How World War II spawned our shark obsession - long before 'Shark Week' and ‘Jaws’
At first glance, the success of ‘Shark Week’ seems inextricably linked to JAWS. Stands to reason really, people loved the thrill and tension of the movie and would happily tune in to watch the exploits of real sharks as they swim and feed. Sharks have a quiet charisma, they’re the ultimate ‘strong silent type’ and people are drawn to their mysterious nature and -it has to be said - sense of danger.
However, it might not have been JAWS that set Shark Week off. The reasons for our fascination with them could go back as far as World War II.
Back when the war started for America in 1941, many of its citizens didn’t venture far from home but as mobilisation began, people started to move from place to place more for the war effort. This meant that people from landlocked States might find themselves somewhere like Hawaii or Los Angeles or the coastline of Texas and suddenly there’d be an awareness of these toothy killers lurking in the depths, just waiting to swim up and grab you. Without any real information about the situation, gossip would spread like panic on a beach on the 4th of July.
It would have been terrifying. And totally understandable.
Just the same as if you took a coastal dweller and dropped them in the middle of the Rocky Mountains and casually told them that there was a Grizzly hiding behind every tree - before you left them all alone.
Along with people moving round the United States, you had military personnel travelling overseas. A flyer’s biggest fear became being shot down over water and dying in the jaws of some ravenous killing machine. It was this fear that lead the military and the OSS (which would morph into the CIA once the war was done) to try to come up with some kind of shark repellant. They tried asparagus, horse urine, rotting shark flesh… But in the end settled on a pill of copper acetate that gave out a black inky dye that would obscure you from the shark, giving you more of a chance. Problem was, sharks don’t rely an awful lot on their eyesight when launching an attack, but having something to deter them might have offered a bit of a morale boost.
Another bit of help came in the form of a pamphlet from 1944 called ‘Shark Sense’ which advised those wounded to “staunch the flow of blood as soon as you disengage the parachute” so you’re not advertising your presence too much. The pamphlet also told you to try hitting the shark on the nose or even grabbing on to the pectoral fin:
“Hold tight and hang on as long as you can without drowning yourself.”
One of the all time lows for the image of sharks and our dread of meeting one up close is, of course, the USS Indianapolis disaster. Quint’s description of the event is seared into every JAWS fan’s brain, and when you consider the power of this speech, it shows us the fear we have of sharks came way before 1975. It began in the era Quint was recalling.
Shark Mouth, the World’s Most Enduring Nose Art
He is clearly stating how long he’s been wary of - and felt hatred towards - sharks.
When Peter Benchley published his novel in 1974 there was a great many World War II veterans who read it - the real life Quints, if you will - and recognised their feelings contained within the pages.
One man, Don Plotz, a Navy Sailor, wrote to Benchley telling him how he couldn’t put the book down until he’d finished it. Plotz was employed on a Search and Rescue mission in the Bahamas where the USS Warrington had been sunk in hurricane. Out of a crew of 321, only 73 survived…
The sharks took the rest.
Words by Tim Armitage
If you would like to write for The Daily Jaws, please visit our ‘work with us’ page
For all the latest Jaws, shark and shark movie news, follow The Daily Jaws on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.