^9b DISCOVERY REPORTS 



flourished for several decades and was partially conducted from shore stations. The first of these was 

 opened at Monterey in 1851. Most of the whalemen here and elsewhere along the coast were Azores 

 islanders who settled in California with their families (Scammon, 1874, P- 2 5°; Clark, 1884; 1887, p. 55). 

 There were besides Monterey at least twelve other stations, one of them called Portuguese Bend : and 

 on all that coast the most experienced of the whaling captains was a native of the Azores. Scammon 

 has described and figured the whaling settlement at Carmel Bay, and it must have been very similar 

 to one of the small try-works stations like Ribeiras or Calheta do Nesquim at the present time in the 

 Azores. Scammon says (1874, P- 2 5°) : 



Scattered around the foothills, which come to the water's edge, are the neatly whitewashed cabins of the whalers, 

 nearly all of whom are Portuguese from the Azores or Western Islands of the Atlantic. They have their families with 

 them, and keep a pig, sheep, goat or cow prowling around the premises. ... It is a pleasant retreat from the rough 

 voyages experienced on board the whaleships. The surrounding natural scenery is broken into majestic spars and 

 peaks, like their own native isles. . .. 



Azores whalemen also settled in Tasmania, and served in vessels sailing from Hobart Town (Philp, 

 1936, p. 75). They were undoubtedly among the crews of whaleries established for Right whaling in 

 the bays of Cook Strait, New Zealand, after 1830 (p. 338). 



It seems true to say that wherever whaling was prosecuted in the last century, from ship or from 

 shore, men from the Azores might be found among the company. 



Shore whaling from 1 83 2 



Although whaling proper in the Azores started as a pelagic industry operated by the New Englanders, 

 it appears, from Lima's account (1940, p. 391) of D. Antao de Almada's letter of 1768, that theislanders 

 occasionally caught whales in earlier times. This primitive shore whaling may have been learned 

 originally from the Basques who are likely to have called at the Azores when they pioneered the 

 whaling voyage with early visits to Newfoundland. Gallup (1930, p. 271) mentions a tradition 'that 

 Columbus, while lying at the Azores, was told of lands which lay beyond the setting sun by the captain 

 of a whaler from "Ande Luz " ' ; and it may be significant that the word vigias, used for the old watch- 

 towers built by the Basque whalemen many centuries ago, is used also for the present Azores look-outs, 

 and that the word Cachalote, used by the Azoreans as a specific, discriminative term for the Sperm 

 whale, is of Basque origin according to Jenkins (1948, p. 72). 



The present shore fishery came long after the arrival of the New England whaleships. It seems to 

 have started in Fayal. This is to be expected since Horta was always the premier port of call for 

 whaleships on the Western Islands ground. But the date of commencement is uncertain. No early 

 records survive, but Senhor Medeiros, who gave a deal of time to enquiries on my behalf, tells me 

 that in whaling families 1832 is a date often mentioned for the first launching from a Fayal beach. The 

 oral tradition continues that the venture of 1832 was abandoned after a time and was not resumed again 

 until 185 1, when the old try-works at Porto Pirn, Horta, was improved and extended as a Sperm whale 

 factory. This try-works, which still survives although disused, was first built in 1836. The temporary 

 abandonment before 1851 would explain why Bullar & Bullar, in their delightful account written in 

 1 84 1 of a year spent in the Azores, do not mention whaling except to say that American whalers called 

 at Fayal for provisions. The start in 1832 may have been made by islanders, but more probably by 

 enterprising Americans who had settled in Fayal and who, with their own tradition of New England 

 shore whaling, would quickly have seen the advantages of the high cliffs in exploiting, direct from the 

 shore, the fishery which for decades had attracted each year the whaleships of their countrymen. There 

 were undoubtedly such settlers, including the wealthy and influential family of Dabney which pro- 

 vided United States consuls to Fayal at least from 1839 to the end of the century (Olmsted, 1841; 



