Close to Shore!

Close to Shore was written by Michael Capuzzo. The book Close to Shore takes you 10 days into in the year of 1916, in this year there was a number of shark attacks in New Jersey, were four victims were killed and one other was wounded.

The first victim, was a man named Vansant. Vansant was swimming in 5 foot water when he got attacked; the shark went for Vansant’s leg. When rescuers tried to get him out of the water the shark wouldn’t loosen its grip. The shark only let go of Vansant’s leg when the rescuers pulled him into a foot of water. Sadly Vansant died on his way to the hospital.

The second victim was four days after the first attack. The victim was also male; this victim was far from shore when he got attacked. When the victim started to scream the lifeguards thought that he was having trouble with the surf. When the lifeguards reached him, they realized that he had been attacked by a shark. The victim lost his leg, and he died within minutes of his rescue.

The third victims was  a ten year old boy, and also Stanley Fisher. These attacks were in the Matawan Creek. The boy began to splash in the water and he began to scream, when Stanley saw the boy struggling in the water he jumped in to the creek. Before Stanley got into the creek people warned him that the shark might be lurking in the water, But Stanley didn’t listen, he jumped in anyway. When Stanley was in the water it took him a while to find the child, however once Stanley did find the boy he grabbed him and headed for shore. Unfortunately once Stanley got to shallow water the shark yanked on Stanley, and Stanley let go of the young boy. When people saw this, they all screamed,” Shark!” After this happened both Stanley and the boy vanished, then people caught sight of Stanley again. Stanley was dragging himself to shore. Stanley had really bad open wounds; Stanley died a couple of hours later in the hospital. As for the boy his body was found two days later.

The fourth and final attack was in the Matawan Creek again, the victim was a twelve year old boy, named John Dunn. John and his friends went for a swim in the creek but when someone yelled, “Shark!” Once the boys hear the person yell, all of the boys fled out of the water, and the last one out was John. When John pulled himself up onto the pier, the shark went for John’s left leg. Luckily John got out in time and the shark couldn’t kill him; but john’s leg did have to be amputated that same day.

In conclusion, After all of these attacks only one survived. After John’s attack a couple of days later the shark was finally captured.  It was captured off South Amboy, New Jersey. When the shark was opened up; the people found in its stomach:

Human flesh, bones, and a leg from the second attack. After the shark was captured there were no more attacks, and that was the end of this horror of the year of 1916.