A whale of a tale
Has any human being, besides Jonah, ever survived the belly of a whale? Let's see.
Mrs. Don "Jo" Siblerud, a long-time friend, sent me her copy of a column written about 30 years ago. I'd forgotten it but feel it well worth a recall:
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Somewhere in college, I lost an insatiable habit of reading fiction novels and replaced it with history and other factual publications. Lately have also fallen into collecting short stories and books of oddities. Self-analyzation tells me that is because I seldom have time for getting deeply involved.
Now about that whale business. The Bible says: "Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly and offered a sacrifice unto the Lord, and made great vows. Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights ... And the Lord spoke unto the fish, and it vomited Jonah upon the dry land." (Jonah 1:16-17; 2:10)
On page 1,399 of the People's Almanac there is the following story:
In February 1891, the ship Star of the East was off the Falkland Islands when the crew spotted an 80-foot sperm whale. Two row boats filled with crewmen were launched to capture the monster. Closing in, one harpooner let go his weapon and shafted the whale which lashed out, almost overturning the boats. Returning to the ship with their dead whale, the crewmen realized one sailor, James Bartley, was missing. It was decided he had been tossed overboard in the fight and drowned.
Six hours later, the crewmen began removing the blubber from the dead beast. By midnight the task was still unfinished and sailors went to bed. In the morning, they resumed their job. Then the unexpected happened. According to M. de Parville, the editor of Journal des Debats, writing in Paris in 1914, reported, "Suddenly the sailors where startled by something in the stomach which gave spasmodic signs of life. Inside was found the missing sailor, James Bartley, doubled up and unconscious. He was placed on deck and treated to a bath of seawater which soon revived him, but his mind was not clear and he was placed in the captain's quarters."
Recovering, Bartley recalled being hit by the whale's tail and that he had been "encompassed by great darkness, and he felt he was slipping along a smooth passage that seemed to move and carry him forward. His hands came in contact with a yielding substance which seemed to shrink from his touch. He could easily breath but the heat was terrible. It seemed to open all the pores of his skin and rub out his vitality. The next he remembered, he was in the captain's cabin."
Except for the fact that his face, neck, and hands had been bleached white, Bartley - like Jonah - had survived the belly of the monster.
That is the end of a surprising whale story, and you can see these books I've been reading contain come very fascinating stuff. It has occurred to me, if you don't have the time for big fat novels, there is more action per minute in reading things like "The Book of Lists" and "The People's Almanac."
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Back to the present time in August 2011: It is always pleasing to me when thoughtful folks like Jo Siblerud are kind enough to show they like my columns enough to not only read them, but to save them ... for a long, long time. Thank you.
G. George Ostrom is a national award-winning Hungry Horse News columnist. He lives in Kalispell.