Conserved skeleton is largest and most fragile artefact that people will see when the museum reopens
Specialist conservator Nigel Larkin completing the installation of a 40ft North Atlantic right whale skeleton in its newly reimagined setting at Hull Maritime Museum(Image: Joe Giddens/PA Wire)
A 119-year-old whale skeleton has returned to the Hull Maritime Museum before it reopens to visitors after six years and a £20m revamp. The 40ft specimen, made up of 168 individual bones, took five days to install in its new home in the refurbished Age of Sail gallery.
Conservator Nigel Larkin completed remounting the museum’s largest and most fragile artefact this week after it underwent extensive cleaning and conservation in time for the museum reopening in August. The whale was caught alongside its mother off the coast of New York in 1907 and belongs to a species that is now critically endangered, with fewer than 400 North Atlantic right whales believed to survive worldwide.
The species faces severe threats from ship strikes and entanglement in fishing gear. When the museum reopens, visitors will be able to crawl inside the whale’s rib cage through a tunnel.
After the museum closed for refurbishment in 2020, Mr Larkin dismantled its 168 bones and transported them to his Shropshire workshop for meticulous cleaning and conservation.
Councillor Mike Ross, leader of Hull City Council, said: “This is one of the most important and fragile objects in the museum’s collection, and it’s fantastic to see it return to its rightful place. The whale’s story will be told in new and exciting ways, helping visitors appreciate the significance of this species.”