The recent accounts of attacks piqued my interest, and I visited the website of the International Shark Attack File. For some reason, they only provide summary data, and accounts of individual attacks are apparently only provided to researchers.
In perusing the site, this page shows “1580-2000 Map of Asia’s Confirmed Unprovoked Shark Attacks.” I’d like to find an account of the 1580 attack–who, what, where, etc. (I assume Japan, but other than that…). Unfortunately, a google search appears to turn up mostly media accounts of the file itself.
this site has about every piece of information on sharks you could ever want. it’s a really big page, so you have to scroll down about 3/4 of the page to get to it, but it says:
another interesting piece of information is that Sir Francis Drake was rounding the Cape of Good Hope in 1580. Whether these two are related, i don’t know…
i guess it wasn’t drake, because he was going west to east and didn’t even stop in india, as this map shows. guess it was someone else, but i can’t find out who.
This site adds very little to jonfromdenver’s quote, mainly that the observer was an English officer: http://www.sharkattacks.com/historical.htm
The English East India company didn’t get it’s charter until 1600. This would probably point towards an English observer on a Portuguese ship (other Europeans established trade with India a bit later.)
While there seems to be many historical accounts of shark attacks, this one is interesting in that it is pieced together with some archaeological detective work: http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/anthro/caribarch/sharks.htm
