338 DISCOVERY REPORTS 



of the tailstock is usually secured by first docking the flukes and then unjointing the tailstock and 

 hoisting it to the jetty. I believe that the head is cut off with spades at some early stage in boarding the 

 blubber. It is usually dissected last, or separately. When cutting in the head, a chain strap, the head- 

 strap, is rove through a hole in the nib end (p. 323), and by this attachment the cutting tackle hauls the 

 forehead upwards so that the head lies up-and-down in the water. The spades now free the junk and 

 case from the skull, and afterwards the junk and case are themselves separated. For these operations 

 the spades follow scarfs earlier cut into the head at the time of removing the lower jaw. The junk is 

 hoisted upon the jetty. If the head has been a small one, it is possible to haul up the case also, or 

 even haul up case and junk together without separating them, but the spermaceti from a large case 

 has to be bailed out whilst the case remains upended, hoisted half in and half out of the water. For 

 bailing the case there is a long wooden bucket with a rounded bottom, the case-bucket, and this is 

 rammed into the case with a pole, and then, brimming with spermaceti, hauled out on a whip. This 

 is done repeatedly, until the case is emptied. 



This method of cutting in, which corresponds in almost every detail with cutting in alongside a 

 whaleship, may possibly not be employed with such elaboration at some stations like Ribeiras and 

 Calheta do Nesquim in Pico where I recall seeing few special fixtures apart from the crab upon the 

 quay : but my notes are deficient here and it may be that the beam and hoists are only rigged at these 

 stations when a whale is captured. At San Mateus in Pico there are samson's-posts on the quay for 

 tackles (Plate XVI, Fig. 3). The foregoing description refers to the former technique at the old try- 

 works station at Porto Pirn, which apparently was not discontinued until the existing modern station 

 was built in 1943. The old try- works station is about 100 yards from the new station and further 

 along the footpath which encircles the base of the steep hill called Monte da Guia. The quay, which 

 was specially fashioned as a cutting platform and is now quite disused, is hewn from the rock and is 

 approached by a flight of rough steps. Ring-bolts and hoops and the rusted bedding for the crab 

 and the legs of the derrick are still to be seen. There is an adjacent stone platform where the head was 

 cut in separately, and the junk and spermaceti carried by a separate flight of steps into the try-house 

 by a separate door. The try-house stands on the cliff above the cutting platforms. The operations at 

 Porto Pirn are illustrated in a photograph reproduced by Richard (1936, pi. VII, fig. 2), showing a 

 whale being cut in there in 1888. 



Both these surviving methods of cutting in, either stranded or alongside, were used by those emi- 

 grant Azores islanders who conducted shore whaling in the bays of California in the second half of 

 the last century (p. 295). The present account may be compared with Scammon's description and 

 illustration (1874, P- 2 5° ar >d pi- x xvi) of the station at Carmel Bay in, I believe, the late 1850's. 



Under a precipitous bluff, close to the water's edge, is the station; where, upon a stone-built quay, is erected the 

 whole establishment for cutting-in and trying-out the blubber of the whales. Instead of rolling them upon the beach, 

 as is usually done, the cutting tackles are suspended from an elevated beam, whereby the carcass is rolled over in the 

 water — when undergoing the process of flensing — in a manner similar to that alongside a ship. Near by are the 

 try-works, sending forth volumes of thick, black smoke from the scrap-fire under the steaming cauldrons of boiling 

 oil. A little to one side is the primitive store house, covered with cypress boughs 



The Americans were probably first responsible for adapting the whaleship technique of cutting in 

 to shore conditions by employing a derrick or gallows. Among the earliest of establishments so 

 equipped were those dating from the 1830's and operating for Right whales in the bays of Cook 

 Strait, New Zealand. Dieffenbach (1843, 1, p. 51) mentions the scaffold or 'shears' used for cutting 

 in alongside at Te-awa-iti, Tory Channel. These New Zealand whaleries were owned in those days by 

 American and English adventurers, although there were undoubtedly some Azores islanders among 

 the mixed nationals who worked the stations. 



