Putting the Whales in Wales

Available for over a year

In this series of Essays writer Jon Gower explores the patches of sea water around Wales, sailing past Viking slave traders, soft crumbling coastlines, industrial scale smuggling, marathon chess matches between lighthouse keepers, ghost ships, whales and walruses along the way. For the country of Wales, surrounded on three sides by the sea, that sea has always been important – a trade route, a means to export ideas such as Christianity, or as a source of fish - especially herring, so many herring. In 'Putting the Whales in Wales', Jon tells the story of the arrival of American Quaker émigrés at Milford Haven to help the port with its burgeoning position in the whaling industry. He tries to reconcile a peaceable people with the brutal slaughter of these giants of the ocean. The trade carried on into the 20th century, with some boats in the channel processing whales like floating factories. We hear the unfortunate back story of Hope, the whale that hangs in the Natural History Museum. And the epic adventure of a rogue dummy whale that defied capture during the 1954 filming of Moby Dick with Gregory Peck. Produced by Megan Jones and Philippa Swallow.