Remembering Capt. Frank Mundus during the 50th anniversary of Jaws.
Mark your calendars for the golden cinematic anniversary of the original summer blockbuster, Jaws! Released into theaters on June 20, 1975, the groundbreaking suspense/horror/action film made audiences think twice before dipping their toes into the ocean. The movie Jaws, directed by then-newcomer Steven Spielberg, was based on the 1974 novel of the same name, written by Peter Benchley. It told the story of a gigantic great white’s reign of terror along the shores of a fictional New England resort town known as Amity Island.
Enter Captain Frank Mundus, skipper of the Montauk, New York, charter boat Cricket II, and the pioneer of recreational shark fishing. Until his death in 2008, Mundus steadfastly maintained he was the inspiration for the movie’s main character “Quint,” who was ultimately bested by the biggest mechanical shark of all time. It’s a claim Benchley denied until his passing in 2006, describing Quint, played by Robert Shaw, as a composite character. Benchley, it should be noted, fished with Mundus for shark at least once in the 1960s.
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In July 1951, Mundus moved his charter boat from Brielle, New Jersey, to Montauk Point, New York, and began specifically fishing for sharks—considered a trash fish at the time. Offshore fishing has never been the same. Single-handedly, he created an industry. Some called it an atrocity; others admired him for his courage and innovation. Over the years, he was quoted, misquoted, respected, and cursed depending on whom you ask. He was called illiterate, yet he wrote three books. His dockside pranks were legendary, but in private, he seemed to sail on an even keel. All along, he claimed to have had fun.
Say what you will about the “Monster Man” and his fishing techniques, brashness, and ability to spin a tale; this much is certain: It was Mundus at the helm of the Cricket II when the first rod and reel mako to top 1,000 pounds was dragged back to port; it was Mundus at the helm as six more sharks of 1,000 pounds or more visited the dock; and it was Mundus at the helm when the largest rod and reel shark of all time, a 3,427-pound great white, was bested by fellow Montauk skipper, Capt. Donnie Braddick, in 1986.
Still, it is his alleged role as the model for Benchley and Spielberg’s “Quint” for which Mundus is best known by the general public. The skipper, whom I was lucky enough to interview twice, was 66 years old when I spoke with him for the first time in 1991. The following are some excerpts from that conversation. Please note that Mundus claimed, and many authorities agreed, that the shark fishing tactics he used were legal at the time. Much has changed since then.
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Frank, it’s been said you were the model for the character “Quint” in the movie Jaws. How did that come to be?
Well, you see, all Peter Benchley had to do was sit back with a pair of scissors and cut out the articles (about me) that were in the paper. For instance, the first big white shark we got was taken right off the bathing beach in a little town called Amagansett, New York. It weighed 3,000 pounds. We harpooned it in only 75 feet of water, and it made headlines in the Daily News: “Man-Eating White Shark Caught Right Off the Bathing Beach!”
And so, Benchley was clipping these types of headlines?
He had to be. That was his opening scene. That was the first big fish we got. There was his idea!
Did Benchley actually interview you?
He didn’t have to.
He just read the clippings you imagine?
Yeah. Then he put story for story all the way through the whole book…. Alright? Now, we had one fish that was 1,500 or 2,000 pounds…. He rolled around and grabbed hold of where the side meets the bottom of the boat, and he busted off five teeth. We pulled the teeth out, and they was (sic) into the wood three-quarter inches. We made the statement to the press that if that was the average, ordinary charter boat fishing out of Montauk, that’s all they had was three-quarter-inch planking—we had one inch. So, he’d have bit that plank out, and that’s a bad plank to lose right there. You’re gonna be sunk immediately…. That’s one of the scenes, where the guy goes down with a flashlight and sees the hole in the boat…
The head pops out…
Yeah, sure. Ten pounds of bullshit. He’s got to add into every scene, 10 pounds of bullshit.
What did you think of the movie?
I thought it was the funniest damn thing I ever (sic) seen. I mean it. I rolled around. I pissed in my pants laughing.
Did you see much of yourself in “Quint”?
Yeah. I mean everybody knows there were (sic) nothing but a clown with a different face on—up to a point. Up to the time when we get the fish on. When we get the fish on, look out. Then it’s time to get serious.
Did the movie and the image help your business over the years?
You see now, it was just the opposite. The movie did not make us. We made the movie…. The only thing the movie did was to shake the trees—all the nuts fell out and they came rolling in my direction…. But the people that wanted to go on my boat, they couldn’t because we was (sic) already booked up. So, the movie didn’t do anything for us. But it did help all the other boats because the public wanted to go out there and kill them (sic) sharks…
What did the movie do for sharks?
It killed a lot of them, unnecessarily. I mean, we had guys walk down the dock and say they wanted to charter the boat to shoot sharks. I’d say, “What do you mean?” They’d say, “We just want to chum them up, shoot them, and watch them die!” No! If we kill them, we kill them for a purpose. We use what we kill [for food, for chum, for bait, etc.].
Have the attitudes of your customers and the fishing public in general changed toward sharks over the years?
Yeah, yeah. The customer knows now that he has to conserve everything, not only on shark but on pheasant, deer, buffalo, everything. They know that you have to recycle. Take the garbage down and recycle it. So, therefore, they know that when things are getting scarce, you have to try and protect them.
Which would you say is the most challenging shark you’ve caught?
Well, in their own way, they’re all a challenge, but if you want to match up intelligence for survival or knowing the tricks how to get away—and being able to—the white shark probably will come out on top of the list because he’s bigger, he’s more powerful. …I know you won’t believe it, but I just don’t wave my little lip around in the breeze. I got 3/16 stainless seven-strand cable [wire fishing line] that he bit in half.
That a great white bit in half?
That a great white bit in half! Chewed it. Demolished it. Looked like you dropped a hand grenade on it. We have lost a lot of them. On single and double one-eighth seven-strand flats where they bite it off clean. We lost one that same day that we got the 3,400-pound great white. We had him on. He was a small fish, about 2,000 pounds. Had him on for three-quarters of an hour. He bit the one-eighth seven-strand stainless off clean, and we lost him. And then we went back and got the bigger one. We got seven sharks over 1,000 pounds. But we lost a lot over the years, too, you know.
You caught that monster great white while fishing alongside a whale carcass. How did you locate the carcass?
It’s kind of hard to miss.
Did you just come across it? Did you kill it?
I didn’t kill it. A 50-foot whale is floating six foot out (sic) of the water in a calm sea, it shows white. It looks like another boat.
Tell me about the record great white. When did you first see it?
Well, we seen (sic) him a lot of times. We had 24 hours to fish that whale carcass because we had that day off, so we stayed there.
Did you have a charter aboard that day?
Yeah, we came across the whale at 4:00 in the afternoon while heading back to port. I told the guys, “Look I don’t know what you guys is (sic) going to do. I don’t care where you’re gonna go, but I’m staying here for tonight.”
So, you knew there would be a big fish on that whale?
Oh, definitely. Because there’s bite marks in the side of the whale that’s the size of a peach basket…. But I knew that nothing was going to happen until midnight…. I told the guys, “Look, relax. We got plenty of food and everything. The weather is great. Just cool it. About midnight, you’ll see a sight you’ve never seen before.” You could see the fish had just finished feeding. It ain’t gonna be back for a while. But because they couldn’t see the fish, the doubting [guys] didn’t believe me….
I’ve heard it said that you went “whale walking” before hooking up that great white, is that true?
Well, yeah, I guess I did.
Can you tell me why?
‘Cause I wanted to see if I could walk on one in my bare feet, mostly. Plus, I had to walk on him a couple of times after my bait got snagged on the body.
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What did that whale feel like underfoot?
It wasn’t nothing (sic) but another platform. There was no bounce in the carcass. The ocean was flat calm, and it was like walking on a rug. I got on my hands and knees with my shoes off and tried it out a bit before I did any walking. That’s one way I knew the whale was fresh. It still had sand on its body. That’s because the whale sinks to the bottom for a while after it dies and before it begins to ferment and rise to the surface. That’s nature. If that whale had sand on it, then it couldn’t be more than a day old or the sand would have been washed off
by the waves.
When did the big fish finally show?
Well, I first saw him around midnight, just like I told the doubting [guys] I would. He come up (sic) and took a mouthful out of that whale.
Did you have a line out for him at that point?
No way. I took one look at that big shark, guessed it weighed 3,500 pounds, and went right off to bed.
You went to bed? Right after seeing the shark of
a lifetime?
Well, I wasn’t going to fish for him in the dark. You gotta be crazy to deal with something [that] weighs 3,500 pounds in the dark. No way. I figured he’d be back in the morning
for breakfast, and I’d just as soon wait and hook up with him then.
Did you hand-feed the bait to that shark? Cast to it? How did you get it to take?
Well, the rod was in the holder of the fighting chair, Donnie [Montauk Capt. Donnie Braddick] was in the chair at the ready. I took the bait and swung it like a pendulum in front of the fish as it passed by, leading it enough so the bait dropped down in front of its snout as it swam past. That fish swallowed the bait and the rest is history. It took two-and-a-half hours to get the first tail rope on it. Probably three hours before we had him secured. It was wild at times, we’re lucky no one got hurt.
How did one man on the rod hold up to that fish?
You see, it don’t (sic) take all that strength to beat a big fish. It takes smarts. That’s the captain’s job. Running the boat to keep line on the reel, not running over the line, using the boat to tire the fish without breaking the line. It’s hard work on a big shark, but a smart man on the rod and a good captain makes it a lot easier.
Okay. So, you got the big one to the boat. You tail roped him. You’re lucky. Nobody got hurt. How long did it take you to get that fish back into the dock?
About three-and-a-half hours, I guess…. We got back to the dock 11:30 that night. You wouldn’t believe the people. I mean we pulled up to the dock and the fish was hanging off the transom, and we was (sic) trying to figure out how we was gonna lift him. I turned around and I looked once and there was 25 people on the bridge, and they were still jumping off the dock and getting on the boat. I screamed at them. “Get off. Get off that cussing bridge. You’re gonna crush it…”
Did you give yourself the name, the “Monster Man?” Or were you dubbed that name?
No. That was dubbed. You never give yourself anything. If anybody gives themself (sic) anything, there’s something wrong with them. I got the name from the early days when people shunned shark fishing. I had to advertise “Monster Fishing!” If I said shark, I wouldn’t get any calls.
Frank, how do you think your peers view you?
To most of them, I’m a no-good, dirty, rotten bastard. Plain no good. Some of it’s professional jealousy. Since I stopped drinking 15 or 20 years ago, stopped hanging out on a barstool, most people think I’m not very approachable. But they don’t know, they don’t ask me anything. Ask me where I caught sharks yesterday, I’ll tell you straight up. I don’t have any secrets, if I did I never would have written my book Sportfishing For Sharks. Most skippers read it in a closet with a flashlight.
Because I keep to myself, I’m mysterious. But I was always fishing on my own, even before shark fishing became popular. No one cared that I was a loner before Jaws. I never cared if they liked me or not, my boat was always booked. Never had any competition, only constipation.
Any regrets looking back over the time you’ve spent at Montauk? Are there things you would have done differently?
That’s what Letterman said. I was on with that nut three times. The last time he said, “Do you have any regrets about the fish?” I said, “Yeah, I regret he wasn’t a hundred pounds heavier.” But regrets? No.
-By Tom Schlichter
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