Alex Kintner's rubber raft

Alex Kintner's rubber raft is the small inflatable vessel on which the six-year-old boy was floating when he was attacked and killed by the great white shark off Amity's Scotch Road beach. The raft is central to the second shark attack, and its destruction—along with the boy's body—provides the first clear, witnessed evidence that a man-eater is present, forcing the town to confront the danger that had been suppressed after Christine Watkins's death.

Appearance and Use

The raft is a simple rubber inflatable, the kind a child drags to the water's edge. Alex Kintner, bored on the beach, asks his mother if he can go out on it. She reluctantly agrees, telling him not to go too far and not to go swimming. The boy picks up the raft, holds it in front of him, and walks seaward. When the water reaches his waist, he leans forward, a swell catches the raft, and it lifts him. He centers himself so the raft lies flat, paddles with both arms, and moves out a few yards, then turns to paddle up and down the beach. A gentle current carries him slowly offshore.

The Attack

While the boy rests on the raft, his arms dangling and his feet and ankles dipping in and out of the water with each small swell, the great white shark, swimming in thirty-five feet of water, registers the sharp and jerky impulses emitted by the boy's kicks. The fish locks on the signals and rises. The boy resumes paddling, and the occasional kicks send new signals. The fish, now almost directly below, rises nearly vertical. The mouth opens, and with a final sweep of the sickle tail, the fish strikes. The boy's last—only—thought is that he has been punched in the stomach. The breath is driven from him in a sudden rush. He has no time to cry out. The fish's head drives the raft out of the water. The jaws smash together, engulfing head, arms, shoulders, trunk, pelvis, and most of the raft. Nearly half the fish has come clear of the water, and it slides forward and down in a belly-flopping motion, grinding the mass of flesh and bone and rubber. The boy's legs are severed at the hips, and they sink, spinning slowly, to the bottom.

Evidence and Aftermath

The raft is destroyed in the attack, but its fragments become crucial evidence. A witness, Thomas Daguerre, sees a large silver-colored object rise out of the water and seize the boy and his rubber raft and disappear with a splash. The Amity coroner, Carl Santos, reports that traces of blood found on shreds of rubber recovered later leave no doubt that the boy died a violent death. The New York Times article on the attack notes that the boy's body was not found, but that the shreds of rubber confirm the shark attack. The raft, reduced to bloody shreds, is the only physical trace of the boy, and its condition—ground up along with the boy's body—underscores the shark's immense power and the utter finality of the attack. The raft's destruction, witnessed by multiple people, makes the shark's presence undeniable and forces the town to acknowledge the danger that had been suppressed after the first, unwitnessed death of Christine Watkins.