How it was brought to the Museum
Wexford man William Armstrong sold the whale skeleton to the Museum for £250.
It was more than double what he paid for the carcass.
It took a lot of wrangling and negotiation between Armstrong and the curators of 1891 before a final price was settled on.
Armstrong paid men to strip the carcass bare before it was sent to the Museum – causing the people who lived on the Irish coastline to complain about the stench of whale meat.
Once clean, the skeleton was shipped to the Museum, with its bones wrapped for protection.