The first fatal encounter in North America was recorded by a Jesuit priest, explain Kent Mountford and Richard G Fernicola.
The year was 1640, and it was Assumptiontide in the Catholic-founded settlement of St Mary’s City in mid-Atlantic North America. August was hot for people in 17th-century garb, and an Englishman, followed by his companions, headed to the nearby St George’s River to cool off. He waded in alone and was suddenly seized by “a huge fish”. It bit him violently, and he soon died.
