The Last Massachusetts Shark Attack...

By Jimmy FeeJuly 25, 2011

Shark-Attack-Newspaper-MA — The New Bedford Standard Times reports on the 1936 shark attack.

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.

Shark Fatality Still Hits Home

Jimmy Fee

Jimmy Fee is the Editor of On The Water and a lifelong surfcaster. He grew up fishing the bridges and beaches of Southern New Jersey before moving to Cape Cod in his early 20s. He's pursued striped bass from North Carolina to Massachusetts. He began with On The Water in 2008, and since then has covered a variety of Northeast fisheries from small pond panfish to bluewater billfish in the through writing, video, and podcasting.

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One response to “The Last Massachusetts Shark Attack…”

Capt. Tom King
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)”.

February 19, 2012
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