Nov. 8, 2002
Skeleton of sperm whale buried in ground to be unearthed, moved to sealed container for winter

The skeleton of the 48-foot sperm whale will be unearthed from its bed of straw and manure at the Shawmut landfill in New Bedford on Tuesday, Nov. 12, at 1 p.m. and moved to a sealed trailer where it will stay for the winter.

The carcass of the 45-ton whale was found beached June 7 on Nantucket and towed to New Bedford the next day so the process could begin to prepare the skeleton for exhibition at the New Bedford Whaling Museum.
Sperm whales made New Bedford the whaling capital of the world and one of America's wealthiest cities in the 1800s. Throughout the 1850s, fortunes were made and the city was built around the profits garnered from the huge stores of whale oil and the spermaceti that was found in the large heads or "cases" of sperm whales. The oil was used for lighting lamps and the spermaceti for candles in the era before electricity.

The skeleton will be lifted from the ground with assistance from N.C. Hudon Crane and Rigging and placed in a handcrafted wooden cradle in the trailer that will protect it during the winter.

It had been interred in a bed of straw and manure for three months to allow its bones to release the majority of their oil and to kill off any insect infestations.