The Engleside Hotel
The Engleside served mostly upper middle class Quakers from Philadelphia. Over 300 guests enjoyed amenities like electricity, gaslights, bathrooms with hot and cold running water, balconies and wide, wrap around piazzas lined with wicker rockers. The hotel maintained vegetable gardens and a ‘baby dairy’ w/three Guernsey cows, along with special dining rooms for infants and toddlers. Visitors relaxed to live concerts, ballroom dancing, fishing, lawn tennis and more.

ATTACK 1- July 1, 1916 Beach Haven
Young Charles Van Sant, and his family took the train from Philadelphia with their staff and arrived in Beach Haven. While the family unpacked, Charles headed down to the beach for a swim. Witnesses said they saw a dark fin cutting the water, heading straight for Charles. When Charles screamed, spectators thought he was calling to a dog he had befriended on the beach. Then they saw the water turn red. A large shark had attacked him in less than three and a half feet of water.

Alex Ott, the lifeguard on duty, swam to a bleeding Charles and began towing him in to shore. The shark attacked again. Ott and the shark battled in a tug of war for Charles Van Sant. A chain of people from the beach assisted and together they pulled Charles in to the beach. The shark hung onto Charles until the water was so shallow it scraped the sandy bottom. Charles was taken to the hotel and several doctors were summoned, including his father. None of the doctors had seen a wound of such severity. In two hours, Charles Van Sant bled to death. It was the first incident of a shark attack as the official cause of death in the U.S.

Beach Haven Pound Fishery Pound fishermen from Beach Haven put up protective nets in the bathing areas as a way to help the hotels reassure guests. Experts debated what actually attacked Charles VanSant and theories posed to the general public included the claim it was a Mackerel.

ATTACK 2: 4th of July, 1916- Spring Lake
Two hotel employees, Henry Nolan and Charles Bruder, decided to go for a swim during their break in the middle of the afternoon. Nolan returned to shore because the water was cold but Charles Bruder, a strong swimmer, swam out. When screams were heard, witnesses thought someone in a red canoe had overturned. Lifeguards launched a rescue boat. The force of the shark was so strong, Charles Bruder was spinning in the water. As the lifeguards pulled him into the boat, Bruder yelled, “A shark bit me.” Despite his major injuries, Bruder described the attacker as a ‘big gray fellow and awful hungry’. It bit his side and its belly was so rough it bruised his face and arms. He screamed. The shark returned and bit off his left leg. It shook him like a ‘terrier shakes a rat’. He screamed more and the shark attacked again, severing his right leg. Bruder was dead before he reached the shore.

Officials insisted it was a giant sea turtle, a large mackerel or even a German U-Boat attack!

MATAWAN CREEK July 12-Matawan Creek
Early that morning Joseph Dunn, of New York City caught the train to visit his Aunt. Capt. Cottrell, a retired fisherman while returning home to Matawan after fishing, sees a 9 ft. shadow pass under him on the Trolley bridge headed up stream in the creek. Capt. Cottrell recognizes the shark and borrows a boat to warn the people up stream of the danger. Just after he leaves, Jos. Dunn and his friend arrived at the creek to swim.

Capt. Cottrell continues upstream to Matawan. He goes past an empty Wykcoff Dock, reaches Matawan Dock and runs into town. One place he warned was the tailor shop of Stanley Fisher. Capt. Cottrell is respected but he is older and known to have the gift of gab. He caused quite a scene but no one believed him.

ATTACK 3 Wycoff Dock July 12- Matawan Creek
In 1916, kids in Matawan worked in the factories, and enjoyed skinny dipping at Wyckoff dock. Shortly after Capt. Cottrell runs through town, Lester Stillwell and a group of boys ran out to the docks to cool off. Lester Stillwell was being chided by his friends for being afraid to go into the channel. He swims out to the channel near a piling and says, “watch me float” Lester’s friends saw a ‘piece of wood’ hit him and then Lester went under. The boys ran (naked) into town yelling for help. One store they ran past was Stanley Fishers tailor shop.

ATTACK 4 WYCKOFF DOCK July 12-Matawan Creek
Stanley Fisher realized that Lester Stillwell was epileptic and thought Lester might have had a seizure while swimming. He ran to the creek and dove in looking for Lester. As others from the town heard, they went to help and several men jumped into the creek searching for Lester. Stanley Fisher saw Lester’s body in the creek, he went under to retrieve it and was attacked by the shark. The men grabbed Stanley Fisher as he was in the mouth of the shark. He was pulled to shore and lay waiting for a train to the hospital.
After seeing the shark, people went dynamited the creek and lay in wait with guns to kill the ‘monster’. The shark left the docks however, and headed back down stream.

ATTACK 5Closer to Keyport, Jos. Dunn went swimming with his friend. He was attacked by the shark who bit him on the leg. A friend and an adult ran to pull him in as the shark tried to carry him out to the bay. He was the only one to survive.

Stopping the “Man Eater of New Jersey”
A fishing frenzy for the ‘New Jersey Man Eater’ ensued. Several press reports in 1916 attributed the end of the attacks with the capture of a shark. Pound fishermen in Belford caught a nine foot Bull shark but they caught it on the 11th, the day before the last attacks happened. The attacks “ended”. A NYC carnival man and taxidermist caught an 8 ½ foot long great white. When they opened the belly they reported there was 15 pounds of human bones, one of which was the right length for Lester Stillwell’s shin. The taxidermist displayed the shark in NYC and charged a fee to see it. What are the chances that a Carnival man and taxidermist would be the one who captured the shark that committed all five attacks? Not too good.
Shark experts have analyzed the bites, the style and the location of the attacks. A great white would have caused Charles Bruder’s injuries. Bull sharks however, are the only ‘man eating’ shark that can survive in fresh water. Scientists today suggest environmental factors resulted in several sharks attacking humans in 1916. Personally, I find that even more horrifying. I prefer to believe in one monster shark.
This map is based on research documented in two excellent books, Twelve days of Terror by Dr. Richard Fernicola and Close to Shore by Michael Capuzzo.

View Murals of Jesse Demolli in a larger map