Posted on 11/14/2021 11:41:02 AM PST by Capt. Tom
Sources for the 1936 Joseph Troy Jr. attack at Mattapoisett: American Midland Naturalist, E.W.Gudger- Nov.1950, and from the following 1936 newspapers: Wareham Courier July 31, - Boston Sunday
I thank the people at the libraries in Scituate, Mass. (Susan Frankel), Quincy, Mass. (Linda Beeler) and Boston Mass. (Henry Scannell) for their help in getting me the 1936 newspaper accounts'
Herald July 26 - Boston Sunday Globe July 26 - Boston Sunday Post July 26 - Dorchester Beacon Aug. 1 - Boston Sunday Advertiser July 26 and the N.Y.Times July 26. Also I thank the anonymous source that sent me very detailed information.
The story of Joseph Troy Jr. The last fatal shark attack in New England. 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. (Coincidentally at the same time of day on July 30, 2012 a similar non-fatal attack by a white shark took place at Ballston Beach , Truro on Cape Cod.)
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.
A quote from the top of the page says:
Man-eater!
That was the common name used for centuries to describe the shark species, Carcharodon carcharias.
From the 1975 movie "JAWS": Mayor Vaughn: "And what did you say the name of this shark is?" Hooper: "It's a Carcharodon carcharias. It's a Great White."
The 1975 Movie JAWS made the words "great white" and “white shark” popular with the public, and “man-eater” is rarely used today. That common word change from "man-eater" to "great white" or "white shark," helped in getting Carcharodon carcharias to become a protected species. It’s a lot easier to get support to protect a “white shark,” than it would be to protect a “man-eater”.
The protected white sharks will be back in early late May or early June next summer.
When Troy was attacked there were practically no white sharks alive, since they ended up "Dead on the Dock for their Jaws and meat, that is until they got Federal protection in 1997. There is no shortage of them here in New England now.
So I thought I would post this article as our attention will be occupied with Thanksgiving-Christmas-our immigration problem-a demented President-inflation-increasing fuel costs, and many other problems facing our country.-Tom
So I thought I would post this article as our attention will be occupied with Thanksgiving-Christmas-our immigration problem-a demented President-inflation-increasing fuel costs, and many other problems facing our country.-Tom
The below link is to “Watson and the Shark”, painted by John Singleton Copley. Though in Havana Harbor, it is on display at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. The victim survived the attack (although he lost his leg) and later became the mayor of Boston.
https://collections.mfa.org/objects/30998?image=1
The headline is a bit confusing. Maybe saying
“Shark attack in 1936, 16 y/o victim” would also work.
I took it directly out of the way I wrote it, but I know what you mean.
It was part of a series of shark attacks and would be a normal header for one in that group.
But singling it out for a general thread might confuse a reader who doesn't understand it is part of a page on shark attacks. -Tom
Best intentions are leading to the problem. Protect seals, then protect Great Whites. More food, more Whites. Person in a wet suit swimming? what’s that look like?
Wanna catch large mouth bass? Drag a frog looking lure that looks like a real frog through the water.
I like the Nelly Furtado version much better.
Fatal Shark attack Maine, 2020
Sounds just like JAWS
Town response this year
https://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/news/year-after-deadly-shark-attack-maine-town-state-make-changes/ar-AAMDc3M
You said: "...It’s a lot easier to get support to protect a “white shark,” than it would be to protect a “man-eater”..."
My mind immediate began to find a way to twist it into some kind of "White Privilege" thing, since it is so forefront in the news, and it did make for a rueful smile on my face. Hence the genuine gratitude for the diversion!
I will say, that must have blown people's minds in New Jersey Shark Attacks.
“I stumbled across this, don’t know how accurate it is, but I found it entertaining:
New Jersey Shark Attacks of 1916”
On the same page listed in this thread is my opinion of the shark experts of 1916 which says:
Along the New Jersey coast in 1916, four swimmers were killed and another swimmer was
injured in shark attacks on July 1st, 6th, and 12th. Those attacks are purported to be the
inspiration for the movie JAWS.
The shark experts in 1916 should have worn dunce caps when they made public
statements about those shark attacks. They just didn’t know much about sharks.
Prior too, and after those attacks, some of the leading experts didn’t believe
sharks would make an unprovoked attack on people, or that sharks had the jaw
strength to do the damage those victims suffered. They also believed that shark
attacks would not happen in the cooler water north of Cape Hatteras.
The 1916 shark attacks were initially blamed on other sea creatures; a turtle, tuna, killer whale
and swordfish, before it became painfully obvious they were in fact, shark attacks-a conclusion
a Kansas farmer who never saw a shark, or the ocean, might have reached quicker than the
so-called shark experts of that day. The experts of that day were just clueless.
LOL, wasn’t their whole purpose to entertain via the press? What color the expert left out, they press would surely make up for!
They float in the water, and when a shark that has been tagged gets close to one, the tag number and time will be logged.
While the data has to be physically downloaded from each receiver, one that gives an alert in real-time, has been purchased through a partnership with the Maine Department of Marine Resources and the state park system. It will be placed off Popham Beach State Park.
A big factor in these buoys is they will only record the presence of a tagged white shark.
Untagged white sharks won't be recorded, and they out number the tagged sharks by about 3-1 in New England. -Tom
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