Can a whale swallow a person? Sperm whales. The whole terrible truth!!! Cases of sperm whale attacks on humans

Almost four years have passed since our trip to Mauritius, where we supposedly dived with sperm whales. And all these four years I lied shamelessly! All this time I was fantasizing, droolingly describing what wonderful meetings these were, how smart and kind sperm whales are. (). And many people naively believed, were happy for us and even began to dream of experiencing such a meeting in their lives.
But there were always people who were very skeptical about my stories and who said something like this: “sperm whales, they are predators, how could you swim with them, they immediately ate you!” or “what an inventor you are! You should have told me that you can swim with sharks!” And hearing the story about how my eleven-year-old son scratched a sperm whale’s belly, many people didn’t say anything, but it was clear that they could hardly restrain the desire to twirl their index finger at their temple, and they probably thought to themselves, “well, I completely lied, Munchausen is fucking !".
So, I scoured the Internet and realized why people are so skeptical about my stories about sperm whales. And everything that I wrote about them is a shameless lie, and my photographs where freedivers swim next to them are naked photoshop!
It's time to reveal the whole truth about these huge predatory creatures and their danger to people. To do this, I will publish information found on the Internet, and to add acuity of perception, I will dilute this chilling truth with my B&W photographs.

Danger!!!
“In exceptional cases, sperm whales attack people, although they are capable of swallowing an adult person whole. A case is described when sperm whale hunters managed to catch one very large specimen, in the belly of which three almost digested corpses were found.

Sperm whale swallowing people
“The sperm whale is the only whale whose pharynx theoretically allows it to swallow a person whole without chewing (and, generally speaking, the only animal capable of doing this). However, despite the large number of deaths when hunting sperm whales, these whales apparently , extremely rarely swallowed people who fell into the water. The only relatively reliable case (it was even documented by the British Admiralty) occurred in 1891 near the Falkland Islands. A sperm whale crashed a boat from the British whaling schooner "Star of the East", one sailor died, and another, harpooner James Bartley, went missing and was also presumed dead. The sperm whale that sank the boat was killed a few hours later; the cutting of his carcass continued all night. By the morning, the whalers, having reached the insides of the whale, found an unconscious James Bartley in its stomach Bartley survived, although not without health consequences: his scalp lost hair and his skin lost its pigment and remained papery white. Bartley had to leave whaling, but he was able to make a good living by showing himself at fairs as a man who had been in the belly of a whale, like the biblical Jonah.

“The sperm whale does not chew food, it can only tear very large prey into pieces in order to swallow it. It swallows all small things (up to an eighteen-meter mollusk) whole. Now do you understand what a person is for a sperm whale? More than nine times smaller than that same mollusk !

By the way, it’s worth remembering here the story when the schooner “Star of the East” caught a sperm whale, and when it ripped open its “abdomen” they found three human skeletons there, whole and unharmed. It’s scary to think about what these three unfortunates experienced and what kind of death they had...

But sperm whales never attack people, you can safely object. And you will be one hundred percent right. So what is the danger? And the danger lies in the nervous system of this gentle giant. The nervous system of the sperm whale is extremely unstable; it is very easy to frighten it with the usual clapping of oars in the water. And now the sperm whale, already scared to death, is dangerous in its fear. It is because of fear that a sperm whale can swallow a man, his boat, or sink a five-ton ship..."

The sperm whale is the only modern representative of the sperm whale family in nature. These whales have a huge rectangular head in which the spermaceti sac is located. Among other large cetaceans, the sperm whale is distinguished by a number of unique anatomical features. Here are 31 interesting facts about sperm whales.

1. The sperm whale is the largest toothed whale. Adult males weigh about 50 tons and reach 20 meters in length. They grow throughout life.
2. Females grow up to 15 meters in length with a body weight of 20 tons. Sperm whales have well-defined sexual dimorphism. In addition to the fact that females are smaller than males, they also have a different body type, number of teeth and head shape.
3. The first scientific description of the sperm whale was given by Carl Linnaeus.
4. A third of the sperm whale's body is the head, so it is difficult to confuse it with other cetaceans.
5. The color of the skin of sperm whales varies from blue to dark gray. The color often contains brown tones. Some males have yellow or white spots near their fins. Researchers have also recorded sightings of albino sperm whales.
6. In sperm whales, the skin on the belly can reach a thickness of 50 cm.
7. Sperm whale teeth are valuable bone. During the time of whale hunting, they served as an expensive ornamental material, which was valued on a par with walrus tusk and mammoth ivory.
8. One whale tooth can weigh up to 2 kg.
9. Among all mammals, sperm whales have the largest brain. Its weight is approximately 8 kg.
   
10. Sperm whales have a unique formation in their heads - a spermaceti sac (fat pad). The weight of this transparent liquid can reach 5 tons. Spermaceti is a waxy substance that hardens when exposed to air. Sperm whale wax is used in the pharmaceutical and perfume industries.
11. Sperm whales lack olfactory organs, but they have unsurpassed hearing. Whales find food using ultrasonic echolocation (similar to bats).
12. Sperm whales live in herds. They unite in groups of several hundred and sometimes thousands of heads. Whales hunt collectively and migrate to warmer latitudes in winter. Very old sperm whales usually stay solitary.
13. Spermaceti whales make 3 types of sounds - crackling, groaning and clicking. The sperm whale's voice is very loud, sounds reach 115 dB. Whales from different groups use different sound markers. Scientists believe that there are several dialects in the “language” of these animals.
14. Sperm whales swim at a speed of about 7 km/hour. Compared to baleen whales, it's slow. Researchers note that sperm whales can reach speeds of up to 30 km/h if they are frightened by something.
15. The largest toothed whales have a unique structure of internal organs. The structure of the sperm whale's intestines is greatly simplified, but its length reaches 160 m. The stomach of the sea giant holds 500 liters of liquid.
16. A gray solid substance called ambergris is formed in the digestive tract of male sperm whales. This is a valuable product (fragrant substance) that is used in the production of perfumes. Ambergris makes high-quality fragrance fixatives.
17. During the period of active whaling, people hunted sperm whales not only for spermaceti, ambergris and teeth. The main product of the sperm whale fishery was fat. People also used whale meat. It was not consumed as food due to its strong unpleasant odor; the meat served as a raw material for feeding dogs and animals with valuable fur.
18. Tapeworms up to 30 m long live in the intestines of the sperm whale.
19. The sperm whale can stay underwater longer than any other mammal. Researchers recorded the whale staying underwater for 1 hour and 52 minutes. In addition, animals can dive to depths of up to 2500 meters at a pressure of 100 atmospheres.
20. The respiratory functions of sperm whales are performed by the left nostril. It is located in the front of the head on the left. The right nostril, thanks to a special valve, only lets air in, but does not let it out.
    
21. Sperm whales are excellent divers, but also excellent jumpers. They can jump out of the water completely.
22. Sperm whales sleep, unlike smaller cetaceans. These whales have a period of continuous deep sleep. It lasts about 10 minutes. During sleep, sperm whales hover motionless in an upright position in the water column with their noses directed towards the surface. Scientists have found that in sleeping sperm whales, both hemispheres of the brain stop active activity at the same time.
23. The largest toothed whales are polygamous by nature. During the breeding season, about one male who has reached sexual maturity keeps a whole harem of 10-15 females. Males become sexually mature at the age of 23-25 ​​years, females at the age of 15-17 years. Whales not involved in breeding are kept separately.
24. The female sperm whale carries the calf for 16-17 months. Only one baby is born. Newborn whales weigh almost a ton and can reach 4 meters in length. Milk feeding lasts one year. The mammary glands of a female sperm whale can contain up to 45 liters of milk.
    
25. The lifespan of sperm whales is 40-50 years.
26. Among the causes of natural death of spermaceti whales, scientists name myocardial infarction, stomach ulcers and bone necrosis.
27. Like other large whales, sperm whales become overgrown with various crustaceans. However, they do absolutely no harm to the body of giant mammals.
28. The diet of sperm whales includes cephalopods (octopus and squid) and fish (small sharks, rays, sea bass, salmon gobies). These animals also eat giant squids, sometimes reaching 10 m in length. For such large prey, whales dive to a depth of 2 kilometers. An adult male needs to eat approximately 1 ton of food per day.
29. Sometimes in organized groups of 10-15 individuals. Whales show cooperation by collectively driving prey to one place.
30. Along with large species, dwarf sperm whales are also found. They grow no more than 4 meters in length and weigh about 400 kg.
31. Spermaceti whales have practically no natural enemies in their natural habitat. Only killer whales pose a potential danger. They can attack baby sperm whales.

The largest representative of the suborder of toothed whales is, of course, the widespread true sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus). It belongs to both the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific oceans, being distributed throughout all the warmer seas, but it is not found in the Northern and Southern Arctic oceans.

The sperm whale is a resident of the open sea; not only is it widely scattered throughout the seas of its homeland, but on occasion it moves from one ocean to another; Thus, a sperm whale was killed in the Atlantic Ocean, in whose body there were darts that he received in the Pacific Ocean.

However, the sperm whale appears generally to be kept within a somewhat limited area of ​​distribution, since in the Bay of Bengal and around Ceylon, where it was formerly found in great abundance, it has now, owing to heavy persecution, become comparatively rare. The same can be said for the South Pacific.

Appearance

While the number of sperm whales was not reduced to such an extent as now by constant persecution, larger individuals could exist than at present, although sperm whales the size of a bowhead whale can still be found. In 1807, one sperm whale was killed, from which a tooth is currently kept in the British Museum, 24 cm long and 23 cm in circumference, and weighing 3 1 kg 300 g. Since sperm whales with such teeth are no longer found, then, perhaps , the indication that the sperm whale can reach a length of 24 m is true.

At present, however, sperm whales are only 17-18 m long, and only males reach this length, while females, who are also distinguished by a more slender appearance, are much smaller in stature and reach slightly more than half the size of males. The length of the pectoral fins of modern sperm whales rarely exceeds 1.8, and the width is 0.9 m, the width of the caudal fin is approximately 4.5 m.

Why were sperm whales killed?

For whale oil

Naturally, the amount of whale oil in modern sperm whales is not always as great as in adult animals in former times. One very large sperm whale, caught in 1857 off the Galapagos Islands, yielded 85 barrels of blubber, while one caught in the same area in 1817 yielded 100 barrels.

For the sake of spermaceti

In addition to whale oil, the sperm whale also produces the so-called spermaceti, which is found in large quantities in the head of the animal. The significant size of the head, reaching almost one quarter of the total body length of the animal, is therefore, together with the number of teeth, of which there are 20-25 on each half of the lower jaw, the main generic characteristic of the sperm whale. In the head of the sperm whale there is a large cavity filled with spermaceti, the bottom of which is formed by the skull cap, which forms a high vertical wall in its rear part; The sperm whale's muzzle, strongly blunted in front, is very high and wide, and thus it contains a cavity in which a large amount of spermaceti can accumulate.

In contrast to the upper part of the head, the long lower jaw, both branches of which merge along the midline at a distance of approximately half of their total length, is very narrow.

The branches of the lower jaw are armed with teeth curved back at the tip, sharp until they are worn away, and consisting of a substance completely similar to ivory. The teeth cover a large area of ​​the bottom of a long and wide mouth, which opens at the bottom, slightly receding from the end of the muzzle, and passes into a very wide pharynx. Almost just above the mouth opening, precisely at the very top of the end of the muzzle, not quite in the middle, but somewhat to the left of it, lies the S-shaped common opening of the nostrils; The eye is located slightly above the corner of the mouth, and at some distance behind it there is an ear opening, not exceeding 6.5 mm in width.

Not far from the latter, namely, somewhat behind and below the eye, the pectoral fin is attached to the body. The sperm whale does not have a dorsal fin. Instead, at the junction of the head with the body, there is a distinct elevation located along the midline of the back, and in the middle between this elevation and the tail lies a larger hump-shaped outgrowth formed by a number of smaller elevations. On the dorsal surface, the sperm whale is colored black or black-brown, its sides and belly are lighter, and its chest is silver-gray.

Sometimes the sperm whale, in old males of which the muzzle and upper part of the head often turn gray, is also found in light piebald or dark piebald specimens. The color of the inside of the mouth and tongue is characteristic of the sperm whale; they are dazzling white. Thanks to this circumstance, the sperm whale lures its prey, consisting of cephalopods and fish; he hangs his lower jaw almost vertically down, and the animals that serve him as food are attracted by the dazzling whiteness of the oral cavity, and he catches them, quickly closing it.

Breath

The sperm whale's stay under water to obtain food is interrupted with such regularity by the animal's breathing, as this, perhaps, does not happen in any of the other cetaceans. Sperm whales of different sizes, and therefore different sexes and ages, differ among themselves in the frequency of respiration and in the length of time spent under water and on its surface.

Large males take ten to twelve seconds to inhale and exhale, remain on the surface of the water for about 12 minutes and make 60-75 inhalations and exhalations during this period of time. When a sperm whale rises to the surface of the water to breathe, first of all its hump appears, then its head slowly emerges from the water, which for about three seconds ejects a column of air saturated with whitish water vapor; This pillar can sometimes be seen from the top of the mast at a distance of almost 10 km, but it is not accompanied by any noise.

It takes no more than a second to inhale as the sperm whale moves forward. Even after a very short stay on the surface of the water, it emits the same large columns of water vapor as in the described case.

Having inhaled, the sperm whale disappears from the surface, head first and raising its tail high into the air, almost vertically; in water it sinks to great depths and remains for 50-70 minutes. Frightened animals disappear from the surface of the water suddenly, even if they lie horizontally on the water. If they are not disturbed, they often lie on the water while breathing, without moving forward. When moving calmly, they swim approximately 4-6 km/h, and this speed can increase further if the sperm whale moves from one area of ​​obtaining its food to another. If the sperm whale swims, as usually happens, level with the water, so that only its hump protrudes, it reaches speeds of up to 14 km/h; if, while swimming, he alternately sinks and raises his head above the water, then he can sometimes swim 20-24 km/h.

The sperm whale is a herd animal

Sperm whales are usually found in herds, which in former times numbered from 15 to several hundred individuals. Such herds are usually formed by males and females of all ages, led by two or three old males. Females take care of the safety of the herd and the cubs; females also scurry around their killed comrades, which is why after killing the first sperm whale, several others can usually be killed.

Young males, which at certain times of the year form special herds, on the contrary, abandon wounded comrades to the mercy of fate, and old males, some of whom, the largest and oldest, have the habit of temporarily living alone, apparently also care only about themselves.

Sperm whale breeding

Female sperm whales, which mate at all times of the year, sometimes give birth to a pair, but usually only one calf, which at birth is 3.3-4.3 m long.

Sperm whales were almost exterminated in the 19th century, when sperm whale fishing paid very well, since the sperm whale is one of the most valuable among cetaceans and its whale oil (blub) was more expensive than the blubber of other whales. Spermaceti, which, when skinning an animal, could be scooped up in buckets from its head cavity, but which then froze, played an important role in trade; and in addition to blubber and spermaceti, as the third product of the sperm whale’s body, the so-called ambergris was also obtained, a substance that was previously used in medicine, but now only in perfumery; it always contains the remains of cephalopods, therefore it is formed in the intestines; the bulk of it was, however, usually not obtained from sperm whales, but was found floating on the surface of the sea.

In 1980, a ban on the slaughter of sperm whales was introduced and their population is gradually recovering.

Fight for life

During an attack by a whaling ship on a sperm whale, the latter became enraged, and as a result, the sperm whale very often sank the ship. There is historical evidence of ships sunk by sperm whales. In 1851, a wounded sperm whale, having rushed at one whale boat and smashed it to pieces, rushed to another, but his attention was immediately diverted by a third.

The latter managed to escape from him with difficulty, and then he rushed towards the main whaling ship, which was approaching him in full sail. The ship, however, managed to evade the animal with a quick turn, which immediately afterwards fell in its death throes and could not repeat the attack. Another ship had it worse.

In 1820, in the South Pacific Ocean, one ship was attacked by an angry sperm whale, which, with the first of two well-aimed blows, caused a strong hole in the ship, and with the second, broke the bow, after which the ship sank. In a similar way, a ship was lost off the coast of Peru in 1851. There is an assumption that many of the disappeared ships owe their death to sperm whales.

Sperm whale movements

After this, he walks some distance under water in order to, with the help of powerful, often and quickly following blows of the caudal fin, acquire such a speed that would allow him to jump out again above the surface of the water.

In this case, its body immediately upon leaving the water forms almost half a right angle with the water surface, and the caudal fin remains in a horizontal position. When falling down, the body turns slightly, so that the animal always falls on its side.

Danger to humans

In addition to the fact that a sperm whale can sink even a fairly large ship, the sperm whale is also the only animal that can swallow a person whole. And this circumstance was often used in various fairy tales and legends.

In general, the sperm whale animal is quite peaceful, if you do not try to harm it or its offspring.

And here you can read about another amazing inhabitant of the ocean -.

They haven't been getting any attention lately. A lot is said about smart, quick-witted and cheerful dolphins, about good-natured giant whales, but for some reason not a word is said about the noble knights of the seas, sperm whales. Maybe because not everyone has read Henry Melville’s amazing novel about the white sperm whale “Moby Dick”.

What did he do to deserve the writer’s special attention? Yes, at least in that the sperm whale, although it belongs to the cetacean family, is sharply different from all the inhabitants of the Earth, both underwater and land. It can rightfully be called the most mysterious animal. It is structured somehow completely incorrectly, in any case, completely incomprehensible to us.

Whales are not fish, but mammals that must surface to take a breath of air. They hide under water only for a short time and reach shallow depths, and then emerge, otherwise they will suffocate and die. But for the sperm whale there are no general rules written. He can stay underwater for at least an hour and dive to a depth of one kilometer.

Some sources indicate the possible ability of the sperm whale to dive even to 3000 meters. Maybe there are no depth limits for the sperm whale at all? Of course, not a single whale can even dream of such feats. 25-30 meters is the depth of their residence.

The sperm whale descends to very great depths, and there is enormous pressure there - up to 100 atmospheres, it should, like a monstrous press, flatten the sperm whale into a cake, but no! He emerges, alive and well.

Well, if he stays under water for a long time, he must store a lot of air, which means the sperm whale must have lungs - wow! Nothing happened. They are even two times smaller than those of other whales. What he breathes for so long - no one knows for sure.

It is assumed that its air reserves accumulate in the muscles, as well as in the air sac in the overgrown nostril. All creatures, both great and small, have two nostrils. And only the sperm whale has one, the left one. Once upon a time, however, there was also a right one, but it has long been overgrown.

With the air, too, everything is not entirely clear. All divers are familiar with decompression sickness, when nitrogen captured in the lungs along with air inhaled from cylinders passes under high pressure into the blood, and from there into the body tissues. When quickly rising to the surface, microscopic nitrogen bubbles are released and clog small blood vessels. Severe poisoning occurs, which brings severe suffering and often death.

The same fate, it seems, should be destined for the sperm whale, because he is not “from a different cloth,” and the laws of physics exist for him too. But the sperm whale jumps out of the depths with terrible speed, like a torpedo, and nothing is done to it! How this is possible is one of his secrets. It is believed that sperm whale blood plasma has an increased ability to dissolve nitrogen, preventing this gas from forming microbubbles.

And everything else about him is strange and inexplicable, as if he were some kind of alien, and not an earthly animal. For example, he has the longest intestine in the world - 160 meters! Why does he need it? Completely unknown. This is one of the unanswered mysteries, because predators, as a rule, have much shorter intestines than herbivores.

But this intestine contains ambergris - a substance precious to people, but no one really knows what the sperm whale uses it for. According to the most common version now, ambergris is released as a result of irritation of the intestinal mucosa caused by the horny beaks of squid swallowed by sperm whales; in any case, many undigested cephalopod beaks can always be found in pieces of ambergris.

But for many decades, scientists have not been able to establish whether ambergris is a product of normal life activity or the result of pathology. However, it is noteworthy that ambergris is found only in the intestines of males.

In the huge head of the sperm whale, which can be used as a battering weapon, a white liquid accumulates - spermaceti, which easily heals any wounds (there were even legends about it as a miraculous medicine that cures all diseases). In the first half of the 20th century, spermaceti was used in perfumery and medicine, including for the preparation of anti-burn ointments. Nowadays, natural spermaceti is no longer extracted or used.

But why does the sperm whale need spermaceti? Moreover, this is a unique formation in the world of cetaceans, found only in sperm whales. According to one of the latest theories, it helps give direction to sound waves during echolocation. But this organ clearly has other functions. It is sometimes believed that the spermaceti organ can serve for cooling, that is, removing part of the heat from the sperm whale’s body.

It is also possible that the sperm-filled head is used by whales to absorb shock. Indeed, male sperm whales, in fights with each other during the mating period or when attacking enemies, strike primarily with their heads. However, females also have a spermaceti sac, so this issue has not been completely resolved.

Or here's another mystery. In the old days, stories were told about people who were swallowed by whales and then miraculously escaped. The Bible tells about the adventures of Saint Jonah, who was swallowed by a huge whale, but he fervently prayed to the Lord, and he saved him.

All these legends refer not to the huge baleen whales - blue and humpback whales, but to old sperm whales, whose weight reaches 50, or even 100 tons. They are indeed capable of swallowing a person whole, which they sometimes do.

At the same time, sperm whales do not injure a person, although with their four-meter lower jaw with huge teeth (the weight of each of these “teeth” is 3 kilograms) they could have a bite and break anyone into pieces. Why are they so careful with people?

Maybe they just save them when they get into trouble, just like dolphins do? But they do it in their own way, the only way available to them.

At least one case of miraculous rescue is reliably known, in which whaler James Bartley from the schooner “Eastern Star” became a participant. The sperm whale, apparently mistaking the ship and the boat with the sailor for their irreconcilable enemies, the squid, attacked them. He made a hole in the schooner with his head blow and overturned the boat.

Swallowed the sailor who fell out of the boat. The whalers managed to cope with the hole in the side of the ship, after which they harpooned the sperm whale. When his carcass was pulled on board and his belly was opened, they found Bartley there, whom everyone had already considered dead. The sailor seemed to be sleeping. They shook him by the shoulder and he woke up.

In general, James was not injured, but somehow faded. Either from fear, or from the stomach juices of the sperm whale, all the colors were erased from him.

However, it was precisely this acquired feature that Bartley turned to his advantage. He quit his job on a schooner and began traveling to fairs, where he showed up for money like a living curiosity: wow, he was in the stomach of a sperm whale and survived! Naturally, he added a lot of “creepy” details on his own so that onlookers would pay more.

Well, now the most important thing! Why do sperm whales dive to a kilometer depth when there is a wide variety of food around them? The more you think about it, the more inevitable you come to the conclusion that the knight of the seas, as if specially prepared by nature for deadly battles, is looking for a meeting with his old and sworn enemy - the giant squid, in order to fight with him and tear his slimy body with insidious eyes apart -plates.

But the outcome of the battle, alas, is not always clear. There is a known case when a sperm whale was caught, swallowing a squid so large that its tentacles did not fit in the whale’s belly, but stuck out and attached themselves to the sperm whale’s snout. This squid weighed about 200 kg.

Also, on the skin of sperm whales, traces of squid suckers with a diameter of 20 cm are sometimes found. At the same time, even on the largest squid known to science (even those whose length together with tentacles reached 10 meters) the diameter of the suckers does not exceed 5 cm. With what Are sperm whales encountered as unknown giants in the mysterious depths of the ocean?

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V. Sheffer. Year of the whale

MOBILE WILD SPERM WHALE...

The novel by the outstanding American writer Herman Melville “Moby Dick, or the White Whale” (1851), full of sorrow, passion and rage, is considered by most readers to be “symbolic and almost fantastic works. Nevertheless, the author of this amazing book is a professional sailor and whaler, and it itself is a kind of “encyclopedia of whaling.”

Let us briefly recall the content of the novel. Ishmael, on whose behalf the story is told, is hired as a sailor on the whaling ship Pequod. After departure, it turns out that the voyage is not entirely ordinary. The captain of the Pequod, Ahab, who lost his leg in a battle with the famous Moby Dick, went to sea with the sole purpose of giving battle to his enemy. He intends to pursue the White Whale “beyond the Cape of Good Hope, and beyond Cape Horn, and beyond the Norwegian Malström, and beyond the flame of destruction”... “This is the goal of your voyage, people! - he shouts in furious rage. “Chase the White Whale in both hemispheres until he releases a fountain of black blood and his white carcass sways on the waves!” Infected by the captain's furious energy, the Pequod's crew swears hatred of the White Whale, and Ahab nails a golden doubloon to the mast, intended for the first person to see Moby Dick...

The Pequod sails around the world, exposed to all the dangers of whaling. The meeting with the White Whale takes place in his “domain”, near the equator, and is preceded by a number of formidable omens. The battle with Moby Dick lasts three days and ends with the defeat of the Pequod. The White Whale smashes the whaleboats, drags Ahab into the depths of the sea and finally sinks the ship and its crew. Only the narrator is saved - he is picked up by another whaler.

What suggested this plot to the writer?

Whaling historians testify that at the beginning of the 19th century, among harpooners fishing in the Pacific Ocean, there was a rumor about a giant albino sperm whale that attacked not only the whaleboats that were pursuing it, but also whaling ships. Some claimed that the “white giant of the seven seas” attacked the whaling ship without any reason, others - that only after they stuck a harpoon in its back. Even after breaking his head, he allegedly continued to ram the side of the ship again and again, and when it sank, he circled the surface, destroying the surviving people...

Among the famous whalers of the last century there would have been at least a hundred who were ready to swear on the Bible that they had seen the White Whale. His name was Moha Dik, after the island of Moha off the coast of Chile, where he was first encountered. Eyewitness stories about the albino sperm whale, embellished by the imagination of those who had never seen him, formed into legends about the man-eating whale. Their hero is an invariably large solitary male, about 20 m long and weighing at least 70 tons, aggressive, unable to get along with his fellows. Its color varies from story to story: the gigantic sperm whale is sometimes white as snow, sometimes it is light gray, and sometimes even black, but with a wide white stripe on its head. He rampaged through the vastness of the World Ocean for exactly 39 years, to his credit three whaling ships and two cargo ships, three barques, four schooners, eighteen whaleboats and 117 human lives. Moha Dik is believed to have been killed in 1859 by Swedish whalers in the South Pacific. When the harpoon pierced his lung, he offered no resistance: he was already too old and exhausted. In the carcass of Moss Dick, the Swedes counted 19 harpoon tips and discovered that the sperm whale was blind in his right eye... Apparently, this information was used by Melville as the basis for the novel. But are they the only ones?

ESSEX TRAGEDY

Like people, ships die in different ways. They often become victims of fatal circumstances - the elements of the sea, war, malicious intent, mistakes of their masters and captains. There are also cases in the world chronicle that seem completely incredible. These include the unfortunate incident with the American whaler Essex.

This three-masted bark with a displacement of 238 tons left on August 12, 1819 under the command of Captain Pollard from Nantucket Island (here, according to Melville, the last voyage of the Pequod began), heading to fishing. The flight was designed for two years:

first hunting in the South Atlantic, then in the Pacific Ocean. On November 20, 1820, the Essex was near the equator at 119 degrees west longitude when a herd of sperm whales was spotted from the mast early in the morning. Three whaleboats were launched, the first commanded by Captain Pollard himself, the second by First Mate Chase, and the third by Navigator Joy.

When there were 200 m left to the sperm whales, they went under water, but a few minutes later one of them surfaced. Chase approached him from the tail and plunged a harpoon into his back. The sperm whale turned over on its side and hit the side of the whaleboat with its fin. Water poured into the hole, and Chase had no choice but to cut the line. The sperm whale gained freedom, and the rowers, having taken off their shirts and jackets, tried to seal the hole with them. The half-flooded whaleboat barely made it to the Essex, after which Chase directed the whaler towards the whaleboats visible on the horizon. Suddenly, a huge sperm whale surfaced from the windward side; its length, according to Chase, exceeded 25 m. The ship did not have time to turn away. A powerful thud was heard, everyone was hit. Water poured into the hold through the broken hull. The whale, apparently stunned, shook its huge head and clapped its lower jaw. By order of Chase, the sailors began to pump out the water. But less than three minutes had passed when the sperm whale hit the ship again - this time on the right cheekbone. The water was rising rapidly, and it became clear to the whalers that they would not be able to save the Essex. The sailors barely had time to load navigation instruments and maps into the spare whaleboat. As soon as the whaleboat with people moved away from the sinking ship, it fell on board with a terrible creak. Only ten minutes have passed since the second strike...

At this time, another sperm whale was dragging Captain Pollard's whaleboat on the line. When the captain saw that the masts of his ship had disappeared, he cut the harpoon line and ordered the crew to row with all their might. Approaching the Essex lying on board, Pollard tried to save it. But the water, filling the hold, displaced the air from it, and the Essex slowly sank. Nevertheless, the sailors managed to get inside the ship; three whaleboats (and by this time Joy had arrived) were loaded with two barrels of biscuits, about 200 gallons of water, two compasses, some carpentry tools and a dozen live elephant tortoises taken from the Galapagos.

Soon the Essex sank. In the vast expanses of the Pacific Ocean, three whaleboats remained, housing twenty sailors. Each person received half a pint of water and one biscuit per day. During one of the storms, the whaleboats lost each other. A month later, Pollard's whaleboat approached the tiny uninhabited island of Dasi, the sailors were able to replenish their meager supplies. Three expressed a desire to stay, Pollard and three other sailors continued sailing to the southeast...

The odyssey of the Essex whalers was tragic. Navigator Joy's whaleboat went missing. Chase and his two sailors were rescued by the English brig Indian on the 91st day of the voyage. Five days later, the whaler Dauphin picked up a whaleboat with Captain Pollard and sailor Ramsdell. Finally, the British warship Surrey. removed the three “Robinsons” remaining there from Dasi Island...

Undoubtedly, the fates of the two ships - the Essex and the Pequod invented by Melville - are almost the same. But is it just chance behind this similarity?

Moby Dick was released in New York in 1851. Few Soviet readers know that ten years earlier, the whaling ship Acushnet, on which Melville was then sailing as a sailor, accidentally met in the ocean with another whaler, whose crew included William Chace, the son of Owen Chace from the Essex. It was he who showed the young Melville a printed edition of the memoirs of “Essex”, written by his father six months after the completion of the ill-fated odyssey. The terrible confession made a very strong impression on the future writer and most likely gave him the idea for the novel. Of course, he was aware of other cases of sperm whale attacks on ships and whaleboats, recorded in documents.

MARINE CHRONICLES TESTIFY

In July 1840, the English whaling brig Desmond was 215 miles from Valparaiso. The cry of the observer from the crow's nest brought the entire team to their feet. Two miles away, a lone sperm whale swam slowly. The captain ordered two whaleboats to be lowered. Making a sharp turn, the whale rushed towards them. Its color was more dark gray than black, and a three-meter white scar was visible on its huge head. The sperm whale hit the first whaleboat with its head, and it flew into the air. The rowers fell into the water like peas from a spoon. Turning over on its side and opening its terrible mouth, the sperm whale chewed the fragile little boat to pieces, then went into the depths. About fifteen minutes later he emerged and launched a new attack - with a strong blow of his head he threw the second whaleboat into the air. The sound of breaking wood mingled with the cries of the whalers, maddened by fear. Having described a smooth circle, the whale moved away. The brig arrived in time and took its sailors on board. Two of them died from their wounds.

A month later, five hundred miles south of this place, a sperm whale was spotted from the Russian bark Sarepta. The hunt ended successfully: two whaleboats towed the whale carcass. They were three miles from the Sarepta when another sperm whale appeared - a large gray male. He jumped out of the water, fell on his belly with a deafening noise and began attacking the whaleboats. He smashed the first one into pieces with a blow of his head. The foreman of the second managed to place his boat behind the carcass of a killed sperm whale, then, cutting the harpoon line, picked up the floating people, and the rowers leaned on the oars with all their might. The whaleboat returned safely to the Sarepta, which slowly circled around the dead whale. However, the gray sperm whale did not leave the prey of the Russian whalers, and, deciding not to tempt fate, they went south.

In May 1841, the whaler John Dye was fishing in the South Atlantic between Cape Horn and the Falkland Islands (Malvinas). A hundred meters from the side, a giant gray sperm whale surfaced from the depths. He almost completely jumped out of the water, stood on his tail for a few seconds and fell with a deafening noise.

Then he sailed several hundred meters away and seemed to be waiting for the whaleboats. The first mate managed to approach the sperm whale from behind and accurately throw the harpoon. The sperm whale, having dived, dragged the whaleboat for three miles, then stopped, surfaced and rushed to attack the whalers. A blow to the head, two or three strokes of the tail - and the whaleboat turned into a pile of floating chips. Two whalers were killed, the rest floated among the wreckage. Having sailed a hundred meters, the sperm whale waited. The captain, not wanting to lose valuable booty, sent two more whaleboats to the place of the duel. The team of one of them managed to pick up the end of a line stretching to a harpoon sticking out of the whale’s back. Feeling the pain, he rushed under the water again, then emerged exactly under the bottom of the third whaleboat and threw it with his head five meters into the air. By some miracle, everyone remained intact, but the whaleboat sank. When the wet, exhausted, terrified whalers (they were picked up by a second whaleboat) boarded the John Day, the monster was still at the scene of the fight.

In October 1842, off the east coast of Japan, a large gray sperm whale attacked a coastal schooner. The head impact was so strong that the ship actually lost its stern. It remained afloat only thanks to the load of timber, although it sat in the water up to the upper deck. The team managed to build a raft from the logs... The captains of three whalers who happened to be nearby - the Scottish "Chiff", the English "Dudley" and the "Yankee" from the port of New Beckford - after consulting, decided to put an end to the robber whale and get rid of Moss forever Dick. The search was short-lived - the sperm whale seemed to be looking for a meeting on its own. He surfaced a mile from the whalers, stood upright on his tail for a few seconds, then with a terrible splash fell flat and went under the water again. Six whaleboats rushed to this place - two from each whaler. Keith was the first to attack, but missed and was hit in the back by a harpoon from an American whaleboat. For five minutes he went into the water and showed no signs of life, but then, suddenly appearing on the surface, with a blow of his tail he smashed the Scots' whaleboat and immediately rushed towards the English whaleboat. Behind him on the line was a whaleboat from the Yankee. The British dodged at first, but after a few seconds their whaleboat found itself in the giant mouth of a whale that had turned over on its side. Raising his head, the sperm whale shook it from side to side, like a cat catching a mouse. Pieces of wood fell into the water, along with the mutilated remains of two sailors who did not manage to jump into the water in time. Then, already freed from the towed cargo (the Americans cut the line in a panic), the whale accelerated and struck with its head the side of a half-submerged schooner abandoned by people. And disappeared from sight...

Aboard the Scottish whaler, they were providing aid to the injured when he reappeared on the “battlefield.” He tried to hit the bottom of the “Chiff” with his head, but missed, nevertheless, he tore off the copper trim from the stem with his back and demolished the bowsprit along with the jig. After that, he sailed a few hundred meters, “went adrift” and calmly watched as three whalers, having raised all sails, hastily went into the ocean...

In 1850, a whaleboat from the American barque Parker Cook harpooned a large sperm whale in the Central Atlantic. Instead of going into the depths, as usually happens, the wounded animal dived under the bottom of the whaleboat and overturned it. The harpoon line snapped around the helmsman's shin, cutting through the muscle to the bone. Having contrived, the sailor managed to cut the line, but lost consciousness from loss of blood and had to be urgently taken to the barque. As soon as the people were on the deck of the whaler, the whale launched an attack on the ship. The blow to the head hit the right cheekbone, soon followed by a second, but less strong: apparently, the wound was serious and the animal lost a lot of blood. However, it was already accelerating for a new attack; the captain, armed with harpoons with explosive heads, came out on a whaleboat to meet them. Turning over on its side and opening its deadly mouth, the sperm whale rushed at the whaleboat. The man was a second quicker: the harpoon hit the whale’s throat and exploded. But the sperm whale did not give up! He tried to attack the whaleboat twice more, and only the third explosive harpoon calmed him down forever...

A few months later, the American whaler Pocahontas encountered a large herd of whales off the coast of Argentina. Two whaleboats headed towards them. One harpoon hit the target, the whaleboat came almost close, and the captain's mate prepared to throw the second harpoon. Suddenly the sperm whale overturned on its side, opened its mouth and bit the whaleboat in two. The people survived, but two of them were seriously injured. A second whaleboat arrived to help, but the whale did not leave, it circled near the wreckage, from time to time “testing” the oars, mast, and pieces of plating. The Pocahontas was commanded by Joseph Diaz, a 28-year-old sailor nicknamed "The Boy Captain." Despite the pleas of the wounded - and they had already been delivered to the ship by a second whaleboat - and the persuasion of experienced whalers, he decided to attack the whale again, this time directly from the Pocahontas. The sailors, armed with harpoons and spears, were huddled on the forecastle. Just before the stem, the whale dodged to the side, however, one of the harpoons pierced its back. Captain Diaz continued the pursuit, the whaler's speed was two knots. Suddenly - and the distance between the ship and the whale at that moment was about 100 m - the whale itself rushed to attack. His speed was three times greater. The blow hit the right cheekbone, the crack of breaking boards was heard, and a hole formed below the waterline. There was no question of further hunting - only with great difficulty did Diaz manage to bring the ship safely to the nearest port.

On August 20, 1851, three sperm whales were spotted from the mast of the American whaler Anne Alexander, which was fishing in the South Atlantic. Then everything happened according to the usual scenario for us: two whaleboats rushed towards the whales, the wounded sperm whale turned one of them into a pile of floating debris. Fortunately, the people remained unharmed. Another whaleboat arrived to help; the same unenviable fate awaited him. The only remaining boat, heavily overloaded (there were now 18 people on it), escaped. Nevertheless, the whaler's captain, John Deblo, decided to continue the hunt - from the ship. Another harpoon stuck into the sperm whale's back. The whale went under the water, and after some time the ship was shaken by a strong blow: it seemed as if it had hit a reef at full speed. According to Deblo, the speed of the sperm whale at the time of the collision reached 15 knots. Water rushed into the hold in a powerful stream. The team hastily boarded two whaleboats; After some time, the Anne Alexander capsized to starboard and then sank. But fate was more favorable to Deblo and his people than at one time to the crew of the Essex - the next day both whaleboats were picked up by the whaler Nantucket.

Just three months later, the novel Moby Dick was published. Having learned about the tragedy of “Anne Alexandra,” Melville said: “I am convinced that it was Moby Dick himself... Has my art really resurrected this monster?”

Soon the whaler "Rebecca Simms" from New Bedford killed a huge sperm whale with pieces of planking stuck in its head, and two harpoons sticking out of its side with the inscription: "Anne Alexander." But Moby Dick continued to live... For example, on March 19, 1885, a large sperm whale rammed the English schooner Waterloo, hitting its hull with terrible force behind the foremast and knocking down the foremast with its tail. The schooner sank, the crew was rescued the same day by French fishermen. The American whaling bark Kathleen suffered exactly the same fate. What can I say, similar cases occurred even in the middle of the 20th century.

In 1947, off the Commander Islands, the Soviet whaler Enthusiast harpooned a 17-meter sperm whale. Having turned around, he hit the ship’s hull with his head at a speed of about 20 km/h. As a result, the propeller shaft was bent, the propeller was torn off, and the rudder was disabled. The sperm whale, as it later turned out, received only shallow cuts on its head from this collision.

whaling floating base “Slava”

In 1948, in Antarctica, a harpooned sperm whale attacked the whaler Slava-10 twice. The first impact left a dent in the hull, the second one broke off the propeller blades.

There are also documented cases of ships dying as a result of attacks by enraged sperm whales. How many of the missing suffered the same fate?..

Why do sperm whales attack ships and whaleboats? Is it only in self-defense? This is how the famous American expert on marine mammals, Victor Schaeffer, answers this question. “As a zoologist, I cannot help but be interested in the reasons for this behavior of the robber whale. What is this - physiological or mental pathology?

When a stranger approaches a recently whelped bitch, she immediately attacks him. When a stranger approaches a hungry dog, he reacts in the same way. The need for such a reaction is obvious: it helps preserve the species. But why would a whale attack a ship? Perhaps this is due to a strong territorial instinct, which is based on sexual instinct. Of all the whales, only male sperm whales attack ships. It is also known that of all the large whales, only male sperm whales guard a harem and fight with rivals for the possession of females.

male (top) and female

And perhaps, when a “male ship” enters the territory of such a male, the sperm whale perceives this as a threat to its position and rushes to attack.

Some zoologists point out that among terrestrial animals such battles for territory are fought more often than for the possession of individual females. However, when it comes to the inhabitants of the limitless, three-dimensional water world, the question arises: what defines the territory here?

Perhaps the hooligan sperm whale attacks the ship only because he sees it as a rival, and the reason for his exaggerated jealousy is an overly heightened territorial instinct.

It is possible, of course, that the aggressor whales are really “mad”, that is, they were born defective or, in their whale fashion, “lost their minds” under some extraordinary circumstances...”

This is the opinion of a specialist, and it is up to the reader to agree or disagree with him. But the fact remains: sperm whales have more than once sent ships to the bottom, and not just whaling ones. And Herman Melville does not sin at all against the truth when he describes Moby Dick’s attack on the ship, which ended in the death of the latter along with the entire crew. Lev SKRYAGIN Fig. Roberta AVOTINA

You can also determine which whale breaks underwater by the fountain it emits. For example, a smooth whale has a two-jet fountain, a sei whale has a cone-shaped fountain. The fountain of the sperm whale and the humpback whale is pear-shaped, but in the first case it is inclined forward at an angle of 45°. Whale jumping out of the water is one of the most exciting spectacles in the animal world. “Emerging from the dark depths at extreme speed,” wrote G. Melvml in “Moby Dick,” “the sperm whale flies with all its weight high into the air and, churning up a whole mountain of dazzling foam, reveals its location to everyone within a radius of seven miles or more. The furious waves, torn to shreds, then seem to be his mane...” The execution of the jump begins with the whale, swimming more or less parallel to the surface of the water, picking up speed. It raises the tail fin and lifts its head upward, thereby changing the horizontal moment of movement to vertical. The whale jumps out of the water at an angle of up to 70° to the surface. He falls back into the water either on his belly (straight jump) or, most often, on his back (jump with a turn). This table, “The frequency of jumping and the roundness of a whale’s body,” was compiled by English zoologist Hal Wighead, whose article “Why Whales Jump” was published in the journal “In the World of Science” (No. 5, 1985). It follows from the table: the more rounded the outline of a whale, the more often it jumps. Roundness is measured by the ratio of the average mass of a body to the cube of its length. “Slender” whales are the least jumping, although from the point of view of hydrodynamics, the shape of their body is favorable for this activity. Apparently, round whales, unlike “slender” ones, are characterized by certain types of social activities that are accompanied by jumping, especially when the animals accumulate in traditional breeding grounds in winter. The jumping of whales is one of the ways they communicate with each other. ancestor kraken skeleton