wail, whale, wale

Wail or wail means a loud piercing cry--
The dog let out a wail when his tail got caught in the door.
The strange wail made them wonder what lived in the woods.
Wail may also be used as a verb ( action word )--
Don't wail like that unless something is wrong!
Banshees are said to wail in the night.

Whale or whale ( rhymes with wail ) means the giant sea creature, like the one that swallowed Jonah and Gepetto--
Moby Dick is the story of a white whale.
People once used whale oil for the lamps in their home.

Wale or wale ( rhymes with wail ) means a stripe or ridge, as in some fabric or wooden structures--
The baby like to feel the wale of his corduroy overalls.
The gun wale of a wooden ship was reinforced to keep the gun from breaking through the wood.

Now that you know that, you can say--
"When he heard the wail, he leaned over the gun wale, hoping to sight a whale."

Note--you may find "whale" used as a verb ( action word ), meaning to hunt whales--
Many people in 19th-century New England made their living from whaling.
Some of their ancestors were whalers.
Note # 2--"Wales", always capitalized, is the proper name of a place, a part of Great Britain--
The oldest son of the British monarch is the Prince of Wales.
Not to be confused with "wales", the plural ( more than one ) form of "wale"--
We need to reinforce the gunwales if we are going to fire these old cannons.
Not to be confused with "whales"--the plural ( more than one ) form of "whale"--
We could see several whales from where we stood on the shore.
Not to be confused with "wails", the third person singular ( he, she, it ) form of "wail"--
The neighbor's new baby wails late at night.