106 
PACIFIC SCIENCE, VoL VIII, January, 1954 
ing was to be seen, but soon a gush of blood 
welled up from below and spread on the surface 
in a rough circle 6 feet or more in diameter. 
Within a matter of seconds Wilson reappeared 
in the center of the bloody patch, screamed for 
help, and struck frantically at the water with his 
hands. The shark reappeared at the surface, 
swam by very close to the youth, showing por- 
tions of its back, and then returned from the 
opposite direction, finally disappearing from the 
view of people on shore. It is uncertain that the 
shark actually struck at Wilson on these two 
passes, but apparently it did return to the attack 
some minutes later. 
Bassford in the meantime had shouted to 
Brady, who was swimming slightly inshore and 
some 50 feet away from Wilson, in order to 
warn him of the danger. Brady, ignoring his 
own safety, swam at once to the aid of his friend 
and towed him some 75 or 80 feet before being 
met by the four members of the Sea Otter Club, 
who had in the meantime been summoned from 
a distance of 150 to 200 yards by the shouting. 
These men, with considerable difficulty, suc- 
ceeded in passing a rubber tube around the body 
and under the arms of the inert victim. While 
they were attempting to do this, the body gave 
a lunge, furthering their effort. Shaw had such 
a strong impression that someone had pushed 
Wilson from behind that he turned around to 
see who had done it. Seeing no one, he looked 
quickly down into the water just in time to see 
see the posterior part of the shark disappearing. 
With Poskus pulling on an attached nylon 
rope, Ambrosio and Shaw pushing on either 
side of the tube, and Stanley supporting Wilson’s 
head in order to keep it out of the water, the 
men began a struggle through several hundred 
yards of churning seas to a point in the shelter 
of a small breakwater pier where a landing was 
possible. No exact estimate of the time required 
for that arduous journey is possible, but it must 
have taken more than 20 minutes. During at 
least some and probably most of that time the 
shark patrolled the swimmers but did not strike. 
At one time Ambrosio became aware of its 
presence before seeing it, probably sensing the 
swirls of water caused by its passage. Whenever 
the swimmers had to stop to rearrange the body 
which kept slipping from the tube as the group 
was battered by the breaking waves, the shark 
was apt to appear. Stanley, Shaw, and Ambrosio 
all saw it more than once. It is probable that 
it circled them most of the way to shore, ap- 
proaching closely whenever it was necessary to 
halt and being kept at a slightly greater distance 
by the agitation of group swimming. It is pos- 
sible, however, that the approaches and retreats 
were an illusion resulting from a better oppor- 
tunity for some of the men to watch for the 
shark during the halts. The actions of the shark 
during this period were somewhat similar to 
those of a man-eater which, after an attack on 
a boy in Buzzard’s Bay, Massachusetts, in 1916, 
stood off and on in the blood-reddened water 
only a few yards away during the rescue attempt 
but made no further attack (Gudger, E. W., 
Am'er. Midland Nat. 44(3): 714-719, figs. 1, 2, 
1951). They are also reminiscent of the behavior 
of a hammerhead which, after attacking a girl 
at Palm Beach, Florida, in 1931, followed his 
victim and her rescuer close in to the shore but 
appeared to be kept from making repeated at- 
tacks by vigorous threshing (Gudger, E. W., 
Nat. Hist. 40(1): 417-418, 1937). 
It should be mentioned that the movements 
of the shark were at all times deliberate, and 
leisurely. Neither during the initial attack, nor 
while making subsequent strikes, nor while con- 
voying the swimmers toward shore, did its speed 
impress any observer. It made no abrupt lunges 
and never appeared to be exerting itself. 
Wilson was examined by Dr. R. L. Hane a few 
minutes after having been brought to the pier 
and was pronounced dead as the result of his 
extremely severe wounds. While I am reluctant 
to publish the accompanying photographs of 
these wounds, I deem it desirable to do so and 
to describe their general character in order that 
a graphic record may be readily available for 
comparison in future instances when swimmers 
may be attacked by some unknown marine 
animal. Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Wilson, the 
parents of the deceased youth, have given me 
permission to do so. 
The body above the hips and the lower right 
leg were without blemish. The major wound 
involved the excision of the lower part of the 
right buttock and practically all the muscles on 
the dorsal side of the thigh, almost to the knee. 
Although no bones were broken, the lower part 
of the ischium was laid bare, and the femur 
was exposed for about three quarters of its 
length. The femoral artery was severed, and 
shock and loss of blood from this wound alone 
would have caused death in a very few minutes. 
This wound also involved most of the lateral 
and medial surfaces of the thigh, so that only 
a narrow strip of skin about 3 or 4 inches wide 
on the front of the leg was undamaged. The 
lateral margin of the wound was ragged and 
characterized by ribbon-like pendants of flesh, 
