Close to Shore - Michael Capuzzo [120]
The article on the sharks of Long Island that Nichols and Murphy co-authored in April 1916 for the Brooklyn Science Museum Bulletin was instrumental in establishing both men's knowledge about sharks and their relationship to each other. The journal article also established both younger men's respect for Dr. Lucas as a mentor, as Nichols and Murphy invited Lucas to contribute comments in the article on the great white. From Robert Cushman Murphy's papers, 1907–1973, and journal in the archives of the American Philosphical Society in Philadelphia, I learned of his especially close relationship with Dr. Lucas, his mentor, who sent him on the whaling brig Daisy with a letter “to be opened the day the first Albratross is seen.” Lucas's moving role as a mentor to young scientists is well established by his letter: “. . . while I am too far on the wrong side of fifty to wish to be with you all the time, yet I would like mightily to be with you for a part of the time to see the Sea Elephants, the Penguins, and the glaciers of South Georgia. You will feel cramped and uncomfortable for a time, but you will soon harmonize with your environment and—what an experience for a young man!”
My deepest thanks to John Dillon of Sanibel, Florida, nephew of Charles Epting Vansant, the first known swimmer killed by a shark in American history. During several delightful days at his home, John and his wife, Jill, and brother, Larry, opened to me the private world of the Vansant family of Philadelphia. John Dillon's energy and scholarship as a genealogist have kept the Vansant story, and his uncle's place in history, alive. In particular, I relied on the Condensed Vansant Geneaology as well the family histories of the Eptings and Dillons. John's voice and love of family inform all the Vansant pages.
For my characterization of Charles Vansant's years at the University of Pennsylvania, I owe thanks to Mark Frazier Lloyd, director of the University of Pennsylvania Archives and Records Center, archivist Martin J. Hackett, and also James Curtiss Ayers. The Penn archivists tolerated my presence for weeks, and their expertise informs the Penn history in this book. The archivists gave me special access to Charles Vansant's Penn yearbooks—The Records of 1911, 1912, 1913, and 1914. My brief description of Vansant's years at Penn and the assertion that This Side of Paradise is an accurate reflection of those years is based on extensive research of turn-of-the-century university life as well as a reading of every page of the campus newspaper, The Daily Pennsylvanian, published during Vansant's four years. The mentions of Charlie, or “Van,”as his classmates called him, were few, but the feel of the times was abundant.
For Charles's academic record and school experiences before college, I would like to thank Tony Brown, Director of Alumni of the Episcopal Academy of Merion and Devon, Pennsylvania for access to the academy's archives.
For my understanding of Philadelphia society, I am greatly indebted to The Perennial Philadelphians by Nathaniel Burt, which paints a loving, incisive, and utterly convincing portrait of Old Phildelphians.
My descriptions of Beach Haven, Engleside and New Baldwin hotels, and the Engle family are drawn substantially from Eighteen Miles of History on Long Beach Island and Six Miles at Sea: A Pictorial History of Long Beach Island. Both volumes are by John Bailey Lloyd. My thanks to John for showing me his beloved island, the new Engleside Motel, and the site of Charles Vansant's death.
My portrayal of Dr. Eugene LaRue Vansant's medical practice is based on his papers contained in the archives of The College of Physicians of Philadelphia, and I wish to thank the curator of the