342 DISCOVERY REPORTS 



station. At the same time (saving the launching slip at Salao, Fayal) it is the most isolated whalery in the 

 Azores. Unlike all others it is not a settlement, having no dwelling-houses, and it is approached only by 

 a zigzag footpath terraced from the red clay and limestone of the sheer cliff and winding down from the 

 lighthouse high above (Plate XVI). The whalemen live at the small village of Maia, a mile to the north, 

 and they have to reach their homes by a roundabout way over the top of the cliff. The try-house lies 

 under the cliff at the head of a small beach where two reefs run seaward, affording shelter in suitable 

 weather for launching boats and stranding whales. A small stone and concrete jetty has been built 

 along one reef and equipped with a derrick, but this is used for loading oil transports and not for cutting 

 in. The crab for stranding whales is installed on the beach below the try-house. This is open all along 

 the front, disclosing a try-works with a row of five pots, each with its own arch. The pots do not need 

 to be separately bailed into the cooler. Instead they are served by two run-offs, channelled into the 

 flush stone surrounds of the pot brims. The oil is bailed directly into the run-offs which are both 

 drained by an iron pipe into a square cooler built of stone. The cooler is, of course, open at the top, 

 but it abuts upon a second stone tank which is covered except for a small square opening fitted with 

 a wooden lid. This is a settling tank into which the oil from the cooler is bailed. From here it can flow 

 by gravity into a large closed storage tank partially sunk into the ground. Finally, the stone top of the 

 storage tank supports a small vertical donkey engine driving a steam pump, so that oil can be pumped 

 as necessary into a large cylindrical metal storage tank installed on a stone platform. In 1949 a second 

 try-works of two pots was being constructed for spermaceti only. Outside the four modern stations 

 and apart from the motor tow-boats, the donkey engine at Porto do Castelo is the only machine I have 

 encountered in the Azores whale fishery: and it is in other respects clear that Porto do Castelo, despite 

 its isolation and difficulty of access, is the most advanced of the old-fashioned stations. The other 

 stations and their try-works are functioning survivals from the last century, but this one has been 

 built, or rebuilt, in recent years. 



The only other try-works in the Azores are the four disused ones which have been superseded by 

 steam-powered factories. They deserve brief mention here. In Flores there is one at Lagens which 

 I have not seen. I was informed in Flores that Lagens das Flores is now a boat station and that the 

 only factor}' is the modern installation at Santa Cruz. On the north coast of Pico, at Cais do Pico, 

 the old try-house contains a battery of eight pots, and this try-works is still kept in good repair against 

 an emergency developing in the steam cooking plant of the new station. The former try-works station 

 at Capellas, a sheltered cove on the north coast of San Miguel, is today simply a boat station, and the 

 slipway is used by whaleboats sailing for the modern factory at Sao Vincent two miles to the east. 

 In Fayal the old station at Porto Pirn, Horta, stands close to the new one. The old boat-houses, like 

 long Nissen huts built in volcanic stone, are still used in winter for the boats brought down from the 

 summer whaleboat stations of Capelo and Salao. The old stone cutting platforms at Porto Pirn have 

 already been described (p. 338). The deserted try-house is remarkable for its size and spaciousness. 

 Two try-works each with two pots are ranged against the walls. Accessories I have not noticed else- 

 where are conical sheet iron covers for the pots, intended to reduce the risk of fire should a pot boil 

 over. Try-pots in the old whaleships sometimes had similar covers. The cooler here is an immense 

 wooden cask. In one corner there is a wooden pen still heaped with dry and dusty scraps, as though 

 awaiting the next ' affair of oil '. 



Working up at modern stations 



The islands of Fayal, Flores, Pico and San Miguel each have one steam-powered whaling factory 

 where the whale is heaved upon a flensing platform and there reduced to its blubber, meat and bone 

 for pressure cooking. Unlike most of the try- works stations these four modern stations are placed apart 



