On October 4, 1903, a sailor who fell overboard from a steamer in Havana Harbor, Cuba, was fatally attacked by sharks. Contemporary reporting later described three sharks attacking the man as passengers aboard the vessel watched the struggle.
The incident occurred in a busy port whose waters were regularly used by commercial and military shipping. Accounts identify the victim only as a sailor and do not reliably establish the ship’s name, his nationality, or the exact circumstances of the failed rescue. What is clear is that he died shortly after going into the water, making the episode one of the recorded fatal shark attacks in Havana Harbor.
The event illustrates a grim danger associated with accidental immersion in major tropical harbors during the steamship era: a man-overboard emergency could become fatal within minutes, particularly where sharks were present.
Image credit: Postcard illustration of Havana Harbor, Cuba, c. 1903, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.
