Tyna Webb, 77, was swimming peacefully when a massive great white shark began circling her.
Suddenly, the predator struck — in full view of stunned beachgoers.
When the shark was done, all that was left was her bright red bathing cap.
A routine for 17 years
Shark attacks on humans are extremely rare. In the United States, the odds of being attacked while at the beach are just 1 in 11.5 million.
But when they do happen, the consequences can be devastating.
In November 2004, 77-year-old Tyna Webb was enjoying her daily swim off Jager’s Walk near Fish Hoek, Cape Town — a routine she had been doing for 17 years and loved more than anything.
Known for cutting through the water with ease, her Monday morning swim was a familiar sight for locals. But this time, it turned into a nightmare when a great white shark appeared, circling the experienced swimmer.
André Mentor, 48, was acting as a spotter for a local fishing crew on the mountainside when he saw the attack unfold.
“Every morning this woman swims the backstroke, but this morning as she was swimming the shark came to inspect and although we screamed and waved the flag trying to warn her, the shark got hold of her,” Mentor told IOL.
People screamed and shouted
Other witnesses also watched in horror as the 16-foot-long shark struck.
Horrified, they waved and shouted frantically to warn Tyna – but she was looking at the sky, her ears covered by her bathing cap, according to her relatives.
“We screamed and shouted, ‘Shark! Shark!’ towards her,” said a fisherman at Sunny Cove. “Then it came at her, hit her in the thigh and threw her clean out of the water. Then she was gone. By the time we ran down to warn other bathers to get out of the water, it was too late for her.”
Paul Bennet, commodore of the False Bay Yacht Club, witnessed the whole thing from his home:
“All that was left was a little red bathing cap. I went outside and saw the shark attacking what at first I thought was a Cape fur seal. Then I realized it was a body being shaken violently by a large shark. It then left the woman and swam away a short distance, turned, came back at great speed and hit her. Its whole mouth came out of the water and took her down. I never saw her again.”
Thomas Spies, Webb’s son-in-law and a local doctor, arrived just after the attack, but by afternoon, Webb’s body had not been recovered.
”Bigger than the helicopter”
Craig Lambinon of the National Sea Rescue Institute later confirmed, “Tyna Webb is presumed dead at this stage and I think her family has come to terms with that.
Friends and relatives described the scene as traumatic. Webb’s daughters, Isabelle Spies and Ninky Matthee, met with friends at the family home in Noordhoek while police divers and NSRI helicopters scoured the area.
But the search was eventually called off.
“My mother was an amazing swimmer and she loved nature and being outdoors but the sea was her favorite. She lived on her own and was always a very independent person with a very good spirit,” Matthee told ION.
Craig Lambinon of the NSRI added that a shark had been spotted in the area, describing it as “huge — bigger than the helicopter.” Lambinon noted that it’s highly unusual for a great white to attack a person more than once and suggested that fish discarded by local fishermen may have sparked a feeding frenzy.
Her final moments
Webb, whose full name was Cecilia Mathilda Webb, was the youngest of nine children. She had a BA in English and Latin from the University of the Free State, taught in Pretoria and Johannesburg, and moved to Cape Town in 1987.
Friends remembered Tyna as a woman with twinkling eyes and a constant smile that could melt anyone’s heart. She was kind, gracious, and humble, with a sharp mind that, as an Afrikaner, had long recognized the brutality and futility of apartheid — far ahead of many of her peers.
She lived in Fish Hoek from 1989 until her death.
Those who knew her say that in her final moments, she likely faced the shark with dignity, understanding that it was simply acting on instinct. During her 17 years swimming off Jager’s Walk, she had encountered dolphins, seals, and even whales — and she was always aware that sharks were part of that world.
“We feel the way she went is the completion of a circle. That the sea took her is the spiritual completion of her whole life. You know, she swam in that sea for 17 years,” a friend said at her remembrance service at St. George’s Cathedral in Cape Town.
Tyna treated the ocean as a home, showing respect for all its creatures, sharks included. She also hosting full moon gatherings for friends at her blue-and-white apartment overlooking the sea.
Many who attended her service suggested that her passing carried a mythical quality — she had been claimed by the very waters she loved, completing the story of a life fully lived.
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