WHALES’ PASSENGERS.

Southland Times, Issue 20208, 20 June 1927, Page 11

WHALES’ PASSENGERS.

To the Editor. Sir,—In your issue of Saturday a gentleman signing himself J. B. Malcolm enters the religious controversy now raging and presents your readers with a fish story that can be guaranteed to silence every fisherman from the North Cape to the Bluff. Mr Malcolm stuns us with the assertion that an English whaling ship, “Star of the East” (an appropriate name for the setting of a miracle) while fishing in the vicinity of the Falkland Islands, lost two men by the smashing of a whalebone. One of these men, James Bartley, was recovered from the stomach of a captured whale, forty-eight hours later, still alive, mark you, and after recovering from the shock was able to resume his ordinary life as if nothing so startling as a temporary residence in a whale had happened. Miraculous is not the word

to describe it! From where did Mr Malcolm get his authority for such a statement? Where did, he get his facts? It seems strange that such a wonderful occurrence has not been afforded the publicity it warrants. It is more than strange. It is incredible. Where did the Jolly Jack Tar draw his air supply from? How did he get down the whale’s throat unharmed? And is it not remarkable that the very whale that swallowed him should be captured by the ship that lost him ? Coincidence? Perhaps. I am afraid that Mr J. B. Malcolm is either a very zealous but misguided Christian repeating an Old Salt’s yarn in an attempt to bolster up the old Jonah fable of the Bible, or else he belongs to the local Anglers’ Club. The story is very “fishy” to say the least of it, and anyone who can “swallow” it will beat that whale easily. If Mr Malcolm gives the date, and full particulars, including reliable authority to which I can refer, I will be satisfied that he is correct, but until he does so I will remain with the infidels and unbelievers of the TWENTIETH CENTURY.