, 86 DISCOVERY REPORTS 



The report has a historical and a technical section. To these are appended a few notes on Madeiran 

 whaling which are necessarily sketchy and inadequate since I did not visit Madeira. The historical 

 section falls naturally into two parts : the first describes the role of the Azores and their inhabitants in 

 the pelagic Sperm whaling industry which the New Englanders inspired and monopolized during the 

 eighteenth and nineteenth centuries ; the second part traces from these whaleship days the emergence 

 and subsequent fortunes of the shore whale fishery up to present times in the Azores. The technical 

 section records the gear, methods and installations of the existing fishery and employs throughout 

 comparisons with old-time American whaling. It says nothing of the effect of whaling on the stock of 

 whales, because this is more appropriately included in a separate Discovery Report on Sperm whales 

 which is nearing completion and which will examine the results of the biological work undertaken in 

 1949. This report will suggest that, although there is as yet no evidence of overfishing, it is unlikely 

 that the stock would long withstand exploitation by steam whalecatchers, unless these were rigorously 



controlled. 



Even though steam whaling may never be introduced into the Azores, I have been careful to make the 

 technical record as detailed as my notes allow because it is too much to expect that an anachronism like 

 this survival can continue indefinitely in an age whose mechanizing trend is everywhere withdrawing 

 and protecting men from direct and manual conflict with the natural hazards of their environment. 

 It is encouraging to know that in the North Atlantic men can still be found who have the courage and 

 resolution, physical strength and endurance which open boat whaling demands. 



ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 



I am indebted to the Portuguese Government through its Ambassador in London, who approved my 



mission in 1949. 



In recalling the goodwill and co-operation I met with everywhere, travelling in the Azores and in 

 continental Portugal, I would especially like to thank the following persons for their great kindness 

 with assistance or hospitality: Lieutenant-Colonel Jose Agostinho, Chief Meteorologist of the Azores; 

 Senhor Joaquim Martins do Amaral, whaling owner of Fayal, at whose Porto Pirn station I worked 

 for two months; Senhor Tomas Alberto de Azevedo, manager of the Fayal whaleboats in which I 

 sailed; Dr Tiberio avila Brazil, whaling owner in Pico; Capitao-Tenente Manuel Melo de Carvalho, 

 Captain of the Port of Horta in 1949; Senhor Pedro Cimbron, whaling owner of San Miguel; 

 Lieutenant-Commander Franklin Davies, R.N., the former British Vice-Consul in Porta Delgada; 

 Dr J. Mousinho Figueiredo of the Ministry of Economics, Lisbon, an authority on Azores whaling; 

 Senhor J. V. Leal of Pan American Airways System, Santa Maria; Commander J. W. McClelland, 

 R.N., the British Naval Attache at Lisbon in 1949; Senhor Jacinto Silviera de Medeiros, part-owner 

 of the old try-house at Porto Pirn, who has contributed much to the historical section of this account 

 by patiently ransacking on my behalf the archives and newspaper files at Horta, by interviewing old 

 whalemen in Fayal and Pico, and by providing photographs of the last years of the whaleships in the 

 Azores; Senhor Manuel Neves who shares ownership of the Porto Pirn try-house with Senhor 

 Medeiros; Mr H. R. Pearce, the only British resident in Terceira; Dr Alfredo Magalhaes Ramalho, 

 the Director of the Marine Biological Institute in Lisbon, who has since helped with some Portuguese 

 literature; Senhor Francisco Marcelino dos Reis, owner of the Setubal whaling station; Senhor Jose 

 Tavares dos Reis, manager of the whaling factory at Porto Pirn, whose special help in the biological 

 work will be acknowledged in a separate report; Senhor Antonio Linnares dos Santos, whaling owner 

 of Terceira; and Senhor Jose Cristiano de Souza, whaling owner in Pico. In this list of helpers over- 

 seas, I have purposely left till last my best thanks to Mr B. L. Collins, of Horta, until recently British 



