Posted on 08/31/2019 7:12:38 PM PDT by Capt. Tom
I thank Don Cuddy of the Standard Times, for putting me in contact with Martin Smith of Mattapoisett, at that time a 13 yr older and an eye witness to the events of that day. Martin was a summer neighbor of the Troys. Thanks Martin for giving me detailed information on the attack . -
An attitude of “shark attacks can’t happen up here” would have been prevalent along the beaches of New England in 1936. Hardly anyone would have known about the 1830 attack on Mr. Blaney in Massachusetts Bay. For that matter most people wouldn’t have knowledge of the fatal July, 1916 shark attacks in New Jersey either. Many people didn't learn about the 1916 fatal attacks in New Jersey until after the movie "JAWs" came out in 1975, and made the public shark conscious.
In 1936 Joseph Troy Jr. age 16, was living in the Dorchester section of Boston, on Talbot Ave.. He went to visit his uncle Fred, who had a summer home in Mattapoisett, Massachusetts on Euclid Ave. at Hollywood beach. On July 25th Troy and Walter Stiles, a friend of Troy’s uncle, were swimming"a baseball throw distance" off the end of the pier off Grand Ave. when the attack occured. (The newspaper accounts spell Walter’s last name as, S-t-y-l-e-s. Dr. Hugh M. Smith former Director of the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries who investigated this 1936 shark attack, uses S-t-i-l-e-s in his investigative report.)
Between 3 - 4 PM, Stiles saw a shark suddenly appear next to Troy. The shark grabbed Troy by the left leg and pulled him underwater. Stiles was about 10 feet away and went to Troys assistance; diving down to try to help him. Ultimately he was able to get hold of Troy when the unconscious boy surfaced in a pool of blood. Stiles started towing Troy to shore while shouting for help. It appeared at first that people thought it was a hoax. Then they realized something was wrong, and thinking it was a possible drowning they telephoned for a local doctor. A shark attack is the last thing any bystander would expect to have happened. The words "shark attack" wouldn't be in anyone's vocablary in 1936.
Mr. Herbert Fisher, who had just came in from sailing, responded to Stiles cries for help, and rowed over to assist him. Fisher helped Stiles in getting Troy into the boat, and rowed them to shore. Troy was placed on a door and carried up to a car. Dr. Irving Tilden rushed Troy to St. Lukes Hospital in New Bedford, about 12 miles away.
The femoral artery had not been severed, but Troy’s left leg was mangled, and a piece of the leg "about the size of a 5 lb. roast beef was missing". A surgeon had finished amputating Troy’s leg; when Joseph’s condition worsened. Joseph passed away about 8:30 PM that evening.
Since this attack happened on the south west side of Cape Cod, the usual suspects would be a white, or possibly, but not likely, a tiger shark, Galeocerdo cuvier, or a mako, Isurus oxyrinchus.
Fisher, who rowed over to help, and Stiles,who was swimming with Joseph Troy got a good close-up look at the shark, which remained just a few yards away from them in the bloody water. Their descriptive testimony to Dr. Hugh Smith, who investigated the attack, would determine the size, and the attacking specie.
Walter Stiles and Herbert Fisher both told Dr. Hugh Smith that the shark was about 10-12 feet long. That established the sharks length . Stiles said the white sides abruptly changed to the top color, and the shark had an almost symmetrical tail. Both of those observations are characteristics of a white shark, and not characteristics of a tiger shark. Dr. Irving Tilden who drove Troy to the hospital, testified that the victims “skin edges were serrated as if cut off by a toothed object.” A mako's teeth are smooth edged teeth, and a white sharks teeth are serrated.. Dr. Hugh M. Smith, former Director of the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries, who did the investigation into Troy's death, concluded the shark involved was: "a man-eater (Carcharodon carcharias)”
From [Bigelow and Schroeder, 1948 p. 134.] - A fatal attack on a swimmer at Mattapoisett, on Buzzards Bay, on July 25, 1936, may also have been by a man-eater, though in this case the shark was driven away without being identified.
What Bigelow and Schroeder did not know in 1948, when they wrote the above, was that the attack on Joseph Troy had been investigated in 1936 by Dr. Hugh M. Smith, former Director of the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries. Dr Smith did the investigation at the request of E.W.Gudger-who was working at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. Dr. Smith gave his report to E.W Gudger in 1936, and concluded it was done by a man-eater (white shark), but the report gathered dust until it was published by E.W.Gudger in the American Midland Naturalist, - Nov.1950, after Bigelow and Schroeder had written their book. ~~~~~
Today, EMTs are quickly on the scene- especially with prompt cell phone calls being made from the location asking for help. If that shark attack on Joseph Troy Jr. happened today, I believe he would have survived; mainly because his femoral artery in the mangled leg was not severed.
Witness Martin Smith, then 13 years old in 1936, told me his task was to clean all the blood out of the rowboat they brought Troy ashore in.- Tom
Ok let’s see... I would have been there in the 60s mostly. Seems like I remember being able to walk all the way out to the tip. Went back in the 80s a few times and it was no longer possible.
IF they gave him the chore soon enough, that would be an easy job. = Turn the rowboat on its side, wash it out good with a bucket & then let it dry.
A day or 2 later, it would have been a more difficult & very UNPLEASANT job.
(In my college days, I briefly worked for a “crime scene clean-up company”, that cleaned up blood/brains/etc. from murder/suicide/traffic accident scenes in buildings/vehicles = NOT FUN.)
Yours, TMN78247
He had to do it right away as they needed the rowboat to go out and get people on moorings. - Tom
GOOD thing.
Yours, TMN78247
“The impact in the community is ongoing. I know we need to move on and continue to live our lives, but we don’t want to forget Arthur and what happened at Newcomb Hollow,” said Suzanne Grout Thomas, Town Beach Director, at a select board meeting.
Other memorial ideas included a boulder with engraving, or possibly a memorial with a larger plaque to include possible future victims of shark attack.
Tom here- I think the last suggestion is a bad PR move.- Tom
There will be future victims however
I strongly suspect that you are 100% CORRECT.
I keep wondering WHEN, rather than IF, a TIGER or BULL will take another swimmer in front of our family beach-house on Oak Island, NC.
(Anytime that the water is warm enough to swim, the water is TOO WARM for Great Whites but 8 months of the year we DO have numerous Tigers & Bulls “in residence”.)
Yours, TMN78247
Several times on bringing up a boat from Florida, or the Bahamas, to Boston, we would go between Oak Island and Baldhead Island, and stop in Gulfport - a place I liked.
An occasional tagged white shark has visited that area. -Tom
The pool at The Chatham Bars Inn is quite nice.
VERY TRUE. Nonetheless, the seawater is too warm much of the year off NC for Whites and/or porbeagles to remain long.
Yours, TMN78247
Cape Cod Times By Mary Ann Bragg 9/3/2019
DUXBURY — A minke whale carcass was examined by scientists Monday at Duxbury Beach and then buried on high ground there, according to a New England Aquarium spokesman. The carcass of the 28-foot male whale, which was seen in waters off Hull last week, eventually came ashore Sunday. The carcass had been heavily preyed upon by white sharks and blue sharks, spokesman Tony LaCasse said. SNIP
Following an on-site necropsy by International Fund for Animal Welfare scientists in late July, a minke whale carcass was buried on a beach in North Truro in a large hole just above the high tide line.
The problem with burying whale carcasses near the ocean is if any whale scent leaks into the ocean, and a shark shows up,.....well, you get the picture. -Tom
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