Author: Tricia Williamson, Digital Content Producer
Wrightsville Beach woke up on the morning of April 5, 1928, to a monstrous sight. A dead sperm whale had washed up on shore while the small town slept. Initially, the whale was met with fanfare and excitement. But getting it to its final resting place turned into a series of tricky tasks. Bad weather, transportation issues, and the lack of equipment needed to move the whale all combined to give Trouble the Whale its name.
The morning the whale was discovered, news quickly spread of the unusual sight. People came from all around to see the sperm whale. It is estimated that more than 50,000 people from at least six states visited the town to see Trouble.
The Wrightsville Beach mayor initially liked the attention his town was getting, but the whale soon became a nuisance. Before it washed ashore, the whale had already been dead a few days. After three more days lying on the beach, it posed a health risk. County health officials insisted the carcass be cleared, but how does one move a 55-ton animal off a beach?
The mayor asked the State Museum in Raleigh, now the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, if it wanted the specimen. Director H. H. Brimley saw an opportunity to educate the public and excitedly accepted the offer. Whale bones are commonplace in museums now, but back then, there were only five sets on display in the country.
After traveling to the beach and assessing the body, Brimley determined that it would take a week to strip the flesh from the bones and bury them for further flesh removal. This timeline didn’t sit well with officials. They wanted the oozing, decaying carcass off their shores immediately.
A marine towing company was hired to haul the carcass out to sea but, despite its best efforts, the whale didn’t budge. Strong storms moved in and hindered progress for three more days.
The towing company used the delay to figure out how to get the whale offshore. Meanwhile, Brimley found a beachfront property in Topsail Island that would allow him to complete his project.
Before Trouble was moved, Harry Davis, Brimley’s assistant, sawed off the lower jawbone. However, it disappeared before it could be transported off the beach. A sperm whale’s teeth are made of very valuable ivory, so the jaw could have been stolen. It's also possible the intense storms that delayed moving swept it away.
Eventually, the whale was rolled down the beach using cables around its body. Then it was towed north to the new work site. A few days later, Davis arrived to begin his work, but Trouble was nowhere to be found. The rope securing it to the shore was cut, and the whale had begun to drift out to sea. Fortunately, it was caught on a shoal just offshore. With no way to drag the whale back in, Davis set to work in hip-deep water. With the help of local fishermen, the bones were uncovered and cut away one by one, then brought to shore. The final step was to bury the bones in the sand to complete the flesh removal.
While working, Davis searched for a cause of death. A six-inch slit was found in the whale’s back, presumably from a whaler’s lance. No other obvious signs were found.
The bones were buried for six and a half months. Davis arrived with a fleet of vehicles to transport the bones back to Raleigh, but even that wasn’t an easy task. One of the trucks got stuck in the sand, requiring multiple attempts to free it. Eventually, the trucks were able to make the trip back to Raleigh. Brimley was waiting at the state fairgrounds with a custom-made box at the ready. The bones were reburied in clean, wet sand for another 10 months.
Although the flesh was not completely cleaned, the bones needed to be moved before the state fair in October. The staff attempted to dry them in natural air, but freezing temperatures forced them to store the bones in the museum. The bones were greasy, so they were washed with a weak solution of lye and ammonia, then rinsed and left to dry out.
Fun fact: The North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences still washes bones after it removes the flesh. Staff uses a much gentler soap now, though: the same one that doubles as a greasy duck cleaner.
In December 1929, the bones were finally ready to be assembled, but it also would prove to be an arduous task. With a local carpenter as his assistant, Brimley set to work assembling more than 100 bones. Carriage bolts ranging from two to 20 inches were used, and inch-wide drill bits bored holes through the bones. White pine was used to mimic vertebrae cartilage, and paper mâché hid the wires.
The skeleton’s mounting took six weeks, and Brimley faced the problem of a missing lower jaw. He bought a replacement from Dr. Robert Cushman Murray, a curator at the American Museum of Natural History. It was missing teeth, so new ones were fashioned from dental plaster reinforced with burlap.
In February 1930, Trouble the Whale was put on display. The skeleton hung from the trusses on the museum’s second floor. It stayed that way until a building renovation in the 1950s required its removal and rehanging. Trouble lived up to its name once again by being too long for the new room it was hung in. The tail stuck through a hole in the wall, and the jaw hung over a railing, allowing museum guests to touch the animal’s teeth.
In 1998 museum staff removed the bones and painstakingly cleaned them in preparation for a move to a new building. The bones were stored in a warehouse for two years before being installed in their current home: the Coastal North Carolina Hall in the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. Over time, some of the bones degraded. A large piece of the skull was replaced with a replica, and the original is stored behind the scenes.
Technology, weather, and the whale’s enormous size all contributed to giving Trouble the Whale its well-earned name. Brimley and his team had to use all their skills and perseverance to overcome roadblocks and complete the project. Their hard work lives on. The preservation that began nearly 100 years ago has allowed generations a chance to get up close and personal with a majestic animal that would rarely be seen otherwise.
Special thanks to Lisa Gatens, mammalogy collection manager and Margaret Cotrufo, library special collections manager, from the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences.