The Wayside Pulpit No.96
A Whale of a Tale
In February 1891 a whaling
ship by the name of Star of the East was in action in the
However, the whale was
finally brought alongside and hauled onto the deck of the ship. When cut open,
they found the unconscious body of one of the men, James Bartley, in the
whale's stomach.
After being revived by the
crew, Bartley was in a very poor condition. His skin had been bleached white by
the whale's gastric juices, and the man was near to being out of his mind from
the ordeal.
Several weeks went by, and
gradually Bartley returned to health, but never lost his wrinkled and
discoloured skin, which was permanently white.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
No doubt many of you have
heard this tale from the pulpit, or read it in books and magazines. But although
the story first appeared in the Great Yarmouth Mercury in October
1891, and was fully investigated, only to find that no such man as James
Bartley ever existed in the ship's crew, the tale has persisted in print ever
since. Later, the widow of the ship's captain resolutely denied the
entire story as pure fabrication.
This story was heralded as
a superb witness to the truth of the Biblical account of Jonah, and that is why
it has persisted. But Bible-believing Christians don't need to have the story
of Jonah bolstered up by such tales. We read that "God prepared a great
fish", and therefore, being the Creator of all species of life, He was
well able to equip a particular fish, (it doesn't say a whale) to perform a
very particular function in the life of a disobedient prophet. The Lord Jesus
spoke of Jonah and his adventure within the fish, and we really need no further
authority to assist us in believing the account. The book of Jonah is one
of the most wonderful in the Old Testament, and has teaching of great depth and
intensity. It stands in its own right.
I am once again indebted to
Kathryn Lindskoog for her research into the fabulous and fictitious "whale
of a tale" that has persisted for over a century. It is good to clear out
of our "cupboards" all such hoaxes and inventions once the truth has
been revealed.
[As an after-thought, if
ever you hear about a 19th century Russian scientific conference at which
the members, during dinner, were served with steaks cut from a mammoth
found in the frozen tundra wastes of