HISTORY OF WHALING IN THE AZORES

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aukepalmhof
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HISTORY OF WHALING IN THE AZORES

Post by aukepalmhof » Sat Oct 12, 2024 8:11 pm

Whaling in the seas of the Azores. Whaling or whaling was an activity of great relevance to the Azores economy, especially in the 19th and 20th centuries, but it also constituted a brand image and a symbol of Azores identity. The first references to the capture of cetaceans in the seas of the Azores are found in Gaspar Frutuoso and refer to the year 1575, but there is also news of the appearance of English whalers in the 17th century and, above all, of American whalers in the second half of the 18th century. However, the Azores' interest in whaling came later. In 1806, the American citizen John Bass Dabney, a member of a wealthy Boston merchant family, had settled in the city of Horta, who founded Casa Dabney & Sons there and was the first consul of the United States in the Azores. The presence of the Dabney family on the island of Faial marked the economic, social and cultural life of the city for almost a century, contributing largely to the cosmopolitanism that has since characterized it.56 In 1826, his son Charles William Dabney succeeded him. who, as part of his commercial activities, notably as a ship chandler, took the initiative to promote the port of Horta among American shipowners. .


The propaganda carried out by Carlos Dabney had such fruitful results that in 1827 six American whaling ships demanded the aforementioned port of Horta; the following year, fifteen; the next, thirty-seven; the next, sixty-four; the next, eighty-seven; and so they increased until in 1839 their number was one hundred and sixty-nine, and in 1841 one hundred and eighty. This increase in maritime traffic in the port of Horta and in other Azores ports aroused the interest of the local maritime community when American whaling ships from New England and, above all, from New Bedford and Nantucket, called on the Azores during their long Atlantic campaigns. These ships resupplied in Azores ports and hired men there to reinforce their crews, in order to achieve better performance from their whaling ships. Many young Azores then embarked on these ships, but while some of them took the opportunity to settle on the East coast of the United States and start a new life, another part returned to their islands, bringing with them new ideas and knowledge of hunting techniques and instruments. to the whale. The port of Horta had become the main base for American whaling ships and was home to many of them, which supplied and unloaded thousands of hulls and barrels of whale oil there. The experience acquired on board American whaling ships and the encouragement received from Casa Dabney & Sons led to the creation of the first Azores whaling structures, whose vessels were adapted from the models used by the Americans. However, instead of using the large whaling ships that hunted offshore, the Azores began to do coastal whaling, because many whales appeared close to the coast. For this purpose, lookout posts on land were created and, when a cetacean was sighted, they would alert the company that, with great speed, sailing or rowing, headed towards the whale to be harpooned. Their vessels, known as canoes or whaling boats, were crewed by seven men, with the sailor at the bow, the oarsmen and an officer who, at the stern, steered the vessel with a rudder.

The first whaling boat appeared on the island of Flores and, later, on the island of Pico, where in 1876 a boat was established through a public deed between Casa Dabney & Sons and the famous Captain Anselmo, resident in Calheta do Nesquim. Afterwards, whaling boat building were created in the towns of Topo and Velas, on the island of S. Jorge and, in a short time, whaling societies and companies began to be created in various ports throughout the Azores islands and sperm whale processing factories in the its main products (oils and flour) in different locations, which brought much prosperity to the populations, although they also caused some tragedies. Whaling came to be practices on all the islands of the Azores, but the island of Pico soon became the great centre of the island whaling complex, as mentioned in an institutional text. It is Pico that, among the islands as a whole, rises to the highest point of seasonal whaling expression for almost all purposes, most especially for having shot as much, or even more, than the other eight islands as a whole, and for that magnificent, very exemplary, boat that is the whaling canoe, the most beautiful piece of furniture of the world as they called it in poetic terms. Only from 1949 onwards were statistics organized on “whale fishing”, verifying that until 1965 the activity was served by statistics were organized on “whale fishing”, noting that until 1965 the activity was served by around six dozen mechanically propelled vessels (boats) and around one hundred and a half sailing and rowing vessels (canoes or boats), with an annual average of 510 sperm whales being captured during this period. The whaling epic had some chroniclers, but we believe we can highlight José Dias de Melo, a native of Calheta do Nesquim, not only for his “romanticized chronicles” but, above all, for a work that is simultaneously a testimony and a document. At the end of the 1960s, when whaling activity in the Azores began to decline for economic reasons, but also due to the action of the International Whaling Commission and movements that defended the protection of the species, it was found that, despite using artisanal methods, including manual harpooning, many thousands of whales had been slaughtered in the seas of the Azores. However, the end of whaling did not occur simultaneously on all Azores islands. On the islands of Santa Maria and Corvo whaling ended at the beginning of the 20th century, but on the other islands it continued for many years, having ceased on the island of Graciosa in 1982, on the island of Faial in 1984 and on the island of Pico in 1987, in that time due to pressure from the European Economic Community, to which Portugal had already been admitted. Nowadays, the tradition and whaling activity have been replaced by a new activity of a touristic nature – cetacean observation or whale watching – but it continues to be present in the memory of the Azores, especially on the islands of the Central and Western Group, through the musealization of the whaling activity, the preservation of boats and speedboats and, also, the art of carving and engraving on ivory the teeth and jaw bones of sperm whales – the scrimshaw – whose works can be seen in several museums and private collections.

Google translated.

https://academia.marinha.pt/pt/edicoes/ ... RC-net.pdf
Azores 2011 32/€2 sg550/663 and MS 664,665, Scott538/541 and ms€1.75/2.39.
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