Career
He was found days later in the stomach of that sperm whale, which was dead from constipation. The story originated in an anonymous article "Manitoba in a Whale"s Stomach / Rescue of a Modern Jonah" in page 8 of the August 22, 1891 issue of the Yarmouth Mercury newspaper of Great Yarmouth in England. The story as reported is that during a whaling expedition off the Falkland Islands, Bartley"s boat was attacked by the whale and he landed inside the whale"s mouth.
He survived the ordeal and was carved out of the stomach by his peers when they, not knowing he was inside, caught and began skinning the whale because of the hot weather which would have rotted the whale meat.
lieutenant was said that he was in the whale for 18 hours and it was also said that his skin had been bleached by the gastric juices, and that he was blind the rest of his life. He was, however, supposed to have returned to work within three weeks in some accounts.
He died 43 years later and his tombstone in Gloucester says "James Bartleya modern day Jonah" The French scientist De Parville published a report of the alleged incident in the Paris Journal des Débats in 1914.₪ More recently the facts have been carefully investigated by historian Edward Davis who pointed out many inconsistencies. The ship in the story is The Star of the East.
A British ship by the same name existed and sailed during the time in which the incident allegedly occurred and could have been near the Falklands at the right time, but the real "Star of the East" was not a whaling vessel and its crew list did not include a "James Bartley".
Moreover, Mistress John Killam, the wife of the Captain, wrote a letter stating that "there is not one word of truth in the whale story. The sailor has told a great sea yarn." Davis suggested that the story may have been inspired by the "Gorleston whale", a 30-foot rorqual killed near Great Yarmouth shortly before in June 1891 that generated a lot of publicity.
