More Shadows Attack 27 



Nearly the entire abdominal cavity had been torn awav. Indeed, the wound 

 extended from the ensiform cartilage nearly to the brim of the pelvis. Laterally, 

 from the right mid-axillary line to the left mid-axillary line. The stomach, the 

 small and large intestine, with the exception of a few feet, most of the liver 

 and bladder, half of the left kidney and all of the large abdominal blood vessels 

 were removed ... A portion of the ribs had been taken out with the nicety 

 of a costotome. Some of the skin along the edges of the wound was in ribbons 

 and bore the imprint of the monster's teeth. 



E. E. was of large stature. He was about 5 feet, 1 1 inches tall and weighed 

 approximately 200 pounds. No doubt if he had been of much smaller dimensions 

 the force of the attack might have been sufficient to have cut his body in two. 



If indisputable medical reports such as that one had gained circulation, 

 the question of whether or not sharks attack men would have been settled 

 long ago! 



The first documented study of shark attacks in U.S. waters did not 

 come until 1935, when E. Milby Burton, director of the Charleston (South 

 Carolina) Museum, reported. 



Authentic published records of persons having been bitten bv sharks while 

 in bathing along the Atlantic coast north of Florida are rare . . . Yet, within 

 the last decade, off the coast of South Carolina, there have been several well- 

 authenticated cases of fierce attacks upon bathers. 



Burton examined hospital records, interviewed victims, and talked 

 to the doctors who had treated them. The first attack Burton docu- 

 mented occurred on July 16th, 1933, when Miss Emma G. Megginson 

 was standing in the surf at Folly Island, which lies south of Charleston 

 harbor and faces on the Atlantic. The water was about up to Miss 

 Megginson's waist. Her younger brother was in the water with her, 

 and, when she felt something pinch the calf of her left leg, she thought 

 it was her brother trying to frighten her. 



But a moment later, her right leg was seized savagely, and blood 

 tinged the water around her. She staggered ashore and was taken to the 

 Roper Hospital in Charleston, where 30 stitches werp needed to close 

 the wounds imprinted by the jaws of a shark. 



Five days later, Drayton Hastie, aged 15, was swimming at the north 

 end of Morris Island, at the mouth of Charleston Harbor. The attack on 

 Miss Megginson, and the almost simultaneous capture of an 8-foot Cub 

 shark, had made everyone around Charleston shark conscious. So, when 

 Drayton saw what he thought was a dorsal fin of a shark far up on the 

 shore from \\ here he was swimming, he was momentarily frightened. 

 He concluded, though, that he had excitedly identified a choppy wave 

 as a fin. 



Just to play it safe, however, Drayton waded to shore and sat down 

 in about 3 feet of water in a place where the beach sloped gradually 



