HistoricaLeigh: A Dr Murie's Whale

May 2, 2017 by Carole Mulroney

DR MURIE'S WHALE

Dr James Murie came to Leigh in 1888 and lived here until his death in 1925 at the age of 93. He was a distinguished pathologist, amongst many other academic qualifications.

In July 1891 just to the north of the Nore, some shrimpers came upon a 25ft Beaked Whale which they tried to kill without success, until one of them went overboard with his clspknife and plunged it deep into the whale and killed it.

The men then decided to tow thne whale back to Leigh. It was a major operation to get the whale on dry land and permission was given to use Victoria Wharf as a landing place.

People poured down to the Old Town to see this great leviathan and paid tuppence a time for the privelege.

Dr Murie, with a background in Zoology was particularly interested and started to explore the whale's anatomy. However, in this time the weather turned very hot and the whale started to give off unpleasant odours. Dr Murie's dissection of the creature didn't help the situation, in particular, the flow of whale oil down the slipway caused the animal to slip down into the water like the launch of an ocean liner.

Eventually everyone became bored with the side show and the stench was unpleasant for those living near by. 

There was money to be had from the whale blubber and the entrepreneurs amongst the crowd, proceeded to strip the beast and eventually buried its skeleton on Leigh Marshes.  Dr Murie reported that the blubber fetched £10.

This article is by Carole Mulroney of Leigh Lives.
Website: https://www.leighlives.co.uk/my-leigh-lives

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