When Jaws premiered in the summer of 1975, it scared countless moviegoers out of the water. Widely credited as the first modern summer blockbuster, the film—which tells the story of a man-eating Great White shark that terrorizes the New England beach town of Amity Island—became the first to break $100 million at the box office. For its 50th anniversary, we’re revisiting the two boats that made it all possible.
At 27, director Steven Spielberg was just learning how to create a big movie while simultaneously navigating the challenges of filming on the water. To make the movie feel authentic, the crew shot on location in Martha’s Vineyard, battling currents, tides and malfunctioning mechanical sharks. Sixteen vessels were used throughout the production. Notable among them were Orca I and Orca II, which together portrayed the fictional shark-hunting boat where the film’s final standoff takes place.
Production designer Joe Alves scoured the East Coast for the right boat to depict Orca, eventually landing on a 42-foot lobster boat in Marblehead, Massachusetts. The production team added a pulpit, painted it burgundy and black, and installed oversized windows to make it more distinctive on screen.
One day during filming, Orca I took on water and partially sank. Alves knew the boat couldn’t withstand repeated stress. So, he commissioned a fiberglass replica. This model became known as Orca II. It didn’t have an engine; instead it was fitted with a system of hydraulic floats, allowing the crew to sink and resurface it on command.
In the film, Orca I appears in most of the regular fishing scenes. But whenever destruction was required, such as the climactic moment when the shark breaches the stern and devours Quint, it was Orca II that took the beating. (That scene was achieved using multiple breakaway sterns built from balsa wood). Alves hired Lynn Murphy, who operated Menemsha Marine Repair, to captain the boats and wrangle the mechanical sharks. Alongside his wife, Susan, and other locals, Murphy became essential in keeping the film afloat amid production difficulties and unpredictable waters. At one point, Orca II sank more effectively than planned, taking two cameras with it.
After the film wrapped, Orca I was shipped to Universal Studios in Hollywood and sold. Once Jaws became a phenomenon, Universal repurchased it for 10 times the price and placed it on the backlot studio. But in 1996, the boat disappeared. One story claims the vessel cracked in half while being lifted for repairs, but Orca I’s fate ultimately remains a mystery.
Orca II’s fate was even stranger. After filming, Murphy bought it from Universal for $1, intending to use the fiberglass to build a shed on his property. When that plan was denied by local authorities, the hull sat on his private beach in Menemsha for three decades as fans picked it apart, stealing the pulpit, then the mast, then the flybridge. In 2005, the Murphys cut up the remaining hull into 1,000 one-square-foot pieces and sold them as souvenirs, contributing some to the limited edition book Jaws: Memories from Martha’s Vineyard.
August 2025
