Calm down: It’s been almost 80 years since a shark killed someone in Massachusetts
A 16-year-old’s death was one of two documented shark fatalities in the state.
Joseph Troy and his friend Walter Stiles had been in the water off Hollywood Beach for only a few minutes when a black fin appeared about 15 yards away. It cut through the water and circled the boys once.
There wasn’t time for them to swim away, according to a Globe report from the day after the incident. The shark latched onto Troy, who was 16 years old, and dragged him underwater. Stiles screamed.
Troy eventually died at a nearby hospital. The year was 1936. His death is the last time a Massachusetts resident died in a shark attack in New England waters.
The odds of dying in a shark attack are 1 in 3.7 million, according to the Florida Program for Shark Research. Still, every year, whether around the anniversary of Jaws or during Shark Week, people seem to get nervous that a shark might suddenly strike while they’re wading out in the Atlantic.
The odds are overwhelmingly in your favor, but, if you insist on scaring yourself with stories of shark attacks, you might as well do it with a true one. Here’s the full tale of the last fatal attack in New England waters as pieced together by two Globe reports from days after the incident:
Troy was spending a weekend in late July at his uncle’s house in Mattapoisett. It was one of the last summer weekends before he was supposed to begin his senior year at Memorial High School in Boston.
He and Stiles, who was his uncle’s friend, went out for a swim. The shark appeared almost instantly, circled the pair and took Troy underneath.
Stiles dove under the water several times in an attempt to rescue his friend, but couldn’t find him. Troy’s unconscious body bobbed to the surface of the water a few seconds later, his arms, legs and back covered with blood and gashes.
Stiles pulled his friend onto his back and swam toward the shore while screaming for help. A boat made its way toward them and pulled the pair onboard. Once they got to shore, neighbors loaded Troy’s body onto an old door, which they used as a stretcher. They then drove him to a hospital 12 miles away.
Doctors were prepared to amputate one of Troy’s legs, but he died before they could do the surgery. The cause of death was severe blood loss. Because Troy’s femoral artery wasn’t severed, shark specialists believe he could have survived today because of medical advances and quicker transportation. This means that the last person to die of a shark attack in Massachusetts probably wouldn’t have died if the attack occurred today.
Before Troy, a Massachusetts native named Joseph Blaney died of injuries he received during a shark attack in Swampscott in 1830, according to Lippincott’s Magazine. Their deaths are the only documented shark-related fatalities in the state.
Stiles said in a Globe report that the shark disappeared after it attacked Troy. It didn’t strike again (at least, not in New England). And, odds are, its descendants won’t either.
Photos: When Jaws invaded Martha’s Vineyard
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