In August 1933, the United States was in the throes of the Great Depression and the East Coast had suffered through a devastating nor’easter followed by a tropical hurricane. With this as a backdrop, the great Jersey Fish story was about to begin.

The Philadelphia Inquirer of Aug. 27 was one of the first to break the story from Brielle, N.J.

“Pitted for three hours in a struggle against a 4,500-pound deep sea monster, three men and a woman narrowly escaped with their lives seven miles off the…