SWALLOWED BY WHALE

Hawera Star, Volume L, 25 October 1930, Page 16

SWALLOWED BY WHALE

of the. greatest stories in the modern history of the sea is recalled by the sale of the Star Line sailing ships owned by the Alaska Lacking Company (says a writer in the “Sunday Nows’ '), for it wa son board one of these vessels that James Bartley astonished the world by proving that the Biblical story of Jonah and the whale was more than a possibility. The Star of the East was whaling in sight of Pembroke Light, Port Stanley, Falkland "Islands, in February, 1891, when whales were sighted as the sun broke over the eastern horizon. Two boats fully manned made for the nearest whale, a big bull, which seemed aware of danger. The second boat lowered raced the first one, and approached the whale too recklessly. The boat’s crew seemed nil to anxious to get their harpoon “homo” before the other boat arrived. The whale lay idly until the boat drew alongside. Then, -with a flip of his great' tail, he scattered boat and men like chaff over the surface of the sea, and dived fathoms deep,, while. the other boat picked up all but two of their shipmates. Late that afternoon two other boats met. with more success. They approached the same bull with great precaution, and the man in the bow got his “poon” home. Before -sunset the whale was alongside, and men were on tne flensing platform cutting in. The enormous monster was covered in walls of blub-, bcr. Men worked with flensing knives, stripping off great blankets of fat through the night and part of the following morning. Then they put tackles on the stomach of the whale and hoisted it on deck. Something moved inside the covering, which was quickly slit open, and the form of James Bartley, one of the two lost, seamen, was found quivering and unconscious. They soused him with salt water. As he seemed to revive, he was carried to the cabin, where he was washed and given sips of brandy. For two weeks the demented man hovered between life and death.

Bartley, in telling his experiences, recalled being upset in the boat. He remembered being dashed high into the

Support for Jonah’s Story

air. Then lie hard a rumbling sound as of a train travelling at full speed through a tunnel. He imagined that the noise was caused by the tail of the whale pounding the sea. He was in perfect darkness as he felt about with his hands and touched some slimy substance, which yielded to pressure. * Then he felt himself being drawn forward into a chamber where there was more air.

In vain .'lie tried to escape from his prison. Every time lie started to crawl toward the narrow entrance some irresistable force drew him back.

Then his terrible plight dawned on him. He was -inside, the body of the whale. The heat was terrific. Perspiration oozed out of the pores of his skin. It. was stifling. He grew weak from the strain, and at last he became exhausted. Death did not. seem far away. He collapsed, and remembered nothing more till ho awoke in the cabin of his ship. Although Bartley recovered sufficiently to carry on his duties, his skin never gained its natural appearance. It retained’a'deathly.,white pallor. His case was watched caffrfiilly for some time.

There were many eases on record 'where ' whales have deliberately awaited the coming of boats before attacking them.

Sir John Bland Sutton, the famous surgeon, recalls an insanee where a

boat from a whaler harpooned a cachalot, or sperm whale, when it turned on the boat and bit it- in two. Marshal Jenkins, one of the boat’s crew, was swallowed by the monster.

The harpoon took effect, for after diving, the whale came to the surface, and in its death agonies brought up Marshall,. Jenkins, little the worse for his amazing experience.

Dr. Ambrose IVifson ,a> year or two ago, provided further evidence of the possibility the of truth of the Biblical story of Jonah, by detailing the interior of a sperm whale, a' species SO feet- in: length. He declared that there would be sufficient room for 20 Jonahs to stand and move about in the interior of such a whale.