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It sounds like it’s whale oil because:

- it’s coming from the bone marrow

- it has a reddish tint

- the curator says the smell is reminiscent of a whaling ship and not, say, a machine shop or oil rig.

I think you are probably right, but then the natural question becomes - why? As in, is there something unique to this specimen and it's display? If I drive over to the aquarium in my state and examine the whale display, would it also drip?

Probably not -- very few whale skeletons on display are from recently deceased whales. Just a random lookup -- the one in the London Natural History Museum is from 1891. Seems likely that when it was new it also leaked some oil?

Machine shops actually used whale oil until quite late. Much better than equivalent petroleum products until the '50s or later.

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