Flicka

The Flicka, Ben Gardner's fishing boat, is the vessel from which the great white shark claims its fourth victim and the site where the first physical evidence of the shark's immense size and power is recovered. The boat's fate transforms it from a working charter boat into a silent monument to the shark's lethal reach and a grim warning to those who would pursue it.

Identity and Background

The Flicka is a fishing boat owned and operated by Ben Gardner, a local Amity fisherman. It is a working vessel, equipped for deep-sea fishing and, as the crisis escalates, for the specific task of hunting the great white shark. The boat is anchored in over a hundred feet of water, a position that reflects the offshore waters where the shark is believed to be hunting.

The Discovery of the Flicka

After Ben Gardner fails to return from a day of chumming for the shark, Police Chief Martin Brody and Officer Len Hendricks take a small boat out to investigate the Flicka. They find the boat anchored and seemingly abandoned. There are no rods in the rod-holders, and a bucket of chum—fish guts and blood—remains nearly full, indicating Gardner never deployed it. The radio is still on, contradicting the theory that he had turned it off. Most disturbingly, a ten-inch steel cleat on the starboard gunwale has been torn out, leaving ragged screw holes, and the wood is deeply abraded. On the port side, a similar cleat remains secure. These signs point to a violent, sudden event.

The Evidence of the Attack

The most damning evidence is found on the Flicka's transom. Brody discovers a pattern of deep gouges forming a rough semicircle more than three feet across, with a second similar pattern next to it. At the waterline, there are three short smears of blood. Officer Hendricks, lowered over the stern, extracts a nearly two-inch-long, glistening white triangle from one of the gouges. The object is a shark tooth, so sharp it cuts into the gunwale when Brody tests it. This tooth, later identified by Matt Hooper as a great white's, confirms that the shark attacked the boat itself, and that Ben Gardner was almost certainly killed in the assault. The Flicka thus becomes the first direct, physical link between the shark and its victims, providing irrefutable proof of the creature's size and ferocity.

Aftermath and Narrative Significance

Following the discovery, the Flicka is left anchored overnight. It is later used by Matt Hooper for his patrols of the Amity shoreline, a grim inheritance from its lost captain. The boat's fate underscores the escalating danger: the shark is not merely a passive predator but an active, aggressive force capable of attacking a thirty-foot vessel. The Flicka's damaged transom and the recovered tooth serve as a tangible, horrifying exhibit of the shark's power, hardening Brody's resolve and foreshadowing the even greater destruction to come. The boat's story is a silent testament to the shark's capacity for violence and the mortal risk faced by anyone who ventures into its domain.