This Week in History: 1936: The 'largest sea mammal ever captured' comes to Pender Street - Supply Chain Council of European Union

When Colossus the whale appeared in a town the promoter handed out photos for newspapers to use, like this one from the May 22,1936 Vancouver News-Herald. For John Mackie [PNG Merlin Archive] — Another Colossus photo that ran in the Vancouver News-Herald during his 10 day run here, /PNG

But a quick search on newspapers.com shows this was probably nonsense. Barnett was escorting a whale named Colossus around North America as far back as March 23, 1930, when the Knoxville Journal had a story about the attraction.

The last mention of Colossus was in the Pensacola News Journal in Florida on Nov. 1, 1943, when “the largest sea mammal ever captured” was co-billed with Stella the Mermaid, Popeye the Sailor Man, and a giant octopus.

This may mean poor old Colossus was shuffled around North America for 14 years. Then again, a book on California’s Whaling Coast said the Pacific Whaling Company sent several whales on exhibition across the continent, escorted by whaling “Captains” like “Oil Can Gus” Folger, “Whalebone Lew” Nichols and “Barnacle Bill” Lambert. So there may have been several whales who were called Colossus.

In any event, they used the same illustration in Pensacola in 1943 as they used in Vancouver in 1936. If it ain’t broke, why fix it?

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