus

(28:41):
dained for their white bellies, a contrast sharply against their
backs and sides that have a dark grayish black coloration.
There are also exceptionally large sharks, at having life span
of potentially over fifty years, as while the largest documented
great white was approximately twenty feet long weighed several tons,
some scientists don't believe that they can grow even marger
Regardless on the approximately thirty or so shark attacks that

(29:03):
happen each year, the arm believed to be responsible for
ten to twenty of these attacks. That being said, not
all their attacks are lethal. This phenomena is what has
led to the belief that some of their attacks are
not necessarily meant to be predatory, as instead they are
just trying to see if the thing they're encountering is
edible or not, with believers in the theory comparing these
attacks to bird dog soft mouthing things to learn more

(29:26):
about them. Indeed, it's believe that great whites can tell
the amount of fats something contains when they bite into it.
This is because of such large, constantly moving creatures, they
are relying upon high fat food sources like sea lines
and seals for fuel. As such, if they don't encounter
the thick layer blubber president such creatures, they typically won't
be interested in spending the energy required to rep and

(29:46):
tear at its flash. Again, though, I have to emphasize
that not all agree with this theory, as they point
out than any third of great white attacks on humans,
the shark bites more than once. Moving past the great
whites up next, or the tiger sharks that grow up
to eighteen feet in length and which are named for
these stripes along their backs and sides. These are sharks
that are believed to rival the great white in its

(30:07):
lethality when it comes to attacking humans. Unlike the Great whites,
though that primarily hunt in the day, tiger sharks tend
to haunt at night, and in doing so, seem to
eat anything that floats by a behavior that has given
the tiger shark a well earned reputation for eating anything
and everything across their path, whether it be alive or dead,
edible or inedible, behavior which is made possible by their

(30:30):
anatomy that allows the tiger sharks to open their jaws
wide and then swallow even large objects like For example,
once an entire horse's head was found intact in the
gut of a tiger shark. Such finds, though, are not rare,
as in addition to edible things like birds, squids, multiple lobsters,
other sharks and seagulls, objects like bottles, shoes, the horns

(30:50):
of a deer, pants, and even two pound cans of
green peas have been found in the stomachs of tiger sharks.
Now you would think that such behavior was potentially dangerous,
as surely it can't be good to eat something too
large and inedible. However, whenever a tiger shark eats something
it can't digest, such objects are destined to be simply
eventually regurgitated. Meanwhile, another likely suspect when it comes to

(31:13):
shark attacks are bull sharks. They grow up to fourteen
feet in length and way up to four hundred pounds.
Sharks that are most subable for their ability to not
only hunt in salt water, but to also be able
to survive in brackish and even freshwater environments, which is
a significant reason why they are believed to be responsible
for the third most fatal attacks and why they might
be the most dangerous because they have the ability to

(31:35):
appear in places where people would not expect them to be.
Then there are the sand tiger sharks, the type of
shark that was initially blamed for the attack on Charles
van Zandt by the sea captain, who may or may
not have even existed as a worry shark. That fit
the popular narrative of the day of dangerous sharks from
overseas being driven to American shores by naval bombardments, which honestly,

(31:56):
as much as anything else, just feels like a thinly
veiled metaphor for dangers immigrants. Regardless, the sand tiger sharks
have a maximum size of six and a half feet
of length according to scientists, although divers have claimed that
they have seen specimens of up to ten feetom length.
The sharks, which live in tropical and warm tempered woters,
at one point in time more frequently blamed for attacks
off of Australia and were thus nearly wiped out as

(32:19):
a result. However, it has since been suspected that sand
tiger sharks were simply misidentified and that great whites or
bull sharks were actually the ones responsible. Indeed, according to
divers who have encountered sand tiger sharks of close, they
are only dangerous if provoked. In fact, sand tiger sharks
have been known to steel fishes that have been speared
by divers without ever attacking the divers themselves. Now, there

(32:42):
is still much that we don't know about sharks to
this day. But with that being said, even less was
known are understood about sharks in nineteen sixteen, when our
story takes place. Most Americans, in fact, have never even
seen a shark outside of a handful of photographs that
appeared in newspapers. Meanwhile, it was only a year prior
to these events that scientists operating in the West Indies

(33:03):
were able to witness a shark feeding frenzy for the
first time, thanks to an underwitter chamber known as a bathosphere.
The scientists who had used the carcasses of slaughtered cast
or bait and then watched on mystified as a large
number of sharks began appearing in the wooters around the
bait where they waited, until all of a sudden there
was a ferocious and blindingly fast, all out assault on

(33:23):
set bait. Indeed, the scientist reports all this ferocious behavior
would appear in the pages of the New York Times
in the London Knowledge magazine. Yet, even with these findings
and personal accounts from around the world attesting to the
fact that sharks do sometimes attack people, the prevalent scientific
opinion at the time was that sharks would never attack
a living human being outside of the tropics, where the

(33:46):
rules they seemed to believe were apparently different, as they
firmly believe that in tempered woters like those along the
East Coast above the Carolinas, sharks simply would not attack humans. Indeed,
in the light of this scientific understanding, tales of manny
meeting sharks were often looked at with suspicion. They were
simply stories told by sailors of bygone ages when it

(34:06):
was still believed that sea monsters might be real. Embodying
this modern belief that sharks were harmless, was one of
the richest men in America. Herman ulrichs Hermanuc wasn't just
married to a senator his daughter, who was herself aligned
to inherit the famed Comstock Load, but he was also
an executive in the North German Lloyd Steamship Company. Meanwhile,
in addition, to all of this wealthy six foot tall,

(34:28):
nearly two hundred pounds men was also quite athletic, having
helped to introduce polo and lacrosse to the US, Plus
he was also considered to be among the best amateur
baseball players in New York City, in addition to being
a fine amateur boxer and swimmer. Herman's athletic inclinations are
important for our tail because he also had a habit
of when one of the Lloyd Steamship Company ships were

(34:49):
coming into port, he would swim out to meet them,
at which point he'd often act like he was in
distress to get the ship to come over to where
he was, only to then refuse their aid and insist
on swimming back to sh sure on his own, which
suffices to say is exceedingly strange behavior. Regardless, Hermann firmly
subscribed to the belief that sharks are not the terrifying
man eaters of myth and legend, but cowards who could

(35:11):
easily be frightened. Indeed, he had himself tested this theory
by leaping off the side of the luxury yacht the
Hlde Guard after some shark fins were spotted nearby. Hermann
then swam straight into the area where these sharks were,
and just like he predicted, they fled before him, an
incident which for Herman and the people watching, certainly look
like he had frightened away the cowardly sharks, while a

(35:33):
more modern understanding of sharks of their behavior suggest and
instead of being afraid, the real reason why they had
not attacked was because they simply did not see the
strange invader as an actual threat. Herman, though, was convinced
that he had destroyed the myth of man eating sharks,
and so he put his money where his mouth was when,
in eighteen ninety one in the pages of the New
York Sun, he ofteny five hundred dollar reward for quote

(35:55):
such proof as a court would accept that intemperate waters,
even one man, woman, child wildlife was ever attacked by
a shark, basically asking for any kind of verifiable proof
of a shark attack in temperate waters, five hundred dollars
that Herman notably would never pay out. Now. To be clear,
there were anecdotal reports of shark attacks from around the

(36:15):
Gulf of Mexico, as well as accounts of three boys
being intact in Sydney Harbor in Australia, attacks that seemed
to correspond with the disposing of but an offul from
nearby meat factories. Being mother is also another story there.
He poorly came from a sailor in Greenpoint whose crewmate
had been attacked any Long Island Sound back in eighteen seventy.
The problem was these accounts seem to have all been

(36:36):
secondhand at best, and were also not coming from reliable sources,
like say scientists. Speaking of when The New York Times
ran a story on the idea of shark attacks in
response to Herman's reward, with the Times editors coming to
the conclusion that the fears of sharks were baseless, A
Frederick A. Lucas would write the paper to add his
two cents. Now, doctor Lucas was not some random scientist,

(36:59):
as not only was he the director of the American
Museum of Natural History, but it was also considered to
be America's foremost expert on sharks. In this correspondence, said,
doctor Lucas would inform the paper and its readers that
he had heard accounts of two attacks that came from
what he considered to be fairly reliable sources. One was
reportedly a fatal attack that took place off the Hawaiian Islands,

(37:20):
while another reportedly involved a man of Bombay who had
lost his leg to a shark neary warfare meat cutting
took place, events in which doctor Lucas believed sharks were
stomply responding to obvious stimuli. Indeed, doctor Lucas overall was
incredibly skeptical when it came to the idea of sharks
being man eaters under normal circumstances, asserting that the only

(37:40):
accounts of shark attacks that had any validity were obviously
accidental incidents where the shark was not actually hunting and
trying to eat people, but were responding to other stimuli. Basically,
according to Lucas, sharks never purposely attacked people, and in
the exceedingly rare times where sharks didn't attack people, it
was just accidental, an opinion chaired by both doctor Hugh M. Smith,

(38:01):
the US Commissioner of Fisheries, and doctor H. F. Moore,
the Deputy Commissioner of the Fishery Service in Philadelphia. As
both officials asserted that with the exception of exceedingly rare
occurrences in tropical orders, sharks simply do not attack people. Indeed,
doctor Lucas had accompanied his father, a New York clippership captain,
on numerous voyages, including two round the world trips, before

(38:23):
he was eighteen, and over the course of these trips,
Lucas asserted that he had never met a man who
had been attacked by a shark, or even a man
who had heard of such an occurrence. Meanwhile, prominent a theologist,
doctor Henry W. Fowler, along with fellow scientists doctor Henry Skinner,
went so far as to claim that shark's jaws were
not particularly powerful. Indeed, they would assert that shark's jaws

(38:45):
were incapable of doing things like butting through human bones,
an opinion that was also held in express by the
so called foremost expert in the field, doctor Lucas. Really,
the one type of shark the scientists seemed to believe
might have man eating potential was see great white, but
even they were considered to be exceedingly rare, plus, no
large specimens were believed to ever range anywhere near the shoreline. Indeed,

(39:09):
according to doctor Lucas, no full grown great white or
blue shark, which he also believed to be potentially dangerous,
had ever been caught within one hundred miles of New York.
The common assumption then was that the most dangerous sharks,
the tiger, the blue, and the great white, all only
lived in deep waters and thus never game close to shore.
By definition, than any shark that game close to shore

(39:31):
was harmless. Doctor Lucas felt safe to assert then that
the chances of being attacked by a shark were quote
infinitely less than that of being struck by lightning, and
there is practically no danger of an attack from a
shark about our coast. Now, the first part of that
statement isn't wrong. Indeed, has previously mentioned, you are statistically
thirty times more likely to be struck by lightning than

(39:52):
to be bitten by a shark, which, as much as
anything else, comes down to the fact that you're more
likely to be around a thunderstorm than to be in
shark infested waters. The real problem, though, was the second
half of Lucas's statement, as his opinion on sharks and
those of the general public wouldn't very much influence how
the attack and death of Charles van Zen was covered.
Of course, it wasn't the only thing that influencing presses.

(40:15):
Coverage of these attacks, because, as we will see, much
like detail of Jaws that was inspired by these events,
there was a booming tourist industry that had to be
considered as well. In nineteen sixteen, American involvement in the

(40:53):
conflict that would come to be known as the First
World War was looming. Now. To be clear, war had
been raging in your since the summer of nineteen fourteen,
when Archduke Ferdinand was assassinated, more was declared and finding
started between the various countries involved. The summer of nineteen
sixteen in particular, would see German offenses in verdun Will
also seeing the Allies go on the offense of a

(41:14):
Longneysalmme Bean, while during the same time period the greatest
Davil battle in the war would take place off of Joland,
as England and Germany's powerful fleets clashed, events which played
out practically daily in American newspapers, even though the country
itself was not a part of the war, at least
not yet. Papers which, by the way, since their competition
was so intense, actively looked to outdo one another with

(41:37):
more dramatic headlines and lurid details, a reality that meant
they often relied upon questionable witness testimony, regardless of how
sketchy and unreasonable it might be, as long as it
helped to weave a story that was dramatic enough to
hook the reader, although while also making sure to always
augment their coverage of any topic, no matter what it
might be, with flowery language designed to make the story

(41:59):
seem more exciting and dramatic than it actually was. American
papers en during the summer of nineteen sixteen, in addition
to the war in Europe, also played up the fear
of foreign sabotage. For example, some cargo vessels that had
departed from Bridgeport, Boston, and New York would sink as
a result of so called cigar bombs that hadn't reportedly
been placed by a German saboteur. Also adding to these

(42:22):
fears was the explosion at the black Top Island ammunition
depot off of Jersey City that took place on the
thirtieth of July, an explosion so powerful that its shattered
office windows in Manhattan. Also of concern was the presence
of German new boats in American ports. Now, the captains
of these zu boats would insist that they were simply
there to hopefully receive and transport supplies like condensed milk

(42:43):
and various other foodstuffs to home through people and their
babies who were dying from food shortages back in their
home country, which honestly might have been the case seeing
as how Britain was enforcing a blockade upon Germany, thereby
depriving its people needed supplies. Indeed, keep in mind, the
Germans weren't necess necessarily the quote unquote bad guys in
this war, or at least they weren't all that much

(43:04):
worse than any of the other imperial powers they were fighting.
With that being said, in the wake of these other events,
the presence of U boats in and around American ports
was seen as serious. In fact, it had partially been
this thread of view boats. It had influenced doctor Van
Sant's decision to have his family head down to Beech
Even on that fateful July weekend, rather than your usual
summer home in kate May. As kate May, which pretty

(43:27):
much sits at the southern tip of New Jersey, seemed
to be a much more likely target for a U
boat attack due to so much of the nation's coal, iron, oil,
and munitions being produced within an eighty mile radius of Philadelphia,
all items that were helping to fuel the Allied war
effort against Germany, as even though America was nominally neutral,
they were still actively aiding in supplying the war effort

(43:48):
against the Germans. The fear of German new boats was
such that even following the death of Charles van Zandt,
many papers remained focused on that threat, which is honestly understandable.
What was the Lusitania being sunk by a German neuboat
torpedo the previous year, and in particular the enormous U
boat the Dutchland docking in the Baltimore Harbor. Indeed, the

(44:09):
Dutchland's purpose in Baltimore was very much unclear. Germany, for example,
would call on an underwooter's Sea Lioner, treating it as
a kind of merchant vessel that was carrying dies for
sale in the American markets while also hoping to trade
for supplies for the German public, all the while evading
the English naval blockade. At the same time, though, many
wondered if its presence in a major port like Baltimore

(44:31):
could have been a warning too the US by demonstrating
just how far Germany could extend its naval power. Also
dominating the news cycle to some degree was Ponto Villa,
who had led an attack into New Mexico to both
capture supplies to continuous fighting in Mexico proper and to
punish America for its interference in Mexican affairs. Meanwhile, on
a more local level was the aforementioned polio epidemic that

(44:53):
was raging in New York City, which saw one hundred
children being afflicted daily, an epidemic which many feared might
spread into New Jersey. Indeed, guards would be stationed at
the New York New Jersey border so as to keep
all individuals under the age of sixteen out of New
Jersey unless they had a medical certificate stating that they
had not recently been exposed to polio patients. Yet, despite

(45:15):
these precautions, over four thousand polio cases would still be
reported in the state. With all this going on, the
Jersey Shore, then, more than ever, looked to be a
good place to escape from all of these worries. Indeed,
President Woodrow Wilson, a former New Jersey governor, himself, planned
a vacation down at the shore that summer, as did
several members of his cabinet as a low to take

(45:36):
a bit of a break and clear their minds before
fully shifting their focus to the upcoming presidential election, which
honestly wasn't the unusual or unexpected, seeing as how the
Jersey Shore was a favorite vacation spot for many, including
the rich and powerful. Indeed, since the eighteen sixties, at
least eleven presidents had vacation a long the stage shoreline.
This included the lives of Ulysses S. Grant and James Garfield,

(45:59):
who both own sizeable summer homes along the Jersey Shore
and daed. It was President Garfield's last wish to return
to the Jersey Shore and its cold breezes when it
became apparent that he would not recover from the gunshot
wood he had received, or, to be more precise, he
would not recover from the infection that was result of
the Dodgers continuing the search for the bullet instead of

(46:19):
leaving well enough alone or otherwise doing anything to make
sure their efforts were sanitary. Now, a big reason why
Garfield wanted to spend his final days down by the
shore was because he wanted to escape the stifling heat
of the City. As in the days before air conditioning,
the shore breeze was the surest way to find something
resembling relief, something that was as true in eighteen eighty

(46:41):
one when James Garfield breathed his last as it was
in nineteen sixteen when Wilson also looked to escape the
heat of Washington, d c. As such that summer, the
President would reside in the Shadow Lawn Mansion in West
Long Branch, while he would treat the Asbury Park Trust
Companies Building as his summer capital. Wilson, though, was far
from alone in seeking relief down on the Jersey Shore,

(47:02):
as nineteen sixteen promised to be a boommere for the
shore and for beech Haven in particular, where the first
of the shark attacks took place. To being clear, though,
beech Haven was just one of a number of resort
towns that line the Jersey coastlinek May, for example, would
set at the southern tip of the state, was the
country's oldest seaside resort, while Long Branch, where the President
was staying a ways distance to the north, was the

(47:24):
first seaside resort to cater especially to the elite. In fact,
it meant that for a time long Branch was the
nation's most celebrated summer resort, as it became a favorite
spot for the wealthy residents of New York City to
fleet to in the summer. Meanwhile, other communities like Asbury
Park and Atlantic City also became favorite spots along the
shore as they two catered to visitors from out of town.

(47:46):
People would then annually fly to the beaches and boardwalks
of the Jersey Shore, with boardwalks apparently being a Jersey
Shore invention, as railroad conductor Alexander Boardman is credited as
the individual to first come up with the idea of
boardwalks in Atlanta City in eighteen seventy as a way
of keeping sand out of railcars and hotels. These walkways
then were designed to enable visitors to experience the pleasures

(48:08):
of walking along the shoreline without actually stepping foot on
the troublesome sand, with the original version of the boardwalk
being light and portable enough to be packed away in
store for the winter. These seaside resorts then became locales
that could be enjoyed by both the rich as well
as the average person, provided they had the leisure time available.
It wasn't just a beach in the cool seaside braces

(48:30):
and attracted visitors either, as these communities also played host
to seaside concerts that were put on by the Lexai,
John Phillips, Susan Arthur Pryor. While at the same time
increasingly large and more ornate hotels were constructed to house
of visitors during their stay, hotels had made sure the
offer the kind of service and cuisine that would attract
a wealthy clientele. Yet as important as these man made

(48:52):
constructions were, the main drawn to the shore was still
something as simple and primal as the ocean. Recreational bathing,
for example, was a fairly knew leisure activity, and when
they carried a bit of an air of acceptable scandlessness
to it, quote unquote, Proper Philadelphia families, for example, were
not supposed to swim in the ocean. Instead, the truly
wealthy or upper classes were to spend their time with

(49:14):
activities like riding horses, taking hikes, or painting portraits, while
swimming was an activity more fitting for the less refined
middle classes. And has to be noted though that at
this time few actually knew how to swim, although many
wanted to Hence, bathing airs were established just off the shoreline,
complete with dangling ropes for people to hang on to,
while guidebooks and pamphlets containing instructions were printed on detailing

(49:38):
what people were to wear and how they were to
act when participating in see bathing activities. For example, one
such manual instructed quote, pound your fingers to your ears
and your thumbs to your nostrils. Now dance, leap, tumble, swim, kick, floater,
make any motion that seems good to you. The strictest rolls, however,
when it came to bathing in the ocean, were reserved

(49:58):
for what people were to wear. Men, for example, often
wore black trunks and reached almost to the knee, in
addition to long, matching sleeveless tops that covered both their
groins and their chests, as the male chest in nineteen
sixteen was a scandalous thing that was meant to be
covered up while in public. Women, meanwhile, were expected to
wear thick black wool dressed like bathing suits, complete with ruffles. Now,

(50:20):
black was a common color for many of these suits,
but some were brown, blue, gray, or even finel. While
certain individuals adopted the habit of wearing suits with stripes
of bright and even contrasting colors, outfits which, while looking
extremely conservative and impractical to modernize, were still seen as
potentially scandalous to those in nineteen sixteen. However, while some

(50:41):
would complain about these more colorful outfits, the main source
of outrage was the amount of skin revealed by these
swimsuits and was not typically seen in public. Indeed, nineteen
sixteen saw the development of new, more form fitting swimsuits
for women than exposed areas of their arms and calves,
much to the horror of some. In fact, Cone the
Island that year would see a pair of women arrested

(51:02):
by police matrons for wearing these new worn tube suits,
while in Chicago, young women would be taken away from
Lake Michigan because their arms and legs were buried by
the suits that they wore. The Jersey Shore was also
not immune to such horrors, as in Alantic City, a
mob reportedly attacked a woman for revealing some of her thigh.
Such nightmares and led the American Association of Park Superintendents

(51:24):
to issue official bathing suit regulations that required trunks that
did not stop more than four inches above the knee
and skirts that had to be within at least two
inches of the bottoms of those trunks. This then led
to police patrolling beaches with literal tape measures as a
low to arrest offenders in mass. Crucially, these suits were
also not to be worn beyond the beach, as there

(51:45):
were rules forbidding bathers to go beyond the sand while
still in their bathing suits. As such, bathouses lined the
boardwalks where people could go to change into and out
of their swimming outfits so as to not offend the
delicate sensibilities of the people on the boardwalk or in
the hotel. Tells and shops outlined it. Yet, despite all
these Myriada restrictions and rules, bathing in the ocean was

(52:05):
still becoming a popular pastime as young men, while down
at the shore, often took a customary pre dinner dip
in the ocean, while women often did not so much
as swim as they participated in what was done as
quote fanny dunking, which seems to be pretty self explanatory,
or alternatively, they hound onto the aforementioned ropes so they
could safely experience the feeling of the ways as they

(52:26):
came crashing into the shore. Crucially, though, bathing in the
ocean was an activity that both men and women could
participate in together, which meant that in an otherwise deeply
conservative and a reserve society, this time in the ways
was an opportunity to let lucibit and have fun. Meanwhile,
the Jersey Shore was also seen as an attractive destination
to travelers because it was easy to get to, as

(52:49):
railroad tracks connected major population centers for their inland directly
to these resort communities. Indeed, trains from New York and
Philadelphia throughout the summer would bring thousands of visitors to
the Jersey Shore every ten minutes or so, and Beechaven
in particular, which sat along the southern tip of Long
Beach Island, was seemingly among the most attractive destinations. Indeed,

(53:10):
the men would finance the city in its elegant hotels
would claim that its featured superior ocean breezes to its
competitor Atlantic City because it sat not on the coast
but on an island some six miles out to sea,
a feature which they also claimed made it an ideal
vacation spot for allergy sufferers, as was isolated from land
breezes and the pollen they contained. Beech even in fact,

(53:31):
had experienced its most successful year to date in nineteen fifteen,
and nineteen sixteen had held eagle, if not even more
promise as the city continued to grow and modernize, or
at least nineteen sixteen seemed to hold such promise prior
to the events of the first of July, which resulted
in the death of young Charles van zandt now one
in this incident to wear when a summer season it
held so much promise for his family's hotel. Robert Fry Ingle,

(53:54):
the son of Robert Barclay Ingle, the thunder of the
Ingle Side Hotel, whose office that Charles van Zann had
been taken to after the attack, would the following morning
assure his guests that bathers need not fear a repeat
of this tragedy, as he promised that they would install
a netting around the bathing area that would be strong
enough to block even German new boats, and true to
his word, netting would indeed be install some few hundred

(54:16):
feet out from the shore that would extend along the
entire length of the beach, a project that local residents
assisted in by donating money to help fund the purchase
of these steel nets, while local fishermen performed the work
of placing the pilings and hanging the actual nets. Meanwhile,
even though local New Jersey and Philadelphia papers reacted in
horror to this tragedy, the news did not really spread

(54:37):
beyond the immediate region, despite this being the first recorded
shark related fatality on the East coast of the United States. Indeed,
papers in both North Jersey and New York practically ignored
the story, with the New York Times only mentioning it
on page eighteen, and even then it identified Charles van
Zand's attacker ats a quote unquote fish three times, while
only stating that it was quote presumably a shark once. Meanwhile,

(55:01):
the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin would only report on the death
of the son of a prominent Philadelphia family two days
at the event took place, and they only did so
after extensively governing the news. At socialite missus Florence Berling
had been granted a divorce from her soon to be
ex husband, Arthur Berling, a story that combined the scandal
of divorce, which had been unthinkable not all that long ago,

(55:22):
with the fact that Arthur Berling had recently invaded an
immigration detention house, weaving a gun around as he demanded
the release of the woman he intended to marry. They
would be second. Missus Burling would be deported as an
undesirable while mister Burling was sent to jail. The tale
that the evening Bullington deemed of greater import than the
apparent first of its kind shark attack and death of

(55:43):
a young twenty five year old man. Meanwhile, much of
the focused down by the shore was on the Taurus,
as much of their economy relied upon such visitors. To
that and the Philadelphia Public Ledger would run an article
with a headline that read quote, Mathers need have no
fear of sharks. Fish expert declares it one that killed
swimmer may have sought to attack dog, with the expert

(56:04):
in question being one James M. Meehan, the Fish Commissioner
of Pennsylvania and the former director of Philaduffy's Aquarium in Fairmont.
Meehan would then tell the paper quote, despite the death
of Charles van Zend and the report of two sharks
having been caught in the vicinity recently, I do not
believe there is any reason why people should hesitate to
go swimming at the beaches for fear of man eaters.

(56:26):
The information in regard to the sharks is indefinite, and
I hardly believe that van Zend was attacked by a
man eater. Van Zend was in the surf playing with
a dog, and it may have been in a small
shark had drifted in 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. Indeed, he felt it unlikely

(56:47):
that the shark in question was one of the so
called true man eatters, the great white, but was most
likely a blue shark instead. The most important thing though,
to keep in mind, which Mehan stressed to readers and
potential visitors to the Jersey coast, was sent sharks rarely
come coast to shore, as deep waters are their natural habitats. Meanwhile,
one received far less coverage was the fact that sea

(57:07):
captains coming into port in Newark and New York carried
with them tails of seeing large schools of sharks just
off the coastline, so people continued to flock to the
Jersey Shore, much to the delight of local merchants and
political figures, doing so because experts had assured them that
it was safe and that what happened to Charles van
Zand was simply a freak accident and something that they

(57:27):
did not have to worry about happening. Again. Plus, its
not like these cities were exactly safe either, as remember
New York City was in the middle of a polio
epidemic with some seven hundred and fifty six known cases
at a mortality rate of a death in hour, an
epidemic which by the way, was actively spreading into North
Jersey towns, and as not even mentioning the heat which

(57:48):
was itself responsible for numerous deaths in the city. As again,
this was the era before air conditioning and so there
were few of any options for relief, with the most
reliable form of relief coming from the cool ocean breezes
like those available along the Jersey Shore. That being said,
as people continued to fly to the shore in droves,
there were some hints of things weren't exactly normal. In

(58:09):
Asbury Park, for example, their ocean side swimming pools saw
at a usually high amount of visitors at July weekend. Meanwhile,
it seems like the lifeguards patrolling the waters beyond the
lifelines and their boats were a more common sight, and
that they were also seemingly stricter in their restrictions of
people staying close to the shoreline. Still, though, for many,
it seemed as if the emergency had passed, and for

(58:30):
as tragic as the death of Charles van Zand was,
it was nothing more than a freak accident, once so
rare in fact, that there was no recorded incident of
something similar happening in American waters before this, and so
many simply assumed they would not see a similar incident
within their lifetimes. So as the next several days following
the death of Charles van Zand came and went without incident,

(58:50):
the fear began to dissipate. Some then even began to
question whether Van zan had even been attacked by a
shark at all, especially seeing as how everyone knew that
sharks don't attack people. But no one realized at the time, though,
was this shark attack would not be an isolated incident. Indeed,
it would prove to be the first of five attacks
that took place over a twelve day span. However, these

(59:12):
stories on these subsequent attacks and how the people on
the Jersey Shore and beyond responded will have to for
now remain the story for another time. Thank you for
listening to Distorted History. If you would like to help out,
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(59:34):
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(59:58):
for listening and until next time. Like in