The hanging whales in Dublin's dead zoo are now delicately disassembled in preparation of the upcoming renovation of the Natural History Museum. The task of dismantling the skeletons proved to be not as easy as many think as it is like solving a puzzle without the user's guide, says Nigel Monaghan who is assigned as keeper of the skeletons in the museum.
"It's a little bit like working with a jigsaw, but without a box and a nice picture on the front," he added.
The Natural History Museum has been in business since 1856 and disassembling the two skeletons of whales is just the first part of the $18-million (15 million euros) renovation project.
Saving the Whales
The boxy museum located beside the office of the prime minister in the city center has many issues. The museum has no elevators for easier access for disabled individuals, there are no fire exits, and has poor insulation.
But experts see that the biggest hurdle for the major works planned for the glass and metalwork in the museum is that it serves as a hanging bracket for the museum's two prize possessions.
One of these skeletons is the 65-foot fin whale, considered to be the second-largest species in the world next to the blue whale, which was hanged in the museum since the late 19th century after it came to Ireland in 1851.
The second whale skeleton is smaller but impressively long, which is the 29-foot humpback whale that was hanged in the museum in 1909. According to some narrative in 1893, the animal came ashore at Enniscrone, County Sligo and was lashing the water furiously with its tail while spouting water from its blow hole.
The museum staff has made a makeshift wooden scaffolding beneath the lower humpback rigged with a two-ton capacity crane and an elaborate system of wires and pulley.
Aside from these two whale skeletons, the other preserved and taxidermied species in the museum have also been mothballed as the work is carried out. For instance, a hippo's head is braced with packing paper, and then the rust-colored skeletons were also boxed inside wooden frames, while a solitary tusk lies on a foam pad and hulking.
Read Also: 6 Bottleneck Whales Dead in Largest Live Stranding in the History of Ireland
Dismantling a Whale is a Specialist's Task
The leviathan task of disassembling the skeletons was given to two hired specialists because of the complexity of the job. They are from the Netherlands, and since the pandemic still continues, the Dutch visitors perform their task with monastic dedication traveling between the museum and their accommodation, while being fed by their Irish hosts to limit their contact to other people.
The renovation project will take about three months to complete although the Dutch experts will fly home when the scaffolding is towered up to reach the second skeleton.Disassembling the whale skeletons take hours of strategizing and meticulous tinkering followed by minutes of high-stakes activity. It is like a puzzle, but the opposite happens as it only gets harder once the job is completed.
The center of gravity changes as they remove one portion of the skeleton which threatens to send the whole skeleton to crumble and lunging uncontrollably to open air.
They make sure to bind the left fin from the body of the humpback in elaborate knots and hooked to a slow crane as they slowly lower the skeleton to the arms of the workers.
The staff had to raise their voice in the usually hushed museum as they do their work in pulling to the right before control is regained and is successfully lowered onto a foam mat.
That marks the successful retrieval of the first whale skeleton hanging from the museum with a total of 170 bones. The second one will be disassembled after the scaffolding is done.
Read More: Rare Whales That Were Hunted Almost to Extinction Survived Under the Arctic Ice
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