Canal has long carried big cargo, including a 75-ton whale and other ‘curiosities’
By Catherine Cooper, Orleans County Historian
“Illuminating Orleans” – Volume 4, No. 21
The Erie Canal has facilitated the transportation of a variety of cargo over the course of 200 years.
We have not one, but two occasions to marvel at the immutable principles of buoyancy and floatation this week.
The first, of course, was the announcement that a pedestrian bridge, manufactured in Italy and destined for the new Ralph Wilson Park in Buffalo will be conveyed along the Erie Canal on two 195-foot-long barges from the Hudson River Port of Coeymans to Buffalo.
Then, a collector in Massachusetts asked for information about this poster announcing:
“Large Whale on Exhibition in this Place on a Large Barge on the Canal.”
The colorful description reads:
“This Mammoth Whale is 65 feet long spanning 35 feet around the body and weighing 75 tons when captured. You must consider the monster size of this animal when his tongue weighed 3,500 pounds and made 120 gallons of oil.
“His lower jaw will seat 25 persons. His mouth has been fitted up as a reception room. A person six feet tall or a team of horses can stand between the monster’s jaws. We have seen 27 young ladies and their teacher in his mouth all at the same time. We have also seen 12 gentlemen seated in his mouth enjoying an oyster supper.
“His Whaleship has been on exhibition for over three years in the principal cities of seven states and viewed by thousands of astonished people. It is not only a wonderful site (sic), but instructive to men, women and children; an exhibition the most refined ladies and children can visit. The captain and his staff will instruct you in the different species and their many peculiar habits and how the whale is captured, showing you the ancient or modern weapons used to capture them. Come and see for yourself and if you find this is not a real whale, WE WILL CHEERFULLY REFUND YOUR MONEY.”
The poster was obviously designed for general distribution as specific details such as place and date are not included. At first glance, we wondered why this inquiry was directed to Orleans County, but a closer look shows what appears to be “Herald Print Albion” on the very last line and we gather that the exhibit is travelling by canal.
Traveling novelty shows were popular in the pre-television era. The mammoth whale exhibit was a feature of the 1880s and early 1890s, with over 8,000 Buffalo residents viewing it over a four-day period in 1881. Should you question the logistics of displaying a deceased whale over a long period of time, we discovered that the whales were embalmed.
Soon to celebrate its bicentennial, the Erie Canal was successful from the beginning because it provided faster access to markets. We tend to associate it mainly with the transportation of products such as wheat, apples, sandstone, etc. But it also facilitated the transportation of novelty cargo, entertainers and circuses.
Referring to the transportation of the pedestrian bridge, also a novelty cargo, destined for a place of entertainment, Carver Laraway, President and CEO of Carver Companies, the maritime management company overseeing the project, stated that “utilizing a vital piece of American history to transport a modern marvel is a testament to both innovation and tradition.” And to physics.
