‘One flick of its tail and
Below the Surface is a Stuff series by Hamish McNeilly about five shark attacks in the 1960s and early ’70s off the coast of Dunedin. Three men were killed and two more seriously injured, devastating families, traumatising survivors and sparking hysteria
As darkness fell, motorists were urged to put their car lights on full to illuminate the dark sea below. firefighting spotlight and a large searchlight from a nearby modelling club lit up the waves as people with torches combed the beaches.
Hours earlier William Black, a 21-year-old lifesaver, was leading in a belt race when a big wave broke in front of him.
A shark was spotted just metres behind Black by the person in second place.
‘‘Everything was blood after that,’’ fellow St Kilda Surf Lifesaving Club member Kevin Brown said.
Those on shore started to reel the lines in but Black’s line suddenly went slack and it was later discovered it had been severed.
His body was never found.
A surf canoe was sent out to find Black, or the shark, reaching the area within three minutes of when he was last seen.
‘‘I am quite convinced that William Richard Black lost his life as a result of being attacked by this shark,’’ Brown told police after the incident.
‘‘At the time, there was nothing I could do to help him.’’ William Black never to be recovered.
That’s the opinion of Dr Gavin Naylor, shark research curator at the Florida Museum of Natural History.
Humans bitten by a shark tended to be bitten once and then left alone.
‘‘Of all the information we have, it is very rare that the body is not recovered.’’
A police report from the incident said for weeks patrols of beaches were made during the days and nights after Black’s disappearance but ‘‘no part of the body of the