Standing in this gallery, you can’t miss the large skeleton hanging from the ceiling. This is the Famous Tay Whale, recognized - along with the wider whaling collection - as being of national significance. The skeleton is a male sub-adult Humpback Whale that swam into the Firth of Tay during the winter of 1883. There was an unusually large number of small fish in the area at that time, and the whale entered the Tay estuary to take advantage of the available prey. However, the hunter soon became the hunted! In this period, Dundee was the most successful whaling town in Scotland. During the winter months – when the whale arrived in the Firth of Tay - local whalers were unable to travel to the hunting waters in the Arctic. They were perfectly positioned to take advantage of a whale on their doorstep. The whale was harpooned, but managed to get away. It was found dead near the Aberdeenshire coast, early in 1884. The whale was retrieved by a local Dundee merchant, who charged a fee to members of the public to see this extraordinary animal. After a tour of Britain, the whale was donated to this museum. For the next stop on your tour, please find the jute display at the back of the gallery underneath the rib cage of the whale skeleton.