Giant Whale Makes 3000-Mile Trip Across the Country on a Trailer (Jan, 1931)
Filed under: Animals, Just Weird — @ 12:09 am
Source: Modern Mechanix ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Jan, 1931
| Buy on Ebay
Source: Modern Mechanix ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Jan, 1931
| Buy on Ebay
Giant Whale Makes 3000-Mile Trip Across the Country on a Trailer
PEOPLE living inland, who have never seen the ocean, to say nothing of a whale, will have the opportunity to satisfy their curiosity when this gigantic 32-foot whale, shown in the photo at the right, passes through their town on its 3000-mile overland journey from Los Angeles to New York. The great fish will be carried on a trailer, so that the curious can get a good view of its peculiarities. The whale’s flesh will be treated with chemicals that will preserve it against decay.
Wow, they transported a living whale just to kill it and preserve it?
Comment by Casandro — October 14, 2008 @ 1:03 am
Despite what the text says* I highly doubt this was really a stuffed whale. Probably just a plaster and wood replica. A 32′ whale would begin decomposing from the inside out long before it could get preserved to any degree, would cost a FORTUNE to preserve, and would stink to high heaven from the chemicals.
*regular readers of MM know of the tendency to exaggerate in these old mags
Comment by StanFlouride — October 14, 2008 @ 8:01 am
I agree with Stan, I’ve been near a couple of dead whales and I know how much they stink.
Comment by LightningRose — October 14, 2008 @ 3:52 pm
Or maybe they didn’t think of this, and they ended up hauling this horrifically smelly whale cross-country 8-).
Smell it before you even see it.
Comment by hwertz — October 14, 2008 @ 9:21 pm
Actually, what is considered the world’s largest mounted fish, maybe the largest piece of taxidermy in the world – a 73-year-old, 32-foot, mounted whale shark caught off Fire Island in 1935 and believed to have weighed about 8 tons (16,000 pounds). It has been freshly restored was unveiled at the Suffolk County Vanderbilt Museum in Centerport, where it was damaged by water leakage that closed part of the museum in 1996.
I wrote about it some time ago.
http://www.newyorkhistoryblog......state.html
Great post.
Comment by John Warren — October 16, 2008 @ 8:25 pm