3<54 DISCOVERY REPORTS 



island of modern methods of treating the carcass. Even today most of the whaleries of the archipelago 

 cut in their captures either stranded on the beach or laid alongside a jetty. The ancient usages of the 

 cutting-spade, assisted by rope-tackles and a hand capstan, are employed to remove the spermaceti 

 organ and the blubber which are afterwards melted in iron try-pots (pp. 334 ft). The stripped carcass 

 with its valuable meat and bone is not used, being simply towed out to sea and dumped. During the 

 depressed period of 1924 (Fig. 4) Chaves had called for modern processing which would save wastage 

 and would produce a superior oil and make by-products in addition (19240). But the necessary capital 

 outlay had to wait for better times and it was ten years later in 1934 that the Azores acquired their 

 first modern factory employing steam power for heaving-up the whale, for flensing winches and for 

 pressure-cookers. The station is on San Miguel at Sao Vincent, a mile or so east from the try-works 

 at Capellas which it replaced. 



No further stations were built until the Second World War. Whaling in the Azores at this time, for 

 reasons similar to those operating in the First World War, entered its period of greatest prosperity. 

 Towards the end of the war, in 1944, when allied steam whaling was practically at a standstill although 

 the market for sperm oil was unlimited, the archipelago contributed 40-3 per cent of the world catch 

 of Sperm whales. Stimulus and capital were alike present for ventures with further modern stations. 

 The factor}- at Porto Pirn, Horta, was built in 1943 and two others followed, one at Cais do Pico in 

 1946 and one at Santa Cruz das Flores about the same time. The latest new station, at Lagens do Pico, 

 which was built as tar as its foundations in 1949 and was then temporarily abandoned because of a poor 

 oil market, is now nearly completed and should start operations this year or in 1954. All the four 

 modern stations now operating extract the blubber, spermaceti, and bone, and three of these stations 

 also process the meat for meat-meal. At least one station installed a liver-oil plant in 195 1. Methods 

 of working up whales at these modern stations have been developed independently from those at 

 whaling factories overseas (pp. 342 ff.). 



Mention of one other technical adjunct brings the Azores whaling scene into its present state of 

 development. Radio-telephone communication between look-outs and motor tow-boats was intro- 

 duced during the war. The advantages are obvious enough, especially in giving revised bearings of 

 sighted whales to the launches at sea, and also in permitting centralized control and organization of 

 whaling sallies round all the coasts of an island. I believe San Miguel was the first island to take up 

 radio-telephony for whaling, and it is there that the innovation has been most developed. In 1949 all 

 the modern factories employed radio-telephones in their motor-boats and look-outs but certain of the 

 islands which only possessed try-works had not then installed the equipment. The look-out at Santa 

 Maria had a radio-telephone but nobody to operate it. This is symptomatic of the entry of a new 

 technician class into the ancient practice of open boat whaling, for the industry which at the try-works 

 whaleries still employs (saving a motor-man for the launches) simply boatmen and boat-builders, 

 blacksmiths and coopers, requires at the modern stations engineers, mechanics and wireless operators. 



Since the war ended the fortunes of Sperm whaling in the Azores have continued to fluctuate. The 

 islands were much affected by the great post-war catches of Sperm whales in the Antarctic and off 

 Peru (Fig. 2), and in 1949 much difficulty was experienced in selling the Azores production. Recovery 

 in 1950 and 1951 was associated with the outbreak of war in Korea: times of war and rearmament 

 seem to be boom periods for sperm oil. In the present year (1953) the Azores share the world reces- 

 sion in whaling due to a temporary glut of whale and sperm oil. This need not be expected to last. 



The future may expect to see the numerous try-works stations eventually superseded everywhere 

 by modern methods of oil production, for since Chaves's time the need for these technical develop- 

 ments, including the manufacture of by-products, has been stressed by other Portuguese authors 

 (Figueiredo, 1946, 1951 ; Carvalho & Carvalho, 1951). 



