Giant whale sculpture constructed in Sussex to set sail

A 36-metre whale sculpture constructed in Sussex will set sail for Dundee this evening.

Lee Simmons, 33, from Hertfordshire, designed the sculpture after being selected by a panel of experts, led by Dundee City Council, to feature at the city’s interactive playpark.

A whale was chosen to represent the history of whaling out of Dundee and the sculpture was constructed at Littlehampton Welding, in Littlehampton, having been in the works for the past 18 months.

Lee said: “My design was chosen in the middle of the pandemic so it was great news in amongst the lockdown.

“In terms how I am feeling now, I am very nervous but it’s relief, we were literally working on the sculpture up until 7pm last night.

“To get to this point has been an uphill struggle, from lasing with port authorities and making sure we have the right cranes and boats, but when it sets sail, it’ll be a relief, but almost disappointing at the same time.

“I’ve spent many hours working on this for the past year, I have a sense of ownership over it and now I’m sort of letting go of it, but in the same breath it is good because this project was always destined for the public.”

This whale sculpture is the latest of several Lee and Littlehampton Welding have worked together on.

Neil Fry, 48, managing director of Littlehampton Welding, said: “The sculpture was manufactured in four separate parts, the tail, the two fins, and the body, which we put together in the yard outside.

“This sculpture is very exciting for us. Public artwork on this scale is very rare, this sort of size doesn’t get made that often, so everybody was up for it.

“We do large scale projects normally, but this kind of work is something we’d love to do permanently.”