Alaskan Eskimos caught a 50-ton bowhead whale last month. Lodged in the beast's shoulder blade was a harpoon from a previous hunt. At first they thought, whoa, this is one mighty monster, roaming 'round the Arctic waters, shrugging off an explosive-harpoon head like it's a splinter.

Then historians discovered that the weapon fragments were from a bomb lance carved by Massachusetts whalecraftsmen in the 1880's!

Since whalers didn't pursue whelps, experts are betting the bowhead was more than 130 years old when it was taken down by the Inuit tribe. That is one bad-ass blubber-lined behemoth. I'm sure he died a warrior's death.