Frank Mundus, Montauk
Monster Man, Dies

    Montauk's Monster Man, Capt. Frank Mundus, a shark-fishing legend and the inspiration behind Quint, the cantankerous charter captain in "Jaws," died on Sept. 10 at the Queen's Medical Center in Honolulu during heart surgery. He was 82.

    Captain Mundus became ill shortly after returning home to the island of Hawaii after spending much of the summer in Montauk attending shark tournaments and signing copies of his books, "Monster Man," and "Fifty Years a Hooker." He was also promoting the use of circle hooks, a type of fishing hook that allows fishermen to release sharks unharmed and a suggested a green turnaround for a man with a reputation -- not entirely deserved, friends and family said this week -- for creating mayhem offshore.

    Captain Mundus retired as a full-time charter captain in 1997 and underwent heart bypass surgery a year later. Nevertheless, he continued to guide fishermen offshore since then, often aboard Cricket II, the 42-foot boat on which he revolutionized the Montauk charter business beginning in 1951.

    He was born on Dec. 23, 1925, a son of Anthony Mundus and the former Christine Brug, in Long Branch, N.J. He was raised in Brooklyn and Point Pleasant, N.J. Captain Mundus first went to sea on a commercial dragger, work he returned to, along with dock building and crewing on tugboats, during lean years before his Montauk charter business took off.

    Pat Mundus, one of Captain Mundus's three daughters, said her father proved the rule that necessity is the mother of invention.

    "The best part of his life was early in Montauk," she said. "He was marketing himself years before people thought that way. We were broke, and he was throwing fish on the dock [in dramatic fashion] to put food on our table, not because he was bloodthirsty." Ms. Mundus said she hoped posterity would not remember her father as Peter Benchley's Quint.

    "My father was a damn good hunter with a strong, intuitive sense of shark behavior. There was no quest for revenge against evil. He was resentful because he didn't think people really understood that."

    When Frank Mundus arrived in Montauk, blue-collar anglers were fishing for bottom species to bring home to eat, while well-heeled boaters, including Ernest Hemingway, Zane Gray, and Kip Farrington, hunted for big game: swordfish, marlin, and giant tuna. Captain Mundus changed the dockside demographics in the 1950s and '60s by introducing the blue-collar tribe to sharks. Monster fishing was born, something few of his fellow charter captains appreciated at the time.

    The shark-fishing craze began when he realized how much fun a group of bluefish anglers had when a mako shark showed up in Cricket's slick. It continued through the frenzy that followed the release of the movie "Jaws," and reached a high point with Captain Mundus's landing in 1986 of a 3,427-pound white shark with the help of Donny Braddick, a fellow charterman who angled the fish.

    "There are still the cranky naysayers, but the fishing community of Montauk owes that man an enormous debt," John (Chopper) Ebel said on Monday. "We're seeing the passing of a giant."

    "I realize how privileged I was to work as his mate," Mr. Ebel said. "He taught me to be fearless, but safe on a boat. I've never seen a tougher man, always calm in a pinch. When a big fish came up to the boat, a serenity would come over him."  

 
    Captain Mundus is survived by his wife, Jenny, of Hawaii and his sister, Christine Mundus Zenchak of Las Vegas. He leaves his ex-wife and the mother of his children, Janet Mundus of East Hampton, as well as their daughters, Pat Mundus of Greenport, Barbara Crowley of Billerica, Mass., and Tammy Greene of East Hampton. Five grandchildren and five great-grandchildren also survive. R.D.