Pier with whale skeleton, circa 1900 (Boscombe Pier, Boscombe Spa, Bournemouth, Dorset)

During the cold winter night of Tuesday January 5th 1897, a passing merchant ship struck an unfortunate blue whale just off the sandy shores of Bournemouth. Over the next couple of days, the ebbing tides brought the creature to rest on the beach East of Boscombe Pier. At 70ft long and weighing over 40 tonnes, the animal quickly drew an excited crowd. The Coastguard, acting as an agent for Her Majesty’s Receiver of Wrecks, auctioned it off to a local man for £27 who wanted to display its bones. The whale skeleton was eventually displayed on the pier, on a specially constructed support, as an attraction for visitors and tourists. The carcass of the 65-foot mammal, thought to be that of a blue whale, attracted crowds until 1904.