Inside a Whale: A Survival Story

The Unthinkable: Surviving Inside a Whale, a true story.

Whale on the ‘slip’ prior to be being ‘worked’, South Georgia. From a large photograph collection in the Salvesen Archive.

Yes, it is possible! It was in 1891, near the Falkland Islands, that an English sailor named James Bartley was swallowed whole by a sperm whale.

If I gave you 50 claps, it means I read your story in its entirety and liked it.

This is an impressive story, with many witnesses.

It was found hours later in the stomach of the sperm whale, which was killed.

Newspaper clipping repeating the fascinating tale. (Image courtesy Trove)

James Bartley was 21 years old, and was on board the whale ship “The Eastern Star”. It was his first trip. The boat was in the South Atlantic, 600 kilometres off the coast of Argentina. They were in search of prey when suddenly there was a cry from one of the sailors: “Sperm whale!”

The sperm whale is the deepest-diving mammal in the ocean and is the largest carnivore on Earth.

It can measure up to 25 meters in length, and its body reaches a temperature slightly above 40 °C. It has a huge head, and its mouth is larger than that of any…