ix months later, Davis returns to
Topsail to unearth the bones and bring
them to Raleigh on two flatbed trucks.
The bones are processed in Raleigh for
S
another year before they are ready to be assembled.
In the first bit of good fortune since the whale
washed ashore, Brimley procures the lower jaw of
a similar-sized sperm whale from the American
Museum of Natural History in New York, and
dental plaster is used to make fake teeth to fit both
jaws. The complete assembly of the whale takes six
weeks. About half of that time is spent on the skull,
which had to be broken into several pieces during
the cleaning process. In February 1930, almost
two full years after washing ashore, Trouble hangs
suspended from the ceiling.
“We have made a first class job of the whale,”
Brimley writes, “and it is attracting a great deal of
attention. The museum now boasts of three large
whale skeletons. A sperm whale, finback whale and
right whale, all from the North Carolina coast.”
Trouble has been moved several times since
then: twice for remodeling, once for cleaning
and once when the museum changed build-ings.
Today, a stylized image of Trouble, the
Wrightsville Beach whale, has become the museum’s mascot. T-shirts, mugs, key chains and other merchandise bearing the logo can
be purchased in the museum store. It appears Trouble has finally outlived its nickname.
Top: A portion of Trouble’s ribcage arrives in Raleigh on the back of a flatbed truck circa 1998, where it was further cleaned and assembled.
Above right: A letter from H.H. Brimley lists measurements taken of the whale and gives a brief breakdown of the time required for the
various processes for securing the whale skeleton. 60
WBM march 2013
PHOTOGRAPHY AND ARCHIVAL DOCUMENTS COURTESY OF NORTH CAROLINA MUSEUM OF NATURAL SCIENCES. FRAME GRAPHICS COURTESY OF TIGERS-STOCK.DEVIANTART.COM
Trouble at the museum