E. Cobham Brewer 18101897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.
King of the Sea (The).
The head of an average-sized whale is from fifteen to sixteen feet [about one-third the length], and the lips open some six or eight feet; yet to such a mouth there is scarcely any throat, not sufficiently large to allow a herring to pass down it. This little scaly fellow [the herring], some fourteen inches in length, would choke a monster whale, and is hence called the king of the sea.C. Thomson: Autobiography, p. 132.