In history, only one case was recorded when a person was swallowed by a whale and visited his womb. We will tell about the fate of this poor fellow at the end of our article. Now, let's take a look, shall we? purely theoretically, the possibility of this situation.

Have you ever wondered what would happen if you were swallowed by a whale. Maybe it didn’t even cross your mind, but there are people who are quite seriously puzzled by this issue. These situations are extremely rare, but if this does happen, then you will not envy.

Once inside the whale, you will suffocate, surrounded by water. Small fish and plankton swim inside. Let the whale be a massive animal, but its throat is small, only the size of a grapefruit.

But digestion is still a long way off. You just got inside. But, gradually, the water becomes less and it completely disappears. You were delighted, but it wasn’t there. The worst is ahead of you. Around the darkness and darkness, barely visible. Of course, you are very scared, but do not lose your head!

But, closer to the point. The water has receded and you are immersed in an incomprehensible nasty slurry. This is very bad because you are caught in acid. There are two ways to develop further events.

First: You passed out and plunged headlong into the acid. The pigment of your skin is completely destroyed. Even if you can get out of there, you will be bald and pale from loss of pigment. But, unfortunately, you still won't get out on your own. You are unconscious due to lack of air.

In the second option, you remain conscious, but you will feel dizzy and the whale will not swallow you anyway, since its throat is only a few centimeters. You just won't get there, no matter how hard you try. All you have left is hope for the best.

Even if you free yourself from the shackles of this huge animal, you find yourself in the middle of the ocean and there is no chance that someone will pick you up.

Based on logical considerations, we must frankly admit that in such a situation certain death awaits you.

Watch the video on the second page

And now let's return to the case when the whale swallowed the whaler and check how real our theoretical thoughts about whether it is possible to survive.

The only whale that can swallow you is the sperm whale. Only he has a throat with the right size.

So. The man who was swallowed by the whale was able to escape. But, this is only due to the fact that during the incident there were people nearby who did not leave him in trouble. Colleagues of this man were able to track down and killed the whale, and then climbed for a friend.

It was found in the whale's esophagus, unconscious and pale as a toadstool. This man survived, but he became completely bald and, due to the loss of skin pigment, remained pale for the rest of his life. The work had to be abandoned, but he continued to earn a living by demonstrating himself as an exhibit that had been in the esophagus of a live whale.

It is quite possible that there were other sad stories like this, but people found themselves face to face with a huge sea animal and did not have the slightest chance of salvation. But, this is just our guess.

This video has been viewed by over one and a half million people. Apparently, the question of the possibility of being swallowed by a whale worries many!

Even if you do not have such a problem, we advise you to watch this interesting video anyway, it is worth your attention!

In the Bible, in the Old Testament, the sea creature that swallowed Jonah is called the word "lag", which means "big fish" or "monster of the deep sea" in translation.

Interestingly, out of 75 species and 39 genera of cetaceans, only a few genera can stand up for those who claim that a whale cannot swallow a person. These whales reach 18-20 meters in length. But, despite their size, they have a very small throat.

There is also another type of whale - "bottle-nose" or "beaked". These are small whales, up to 9 meters. They have a rather large throat and could easily swallow a person.

But these whales chew their food, so this excludes Jonah being in the womb in a whole state.

Now consider the kinds of whales that could have swallowed the prophet. They do not have teeth, but are equipped with a whalebone.

Fin whales attract particular attention. They reach a length of 26 meters, their stomach has 4-6 chambers, and in any of them a small group of people could freely fit. These whales breathe air, so they have a small air chamber in their head, which is an extension of their nasal cavities. Before swallowing an object, the whale pushes it into this chamber. If the object is too large, the whale swims in shallow water, closer to the shore, and throws out the burden.

Dr. Ranson Harvey said that his friend weighing 80 kg. crawled through the mouth of a dead whale into the air cell, and a dog that had fallen overboard from a whaling ship was found alive six days later in the air cell of a dead whale. From what has been said, it is clear that Jonah could stay "in the womb", that is, in the air chamber of such a whale, for three days and three nights, remaining alive.

An interesting discovery by Frank Bullen, the famous author of the work "Swimming the Sperm Whale", found that sperm whales often vomit the contents of their stomach before death. Thus, Jonah could not only be swallowed, but also vomited out by the whale.

There is also a version that the prophet could well have ended up in the stomach of other marine life, for example, a whale or bone shark. The fish got its name because it has no teeth. The whale shark reaches 21 meters.

She strains food through large plates (whiskers) in her mouth and has a stomach quite large enough to fit a person.

The Literary Digest once wrote that a sailor was swallowed by a whale shark. After 48 hours, this fish was killed. When it was opened, then what was the surprise of all those gathered when the swallowed sailor was found alive, only in an unconscious state. Moreover, he did not have any serious injuries, except for hair loss and several blisters on the skin.

Another case is known that occurred in the Hawaiian Islands. Japanese fishermen caught a great white shark. A complete human skeleton was found in her stomach. It turned out that it was a soldier on the list of deserters in the clothes of the model of the North American army.


Whaling, before mechanization, was associated with increased risk, largely due to the fact that wounded sperm whales, becoming enraged, attacked the boats with whalers, and often the whaling ships themselves. The strength of a sperm whale, even a wounded one, is enough to smash the boat in a retaliatory attack with one blow of the head or tail. On the account of sperm whales, therefore, many lives of sailors-whalers. Therefore, the extraction of sperm whales was considered among the whalers as a particularly difficult and dangerous occupation. As one of the sperm whale hunters recalled,

To kill a harpooned sperm whale - if it can be done at all - sometimes takes only ten minutes, and sometimes a whole day, if not more. In general, the advantage is still on the side of the whaler, but nevertheless, as long as the object of persecution is alive, one can never say in advance who will go to the other world - the crew of the boat or the whale.

In the past, individual sperm whales were known among whalers who killed many sailors. They were even given names, and the whalers themselves knew these sperm whales, treated them with respect and tried not to touch them. One of the most famous of these sperm whales was a huge old male named Timor Jack, about whom there were legends that he allegedly wrecked every boat sent against him. There were also sperm whales named New Zealand Jack, Pity Tom, Don Miguel and others.

In 1820, an enraged sperm whale hit the American 230-ton whaling ship Essex twice with its head and sank it. The crew of the Essex managed to escape and land on the island, but people suffered incredible hardships, as a result of which only 8 out of 21 sailors survived.

The second reliable case of the death of a whaling ship occurred in 1851 - a sperm whale sank the American whaler "Ann Alexander" off the Galapagos Islands, and this happened very close to the place where the Essex was sunk. Before attacking the ship, the sperm whale managed to break two boats. Fortunately, there were no casualties, as the crew was rescued two days later. The whale that sent this ship to the bottom was later killed by another whaler. Two harpoons belonging to the crew of the Ann Alexander were found in the carcass of a sperm whale.

Ingestion of humans by sperm whale

The sperm whale is the only whale whose throat theoretically allows you to swallow a person whole without chewing (and, generally speaking, the only animal capable of doing this). However, despite the large number of deaths when hunting for sperm whales, these whales, apparently, exceptionally rarely swallowed people who fell into the water. The only relatively reliable case (it is even documented by the British Admiralty) occurred in 1891 off the Falkland Islands, and even in this case, many doubtful moments remain. A sperm whale crashed a boat from the British whaling schooner Zvezda Vostok, one sailor died while the other, harpooner James Bartley, went missing and was also presumed dead. The sperm whale that sank the boat was killed a few hours later; butchering his carcass continued all night. By morning, the whalers, having reached the insides of the whale, found James Bartley, who was unconscious, in his stomach.

History of James Bartley.

It was his first voyage in 1891 aboard the Star of the East. When a whale was sighted half a mile from the ship, young Bartley jumped into the boat with other whalers and the whale chase began.
They crept so close from behind that the harpooner leaned over and thrust the weapon deep into the whale, hitting the vital organs. The whale began to thrash, and the crew frantically paddled away from the whale as it rampaged. Then the whale began to dive, there was silence and everyone was waiting to see where the whale would come up.

The rowers prepared to defend themselves. How, without warning, the whale split the barge with its head and began to snap its jaw at the men and beat wildly. The water turned into bloody foam. Another longboat picked up the survivors, but two were lost.

Shortly before sunset, a dead whale surfaced a few hundred yards from the ship. Having dragged onto the ship, the sailors began to butcher the carcass, and were very surprised to find the lost Bartley in the stomach. He was alive, but unconscious.

As a result, he spent 15 hours in the whale's stomach, Bartley lost all the hair on his body and lost his sight. His skin lost its pigment and remained white for the rest of his days.

More James Bartley did not go to sea, settled on the banks of the river and made a living by telling the story of how he was in the stomach of a whale. He died at the age of 18.

Can a whale swallow a person, and what will happen to him then? Video

It is better not to swim in a school of fish - you may be swallowed by a whale!

The fact that a whale swallowed a man described in a newspaper

1896, November 26 issue of The New York Times. The article mentioned an incident off the coast of the Malvinas Islands, where a whaler ship, the Star of the East, attacked a huge sperm whale. The animal, with a wave of its tail, sent one of the crew members, James Bartley, overboard. The sailors were sure that the poor fellow drowned. After two hours of chasing and hunting, the whalers managed to catch this sperm whale. After gutting the whale, James Bartley was found in his peritoneum, unconscious, but showing signs of life. The sailor was in the stomach of the sperm whale for 16 hours.

Can a whale swallow a person, what does science think about this?

The Englishman Ambrose Wilson, a professor of zoology, spoke about this and noted that a person can be swallowed by a whale and even survive after that. It all depends on the type of animal and the time spent in the digestive tract.

The baleen whale is not able to swallow a person, because it only eats plankton, and cannot swallow something larger than the size of a large orange. But the sperm whale is a completely different matter. The zoologist cited the example of an incident that occurred in 1771, when a whaler's boat was broken in two by a huge sperm whale. Having thrown the sailors into the water, the animal swallowed one of them, and after a few minutes spat it back out. The sailor survived and did not even receive serious injuries, but only minor scratches all over his body.

Almost four years have passed since our trip to Mauritius, where we allegedly dived with sperm whales. And all these four years I shamelessly lied! All this time I fantasized, slobberingly describing what wonderful meetings they were, what sperm whales are smart and kind. (). And many people naively believed, rejoiced for us and even began to dream that they would experience such a meeting in their lives.
But there were always people who were very skeptical about my stories and who said something like this: "sperm whales, they are predators, how could you swim with them, because then they immediately ate you!" or "well, you are inventors! You should also tell that you can swim with sharks!". And hearing the story of how my eleven-year-old son scratched the sperm whale by the belly, many people didn’t say anything, but it was clear that they could hardly restrain the desire to twist their index finger at the temple, and they probably thought to themselves, “Well, I completely lied, Munchausen is fucking !".
So, I scoured the Internet and understood why people are so skeptical about my stories about sperm whales. And everything that I wrote about them is a shameless lie, and my photos, where freedivers swim next to them, are naked photoshop!
It's time to reveal the whole truth about these huge predatory creatures and their danger to people. To do this, I will publish the information found on the Internet, and in order to add sharpness to perception, I will dilute this chilling truth with my B&W pictures.

Danger!!!
“In exceptional cases, sperm whales attack people, although they can swallow an adult whole. A case is described when sperm whale hunters managed to catch one very large specimen, in the belly of which three almost digested corpses were found.

Ingestion of humans by sperm whale
"The sperm whale is the only whale whose throat theoretically allows you to swallow a person whole without chewing (and, generally speaking, the only animal capable of doing this). However, despite the large number of deaths when hunting sperm whales, these whales, apparently , extremely rarely swallowed people who fell into the water. The only relatively reliable case (it is even documented by the British Admiralty) occurred off the Falkland Islands in 1891. A sperm whale crashed a boat from the British whaling schooner Star of the East, one sailor died, and the other, harpooner James Bartley, was missing and was also presumed dead.The sperm whale, which sank the boat, was killed a few hours later, butchering his carcass continued all night.By morning, the whalers, having reached the insides of the whale, found James Bartley, who was unconscious, in his stomach Bartley survived, though not without health consequences: the hair on his head fell out and his skin lost its pigment and remained white as paper. Bartley had to leave whaling, but he was able to make good money showing himself at fairs as a man who had been in the belly of a whale like the biblical Jonah.

"The sperm whale does not chew food, it can only tear into pieces very large prey in order to swallow it. It swallows all the little things (up to an eighteen-meter mollusk) whole. Now do you understand what a man is for a sperm whale? More than nine times smaller than that same mollusk !

By the way, it will be recalled here the story when the Schooner "Star of the East" caught a sperm whale, and ripping open its "belly" found three human skeletons there, whole and unharmed. It is terrible to think about what these three unfortunate people experienced, and what kind of death they had ...

But after all, sperm whales never attack people, you boldly object. And you will be one hundred percent right. So what is the danger? And the danger lies in the nervous system of this cute giant. The nervous system of the sperm whale is extremely unsteady, it is very easy to frighten it with the usual clapping of oars on the water. And now, already scared to death, the sperm whale is dangerous in its fear. It is because of fear that a sperm whale can swallow a person, his boat, sink a five-ton ship ... "