Green Shark of Berwick-upon-Tweed

In the Historical Register of Remarkable Events by John Sykes (1833) a strange visitor to Berwick-upon-Tweed is mentioned. In September 1757 a six foot long green coloured shark was caught by a net in the River Tweed just above the bridge at Berwick. ‘As soon as it came near the shore, it made the water fly to a prodigious height, and after they had disabled it a little, and got it into shoal water, it made a hole in the sand with its tail which would have held a coach’. It was identified by some gentlemen as a shark originating from East India and they suspected it had followed the East India Fleet to British waters then chased some salmon up the Tweed. When they opened up the shark they found a clasped knife in its stomach.

Although John Sykes does not give the exact date in September for this event, other sources have quoted it as being 16 September 1757.  Please note this is an image of a Blue Shark.