The year is 1970 and a 45-foot sperm whale has washed up onto the beach of Florence, Oregon, USA.
Officials in the town don’t want a rotting carcass stinking up the neighbourhood, so they put their heads together and discuss what to do.
What happened next has been used as a cautionary tale nearly 50 years later by Doncaster Council to teach the public at least three lessons about coronavirus prevention.
Whales have been known to take years to fully decompose and Christmas was round the corner, so officials in the town needed to act quickly to stop the smell of rancid whale flesh wafting into families dining rooms and spoiling their dinner.
An alternative to letting it decay naturally would have been to chop it up into pieces and bury them, but that wouldn’t be the most pleasant of jobs even for those with the strongest stomachs.
So of course the logical conclusion was for them to blow the whale to smithereens using a lot of explosives in the hope that seagulls would eat the remains.
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Tasked with organising the detonation, engineer George Thornton admitted on TV he wasn’t sure how much dynamite would be needed.
He ignored the advice of an ex-member of the military who said a few sticks would do the trick and decided to use half a tonne.
On November 12 a crowd of spectators watched the whale explode. Almost immediately afterwards the people of Florence realised they had made a terrible mistake.
Recalling the tale on Twitter, Doncaster Council said: ‘The huge amount of dynamite sent massive chunks of blubber flying through the chilly air, and it rained down around the terrified onlookers.
‘To cap everything off, the main bit of the whale stayed exactly where it had been.
‘The problem hadn’t gone away, only now there were thousands of bits of problem spread for miles around.’
If you’re wondering what any of this has to do with coronavirus, Doncaster City Council has highlighted three very important lessons.
Doncaster Council’s communications team was heaped with praise for using the tale to teach a serious lesson about the world’s current health crisis.
Some said 10 Downing Street could learn a thing or two from them about how to get the public’s attention.
Even Carol Voderman showed her appreciation.
One Twitter user said: ‘I don’t live in Doncaster and don’t know anyone who does, and have no real need of civic updates from your lovely town.
‘I am following you anyway for whale-related history and more. Long live Doncaster Council.’
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