When the whale came to Wales

Doing  a stint in our heritage centre can be quite dull if there aren't many punters but it gets interesting if someone comes in with personal story to share or, even better, old photographs. Today a man brought in some snapshots of the filming of Moby Dick at Fishguard in 1954. His grandfather, who worked at the harbour, was taken on as one of the extras, along with other local  men, as shown here.*   I imagine they were all told to grow beards to look the part of weathered sea dogs. 
The  event is a local legend now  -  the starstruck extras enjoyed a rollicking good time with the cast who were put up at a local hotel and the story goes the realistic dummy whale  broke its tether and had to be fetched back by the coastguards as a hazard to shipping.

The man in question is on the left of the two together and also in the middle of the group on the boat. On the right is, I think, Richard Basehart, one of the stars. Captain Ahab was of course played by Gregory Peck. The Austrian actor Frederick Lebedur made a splendid Queequeg.