THE PRESENT SURVIVAL OF OPEN BOAT WHALING 311 



Azores. Excellent surf boats, they are launched from the beach by plenty of willing hands, and when 

 their business is finished they are heaved out again. So they have not the same risk of sagging, and 

 therefore another 8 or 10 ft. added to their length means more room to work in a cluttered boat, and 

 still room for an extra man to pull the extra weight and to tend the whaleline: the extra man of an 

 Azores seven-man boat shares some of the duties of the seventh man of an English boat in Scoresby's 

 time — those of ' linesman '. 



The other dimensions of a 38-ft. Azores whaleboat are 6 ft. 8 in. in the beam and 2 ft. 6 in. in depth 

 amidships. This may be compared with a 28-ft. Provincetown boat in 1887 which had a beam of 

 5 ft. 8 in. and a depth of 2 ft. 2 in. 



The hull is smooth-sided, that is, carvel built. American boats were clinker built until the 1860's 

 when the smooth-sided hull was generally adopted. All whalemen everywhere are agreed that the 

 Sperm whale is very sensitive to noise, and the carvel built boat is said to make less noise than a 

 clinker-built one when going through the water: J. T. Brown in fact mentions that the name ' clinker ' 

 derives from the knock of water against lap-streaking. The hull is double-ended, for as soon as the 

 harpoon is darted or after a thrust with the lance, the boat is cleared from the whale by backing water, 

 and therefore must be able to go astern as easily as it goes ahead. There is no deadwood aft or forward : 

 deadwood aft would impede quick turning on the steering-oar. The keel has no centre-board fitted, 

 and this is a detail in marked contrast to late nineteenth-century American practice, for centre-boards 

 became general in the 1870's. They allowed the sail area to be increased. My impression is that 

 although the present Azores boats have reverted to the earlier method without centre-boards, they 

 seem not to have diminished their sail area accordingly : the mainsail is peaked up until the overtopping 

 gaff is within a small angle to the mast, and, sailing without centre-board, it is necessary for every man 

 to sit right out to windward when close-hauled under this astonishing spread of canvas. Again the 

 special conditions of shore whaling can no doubt explain why the use of a centre-board has been 

 dropped. Since the whaleboats are all beached when not in use, there is always a likelihood, when 

 launching or heaving-up on a shingle beach, of stones wedging in the slot in the keel so that the centre- 

 board cannot be lowered when required. A characteristic of the hull itself is the rounded or canoe 

 bottom, such that the boat rides high and buoyant in the water. The lines of the forward end or 

 entrance are not as fine as those of the run, aft. The boat rises somewhat from amidships towards each 

 end, with the bow a trifle higher than the stern. 



As to the timber employed, most boat-builders now use local wood since the imported wood formerly 

 used has become too expensive. The Pico builders appear still to import woods from Scandinavia and 

 America, and presumbaly these are the traditional materials of whaleboat construction — white oak for 

 the timbers, white cedar for the outer planking, and white pine for the platforms, thwarts, and ceiling 

 or inside planking. The local Azores wood for planking is not cedar but a kind of ' false spruce ' which 

 I am unable to define further. 



Like most of the American boats intended for Sperm whaling, the bottom and sides of the Azores 

 boat are painted white. The top streak or gunwale streak plank is always a bold contrasting colour. 

 In Pico boats it is blue, as it was in most of the Yankee whaleboats. Fayal boats have a red top streak, 

 and for these two islands the distinction is essential, because it will be remembered that Pico has a 

 concession to sail a limited number of her whaleboats from the coast of Fayal. In contrast to the 

 former American custom there is not today much paint used inboard of the gunwale rubbing streak, 

 but the timbers and ceiling, box and cuddy-board (q.v.) are varnished: the platforms for the har- 

 poneer and the boatheader are neither painted nor varnished lest these men slip. The boats are 

 immaculately kept, and a delightful feature is the use of polished strips and turned rods of Sperm 

 jaw-bone for the gunwale rubbing streak and for the sail-cleats. Scrimshaw work employed in this 



