The Tay Whale, known locally as the Monster, was a humpback whale that swam into the Firth of Tay of eastern Scotland in 1883. It was harpooned in a hunt, but escaped, and was found floating dead off Stonehaven a week later. It was towed into Dundee by a showman, John Woods, and exhibited on a train tour of Scotland and England.
The anatomist John Struthers (at left, in top hat) with the Tay Whale at John Woods' yard, Dundee, 1884, photographed by George Washington Wilson
A contemporary engraving of the Tay Whale on the beach at Stonehaven in 1884
Image: Balenoptera musculus musculature, Struthers
Image: Megaptera Longimana 2
The first evidence for whaling in Scotland is from Bronze Age settlements where whalebones were used for constructing and decorating dwelling places. Commercial whaling started in the Middle Ages, and by the 1750s most Scottish ports were whaling, with the Edinburgh Whale-Fishing Company being founded in 1749. The last company still engaged in whaling was Christian Salvesen, which exited the industry in 1963.
Dundee Antarctic Whaling Expedition, 1892, by William Gordon Burn Murdoch.
John Struthers (at left, in top hat) with the Tay Whale at John Woods' yard, Dundee, 1884, photographed by George Washington Wilson.
Graving dock, North Harbour at Peterhead. The fine, granite-built, graving dock (dry dock) was built in 1855 to meet the needs of the large Greenland whaling ships. Today it is used for the repair of fishing vessels.
Huron Glacier and McFarlane Strait on Livingston Island, South Shetlands
