The Story of the Fin Whale

The fin whale (Balaenoptera physalus) is the second largest mammal (Cetaceans) in the world (second only to the blue whale, Balaenoptera musculus, which can reach a length of more than 30 meters). The fin whale can be found in all worlds’ oceans and sometimes also in the Mediterranean Sea. Female fin whales are larger than males and can reach a maximum length of 24.5 m and a weight of 110 tones. It means that the skeleton on display in the National Museum in Prague is one of the largest specimens ever known to us, giving its story a whole new dimension.

The story will make ourselves briefly acquainted with Fridtjof Nansen, polar explorer, diplomat and politic, (1861–1930), later Nobel Peace Prize laureate.
Nansen studied zoology and in 1885, when the fin whale carcass was discovered by the Norwegian island of Lyngøy, he was working as a zoologist in the University Museum of Bergen. He hired a small steamship and brought the skeleton from Lyngøy to Bergen. It was also Nansen who supervised the preparation of the skeleton after he brought it to Bergen. Soon after, the artefact was ready to be advertised. It was offered for sale for 2,000 Reichsmark. Today, it would be approximately 200,000 Czech koruna.

We do not know how it happened, we only know that, at some point, the offer reached Prague, 1,300 km far away from Bergen. More specifically, it reached the pub U Gebauerů, in Pernštýn, Prague. At that time, the pub was frequently visited by twelve Prague citizens who were also founders of a charitable table company called Jour Fixe. Towards the end of 1887, the men agreed that they would raise money to buy the skeleton and give it away as a gift to the Museum of the Bohemian Kingdom, today’s National Museum at Wenceslaus Square to its newly constructed building.

And those men meant what they said. A few months later, on February 29, 1888, they already sent the first instalment of 800 (eight hundred) Reichmark to the Museum Director in Bergen. Soon after, more money was sent, spending altogether around 1,940 Reichsmark for the skeleton. Today it would be around 180,000 Czech koruna. Moreover, there were also significant amounts of money that the company had to pay for the transfer.

The fin whale skeleton was brought to Prague in the same year, in May 1888. As the museum’s building had not been ready yet, gentlemen from Jour Fixe decided to find some other place to put it on display. The company’s informal head, patron and industrialist, Vojta Náprstek, in October 1888, took the fin whale’s bones under his roof and exhibited it in his newly built Czech Industrial Museum at Betlémské náměstí in Prague, in the courtyard of his house called U Halánků.

The company started a big publicity campaign. To attract visitors, they created posters and published curious stories such as, how many pupils could get at once into the fin whale’s mouth or its rib cage.

Due to the room’s low ceilings, the forelimbs (the flippers) of the skeleton had to be hung unnaturally high, to put it out of reach of the all-touching hands of curious visitors. The bones of the flippers are quite delicate. During the 4 years when the skeleton was exhibited here, it made a net profit of 1,984.42 Reichsmark (today’s equivalent to 300,000 Czech koruna) to its owners. But as you would correctly guess, the gentlemen used it to fund other philanthropic projects.

There was even a farewell party to the skeleton before it permanently left U Halánků. The members of the Jour Fixe held it on May 26, 1892, and called it “The banquet in the whale”. They even created some humorous items especially for that occasion, for example, a special invitation with pictures of the whale from its past exhibition.

The skeleton eventually left. It must have been a happy day for Mrs. Náprstek because the oiliness of the bones caused a very unpleasant smell. Mrs. Náprstek personally supervised the cleaning and the packing of the bones before they were sent to the new building at Wenceslaus Square.

Before moving the bones to the National Museum, they were cleaned thoroughly again to make sure that they wouldn‘t bring the unpleasant smell to their new home.
The larger bones were first de-oiled by steam in Havelka & Mesz machinery plant in Karlín, Prague, and then, in spring 1892, the skeleton was finally assembled by Václav Frič’s firm in the very same room where it has been displayed since then. The process of leaching oil from the bones went on until mid ‘60s when the skeleton underwent a general restoration and a new de-oiling.

Originally, Václav Frič wanted to hang the skeleton up in the ceiling already in 1892. However, his idea was not accepted by the architect and the builder, Josef Schultz, and thus the skeleton was placed upon a metal support scaffolding, on which it was still placed when the German Army was bombing the museum in May 1945.

However, as the space around and underneath the skeleton was getting crowded with other specimens and display cases, the fin whale skeleton was gradually losing its position of centre stage.

It was not until 1967, during the restoration of the zoological exposition, that the skeleton was hung up in the ceiling.

All parts of the support scaffolding were cut down and removed, except of one segment of it that has been preserved as a reminder, in the frontal part of the skeleton‘s rib cage.

From 2015 to 2019, during the reconstruction of the Historical Building of the National Museum, the skeleton was covered up with a protective fabric and a house-like construction in order to protect it from any damage. It comes as no surprise that the largest collection item owned by the Museum, after having spent almost 130 years in one place, is now extremely brittle.

The fin whale skeleton and two stuffed animals, an elephant and a giraffe, were the only collection items that were left in the building during the restoration works so they could check, together, on the whole process.
Currently, there is a restoration work being done on the skeleton itself. All of its bones are being meticulously restored by specialists, for us to admire them for many years to come.