October 1, 2026
A piece on www.australiangeographic.com, dated March 2, 2017 and written by Richard Woolveridge gives a fascinating account of James Bartley, 21, a sailor aboard the British vessel Star of the East. The year was 1891 when his crew, along with a sister boat, was whaling in the frigid waters off the Falkland Islands, about 300 miles east of Argentina. When a huge sperm whale was spotted, a seaman hit it with a harpoon. After taking a dive, the massive creature resurfaced, smashing one of the boats and scattering the sailors.
Amazingly, the whalers were still able to land the big fish. Unfortunately, two members of the crew were lost, Bartley being one of them. When they cut the fish open, “Out came a boot on a trousered leg and there was James Bartley…still living after 15 hours in the belly of a whale. Its digestive juices had permanently bleached his skin a deathly white, he lost his hair and was nearly blind. For two weeks he was delirious, and it was a month before he could tell how he’d fallen into the whale’s mouth, felt the huge teeth grate over him as he slid down into its throat, then stomach.”
The UK newspaper Great Yarmouth Mercury ran with the story on August 22 of that year. Dozens of other papers picked it up as well. The story continued to have life for decades, “right up until 1985, when the Sunday Mail even reported how Bartley had settled down as a cobbler in Gloucester, England.”
The problem is, none of this ever happened. Historians discovered that the Star of the East was not a whaler and James Bartley was not listed as a crew member. In addition, scientists concluded that a human couldn’t possibly survive in the stomach of a sperm whale for 15 hours. “For nearly 100 years, the media largely swallowed the whale of a story without once trying to interview or find a picture of Bartley.”
As you no doubt noted, in their effort to make things right, there’s one thing they got wrong. A person can live for 15 hours in the stomach of a big fish, three days and nights, in fact.
We know that from the Old Testament book of Jonah, a Galilean and first Hebrew missionary. It was in the mid-eighth century BC when God called Jonah east to Nineveh. Instead, he headed west, boarding a ship to Tarshish. When a storm threatened to sink the boat, the sailors threw the reluctant prophet overboard. God graciously sent a big fish to swallow Jonah and spit him out on dry ground.
Needless to say, when God called a second time, he went. And though Jonah wasn’t happy about it, he hit the streets and preached, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh will be overthrown” (Jonah 3:4 NASB). In one of the biggest revivals recorded in Scripture, over 120,000 Ninevites turned to God. Since space won’t allow me to go into great detail on the matter, I’ll conclude with five key principles from the bizarre and inspiring story.
God is merciful. Although the Ninevites were a wicked and worldly people, the Lord had compassion toward them and earnestly desired that they turn to Him. Although many choose the broad road of destruction, God wants everyone to be saved, “not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9, NASB).
We must overcome our prejudices. As a part of God’s chosen people, Jonah perceived these pagan Assyrians to be inferior and undeserving of God’s mercy. Have prejudices built a barrier between you and others?
God is all about second chances. Not only did God rescue Jonah from a watery grave, He also gave Him a second chance at ministry. Likewise, Jesus gave Peter a second chance. The one-time denier of Christ turned out to be a key leader in the early church and one of the biblical writers.
Anger is a debilitating emotion. Even after the Ninevites turned to God, Jonah was angry; so much so that he wanted to die. “Everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger, for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God” (James 1:19-20 NASB). There’s nothing that will steal your joy and quench the Spirit any faster than the possession and expression of anger.
It all points to Jesus. In fact, Jonah isn’t mentioned again until the Gospel of Matthew, where Jesus says: “Just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (12:40, NASB). And just like Jonah was released on dry land, Jesus was raised from the grave. And whereas around 120,000 were converted through Jonah’s ministry, billions throughout time have found salvation through the sacrificial blood of Jesus.
Have you found yourself in the belly of a big fish? Ask God to release, restore, and reroute you for His glory.
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Todd Gaddis is a semi-retired minister living in Athens. He continues to serve as an interim pastor and can be reached at jtoddgaddis@gmail.com.
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