I thought the whale's penis was on the bottom of the animal... If it is then why is the whale floating on it's back?

Whales can swim on their backs. If you look up mating, you should be able to see something about it - they have a whole elaborate twisting movement to it.

here are a couple of pics of Shamu getting a belly rub from a trainer and getting a bit ummm, excited. (also illustrates Winona's points to a certain degree)

http://users.rowan.edu/~kurnc89/SHAMU.HTML

Seeing as how Shamu is a member (pun not intended)of one of the smaller species of whales, logic dictates that something along the lines of a grey or blue whale would be sporting something of sea serpent proportions.

Maybe I'm a little slow, but I'm not quite getting this.
Is Dr. Paxton saying all these people saw erect whale penises *without* whales attached to them?
And, all right, whales can float on their backs, but they usually and normally swim belly-down, don't they?
Wouldn't be a simpler and more likely explanation to say that sea serpent legends came from sightings of serpent-like creatures, such as sea snakes, moray eels, or even giant squids?

Wow. I guess that makes "Beany and Cecil" the filthiest TV show I've ever seen.

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HAHAHAHAHA!

Hey, Chuck, where'd you get those pics from?

HAHAHAHAHA! WHALE PENISES! So I guess that means that the Ogopogo and Nessie must just be genitals then!

Given that the average whale wang isn't *that* big, and as pointed out, is usually attatched to the whale, it's more likely that sea serpent sitings are somethign else.

My personal theory is giant squid. Dead ones, since they're deep-sea critters, but a stray tentacle could easily be mistaken for a giant snake-thing in the water, even if it won't do the 'head rearing up' thing that is usually portrayed.

Some of the images there might explain it... but I doubt it.

sorry about that link... I can't change the post and I meant to have this one
http://www24.big.or.jp/~kyusoku/w_grey.htm

"Nessie the Loch Ness Whale Penis" just doesn't have the same ring to it...

...and opens up new questions...

...but it would be a great name for a band.

Well, as Lyn notes, some of those pictures show whale willies sticking out of the water, but in all of them they appear to be very clearly attached to whales, not monsters in their own right.

I never sat on Ari's "Christina"'s bar stool, but they're apparently of simmilar construct.

Has anyone ever seen Ambroise Pare's drawings of the "monk fish" and the "pope fish"? Those look like they could've easily been based on whale dongs. Still doesn't explain what whale boners were doing floating around sans whale, though.

(too many similar letters: 'm's)

Mmmm, whale willies - blech.

Yes, but that is sort of what does it. Think, for instance, that if that was just the head sticking out the of water, the rest of the body would have to be below, and someone uneducated might think 'sea monster!"

funny as that is.

For an explanation of sea serpents, this has the ring of authentic bullshit. However, the Grauniad article say that the reference was not to a sea serpent but to '[an] animal [with] a serpent-like tail that appeared out of the water when the rest of the beast had disappeared.' In other words, the claim is not that he saw just a penis (which is very unlikely) but that seeing the penis and mistaking it for a tail led him to mis-identify the whate as something else.

Incidentally, I don't think a giant moray is a probable candidate - they're not bit enough and usually hang out in holes. I'm pretty sure that you wouldn't see one when out at sea, too, though I suppose that some stories could have originated with pearl divers.

My guess is that sea serpents, etc, were pretty much made out of whole cloth, maybe with a bit of fear-, malnutrition-, and thirst-induced hallucination thrown in.

I can totally understand this, people mistake mine for a serpent all the time.
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Carmen, kinda ashamed to admit it but did a google image search with the keywords Whale Penis and surprisingly enough the returns generally involved whale penis' and not some nasty porn.

Thats why I shouldn't go skinney dipping....

I assumed the guy was talking about whale penises still attached to whales. Also, I didn't think he was saying that ALL sea serpent sightings are really whale penis sightings. Just that some sea serpent sightings might actually be whale penis sightings.

Actually, while we're on the subject, I should point out that the proper name for a whale penis is the 'Dork', and was considered a delicacy, served at the captain's table as one of the spoils of a successful hunt.

Bobcat, do you have a source for that information? I'd like to read more about it-- it combines my interest in the history of whaling with my interest in strange foods.

Puts a whole new spin on the "one eyed trouser snake"...

According to Hans Egede himself, the thing he saw was "as thick as our ship, and three or four times as long".
Now THAT'S what I's call well endowed! :-D

Btw, Mr Egede was not at all unfamiliar with whales, and he even compares the movement patterns of the two animals.