Whitby faces dilemma as one of world's great jaw bones starts showing its age

The waters of the South Atlantic may offer the lasthope of preserving one of Britain's most ghoulish coastal landmarks.

The waters of the South Atlantic may offer the lasthope of preserving one of Britain's most ghoulish coastal landmarks.

A 20ft whale bone arch erected on the cliff at Whitby, east Yorkshire, is reaching the end of its days after nearly 40 years of buffeting by North Sea gales. When the arch was constructed, the port was still a renowned whaling centre but the industry has long gone and the chances of finding replacement bones are remote.

Scarborough Borough Council said yesterday that it is not prepared to kill a whale to salvage its heritage and is instead pinning its hopes on the British Atlantic Survey on South Georgia, near the Falkland Islands. Whitby is twinned with Port Stanley in the Falklands and believes some whale bones may be going spare.

"We are being environmentally correct - we are not going to kill a whale," said the council's head of planning, Gordon Somerville. "We are trying to find out if there are any old bones we could have instead. We're in contact with the governor of the Falkland Islands and following up reports that there may be some there."

The council hopes that the Falklands' low temperatures will have preserved any redundant whale bones. David Green, another planning officer, said: "There was whaling activity there and if some bones could be provided, the military would regard flying them to Yorkshire as an exercise. We would just be left to pick them up from an airport."

The original bone dates to 1962, when Whitby commemorated its nautical past with a whale hunting competition. The winner, Thor Dahe, a Norwegian captain, had the honour of seeing the jaw-bone of his 80ft, 150-ton fin whale, caught in the Weddell Sea off Antarctica, erected in Whitby.

The jaw-bone took its place on the port's cliff in 1963. It is one of the first sights to greet arriving ships. Across the bay stands the medieval Whitby Abbey, which adds to the port's Gothic air. Bram Stoker set his novel Dracula in the abbey after observing a coffin being carried up the 199 steps from the town.

Repeated batterings by East Coast storms led to erosion and cracks in the jaw-bone and fears it would crumble so, in September 1990, the arch was taken down for six months and a team of damp-proofers and archaeologists applied protective treatment. But conservationists now admit they cannot turn back the tide of erosion and the bones will have to be moved inside permanently if they are to survive.

The council has looked at replacing the jaw-bone with a glass-fibre version, for £5,000, or encapsulating it in plastic, for £2,500, but heritage groups insist the bone should be replaced with real whale bone.

"Fibreglass is very much the last resort," Councillor Dorothy Clegg said. "But the arch is crumbling and frost and rain are getting in. It's urgent."

Whitby has a fine seagoing heritage. Captain James Cook learnt his seamanship there, William Scoresby - inventor of the crow's nest - was based there and, at the whaling industry's height, 300 ships sailed out of Whitby hunting them in Scandinavian waters. The mayor, Cathy Ingledow, says the preservation of this tradition is essential. "If we can get a whale that has given up the ghost, it would be ideal."