"James
Bartley (1870–1909) is the central figure in a late
nineteenth-century story according to which he was swallowed whole by
a sperm whale. He was found still living days later in the stomach of
the whale, which was dead from harpooning. The story originated of an
anonymous form and began to appear in American newspapers.”
– The
Wheeling Daily Intelligencer and many other U.S. papers (July
1891)
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
in 1891. 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 the hot weather otherwise would have
rotted the whale meat.
It was said that Bartley
was inside the whale for 36 hours, that his skin had been bleached by
the gastric juices, and that he was blind the rest of his life. In
some accounts, however, he was supposed to have returned to work
within three weeks. He died 18 years later and his tombstone in
Gloucester says "James Bartley – a modern day Jonah."
(Edward B. Davis. “A
Whale of a Tale: Fundamentalist Fish Stories.” Perspectives on
Science and Christian Faith, 43. 1991)
More
recently, the facts were carefully investigated by historian Edward
B. Davis, who pointed out many inconsistencies. The Star of the East
was not a whaling vessel and its crew list did not include a James
Bartley. Moreover, Mrs. John Killam, the wife of the Captain, wrote a
letter stating that "there is not one word of truth in the whale
story. I was with my husband all the years he was in the Star of the
East. There was never a man lost overboard while my husband was in
her. The sailor has told a great sea yarn."
Davis suggested that the
story may have been inspired by the "Gorleston whale,” a
30-foot rorqual (blue whale) killed near Great Yarmouth shortly
before in June 1891 that generated a lot of publicity.
(Robert
B. Durham, "Modern Folklore” and David Gunston, "The man
who lived in a whale", Sunday Mail, May 12, 1985.)
While the veracity of the
story is in question, Smithsonian Magazine reports it is
physically possible for a sperm whale to swallow a human whole, as
they are known to swallow giant squid whole. However, such a person
would be crushed, drowned or suffocated in the whale's stomach.
Similar to ruminants the sperm whale has a four-chambered stomach.
The first secretes no gastric juices and has very thick muscular
walls to crush the food (since whales cannot chew) and resist the
claw and sucker attacks of swallowed squid. The second chamber is
larger and is where digestion takes place.
(Rose Eveleth. “Could a Whale Accidentally Swallow You? It Is Possible.” Smithsonian Magazine. February 25, 2013.)
The New,
Factual Report
Michael Packard, a
56-year-old Cape Cod lobster diver, is safe following a fluke
encounter with a humpback whale. He was diving off the coast of
Provincetown, Massachusetts, this Friday (June 11, 2021) just a
little before 8:00 a.m. when the whale caught him unawares.
Packard told CNN affiliate
WBZ …
"I got down to about
45 feet of water, and all of a sudden I just felt this huge bump, and
everything went dark. And I could sense that I was moving, and I was
like, 'Oh, my God, did I just get bit by a shark?'"
Packard continued …
"Then I felt around,
and I realized there was no teeth and I had felt, really, no great
pain. And then I realized, 'Oh, my God, I'm in a whale's mouth. I'm
in a whale's mouth, and he's trying to swallow me.'"
Packard, an experienced
diver, told WBZ that he still had his breathing apparatus on in the
whale's mouth.
He said …
"One of the things that went through my mind was just, 'Oh, my God, what if he does swallow me, and here I am, I'm breathing air, and I'm going to breathe in this whale's mouth until my air runs out? I thought to myself, 'OK, this is it. I'm going to die.' And I thought about my kids and my wife. There was no getting out of there."
After spending what he
estimated to be 30 seconds in the mammal's mandibles, Packard said
the whale surfaced quickly and he saw light.
"All of a sudden he
went up to the surface and just erupted and started shaking his head.
I just got thrown in the air, and landed in the water and I was free
and I just floated there,” Packard said.
(Evan Simko-Bednarski.
“Cape Cod diver left with a whale of a tale after a humpback spat
him out.” CNN. June 12, 2021.)
Packard was pulled from
the water by a crew mate, rushed ashore, and taken to a nearby
hospital. He was bruised but had no broken bones. “I'm good
overall,” he said.
Biologist Jooke Robbins,
the director of Humpback Whale Studies at Provincetown's Center for
Coastal Studies, said the unusual encounter was most likely an
accident.
Robbins said that
humpbacks often engage in so-called "lunge feeding," in
which a fast moving whale tries to gather a large volume of food in
its mouth quickly.
Even though a whale's
throat might not be large enough for a human to go through, Packard
was in real danger. When the whale surfaced to spit him out, he could
have died from the air pressure in his own lungs – if you come up
to atmospheric pressure and you've held your breath, you could
develop an embolism according to Charles Mayo, a marine biologist at
the Center For Coastal Studies.
Somehow Packard kept his cool and survived. What a miraculous ending to an unbelievable ordeal.
Actually Being
Swallowed By a Whale?
Humpback whales are baleen
whales, which means instead of having teeth as an orca does, they
have what’s called “baleen,” a kind of filter feeder system in
their mouth. The way their baleen works is they open up their mouth
and take in water – around 20,000 liters at one time – and food,
like krill or capelin for example. Then they close their mouth and
push the water out through their baleen, which acts as a giant sieve.
The water goes back out, but the food stays in.
A humpback whale – with
its small esophagus – isn’t believed to be capable of swallowing
large prey. From time to time larger pray make it into a whale's
mouth, and when that happens, it can become food but only if the
whale can fit it past its esophagus.
In a 2012 article for Salon, reporter Ben Shattuck pored over the records at the New Bedford Whaling Museum Research Library. Despite his extensive research at one of the most comprehensive whaling archives on the planet, he failed to find a single report of anyone ever being swallowed alive by a whale. He found plenty of reports of whalers who were bitten or injured by the creatures, and several who died after tangling with a whale, but none related to swallowing.
However …
Sperm whales could
definitely swallow a human. Their esophagus is much larger than any
other whale and they often swallow giant squid whole, which means it
would be no problem for them to swallow a human.
While these whales have
large throats that would make it easier to swallow a human, most of
their hunting takes place several miles below the sea, up to 3,000
ft., which is much deeper than a human can swim.
In fact, most hunting
takes place so far under the ocean that it has been difficult for
scientists and marine biologists to study the hunting methods of
sperm whales, even with advanced technology. To date, there has never
been a recorded case of a sperm actually consuming a human.
So. the “physeter
macrocephalus” or sperm whale, allows for
the possibility, but not the probability, of a one-gulp human
consumption. And, just in case you're still wondering about survival,
here is one last horrifying fact: with the immense heat, lack of
oxygen, the very strong stomach acid and so on, no human could
survive in a whale for anything more than a few minutes.
“All men
live enveloped in whale-lines. All are born with halters round their
necks; but it is only when caught in the swift, sudden turn of death,
that mortals realize the silent, subtle, ever-present perils of life.
And if you be a philosopher, though seated in the whale-boat, you
would not at heart feel one whit more of terror, than though seated
before your evening fire with a poker, and not a harpoon, by your
side.”
– Herman Melville, Moby-Dick or, the Whale (1851)
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