3S2 DISCOVERY REPORTS 



Azoreans were also employed in various shore stations overseas. Afloat and ashore the islanders were 



ubiquitous in the nineteenth-century whaling scene. 



Organized shore whaling in the Azores probably began in Fayal in 1832, but it was not successfully 

 established until the 1850's. Thereafter it spread to the other islands. By the 1920's motor tow-boats 

 were in general use for towing whaleboats and captured whales. At this time a guild of whaling owners 

 was formed, the Gremio dos Armadores da Pesca da Baleia. In 1934 the first steam-powered factory 

 was opened in San Miguel for processing whales, and after the Second World War three further 

 modern stations were built in Fayal, Pico and Flores. These utilize blubber, meat and bone, but at 

 all the other Azores stations only the blubber is saved. It is still removed by ' cutting in ', and the oil 

 extracted by ' trying out ', using implements and installations of the old New England design, and 

 scarcely changed from seventeenth-century whaling. The latest technical adjunct in the Azores is 

 radio-telephone communication between cliff look-outs and motor tow-boats. 



3. The technical section notes the uniqueness of the present survival of open boat whaling in the 

 Azores and Madeira; and then describes exhaustively the boats, gear and methods of the survival, 

 compares them throughout with those of American nineteenth-century whaling, and attempts to 

 explain the very few differences. 



The present whaleboats are seven-man boats and are longer than the American boats which 

 carried six men. Boat furnishings and gear have not changed; and nor has the technique of hunting 

 except that in the Azores the harponeer both fastens and lances the whale, and does not change places 

 with the boatheader for lancing. 



At try-works stations the whale is cut in either stranded on the beach or floating alongside a jetty. 

 The method of cutting in alongside is the old whaleship practice brought ashore. Trying out, and the 

 various try-works stations, are described. 



The report describes working up at Azores modern stations because this has evolved independently 

 of Norwegian practice and shows interesting differences. 



Minor products of the Sperm whale are discussed. The intestines are always searched for ambergris 

 which is occasionally found. Scrimshaw, learned from the whaleship days, is practised as a cottage 

 industry. In Pico the blackskin of the whale is sometimes tanned into durable shoe-leather. Tendons 

 and connective tissue fibres are widely used for whips or lashings. 



The life of the Azores whalemen has scarcely changed in 100 years. The whalemen are devout 

 Catholics and once a year there is afesta dos baleieros when the whaleboats are blessed. 



4. In Madeira Sperm whaling did not start until 1941. It is the same whaling as in the Azores 

 whence it presumably came. There were in 1946 three whaleboat stations and two factories, one 

 a try-works station and one a steam-powered plant. 



REFERENCES 



Anderson, G., 1947. A whale is killed. Beaver, Outfit 277, pp. 18-21. 

 Ashley, C. W., 1926. The Yankee Whaler. London. 



- 1948. The Ashley Book of Knots. London. 



Beale, T., 1839. The Natural History of the Sperm Whale. . .to which is added a Sketch of a South-Sea Whaling Voyage. ... 



London. 

 Brandt, K., 1940. Whale Oil; an economic analysis. Stanford Univ., California; Food Res. Inst., Fats and Oils Studies No. 7. 

 Broyver, C. D., 1948. Fifty Years Below Zero. A lifetime of adventure in the far north. London. 

 Brown, J. T., 1884. The Whale Fishery and its Appliances. Bull. U.S. nat. Mus., xxvil, pp. 271-386. 



- 1887. The Whalemen, Vessels and Boats, Apparatus, and Methods of the Whale Fishery. In G. B. Goode & Associates, 

 1887, n, pp. 218-93. 



Browne, J. R., 1846. Etchings of a Whaling Cruise, with Notes of a Sojourn on the Island of Zanzibar. To which is appended 

 a brief History of the Whale Fishery, its past and present condition. New York. 



