The Shadows Attack 



At this spot in Matawan Creek, in Matawan, New Jersey, Lester Stilwell and Stanley 

 Fisher were attacked by a shark. The piHngs in the foreground served as diving 

 platforms for Lester and other boys playing in the creek. The dilapidated wharf at 

 the right was where the mortally wounded Fisher was brought ashore. 



From a contemporary news photo 



onto the dock. "Don't dive in any more!" he shouted to his companions. 

 "There's a shark or something in there!" 



No one paid much attention to Rennie, and, as a matter of fact, he 

 ignored his own warning a few minutes later by diving into the creek. 

 He was in a hurry to get home. It was much quicker to swim across the 

 creek than to walk to the nearest bridge. (More than 40 years later, the 

 scars from the sandpaper-like burn still on his stomach, Rensselaer 

 Cartan would stand by the creek, and, shaking his head, say to one of the 

 authors, "It might have been me. You know, it might have been me.") 



On July 1 1th, in Belford, on Sandy Hook Bay, a few miles east of the 

 mouth of Matawan Creek, Herman Tarnow, a fisherman, caught a 9- 

 foot shark 120 feet out from the low-water mark. No one paid much 

 attention to Herman Tarnow, either. 



In the late morning of July 12th, Captain Thomas Cottrell, a retired 

 sailor and part-time local fisherman, was walking along the new trolley 

 drawbridge that crossed Matawan Creek about a mile and a half down 

 creek from Wyckoff Dock. Eleven days had passed since Charles Van 

 Sant had died at Beach Haven, 70 miles as a shark would swim, from 

 Matawan. Six days had passed since Charles Bruder had died at Spring 

 Lake, 25 miles as a shark would swim, from Matawan. Now, as Captain 

 Cottrell walked across the bridge that hot, bright morning, he saw a 



