Tailkicker
UKC Forum Member
Registered: Oct 2003
Location: Nicholasville, KY
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Eaten by a whale
James Bartley is the central figure in a late nineteenth-century account according to which he was swallowed whole by a sperm whale.
The story as reported is that during a whaling expedition off the Falkland Islands, Bartley's boat was attacked by the whale and he landed inside the whale's mouth. He survived the ordeal and was carved out of the stomach by his peers when they, not knowing he was inside, caught and began skinning the whale because of the hot weather which would have rotted the whale meat. It was said that he was in the whale for 15 hours and it was also said that his skin had been bleached by the gastric juices, and that he was blind the rest of his life. He was however supposed to have returned to work within three weeks. He died around 11 years later and his tombstone in Ireland says "James Bartley- a modern day Jonah"[1]
Various attempts have been made over the years to come up with real-life Jonahs, but the most famous, and undoubtedly the one your girl heard about, is James Bartley. As claimed in numerous religious tracts, whaling books, and the like, Bartley was a seaman aboard the whaling ship Star of the East. In February 1891, while the ship was near the Falkland Islands, a lookout spotted a sperm whale several miles off. Two boats were launched; one succeeded in harpooning the whale, but the second was upended by the whale's tail and its crew tossed into the water. One man drowned and another, Bartley, could not be found.
The whale was killed and hauled to the side of the ship, where the crew set to work carving up the carcass. The next morning they hoisted the stomach on deck and were surprised to see signs of life. Inside they found the unconscious Bartley, who they doused with seawater and soon revived. For two weeks he was a raving lunatic, but by the end of the third week he'd fully recovered. Bartley recalled being swallowed by a great darkness, then slipping along a smooth passage until he came to a larger space. He felt slimy stuff around him and realized he'd been swallowed by the whale. He could breathe, but the heat sucked the energy out of him and eventually he passed out. The only lasting effect of the incident was that the skin of his face, neck, and hands was bleached to the color of parchment by the whale's gastric juices.
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Last edited by Tailkicker on 04-27-2012 at 04:41 PM
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04-27-2012 02:42 PM
