When Jonah was swallowed by a whale it was three days and three nights before he was finally spat back out, alive, on a beach.

Fortunately for Rainer Schimpf, 51, who similarly found himself trapped in the jaws of a huge whale, his ordeal was of rather less biblical proportions.

The South African dive tour operator has described the moment everything went dark as his head and torso were suddenly swallowed by a Bryde’s Whale mid feeding frenzy as it gulped down everything in its path.

“There was no time for fear or any emotion,” he told the Telegraph.

“I knew instantly what had happened. I knew that a whale had come and taken me and I I instinctively held my breath, assuming that it would dive down again and spit me out somewhere in the depths of the Indian Ocean.”

Mr Schimpf had been snorkeling with two colleagues some 25 nautical miles off the coast near Port Elizabeth Harbour.