26 Shark Against Man 



water. None had menaced him. He had also, he said, talked to men in 

 the tropics who had encountered sharks. And, Beebe said, he had come 

 away unconvinced that the shark was a man-eater. Once, he recounted, 

 he had asked the head of the pearl-diving industry in Ceylon if sharks 

 bit men. 



"Why, yes," the head pearl diver repUed. "We lose many men. They 

 go down, disappear, and we see blood coming to the top of the water." 



"Now, tell me," Beebe said, "as one man of science to another, did 

 you ever know a shark to bite a man?" 



The way Beebe told the story, the head diver grinned sheepishly and 

 answered: "No, but the tourists like to hear such stories, so we tell them 

 what they want to know." 



With well-known experts like Beebe around, the reality of the five 

 New Jersey shark attacks could not compete with the unreality of ig- 

 noring the facts of the shark menace. Telling people what they wanted 

 to hear, many alleged experts said that no one need fear the shark. 

 "Where are the records to prove shark attacks?" the experts said. "What 

 is there to rely on besides sailors' yarns?" 



The record was there, if anyone bothered to look at it. There was, 

 for instance, the Indian Medical Gazette of April 1, 1881, in which a 

 surgeon routinely reported that "more than 20 persons have been se- 

 verely bitten by sharks this year. Almost all were fatal." And there 

 were on record in 1926 at least four well-documented shark attack re- 

 ports in the archives of the United States Navy. 



Apparently, these Navy records were not consulted by those who 

 refused to believe that sharks would attack men. It seems likely, though, 

 that the following report by a Navy surgeon would have converted any 

 non-believer: 



The U.S.S. Dale, at the time of the accident, was anchored in Canacao Bay, 

 P. I. About 5 p.m., May 31, 1917, E. E., water tender, attached to the U.S.S. 

 Dale, started out for a long swim, accompanied by one of his shipmates. E. E. 

 was an excellent swimmer and, after a time, his companion, becoming tired and 

 not wishing to go further, left him and he continued to swim alone in the direc- 

 tion of the open bay. 



About 5:45 p.m., a seaman on the U.S.S. Monterey happened to notice E. E., 

 who was then some 200 yards from the ship, fall suddenly on his back and then 

 give two or three violent strokes in the water. At the same time, the observer 

 saw a shark in close proximity to the bather. 



It was not hard to conjecture that some accident had occurred, and a boat 

 was rapidly lowered and rushed to the vicinity where the man had last been 

 seen. The body was recovered, but it was evident from the extensiveness of the 

 wound that the man was dead. He was then taken to the morgue of the United 

 States Naval Hospital, Canacao, P. I. 



