Beach days weren't always scary. Before 1916, people in America basically thought sharks were harmless, cowardly scavengers. If you went to the Jersey Shore during a heatwave back then, you were more worried about your wool swimsuit itching than losing a limb. Then everything changed. Between July 1 and July 12, 1916, a series of attacks left four people dead and one seriously injured. It sparked a national panic that reached all the way to the White House. Honestly, it's the reason we have the movie Jaws and why some of us still get a little jittery when a piece of seaweed touches our leg in murky water.
The 1916 New Jersey shark attacks weren't just a freak accident. They were a collision between nature and a society that was just starting to embrace the "vacation" as a concept. People were flocking to the coast to escape a polio epidemic and a record-breaking heatwave. They had no idea what was waiting in the surf.
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The First Strike at Beach Haven
It started on July 1. Charles Vansant, a 25-year-old from Philadelphia, was staying at the Engleside Hotel in Beach Haven. He decided to go for a quick swim before dinner. It was a beautiful evening. Suddenly, people on the shore saw a dark fin. They yelled for him to get out, but it was too late. The shark bit him in the legs, and even though a lifeguard and another man managed to pull him to shore, Vansant bled to death on the hotel manager's desk.
People were shocked, but they didn't exactly panic yet. Scientists at the time, like Frederic Lucas, the director of the American Museum of Natural History, were pretty adamant that a shark couldn't actually bite through human bone. They thought it was probably a sea turtle or maybe a stray dog. Imagine that. They literally told the public the water was safe. They were wrong.
Panic Moves North to Spring Lake
Five days later, about 45 miles up the coast in Spring Lake, Charles Bruder was swimming. He was an experienced swimmer, a bell captain at a local hotel. He was out past the lifelines when a shark bit him across the abdomen and legs. The water turned deep red. When rescuers reached him in a boat, they reportedly thought he had been bitten by a canoe because the damage was so catastrophic. Bruder died before they even got him back to the sand.
This is when the reality of the 1916 New Jersey shark attacks really started to sink in. The beaches began to empty. Local towns started putting up steel nets. Bounty hunters took to boats with shotguns and dynamite. It was total chaos. But the weirdest and most terrifying part of the story was yet to come, and it didn't even happen in the ocean.
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The Matawan Creek Horror
If you look at a map, Matawan is inland. It’s a town connected to the ocean by a narrow, brackish tidal creek. On July 12, a local sea captain named Thomas Cottrell saw a shadow moving up the creek. He warned the town, but they laughed at him. A shark in a creek? It sounded ridiculous.
Later that afternoon, a group of boys were swimming at a spot called "Wyckoff Dock." Among them was Lester Stilwell, an 11-year-old with epilepsy. While the boys were playing, a shark pulled Lester under. His friends ran to town screaming for help. A local businessman named Stanley Fisher rushed to the creek and dived in to find the boy. He actually found him, but as he was trying to bring the body up, the shark attacked Fisher too.
Fisher was pulled from the water with his thigh nearly gone. He died later that night. Less than an hour after that attack, about a half-mile downstream, the shark bit 14-year-old Joseph Dunn in the leg. He was the only victim of the 1916 New Jersey shark attacks to survive, mostly because his brother and friends literally engaged in a tug-of-war with the shark to get him out.
What Kind of Shark Was It?
This is the big debate. For decades, everyone blamed a Great White. On July 14, a taxidermist named Michael Schleisser caught an 8.5-foot shark in Raritan Bay. When he opened it up, he found human remains. That shark was a Great White, and for a long time, the case was considered closed.
However, modern experts like George Burgess from the Florida Program for Shark Research have pointed out some flaws in that theory. Great Whites aren't usually big fans of shallow, brackish water like Matawan Creek. Bull sharks, on the other hand, are famous for it. They have a unique physiology that lets them thrive in low-salinity environments. It’s very possible that a Great White was responsible for the ocean attacks, while a Bull shark was the culprit in the creek. Or maybe it was just one very confused, very aggressive Great White. We’ll never know for sure.
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The Cultural Aftermath
Before these events, "shark" wasn't even a common word in the American vocabulary. People called them "sea wolves" or "man-eaters" occasionally, but they weren't a focal point of fear. These attacks changed the American psyche. They led to a massive shift in how we approach beach safety and marine biology.
President Woodrow Wilson actually held a cabinet meeting to discuss the "shark problem." The government put up funds to "eradicate" the threat. It was the first time the federal government treated a biological event like a national disaster. Peter Benchley later used these accounts as the primary inspiration for his novel Jaws, which Steven Spielberg turned into the first summer blockbuster. The fear we feel today? It was born in the summer of 1916.
Lessons for Today
If you're heading to the shore, keep these things in mind to stay safe. Nature is unpredictable, but we know a lot more now than we did a century ago.
- Avoid Murky Water: Most shark bites are "test bites" or cases of mistaken identity. If the water is cloudy, the shark can't tell you apart from a seal or a school of fish.
- Don't Swim at Dawn or Dusk: This is prime hunting time. The lighting makes it harder for predators to distinguish targets.
- Stay Away from Fishing Piers: Where there is bait, there are predators. It’s basically a dinner bell.
- Understand the "Creek" Factor: Just because you aren't in the open ocean doesn't mean you're in a swimming pool. Tidal rivers and inlets are active wildlife corridors.
- Pay Attention to Local Warnings: If lifeguards or officials close a beach, it's for a reason. Don't be like the skeptics in Matawan.
The best way to respect the history of the 1916 New Jersey shark attacks is to respect the ocean itself. We are guests in that environment. While the odds of an attack are incredibly low—roughly 1 in 3.7 million—staying informed and aware of your surroundings is the best way to enjoy the beach without becoming part of the next big headline. Check local surf reports and shark sighting apps like Sharkivity before you head out to ensure you have the latest data on local activity.