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This is a forgotten story, buried deep in memory. It is a story about a whale, which run into its own tragic death. It is also a story about the PengHu fishermen who live on and with the ocean.
In January, 1986, a whale run aground in JiBei Village due to unknown reason. When the villagers found it, they tried to save it by pulling it back to the ocean. However, all efforts came to be outweighed by the natural forces. This whale run aground the third time and died on this shore.
Meanwhile, mayor O visited the village and found this whale event rich with cultural values. He then asked the county staff to make the whale into a specimen for research and sightseeing.
According to Mr. Lin Jun Chung, an expert of Taiwan Provincial Museum , who supervised on the spot, this whale is a baleen whale (Balaenoplear Physalus), one kind of fin whales ( M ysticeti) . It was commonly known as the seaman. Its body was 13.32 meters long, 3.3 meters of the head, 1.3 meters of the rib, and 2.6 meters wide of the mouth. There were totally 51 backbones among more than 100 bones. It was perhaps a baby whale, about one year old and fed on plankton.
The project of the specimen of the whale was halted after the bones were washed, coded, and buried underground. However, since the culture park was under construction, in case that the skeleton of the whale could be smashed, it was resolved to excavate the skeleton by hand. Thus, lots of whale ribs and backbones were excavated. When all were collected and measured with the previous record, the skeleton turned out to be roughly in its complete form, only a small part was fractured due to long time of burial. The specimen was completed in mid December, 1990 under the supervision of Mr. Lin.
In order to provide the opportunity for people to see the largest whale specimen in Taiwan , Bureau of Culture of PengHu County has planned for an whale exhibition-a dialogue between the seaman and the fishermen. Other than this central exhibition, there are also other subsidiary displays, such as the whales and dolphins which visit PengHu , the PengHu ancient creatures-whales, elephants, and cattle, and the whale event and the PengHu people. We wish to provide a visual symposium for our people, and also to provoke the local people to contemplate the nature of ocean culture in PengHu as well as its past, presence, and future. |
| Bureau of Culture holds exhibition of PengHu Ancient Wreck in cooperation with the Cross-Strait Conference for Underwater Archaeology for people to take a look of the splendor of the excavation from General 1 around WangAn sea area. This exhibition displays the wreckage resulted from the 3 underwater excavations since 1995 lasting for 4 years, including pottery, white porcelain, blue-on-white Porcelain, cable and board, etc. One copper coin from Ching Dynasty was found among them, which proved that General 1 could be a merchantman shipping goods between FuJien and Taiwan . Besides, there were also found the bricks and roof tile used in construction in the county. Accordingly, there must have existed an intimate relationship between the merchantman and the local people.
In order to make the exhibition more lively and impressive, a model merchantman was created and displayed with the assistance of Wei ChingYang, a native expert of model fisherman, who engaged himself years with research into the fishermen of old days. This model ship bears much resemblance with simulation of General 1 and serves as an instance of the wreckage study. It is expected in the exhibition through representation of the wreckage and the trade history on the ocean to explore and investigate ocean culture particularly in PengHu . Also, we wish to offer an opportunity for people to think about the future prospect of the Wreckage Museum . Are we qualified to establish a Wreckage Museum with our own might? All the questions and prospects require the residents to think about and fulfill with. Your appreciation and comments serve as the first stride toward the beautiful prospect of the Wreckage Museum . Welcome everyone to envisage a Wreckage Museum of his or her own, as well as the museum belonging to residents of PengHu .
Welcome those who concern this subject to visit the museum and appreciate the PengHu anceint relic. Please leave your suggestions in the questionnaire. Stamp cards are available for you to take the sweet memory back home!
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