 The sperm whale is the largest toothed whale , with adult males measuring up to 20 @.@ 5 metres ( 67 ft ) long and weighing up to 57 @,@ 000 kilograms ( 56 long tons ; 63 short tons ) . By contrast , the second largest toothed whale , Baird 's Beaked Whale measures 12 @.@ 8 metres ( 42 ft ) and weighs up to 15 short tons ( 14 @,@ 000 kg ) . The Nantucket Whaling Museum has a 5 @.@ 5 metres ( 18 ft ) -long jawbone . The museum claims that this individual was 24 metres ( 80 ft ) long ; the whale that sank the Essex ( one of the incidents behind Moby @-@ Dick ) was claimed to be 26 metres ( 85 ft ) . A similar size is reported from a jawbone from the British Natural History Museum . A 67 @-@ foot specimen is reported from a Soviet whaling fleet near the Kurile Islands in 1950 . There is disagreement on the claims of adult males approaching or exceeding 24 metres ( 80 ft ) in length . 
