A historian has shed new light on the terrifying real-life shark attacks which inspired Jaws in a new book.
Terror took hold in the summer of 1916 as five swimmers were attacked in just two weeks along the New Jersey shore on America’s east coast.
Four bathers were killed and a fifth critically injured in the attacks which sparked nationwide hysteria.
Such was the paranoia that a swimmer who got into difficulty drowned as no one would jump in to save him for fear of being devoured.
Just like in Steven Spielberg’s classic film Jaws, which came out 50 years ago, rewards were offered to shark hunters to catch the man-eater.
Dynamite was laid in an attempt to kill sharks in the water and protective steel netting was laid in sea at some beaches to keep sharks at bay.
There were even examples of blundering mayors and officials refusing to close the beaches for fear of damaging their town’s reputation.
Even after the spate of attacks, 10 local mayors issued a joint statement saying they disagreed with closing beaches as it had provoked ‘hurt without cause’ to the resort business.
In the film version Chief Brody, played by Roy Scheider, referenced the New Jersey shark attacks by urging Mayor Vaughn to shut the beaches, saying: ‘It’s gonna happen again. It happened before! The Jersey beach! 1916! Five people chewed up on the surf!’
Historian Rachel Lee Perez has worked with local historians to re-analyse the 1916 attacks for her book, The Real Jaws – The Attacks That Inspired The Movies.
She lists striking parallels between the real-life events of New Jersey in 1916 and Spielberg’s Oscar winning film.
The ‘Jersey Man Eater’s’ first attack took place on July 1, 1916 at Beach Haven on Long Island, off New Jersey’s southern coast.
Charles Vansant, 23, was on holiday to the area with his family and went for a quick swim in the Atlantic while his dog played on the beach.
Shortly after entering the water, he started shouting.
Onlookers thought he was calling his dog but they were actually cries of anguish as a shark had devoured his left thigh.
A lifeguard rescued him from the water but he had been stripped of his flesh and bled to death.
However, the fatal incident was swept under the carpet by the tourism industry amid fears it would put off wealthy visitors from coming that summer.
Holidaymakers were encouraged to keep swimming in the waters and on July 6, Swiss bell captain Charles Bruder, 27, was the second person to be attacked.
He was swimming 130 yards from the shore at the resort town of Spring Lake when a shark bit his abdomen and severed his legs, his blood turning the water red.
His mutilated body was brought ashore causing onlookers to faint in horror.
On July 12, three attacks took place in Matawan Creek near the town of Keyport.
An 8ft shark was spotted in the creek by sea captain Thomas Cottrell who raised the alarm.
But complacent town rangers dismissed him and at 2pm it pounced while a group of local boys played in the creek.
Like a scene out of the horror film, the dorsal fin suddenly appeared and the boys swam for their lives.
Lester Stillwell was pulled underwater and local businessman Watson Fisher, who had jumped in to try and save him, was also killed by the shark.
The fifth and final victim, Joseph Dunn, 14, was attacked 30 minutes after the fatal attacks on Stillwell and Fisher.
The shark bit his left leg, stripping it of flesh, but Dunn was rescued by his brother and friend after a vicious tug-of-war battle.
Dunn told the press that he felt his leg going down the shark’s throat and added: ‘I believe it would have swallowed me.’
He was rushed to hospital and recovered from his injuries.
By now, the attacks were given blanket coverage in the US press as readers became gripped with morbid fascination.
The attacks stopped after taxidermist Michaek Schleisser caught and killed an 8ft long, 325lb great white shark while fishing in Raritan Bay, near to Matawan Creek, on July 14.
He mounted the young shark, which had ingested human remains, in the window of a Manhattan shop on Broadway.
Spielberg’s film was based on the 1974 novel of the same name by American author Peter Benchley.
The book also referenced the 1916 attacks, and there are several parallels between the fictional story and what actually happened.
Ms Perez said: ‘As a historian, I have always been interested in dark and obscure history.
‘The 1916 shark attacks, in particular, intrigued me because they represent little-known history that continues to have a large impact on modern-day society
‘If Benchley never acknowledged attribution to the 1916 shark attacks, Spielberg never denied it.
‘In fact, a line was worked into the movie in which a character begs the mayor to shut down the beaches for fear that history will repeat itself.
‘This isn’t the only reference that Jaws has to the 1916 attacks.
‘In Benchley’s book, the shark kills four people, exactly as it was in 1916.
‘In Benchley’s book, the mayor initially disregards the attacks for fear that negative press and attention may discourage tourists from vacationing along their beaches, exactly as it was in Beach Haven in 1916.
‘In Benchley’s book, the shark attacks take place in a small, beachfront resort town, exactly as it was along the Jersey coast in 1916.
‘And, in Benchley’s book, the townspeople decided to initiate a mass shark hunt following the attacks, exactly as it was in 1916.
‘It is difficult to accept that Benchley was not, even minimally, inspired by the 1916 shark attacks.
‘The number of attacks, the location of the attacks, the nature of the attacks, and the way in which city officials responded to the attacks appear to coincide almost directly with the 1916 New Jersey shark attacks.
‘In conversations I had with New Jersey historians while researching this book, I was told of first-hand accounts in which Benchley confessed to friends that the 1916 New Jersey attacks had indeed been key inspiration for his novel.’
‘It was the 1916 shark attacks that would establish our modern-day misconstrued perception of sharks as evil, man-eating monsters, and would later inspire the film Jaws, which would perpetuate the same harmful narrative.’
Jaws, starring Roy Scheider, Richard Dreyfuss and Robert Shaw, was a huge commercial success and won three Academy Awards.
The Real Jaws by Rachel Lee Perez is published by Pen & Sword on June 30 and costs £22.
