Jonah the whale travels inland

Jonah the whale in 1970 and 2006

By Steve Deput

Walking to work in the summer of 2000 I'd been struck by a vision of a huge whale I'd seen way back in the 60s in Barnsley and my home town Sheffield. Attempts to research this strange event went from bad to worse.

I could find nothing that had ever been written about this whale. No one wanted to know - libraries, local and national papers, radio stations you name it I tried it. Everyone just laughed or put the phone down. Even on the internet there wasn't one piece of evidence and anyone I emailed never replied.

Only when I posted my question on a Barnsley football Club website did I find a handful of people who'd had a vague dream of having seen a whale on Barnsley. But try as we might we found nothing - much to the amusement of most on the site who knew it couldn't be true.

I became obsessed. I left my job in London and toured the country asking my questions in pubs, on the street and in museums. Rather than ignore me or laugh down the phone people could do it in my face.

The breakthrough came with a call to the National Fairground Archive in Sheffield. Dr Vanessa Toulmin didn't laugh and as soon as I could journeyed to Sheffield. There in the fading pages of an old copy of 'The World's Fair' I found the proof.

Jonah was a 70ft, 70 ton finback whale (I originally thought it was a blue whale) caught off Trondheim, Norway in 1952. Originally examined then exhibited at Oslo University his organs were removed, lungs inflated and a refrigeration unit placed inside him before being loaded on a specially constructed 100ft trailer - at the time the biggest lorry in the world.

He was originally toured by the Norwegians to promote whaling (remember this was post-war Europe with a ruined economy) but he probably did far more to convince children who saw him that whaling should be stopped. Mounted on the lorry were also grisly reminders of death - the harpoon and other instruments employed in whaling. On a lighter note a dormouse in a glass case was placed on his nose as a demonstration of the world's largest and smallest mammals.

Steve Deput with the lorry which has carried Jonah

His 25 year overland voyage took him to just about every town in Europe, Japan and Africa. Hundreds of thousands, if not millions, saw him. Over the years he passed into the hands of circus owners and showmen and finally a Swiss business man. As an educational exhibit school classes were often allowed in for free and he came to Sheffield on several occasions in the 50s, 60s and 70s, being displayed on The Moor.

After writing a book The Barnsley Whale - the true story of the world's inland whale hunt published by Mainstream in 2003 I appeared on Home Truths with John Peel, BBC local radio and in the national press. I had many hundreds of responses from those who had seen the whale and who, like me had never been believed.

I'd proved Jonah really did exist but one big question remained. What happened to him in the end? Finding out any more was still hopeless. Despite all I'd done, people still regarded the whole thing as fiction - which is why my book ended up in many bookshops.

I couldn't really waste any more time and effort on whale hunting, remarking to my wife in 2005 that the only way anyone would ever take me seriously was if a whale swam up the Thames - and of course that was never going to happen.

Months later it did.

The 2006 story of the London Whale stranded in the Thames captured the world's imagination and set me back on my quest. I contacted just about every newspaper and TV and radio station I could. Predictably I was ignored. Yet one national newspaper took an interest and ran with my story. As it turned out that was all I needed.

In Budapest, Mike Austen, head of one of the UK's oldest circuses noticed the story and contacted me. In the 60s and 70s he'd actually driven the whale lorry around Europe. The next week I was at his home in Norfolk. He couldn't tell me how Jonah had met his fate… he went one better. Jonah still existed! He'd been kept in storage for the last 30 years in Holland and Belgium.

That December we set sail from Dover to Calais on the last leg of my six year whale hunt. Hours later we arrived at a warehouse on the Belgian/Dutch border. There in the yard was the same tarpaulin covered lorry I'd seen 40 years ago. Rolling back covers there lay Jonah as huge and awe-inspiring as I remembered.

Originally there were three on tour - Jonah, Hercules and Goliath. Hercules was disposed of in Spain when a circus went bust and Goliath simply disappeared. Jonah is the last of the great inland whales. What's more he was for sale and still capable of going on tour. For a moment of madness I considered buying him… but realised that as a writer I knew very little about the practicalities of touring a 70ft whale.

Jonah was bought by another showman and he's now back in the UK undergoing restoration. One day soon he may be back on the road and heading for South Yorkshire.