![Struthers Tay Whale Dissection by George Washington Wilson](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f6/Struthers_Tay_Whale_Dissection_by_George_Washington_Wilson.jpg)
The Tay Whale, known locally as the Monster, was a
humpback whale
The humpback whale (''Megaptera novaeangliae'') is a species of baleen whale. It is a rorqual (a member of the family Balaenopteridae) and is the only species in the genus ''Megaptera''. Adults range in length from and weigh up to . The hu ...
that swam into the
Firth of Tay
The Firth of Tay (; gd, Linne Tatha) is a firth on the east coast of Scotland, into which the River Tay (Scotland's largest river in terms of flow) empties. The firth is surrounded by four council areas: Fife, Perth and Kinross, City of Dun ...
of eastern Scotland in 1883. It was
harpooned in a hunt, but escaped, and was found floating dead off
Stonehaven
Stonehaven ( , ) is a town in Scotland. It lies on Scotland's northeast coast and had a population of 11,602 at the 2011 Census.
After the demise of the town of Kincardine, which was gradually abandoned after the destruction of its royal cast ...
a week later. It was towed into
Dundee by a showman, John Woods, and exhibited on a train tour of Scotland and England.
The
Regius Professor of Anatomy at Aberdeen University,
John Struthers dissected the whale, much of the time in public with a
military band
A military band is a group of personnel that performs musical duties for military functions, usually for the armed forces. A typical military band consists mostly of wind and percussion instruments. The conductor of a band commonly bears the ti ...
playing in the background, organised by Woods. The decomposing whale made Woods a great deal of money, and Struthers famous.
The doggerel poet
William McGonagall
William Topaz McGonagall (March 1825 – 29 September 1902) was a Scottish poet of Irish descent. He gained notoriety as an extremely bad poet who exhibited no recognition of, or concern for, his peers' opinions of his work.
He wrote about 2 ...
wrote a notoriously bad poem, "
The Famous Tay Whale
"The Famous Tay Whale" is a poem by William Topaz McGonagall about the Tay Whale, also known as the Monster, a humpback whale hunted and killed in 1883 in the Firth of Tay near Dundee, Scotland, then the country's main whaling port. The dogg ...
", shortly after the events.
History
![Tay Whale-Dundee Montrose Stonehaven (Location)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2c/Tay_Whale-Dundee_Montrose_Stonehaven_%28Location%29.svg)
In December 1883, a
humpback whale
The humpback whale (''Megaptera novaeangliae'') is a species of baleen whale. It is a rorqual (a member of the family Balaenopteridae) and is the only species in the genus ''Megaptera''. Adults range in length from and weigh up to . The hu ...
appeared in the
Firth of Tay
The Firth of Tay (; gd, Linne Tatha) is a firth on the east coast of Scotland, into which the River Tay (Scotland's largest river in terms of flow) empties. The firth is surrounded by four council areas: Fife, Perth and Kinross, City of Dun ...
off the shore of
Dundee, at that time
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...
's major
whaling port, and attracted much local interest. The whalers normally hunted in the Arctic, but as the whaling boats were in harbour for the winter, some of the whalers decided to hunt this animal in their own waters.
After several failed attempts, they harpooned the humpback on 31 December 1883. It was a strong male, and it towed two rowing boats and two steamboats as far as
Montrose and then to the
Firth of Forth. After a struggle that lasted all night, the harpoon lines broke and the whale escaped.
[
A week later the whale was found dead, floating out at sea. It was towed to ]Stonehaven
Stonehaven ( , ) is a town in Scotland. It lies on Scotland's northeast coast and had a population of 11,602 at the 2011 Census.
After the demise of the town of Kincardine, which was gradually abandoned after the destruction of its royal cast ...
and dragged onto the beach. John Struthers, the Regius professor of Anatomy
Anatomy () is the branch of biology concerned with the study of the structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old science, having it ...
at Aberdeen
Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), and ...
, quickly visited the carcass, recording it as 40 feet long with flukes measuring 11 feet 4 inches. A local entrepreneur, John Woods, bought the whale and had it transported to his yard in Dundee. On the first Sunday that it was there, 12,000 people paid to see it.[
]
The local newspaper, the ''Dundee Courier
''The Courier'' (known as ''The Courier & Advertiser'' between 1926 and 2012) is a newspaper published by DC Thomson in Dundee, Scotland. As of 2013, it is printed in six regional editions: Dundee, Angus & The Mearns, Fife, West Fife, Perths ...
'', published at least 21 stories on the Tay Whale between 12 November 1883 and 11 January 1884. The headlines included:
* Appearance of a Whale in the River – 12 November
* Whale Hunting in the Tay – 16 November
* Return of the Whale to the Tay – 21 November
* On the Trail of the Whale – 7 December
* Christmas Greeting from the Whale – 25 December
* The Whale Interviewed by his Mother on his Exploits in the River Tay (poem) – 27 December
* The Whale Hunt in the Tay. Exciting Chase – 1 January
* The Whale Hunt in the Tay. Escape of the Whale – 2 January
* The Runaway Whale – 4 January
* The Tay Whale Found Dead – 8 January
* The Whale's Corpus – 9 January
* The Recovered Whale at Stonehaven. Sale of the Monster to a Dundee Man – 11 January
Finally on 25 January 1884, when the whale was too badly decomposed for further public exhibition, Struthers was allowed to come and dissect the famous specimen. He was well used to working on stinking carcasses: his dissecting room was reputed to stink "like the deck of a Greenland whaler". He had two assistants; but the dissection was disturbed by John Woods, who admitted the public, for a fee, to watch the dissection in progress, while a military band played in the background.[
There were snow showers, but Struthers was able to remove much of the skeleton before Woods had the flesh embalmed; the carcass was then stuffed and sewn up to be taken on a profitable tour as far as Edinburgh and London. Finally on 7 August 1884 Struthers was able to remove the skull and the rest of the skeleton. Struthers eventually wrote seven ]anatomy
Anatomy () is the branch of biology concerned with the study of the structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old science, having it ...
articles over the next decade on the whale, and ultimately published a complete monograph on it in 1889, entitled
Memoir on the Anatomy of the Humpback Whale, Megaptera Longimana
'.[
In 2011, the whale's skeleton was displayed in the ]McManus Galleries
The McManus: Dundee's Art Gallery and Museum is a Gothic Revival-style building, located in the centre of Dundee, Scotland. The building houses a museum and art gallery with a collection of fine and decorative art as well as a natural history co ...
in Dundee.
Fame for anatomist
Struthers became famous for his dissection of the Tay Whale, his largest specimen. It was one of a wide range of specimens of many species that he energetically collected to form a museum of zoology, to illustrate Darwin's theories.[
]
Fame in doggerel
The whale became so famous that the doggerel
Doggerel, or doggrel, is poetry that is irregular in rhythm and in rhyme, often deliberately for burlesque or comic effect. Alternatively, it can mean verse which has a monotonous rhythm, easy rhyme, and cheap or trivial meaning. The word is deri ...
poet William Topaz McGonagall
William Topaz McGonagall (March 1825 – 29 September 1902) was a Scottish poet of Irish descent. He gained notoriety as an extremely bad poet who exhibited no recognition of, or concern for, his peers' opinions of his work.
He wrote about 2 ...
(1825–1902) wrote a notably bad poem, "The Famous Tay Whale
"The Famous Tay Whale" is a poem by William Topaz McGonagall about the Tay Whale, also known as the Monster, a humpback whale hunted and killed in 1883 in the Firth of Tay near Dundee, Scotland, then the country's main whaling port. The dogg ...
", about it.[ at ]Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...
Two of the verses run:
This was not the only piece of doggerel verse about the whale, as a poet signing himself "Spectator" published "The Whale Interviewed by his Mother on his Exploits in the River Tay" in the ''Dundee Courier
''The Courier'' (known as ''The Courier & Advertiser'' between 1926 and 2012) is a newspaper published by DC Thomson in Dundee, Scotland. As of 2013, it is printed in six regional editions: Dundee, Angus & The Mearns, Fife, West Fife, Perths ...
'', with verses such as:
Anatomical drawings of the Tay Whale by John Struthers
File:Balenoptera musculus musculature, Struthers.jpg
File:Megaptera Longimana 2.jpg
File:Megaptera Longimana 3.jpg
File:Megaptera longimana 4.jpg
File:Megaptera longimana 5.jpg
See also
* List of individual cetaceans
Cetaceans are the animals commonly known as whales, dolphins, and porpoises. This list includes individuals from real life or fiction, where fictional individuals are indicated by their source. It is arranged roughly taxonomically.
Baleen wha ...
References
Sources
Further reading
*
* Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...
.
John Struthers
'. (Struthers, Sir John (1823–1899), anatomist and medical reformer). Oxford Biography Index Number 101026680.
*
* at Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...
*
External links
University of Aberdeen: Connecting Collections: Sir John Struthers (1823-1899)
McGonagall Online: The Tale of a Whale. The story of the Tay Whale told in contemporary cuttings from the ''Dundee Courier''
{{Dundee
Individual humpback whales
Individual wild animals
Wayward cetaceans
1884 animal deaths
1883 in Scotland
1884 in Scotland
History of the North Sea
Whaling in Scotland
History of Dundee
University of Aberdeen
19th century in Dundee