A Whale of a Tale by Cindy Regnier

I will begin this story by saying the truth of it is highly debated and mostly considered to be a myth by folks knowledgeable on the subject. That said, it’s interesting and a similar Biblical account makes us want to believe it. Let’s dig into the story of James Bartley who, in his day, was nicknamed the modern-day Jonah.

In 1891, a sensational story appeared in the St. Louis Globe Democrat newspaper that caught everyone’s attention. According to the report, a young sailor named James Bartley got swallowed by a sperm whale, and when the whale was killed and his belly cut open, out popped Bartley. He was, blind horribly burned by the whale’s gastric juices, but alive. Several newspapers picked up the story and it became quite popular. The public “swallowed it” so-to-speak.

The event was reported to have taken place in February of 

1892 about two hundred miles east of the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic. According to the article, a British ship named Star of the East spotted a huge sperm whale about three miles away. The ship lowered two small boats and they began chasing the whale as was the practice in those days of whaling. James BartIey was in the first longboat to reach the side of the whale. The harpooner leaned over and drove his weapon deep into the whale’s vitals. The stricken beast began to thrash about in the foamy waters in agony. Bartley and the other oarsmen rowed frantically to get out of reach of the struggling animal, but its lashing upended the boat, throwing the men into the water. The second longboat arrived and picked up the survivors. But two men were found missing, and one of them was James Bartley.

The ship waited to see if the whale would survive. Just before sunset, the carcass of the whale rose to the surface only a few hundred yards from the ship. The crew fastened a line to the whale and winched it to the ship’s side. The men immediately began cutting open the whale and peeled the blubber off its back. Late that night, when the crewmen tried to remove the stomach, they noticed movement inside the large sack. Believing some large sea animal was trapped inside, they sliced open the stomach and instead discovered that it was the missing sailor Bartley.

The ship’s doctor had Bartley drenched with sea water, which restored his consciousness but not his reason. He floundered about and babbled incoherently. He was confined to a cabin for several weeks and bound with ropes so he could not injure himself. Gradually Bartley regained his senses. Eventually he was able to relate what had happened to him.

 Bartley said that as he fell into the water, he saw a tremendous mouth open over him and he screamed as he was engulfed by it. He then felt sharp stabbing pains as he was swept across the teeth and then slid feet first down a slimy tube that carried him to the whale's stomach. He could breathe, but the hot, fetid odor soon rendered him unconscious and the last thing he remembered was kicking as hard as he could at the soft, yielding stomach.

As a result of his fifteen hours inside the whale's stomach, Bartley lost all the hair on his body and was blind for the rest of his life. His skin was bleached to an unnatural whiteness that gave the appearance of being bloodless, although he was physically healthy.

James Bartley never made another trip to the sea and settled down to shore life as a cobbler in his native city of Gloucester, England. He died eighteen years after his remarkable survival and terrifying adventure.

On his tombstone in the churchyard at Gloucester is a brief account of his experience at sea and a footnote, which says: James Bartley -1870-1909 - A Modern Jonah.

Could a man really survive for fifteen hours inside a whale’s stomach? Scientists say no. While there have been a handful of instances where sailors and divers had fallen into the mouth of a whale (to be spit out), nobody has passed through the esophagus and into the stomach. Some say it is physically impossible because a whale’s throat is very narrow, about the size of a human fist, and can only stretch to about 15 inches in diameter to accommodate a bigger meal. Others say it is possible, especially if this was a sperm whale, whose throats are much wider than a blue whale.

The naysayers point out that even if a person did manage to survive the swallowing and slipped into the stomach, he would find himself in a hostile environment. Sperm whales have four stomach chambers, like a cow, full of digestive enzymes. Besides, there is no air inside the stomach, which would make survival an impossibility. But the Biblical Jonah…?

So there you have it. What do you think? True or ‘sailor’s yarn’? Personally, I believe the Biblical story of Jonah without question, but James Bartley? Hmmmm……

Scribbling in notebooks has been a habit of Cindy Regnier since she was old enough to hold a pencil. Born and raised in Kansas, she writes stories of historical Kansas, especially the Flint Hills area where she spent much of her childhood.

Her experiences with the Flint Hills setting, her natural love for history, farming and animals, along with her interest in genealogical research give her the background and passion to write heart-fluttering historical romance.