Vanishing Ocean City With Bunk Mann

In 1922, a whale washed up on the beach near Caroline Street in Ocean City. It was towed out to sea by the U.S. Coast Guard but floated ashore again just north of the fishing pier on Wicomico Street.

The City Council ordered the whale carcass dynamited and several pieces landed on the Pier Building – still standing at that time – and surrounding hotels and stores.

Legend has it that the smell of rotten whale did not entirely disappear until the Great Fire of 1925 destroyed most of the buildings in the vicinity of the Pier.

Photo courtesy of Pauline Walston