48 The Essex Naturalist
two calves. Some men slit the body open and delivered the young ones, one
living about 20 minutes and the other only a very short time. During the night
one was stolen, but one remained on exhibition with its mother. It measured
17ft. 9in. (5.41m) with a girth of 7feet. (2.13m)." (Anon, 1899).
Date Location Sex Length Ref
1849 Grays ? 17.68m Laver
12/2/1891 Holliwell Point F 14.17m Laver
27/11/1899 Barking Creek F 20.29m Anon
30/9/1962 Brightlingsea ? 12.50m FCF
28/10/1995 Foulness ? 20.42m Southend Museum
Sei whale (Balaenoptera borealis) Lesson
The sei whale has stranded on three occasions, but only once during the last
century. Two further individuals that were present in the Thames stranded at
Hope Reach: the first near Gravesend in 1859 and the second in the Medway on
30th August 1888.
Date Location Sex Length Ref
1/11/1883 Creeksea M 8.83m Laver
19/10/1887 Tilbury M 10.77m Laver
12/9/1948 Little Holland ? 4.88m FCF
Minke whale (Balaenoptera acutorostrata) Lacepede
This, the smallest rorqual, has been stranded on two occasions.
Date Location Sex Length Ref
2/9/1900 Steeple F 5.08m Fitch
28/10/1996 Purfleet ? 4.65m Southend Museum
Narwhal (Monodon monoceros) L.
This exceptional record was only the fifth for the United Kingdom.
Date Location Sex Length Ref
17/2/1949 Rainham ? 3.94m FCF
Northern bottlenose whale (Hyperoodon ampullatus) Forster
The largest of the British beaked whales, the northern bottlenose whale occurs
mainly in deeper waters off the west coast of Britain and Ireland: however, the
species may be declining as there have been fewer strandings in recent years. A
school of whales was apparently present in Essex offshore waters in the summer
of 1939 and an unidentified odontocete, stranded at East Mersea on 7th August
of that year and measuring 5.49m, may have been of the same species. Another