Close to Shore: The Terrifying Shark Attacks of 1916 - Softcover

Capuzzo, Michael

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0767904141 ISBN 13: 9780767904148

Publisher: Crown Publishing Group (NY), 2002

Synopsis

Combining rich historical detail and a harrowing, pulse-pounding narrative, Close to Shore brilliantly re-creates the summer of 1916, when a rogue Great White shark attacked swimmers along the New Jersey shore, triggering mass hysteria and launching the most extensive shark hunt in history.

In July 1916 a lone Great White left its usual deep-ocean habitat and headed in the direction of the New Jersey shoreline. There, near the towns of Beach Haven and Spring Lake--and, incredibly, a farming community eleven miles inland--the most ferocious and unpredictable of predators began a deadly rampage: the first shark attacks on swimmers in U.S. history.

Capuzzo interweaves a vivid portrait of the era and meticulously drawn characters with chilling accounts of the shark's five attacks and the frenzied hunt that ensued. From the unnerving inevitability of the first attack on the esteemed son of a prosperous Philadelphia physician to the spine-tingling moment when a farm boy swimming in Matawan Creek feels the sandpaper-like skin of the passing shark, Close to Shore is an undeniably gripping saga.

Heightening the drama are stories of the resulting panic in the citizenry, press and politicians, and of colorful personalities such as Herman Oelrichs, a flamboyant millionaire who made a bet that a shark was no match for a man (and set out to prove it); Museum of Natural History ichthyologist John Treadwell Nichols, faced with the challenge of stopping a mythic sea creature about which little was known; and, most memorable, the rogue Great White itself moving through a world that couldn't conceive of either its destructive power or its moral right to destroy.

Scrupulously researched and superbly written, Close to Shore brings to life a breathtaking, pivotal moment in American history. Masterfully written and suffused with fascinating period detail and insights into the science and behavior of sharks, Close to Shore recounts a breathtaking, pivotal moment in American history with startling immediacy.

About this title

Review

In Close to Shore Michael Capuzzo tells the harrowing story of the real-life Jaws that helped inspire Peter Benchley's classic novel (and movie). Modern science now tells us that shark attacks are exceedingly rare and limited to just a few species. Yet they do occur, and one of the most terrifying episodes of fatal attacks occurred near the New Jersey shore in 1916, when a renegade great white shark went on a man-eating spree, which left three adults and one boy dead. Capuzzo likens the shark's abnormal behaviour to that of a person "who goes off the deep end and starts shooting". Whatever its motives, the shark captivated the public's imagination along the Eastern seaboard, devastated the resort economy, and even drew the attention of President Woodrow Wilson.

Close to Shore is a little slow to get going and could have been a much shorter book. There is a fair amount of stage setting, and the first shark attack doesn't occur until about one-third of the way through the narrative. But Capuzzo does much with limited source material and includes many interesting asides on everything from the lore of sea monsters to the bathing-suit fashions of the day to nearly everything science knows about great whites, which, it turns out, is surprisingly little. Alternating from the victims' perspectives to the shark's, Capuzzo's descriptions of the attacks are a blend of horrors and thrills:

Charles Bruder felt a slight vacuum tug in the motion of the sea, noted it as a passing current, the pull of a wave, the tickle of undertow. He could not have heard the faint, sucking rush of water not far beneath him. He couldn't have seen or heard what was hurtling from the murk at astonishing speed, jaws unhinging, widening, for the enormous first bite. It was the classic attack that no other creature in nature could make--a bomb from the depths.

If this book were on any other subject, it would make for good beach reading. --John J Miller

Review

"A remarkable read . . . a flash photo of the moment when our fascination with sharks transformed from awe into mortal dread."
--Entertainment Weekly

"The most perfect beach book ever. Better than Jaws-an amazing story, terrific writing, and the Gilded Age setting is fascinating. I loved it."
--Linda Marotta, Shakespeare & Company, New York City

"Popular history meets popular science in this thrilling shark story. As in Seabiscuit, the author interweaves social history with a suspenseful story told from different characters' points of view, including that most fascinating character of all: the shark itself."
--Arsen Kashkashian, Boulder Book Store, Boulder, Colorado

"This riveting book skillfully combines historical fact with shark science and lore. A first-rate thriller that's all the more spine-tingling because it really happened."
--Anne Edkins, Vroman's Bookstore, Pasadena, California

"A riveting account of the terrorizing shark attacks [of 1916]. Meticulously researched, it provides fascinating information about the history of the great white shark as well as a social commentary of America during World War I. Informative, entertaining, enthralling."
--Tova Beiser, Brown University Bookstore, Providence, Rhode Island

Edition details

• Publisher: Crown Publishing Group (NY)
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0767904141
• ISBN 13: 9780767904148
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 338