The Thames Whale

Witness History

BBC

History, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 17 January 2019

⏱️ 11 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In January 2006, London was entranced by the appearance of a large bottlenose whale in the Thames – the first such sighting for more than a century. Large crowds gathered to watch the whale swimming in front of the Houses of Parliament and many of the city’s most famous landmarks. But the whale’s health began to deteriorate and a team of specialist divers were called in to try – unsuccessfully – to save its life. Simon Watts talks to Mark Stevens, the man who organised the rescue attempt.

PHOTO: The Thames Whale (Getty Images)

Transcript

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0:00.0	Choosing what to watch night after night the flicking through the endless
0:06.8	searching is a nightmare we want to help you on our brand new podcast off the
0:11.8	telly we share what we've been watching
0:14.0	Cladie Aide.
0:16.0	Load to games, loads of fun, loads of screaming.
0:19.0	Lovely. Off the telly with me Joanna Paige.
0:21.0	And me, Natalie Cassidy, so your evenings can be a little less
0:24.9	searching and a lot more auction listen on BBC Sounds.
0:29.2	Hello and thank you for downloading the podcast of the BBC World Service History Program
0:34.9	Witness with me Simon Watts.
0:37.6	Today we're going back to 2006 when the world was enthralled by the appearance of a large bottlenose whale in the river Thames in Central London.
0:48.0	Scotland Yard says officers were called to Jubilee Bridge over the Thames in London at just after 9 a.m.
0:54.4	when a number of people reported seeing a whale.
0:56.8	It's January 2006 and normally reserved Londoners
1:01.8	are about to go a little bit whale crazy.
1:05.0	The whale was first spotted by a commuter who thought they were hallucinating.
1:12.0	Later it was seen swimming past the London
1:15.0	eye and the Houses of Parliament.
1:17.0	I think it's quite exciting to see well in the Thames.
1:21.0	First there was no one over there and like five minutes later the word spread and
1:25.0	is just everyone's just turned up.
1:28.0	It's cool, they're pit to me of course.
	...

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