These are the remains of a North Atlantic right whale that was killed in the eighteenth century.
It was discovered on the Thames near Bay Wharf in Greenwich.
Now, it is unlikely that such a large whale swam up the river that far, but it could have happened.
In 2006, a 16-foot Northern bottlenose whale swam up in the Thames into London. And then there’s the story of Humphrey the humpback whale, who swam nearly 70 miles up the Sacremento River.
It is more likely that this poor whale happened to be at the Thames mouth, when it was harpooned and then hauled up the river.
It was most likely butchered and processed for its train– the oil is obtained from marine mammals.
Currently, there are only about 400 of these whales left, and virtually all of them are believed to be in North American waters.
They were called right whales, because, like this poor animal from the eighteenth century, they tended to hang out very close to the coast. You didn’t need to go on long whaling expeditions to hunt them. They aren’t fast swimmers, and virtually anyone with a harpoon and some rope could kill one.
And, oh, they did.
These were once among the most common large whales in North Atlantic waters. Now, they are but a trace of what they once were.
This eighteenth century whale was estimated to be between 50 and 100 years old.
They are fairly long-lived, though not as long-lived as their bowhead cousins. Bowheads or arctic right whales have been estimated to have life expectancies that exceed 200 years.
Bowheads are still killed for their meat off the coast of Alaska, and one was killed in 2007, that had a 115 to 130-year-old harpoon fragment lodged in it. I don’t think modern Yupik whalers were out using antique equipment, so it’s likely that the whale was alive over a century ago.
The right whale family is so fascinating.
Not just for its longevity, but for what we’ve done to them.
This North Atlantic right whale that was found in Greenwich is reminder of what we can do to a species.
This particular whale is on display at the Museum of the London Docklands.
it is hard to imagine that a time existed in which these huge coastal whales were so common and so easy to kill that it was more cost effective to kill them to make lamp oil than to have it refined from fossil fuel sources.
I guess the whales, at least, are happy we now run everything on gasoline and coal.
