![]() ![]() The project culminated in 1945, when the Navy introduced “ Shark Chaser,” a pink pill of copper acetate that produced a black inky dye when released in the water – the idea being that it would obscure a serviceman from sharks. Office of Strategic Services executive assistant and future chef Julia Child worked on the project, which tested various recipes of clove oil, horse urine, nicotine, rotting shark muscle and asparagus in hopes of preventing shark attacks. The Department of the Navy also worked with the Office of Strategic Services, the wartime precursor to the Central Intelligence Agency, to develop a shark repellent. The pamphlet helpfully noted that hitting an aggressive shark on the nose might stop an attack, as would grabbing a ride on the pectoral fin: “Hold tight and hang on as long as you can without drowning yourself.” Similarly, the Navy’s 1944 pamphlet titled “ Shark Sense” advised wounded servicemen stranded at sea to “staunch the flow of blood as soon as you disengage the parachute” to thwart hungry sharks. ‘Shark Sense’ sought to prepare troops for encounters with the marine predators. ![]() The book emphasized the critical importance of conquering such “bogies of the imagination” as “If you are forced down at sea, a shark is sure to amputate your leg.” ![]() Published in 1942, “ Castaway’s Baedeker to the South Seas” was a “travel” survival guide, of sorts, for servicemen stranded on Pacific islands. Army and Navy intelligence operations engaged in a publicity campaign to combat fear of sharks. They never look healthy to a man flying over them.” ‘Hold tight and hang on’Īmerican servicemen became so squeamish about the specter of being eaten during long oceanic campaigns that U.S. General George Kenney enthusiastically supported the adoption of the P-38 fighter plane in the Pacific because its twin engines and long range diminished the chances of a single-engine aircraft failure or an empty fuel tank: “You look down from the cockpit and you can see schools of sharks swimming around. David Baldridge reported that fear of sharks was a leading cause of poor morale among servicemen in the Pacific theater. The naval officer and marine scientist H. Whether sharks were visibly present or not, these news articles magnified a growing cultural anxiety of ubiquitous monsters lurking and poised to kill. Journalists consistently described imperiled servicemen who were rescued or dying in “ shark-infested waters.” Local newspapers across the country transfixed civilians and servicemen alike with frequent stories of bombed ships and aircraft in the open ocean. Meanwhile, 15 million civilians crossed county lines to work in the defense industries, many of which were in coastal cities, such as Mobile, Alabama Galveston, Texas Los Angeles and Honolulu. Census, 16 million Americans served in the armed forces, many of whom fought in the Pacific. Out of a population of 132.2 million people, per the 1940 U.S. But during the war, the nation was on the move. America on the moveīefore World War II, travel across state and county lines was uncommon. The monumental wartime mobilization of millions of people placed more Americans into contact with sharks than at any prior time in history, spreading seeds of intrigue and fear toward the marine predators. World War II played a pivotal role in fomenting the nation’s obsession with sharks. Yet as a historian analyzing human and shark entanglements across the centuries, I argue that the temporal depths of “sharkmania” run much deeper. ![]()
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