There are records of about 30 shark attacks in British waters. The most recent was in 2022, when a woman was bitten on the leg by a blue shark as she snorkelled off the coast of Penzance in Cornwall.
Britain’s waters are home to 40 species of shark, at least 20 of which are permanent residents. Some of the sharks that visit UK waters can be dangerous, particularly the Shortfin Atlantic mako, the porbeagle and Oceanic White-Tip Shark, which can be aggressive.
Q: Why do some cars in Second World War dramas have white edging around their wheel arches and sills?
Diana Kennedy, Heathfield, East Sussex
Q: Are there any war memoirs that glorify war?
George Tyler, Grays, Essex
Q: Is it just a coincidence that so many of the top snooker players are left-handed, or is it more suited to left-handers?
Paul Bruce, Newcastle upon Tyne
The blue shark (Prionace glauca) is a seasonal visitor, which migrates to the UK from the Caribbean. Although it is an active predator, it is not usually dangerous to humans but may bite if trapped or threatened.
Typically, sharks do not hunt humans, but they will attack when cornered or provoked. This is because they become defensive.
For instance, in May 2018, 21-year-old fisherman Max Berriman received a ten-inch shark bite down his leg when a porbeagle was brought on deck in a trawler’s nets. The frightened animal lashed out as the crew were attempting to release it back into the water.
The previous year, Rich Thomson, a 30-year-old teacher, was surfing off Bantham in Devon when he was bitten on the hand and leg by what was believed to have been a three-foot smooth-hound shark.
Perhaps the most extraordinary case was that of the exploding shark. In 1956, Richard Kirby and Leslie Nye, from the Admiralty Yard Craft Service, were providing support for divers of HMS Burleigh when a shark was spotted in the water.
Diving officer Lt Commander Brooks joined the men and attempted to scare away the predator by pelting it with boxes of TNT, but two boxes of TNT joined by a rope snagged around the shark’s dorsal fin, turning it into a living torpedo. The animal slammed into their boat and exploded, killing Kirby and Nye and injuring Brooks.
On September 1, 1937, there was a triple fatality in the Kilbrannan Sound off Carradale on the Kintyre peninsula when a basking shark capsized a boat containing three people: Captain Angus Brown, his son and his brother.
Dan Marsdon, Padstow, Cornwall
Where does the saying ‘throwing good money after bad’ originate from?
To throw good money after bad means to continue to spend money in order to try to recoup losses.
Examples might be doubling down on a bet at the blackjack table after sustaining heavy losses, spending money on an old banger of a car that has had work done on it but is still unroadworthy, or continuing to build HS2.
The phrase is English, dating from the mid-17th century. Interestingly, the earliest known use of the term appears in Italian Proverbial Phrases (1662). According to its author, Giovanni Torriano, ‘The English say, To send good Mony after bad, to lose the Substance, for the Shaddow’ – suggesting the idiom had been in use for some time.
The first English use of the term can be found in a letter by Colonel William Fitzhugh. He was a lawyer, planter and merchant who relocated from England to Westmoreland County in Virginia in 1670. Fitzhugh, who had a large tobacco plantation, wrote ‘More money would be spent on prosecuting than he would be able to answer, and consequently good money thrown after bad.’
Tara Davies, Worcester
What is meant by the term ‘frozen conflict’?
A frozen conflict is a state of war that exists between two nations, or a civil war within a nation, but one in which there is no actual fighting.
It may be that a ceasefire or truce is in place but no peace treaty has been signed and, in some cases, the belligerents have disengaged but no formal ceasefire has been agreed.
The classic frozen conflict is between North and South Korea.
A ceasefire went into effect on July 27, 1953 but North Korea maintains its claim to govern the whole Korean peninsula. With this political impasse unresolved, no peace treaty has ever been signed and, theoretically, the Korean War remains ongoing.
Elsewhere in the world, frozen conflicts exist in Western Sahara (Morocco), Kashmir (India/Pakistan), China/Taiwan, Kosovo, Cyprus and several other places.
Some frozen conflicts erupt into open conflict from time to time, as has happened in Kashmir, with military action having taken place several times in the 21st century.
Bob Cubitt, Northampton