James bartley

The story goes that in 1891, the British whaling ship Star of the East in the Falkland Islands met a sperm whale that seemed like a good prey. Two whaleboats were launched into the water, and one of the harpooners struck the animal. Enraged by a wounded sperm whale swiftly attacked one of the boats and smashed it with a tail blow. The second boat managed to save six of the eight sailors of the first whaleboat.

The sperm whale disappeared, but after a few hours the ship came across his carcass: the wound was fatal. The crew moored a dead sperm whale to the side of the ship and began its cutting. When they reached the stomach, the sailors saw that he was twitching strangely. When it was opened, they found in it the body of James Bartley, one of the two sailors who disappeared during the attack of the sperm whale. To everyone's surprise, Bartley was alive, albeit unconscious; 16 hours have passed since its disappearance.

The doctor managed to bring Bartley to his senses, but for a couple of weeks he was in a state of insanity, not recognizing anyone or talking. However, by the end of the third week he regained consciousness so much that he was able to begin to carry out his duties. He was not physically injured, the only consequence of being in the stomach of the sperm whale was an unnaturally pale coloration of the skin on the face, neck and hands - parts of the body that were not covered by clothing and affected by the acidic environment.

Bartley testified by the captain of the ship. According to them, the sailor remembered how he was thrown out of the whaleboat, after which he found himself in some kind of dark mucous tube through which he glided forward with his feet. Soon he became freer and he stopped feeling the compression of the pipe walls, but there was no way out, his hands everywhere ran across hot and slimy elastic walls. The air was breathable, but hot and stinking. Realizing what had happened, Bartley was horrified and lost consciousness, recovering only in the captain's cabin of a whaling ship.

Upon the return of the ship to England, Bartley once again set out his story, this time to reporters. Newspapers came out with sensational headlines: “Sensation of the century! A man swallowed by a whale remains to live. One chance out of a million. An incredible case with a man who has been in the womb of a sperm whale for sixteen hours. ” Soon the story diverged, overgrown with new details, according to which, according to various versions, Bartley went blind, Bartley became a shoemaker in Gloucester’s hometown, doctors could not rid Bartley’s skin of pallor, the inscription “James Bartley - modern Jonah ” was carved on Bartley’s grave, Bartley became performing in the circus, Bartley again went to sea, hiding from the attention of the public, and so on.

The story is overgrown with such fantastic details that it soon began to seem fictitious to the public, and by the end of the 19th century James Bartley was forgotten.

It is worth noting that in various sources the details of the legend vary somewhat, the most significant difference is probably the assumption that Bartley stayed in the stomach for only 2 hours.

Although the general public’s interest in the incident quickly faded, sailors, scientists, and writers returned more than once to the story of James Bartley. The famous English writer Julian Barnes turned to the story of Bartley in his book, History of the World in 10½ Chapters . The subject is present in the novel by D. M. Ledgard “Immersion” ^[1] and Clive Kassler 's book “Medusa”. Arthur Clark in the novel “ The End of Childhood ” also refers to the story of a person being in the belly of a sperm whale. In 1965, Bartley’s story was described in an episode of Jonah and the Whale on the television series Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.

In 1914, the French scientist M. de Parville ( fr. M. de Parville ) published his investigation of the circumstances of this story in the Paris newspaper Journal des débats . The Frenchman's conclusions were as follows:

I think the report made by the English captain and his team deserves to be believed. There are many cases where sperm whales swallowed people in a rage of deadly agony. But this is the first time in the history of our time when a victim remained alive and unharmed

- ^[2]

Ten years later, in 1924, the English mechanical engineer Francis Fox also devoted considerable attention to the history of James Bartley in his book 63 Years of Engineering. He was also convinced of the truth of the legend:

I am firmly convinced of the veracity of this incident.

- ^[2]

The story came to light again in 1958 after publication in the Canadian fishery magazine Canadian fisherman, a year later an article appeared in the magazine Around the World , and over the next two years the topic was raised on the pages of the British magazine Magazine, American magazines " Skipper ”and“ Sea Frontiers ”. They also considered the story believable.

After a long and thorough study of this issue, I believe that this single case (by the way it is confirmed by major authorities) deserves to be published in full detail

- David Gunston, The Magic Magazine, 1961

However, despite many years of publications confirming the truth of the legend, there is another opinion about this legend.

The arguments used are primarily documentary evidence. Indeed, the British ship Star of the East existed, and indeed it was in the Falkland Islands area at the indicated time, but it was not whaling at all. Moreover, there was never any James Bartley on the lists of his team members.

The first serious report, de Parville’s authorship, in turn, became the subject of research by the historian, Professor Messay College of Pennsylvania, Edward Davis ^[3] , who came to the conclusion that de Parville did not have reliable sources, and he relied only on unverified newspaper notes .

Cecil Adams, columnist for The Chicago Reader, in his online project The Straight Dope, cites several additional facts and traces the chronology of publications in the press. Thus, he cites a publication in the New York Times in 1896 regarding this incident, which refers to a publication in the British The Mercury of South Yarmouth in October 1891, noting that this article was written in a skeptical tone. At the same time, there is a publication in The Yarmouth Mercury on August 22, 1891, Man in a Whale's Stomach / Rescue of a Modern Jonah, which, however, not only does not contain any signs that the author relied on the stories of Bartley himself, either a captain or team members, but not even signed at all. In addition, in June 1891, a large whale was found on the beach near the city of Gorston, just south of Great Yarmouth, which was killed, prepared and displayed in various cities of England. Information is also provided from a letter from the wife of the captain of Star of the East, J. B. Killem ( Eng. JB Killam ) from 1906, in which she claims that for all the years that her husband was the captain of the ship, no one has ever died on his ship. Thus Adams concludes that the whole story was born from a widespread newspaper duck , designed to advertise an exhibition of stuffed whales in a small British town.

Doctors and biologists have their own opinions. According to the candidate of biological sciences S. Klumov, the likelihood that a person could be swallowed and at the same time pass a large number of sperm whale teeth without injuries is negligible. In addition, according to his studies, there is no air in the stomachs of sperm whales, but, on the contrary, they are filled with a rather large amount of liquid, and the maximum volume of the sperm whale’s stomach, in principle, cannot accommodate the amount of air necessary for an adult to breathe for 16 hours. And even if we assume that it was the stomach that was pierced by a harpoon, the elastic integumentary tissues would close and prevent the penetration of oxygen, moreover, the sperm whale would have to keep the punched hole above the water level all the time until death. Also, the temperature inside the sperm whale’s stomach would gradually increase from in vivo 37.8–38.5 ° C to 39 ° C after his death, and the elevated temperature was supposed to enhance the effect of gastric juice and increase the amount of air needed for breathing. The scientist concludes that this is physically impossible, although he notes that theoretically a sperm whale can swallow a person as a whole ^[4] .

L. A. Zenkevich, Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences, agrees with his opinion: “I think this case is completely implausible” ^[2] .

• One chance out of a million // Technique - Youth: Journal. - 1965. - No. 4 . - S. 20-21 .
• S. Klumov. Not a single chance out of a million // Technique - Youth: Journal. - 1965. - No. 4 . - S. 20-22 .
• Nikolai Nepomniachtchi. 100 great phenomena . - Veche, 2014 .-- 480 p. - 3000 copies. - ISBN 978-5-4444-1654-9 .

• Cecil Adams. Have any real-life Jonahs been swallowed by whales and lived? (eng.) . The Straight Dope (September 14, 2001). Date of treatment September 1, 2014.