Giant whale washed up on Cresswell beach
Sep 18 2008 by Dave Black, The Journal
Reader makes gory trip down memory lane
PETER Ennis spent eight years igniting enormous explosions as a shot firer in Howick Quarry in Northumberland.
But yesterday he relived his most bizarre blast – a 42-tonne sperm whale.
In October 1973, he was 33 and working as an explosives expert when he was called to the strangest job of his career.
A colossal sperm whale, 54ft long, was stranded on the beach at Seaton Point, near Boulmer in Northumberland.
It had been swimming near the coast for almost a week before becoming beached.
The Receiver of Wrecks at the time, David Anderson, ordered the blasting of the dead whale after a number of firms refused to take the meat for pet food.
Five-pound sticks of explosive were stuffed into the carcase to prepare it for the blast.
And such was the ferocity of the explosion that a 50kg chunk of the mammal was sent hurtling
towards police, Press and spectators who had gathered nearby. Now 68, Mr Ennis said: "It was some job. Chunks were flying through the air and there was blubber all over the rocks, which made it very slippy.
"It had been on the beach for some time and it was starting to smell. We were told to try to break up the rib cage so we could move it.
"I was quarry foreman at the time, and I was in charge of shot firing on the site.
"We used gelignite, which is an explosive used to fire the rock, and we had to use a chain saw to cut open the whale. It was big news at the time because of the size of it. They still had to end up cutting it into three parts.
"There was no other option really. It was so big, where else could you take it?"
The Journal was contacted after Mr Ennis spotted our Name the Year feature on the Time Out pages, which showed him and his colleague Ian Sample, of Embleton, preparing the whale.
Mr Ennis now lives in Fallodon Avenue, Shilbottle, near Alnwick, with his wife Muriel, 66.
Now a father of two and grandfather of three, he worked at the quarry between 1969 and 1977, but left because he felt the job was becoming too dangerous.
He said: "I was starting to pick up one or two major injuries.
"Let’s just say there’s nothing light in quarry work. I had one or two quite nasty accidents.
"But that was definitely the strangest job I have ever had to do. It was completely out of the ordinary. When I saw the photo in The Journal I couldn’t believe it."
