It’s been 75 years, today, since the last fatal shark attack in Massachusetts. This article from the Boston Globe gives the most detailed account of the attack I’ve ever read, but one thing sticks out at me – the size of the shark. Might not necessarily have been a white shark after all.
Walter Stiles, who was swimming with Troy, and Herbert Fisher who rowed over to help them, both told Dr. Hugh Smith that the shark was about 10-12 feet long. That established the length of the shark.
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 transported Troy to the hospital, testified that the victims “skin edges were serrated as if cut off by a toothed object.”
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)”.