334 DISCOVERY REPORTS 



with the kind of incidence recorded in the old whaling voyages, does not suggest that open boat 

 Sperm whaling is less perilous today, in spite of the ready assistance which the motor-boat can give. 

 But one should remember that, because of the numerous independent companies which in some 

 islands whale in close proximity, the Azores whalemen are given to 'whaling for victory' more 

 perhaps than any bold crew of whaleship days. 



By whaling for victory is meant the furious competition, reckless of any danger or consequence, 

 between whaleboats from rival companies attempting to harpoon the same whale. (For centuries 

 whalemen everywhere have recognized that the first boat to fasten owns the whale, no matter what may 

 happen afterwards.) I have been in a Fayal boat racing a whaleboat from Pico, each boat going on the 

 flukes from opposite quarters. As the harponeers stood up the boats approached so close that the 

 mainsail boom of the Pico boat swept the after part of the Fayal boat and advanced almost to foul the 

 mast, yet neither boat gave an inch of way and both would have collided over the whale, or both 

 fastened together with almost certain fouling of lines and boats, had not the whale abruptly sounded 

 as both harponeers were about to dart. I mention this example of 'victorious whaling' to explain my 

 acceptance of incidents reported to me where a rival boat has intercepted a boat about to fasten, 

 whereupon the harponeer of this boat has notwithstanding hurled his iron clean over the rival and 

 successfully fastened the whale. In such cases the harpoon is possibly not darted overhand in the 

 normal manner, but is ' pitchpoled ', that is, tossed underhand in a manner recognized but rare in the 

 whaleship days: it has been said that pitchpoling can strike a whale across 7 fm. Whatever the tech- 

 nique, the successful tossing of a harpoon across a rival boat has apparently happened several times, 

 and predominantly in Pico where the companies are (or were until recently) in the sternest rivalry. 

 As a measure of the stature of the Azores whaleman in skilful strength and daring at the present day, 

 it may be mentioned that a similar feat, culminating a race at Delagoa Bay, South Africa, when an 

 American boat fastened a whale across a rival English boat, became a classic and supposedly unique 

 episode in whaling adventure. Apparently first recorded by Cheever (185 1, p. 133), it has been 

 widely quoted since. Yet the Azores whalemen have done this more than once, and do it now, only 

 their whaling has been little known. 



Saving the whale 



In the present year (1953) there are in the Azores only four modern stations equipped with steam 

 winches and pressure cookers. At the other eleven Sperm whale factories (called in this report ' try- 

 works stations ') the whales are processed or ' saved ' according to the ancient practice. ' Saving a 

 whale ' comprises two stages : the whale is first ' cut in ', that is, the blubber and spermaceti are removed, 

 and then these materials are ' tried out ' by melting in iron pots to yield sperm oil and ' head oil '. 

 It is unfortunate that, although I have everywhere been shown the implements and fixtures used in 

 cutting in and trying out, I have not happened to visit a try-works station when a whale was actually 

 being saved. Under this heading I therefore describe the various stations and their equipment and 

 give an outline of the methods employed. The outline is derived partly by inference from the equip- 

 ment and partly by conversations with whaling owners and their station hands. I am not able, how- 

 ever, to examine all the details of technique which may exhibit variations from the old American 

 practice. But the Azores whaleboats are not more astonishing survivals than these stations, some of 

 which retain the methods and the very aspect of New England whaleries of the mid-eighteenth 

 century. 



Cutting in. The cutting of blubber and meat, and the disjointing of bones, is done with vertical jabs 

 from a cutting spade (Az. espeide). The familiar Norwegian flensing knife, developed from the ' strand 

 knives ' of the old Dutch and English whalemen, is unknown in the Azores. The cutting spade is, of 



