On September 9, 1961, 39-year-old David Kenyon Webster, a husband and father of three, set out for a solo fishing trip off the coast of Santa Monica, California. A former Harvard English major who had left his studies to serve as a paratrooper with the famed Easy Company in World War II, Webster had since become a journalist and author. His experiences during the war, where he was wounded twice, became a key source for the acclaimed book and miniseries "Band of Brothers." After the war, he pursued his passions for writing and marine biology, developing a particular fascination with sharks that would lead him to author a book on the subject. On that fateful morning, he departed in his small, twelve-foot sailboat, intending to return later that afternoon from one of his frequent shark-fishing excursions.
When David Webster did not return as expected that evening, the U.S. Coast Guard initiated a search.
The following day, his sailboat, named Tusitala, was discovered by commercial fishermen adrift and awash about five nautical miles from the shore. The boat itself was empty, with no sign of Webster. Investigators noted that one oar and the tiller were missing from the small craft. His wife, Barbara, informed authorities that her husband often went out on these shark-fishing trips in the small boat and that he did not wear a life preserver. Despite an extensive search, David Kenyon Webster was never seen again, and his body was never recovered. A memorial service was held for him on October 7, 1961.
The disappearance of David Kenyon Webster left behind a legacy of unanswered questions. He was a man who had survived the perils of war, including parachuting into Normandy on D-Day and fighting through the Netherlands, only to vanish in the coastal waters he had come to love and study. His book on sharks, "Myth and Maneater: The Story of the Shark," was published posthumously in 1962. At the time of his death, he was employed as a technical writer for the System Development Corporation. The case remains a haunting mystery; a well-known veteran and writer who went out for a day of fishing and simply never came home. The official conclusion is that he was lost at sea, a tragic end for a man who had chronicled so much of his life and the lives of those around him with such detail and insight.Last Seen: Sep 9, 1961
