The Malm whale preserved at the Gothenburg Museum of Natural History is the only stuffed blue whale in the world and one of the strangest tourist attractions in Europe.
Scandal that closed the whale’s jaws
About 100 years ago, a young Swedish couple ruined everything for the ages. They were caught making love inside the belly of this 16-meter-long marine mammal. Although modern Scandinavia is known for its freedom, the scandal at the time forced the museum management to close the huge whale jaws, thus ending the era of free visits. The museum director even joked that at least this “privilege” was reserved for the citizens of their own city, according to “The Mirror”.
Today, the whale is opened only on special occasions, such as election days. This is done because of a Swedish wordplay: the word “voice” (val) in Swedish is the same as the word “whale” (val). The whale also “comes alive” at Christmas, when Santa Claus distributes gifts from its belly.
The inside of the whale resembles a small village hall more than the refuge of the prophet Jonah. The organs were removed long ago and are preserved in ethanol barrels in the museum basement, and their place in the belly was taken by two wooden benches and simple draperies.
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Drank beer and cut pork
Blue whales today are among the most beloved animals – mysterious, elegant, and massive. As Sir David Attenborough stated, it is the largest animal ever to have lived on our planet, even bigger than the largest dinosaurs. Its tongue weighs as much as an elephant, its heart is the size of a car, and its blood vessels are so wide that one could swim through them. After decades of commercial hunting, their population is recovering: from 5,000 individuals it has grown to 25,000 (although before the whaling era there were about 300,000).
However, in October 1865, when the fisherman brothers found a whale stranded on the coast, the attitude was different. The animal was killed and brought by steamships to Gothenburg, where it was purchased by naturalist Augustus Malm. He set out to stuff the entire giant.
The work was titanic: dozens of butchers, heavily drinking beer to endure the terrible smell, cut the carcass, removed the organs and skeleton. Augustus treated the skin and whiskers with arsenic and mercuric chloride, then attached everything to a wooden frame using 30,000 zinc and copper nails. The structure was made in four parts to facilitate transport. Even after so many years, the exhibit retained its distinctive smell and remains the main attraction of the museum.
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