California whaling

[Marjorie E. Perry]

The Azorean came to California orginally by whaling ship. 

Sometimes he came directly to the state from the Azores, but mostly 

there was a stop in New England first to work and save money for a 

passage to California. Once an Azorean sailor arrived in Massachusetts, he many times

would find work in the local area. Some would travel to California 

either by land or on another whaling ship

 

Whaling and the Gold Rush

Years before the gold rush in California, Yankee traders plied the

California coast purchasing hides and tallow for the New England 

market. American whaling ships were in the Pacific beginning in 

1787.15 In 1819 the first New England whaler stopped at Hawaii.16 

Bancroft has a listing of nine American whaling ships in California in 

1825. The American ship  Cyrus was in San Diego in 1830 and had 

1,500 barrels coopered for whale oil.17 The California coast was busy 

with whaling and trading. 

In the 1840's, American traveler William Heath Davis saw 40 

whaling ships in San Francisco Bay at one time. They would be there 

for four to six weeks taking on provisions from the ranchos on the  

eastern side of the bay and doing necessary repairs.18 Down the 

coast, there were whaling ships in Monterey Bay hunting the 

humpback whale.19 The crews of these Yankee ships had Azoreans 

crew members who were working their passage to New England. 

Some would jump ship and seek opportunities in California which 

soon would be many because of the gold rush.20 

In 1848, great schools of bowhead whales were found in the Arctic

near Alaska. Once the Yankee whaling fleet heard of this finding, the 

long arduous trek around the horn to Alaska began, and San 

Francisco now became another major port for whaling ships besides 

Honolulu.21 Whaling ships would anchor at Richardson's Bay 

(Sausalito) which is in the northwest corner of San Francisco Bay. 

Shortly though, abandoned gold rush ships would soon clutter up the 

berthing area.22

Shore whaling began in Monterey in 1851 and was begun either by 

Captain Davenport or Captain Joseph Clark, nee Joao Machado. It 

wasn't until 1854 that a company was formed as seen in this piece 

from the March 14, 1855 edition of the Sacramento Daily Union:

        During the year a number of Portuguese whalers have established them-

        selves at Monterey Bay for the purpose of capturing such whales as are 

        indigenous to the coast. They caught 5 grays, 9 humpbacks, four killers;

        six were lost; the crew was paid $438 each for its work from April to

        September.49 

Another company was formed in 1855 of 17 Portuguese and for 

three years took 800 barrels of oil. In 1858, Davenport formed 

another company which had harpoon guns and took in 600 to 1,000 

barrels of oil annually for several years. Whaling companies in 

Monterey were merged into one 1865 forming a crew of 23 men. 

This company took in $31,000 worth of oil and bone the first four 

months!50 

This was generally how a shore whaling company divided their 

earnings: 1 barrel of oil in 35 went to the boat steerers, coopers, and 

ship keepers; 1 barrel in 50 went to the oarsmen and blubber 

carriers; the owner of the whaleboats got the rest. The boats cost 

$500 each. A day's kill could bring $3,000 to $4,000, but this was the 

exception.51 

A shore whaling company consisted of a captain, one mate, a cooper, 

two boat steerers, and eleven men. Each boat took a crew of six, 

while four men were left on shore, working shifts in scanning the 

horizons for whales and attending to the boiling blubber in the 

trypots.52 There were always two boats out in case a whale smashed 

one giving the survivors a boat to return to shore. The boat crews got 

their signal from the shore flag as to which direction the whales were 

located.53 

There were seventeen shore stations along the California operating

intermittently from 1850-1880.54 The members of the

whaling companies were almost all Azoreans as noted by G.B. Goode

of the U.S. Commission of Fish and Fisheries in 1887: "There are 

two companies of whalers in San Luis Obispo County. The first . . .

consists of twenty men, most of whom are from the Azore [sic] 

Islands. The other camp . . . consists of twenty-one men, all of whom, 

save one American, are from the Azores."55 Stations

were found at Crescent City, Half Moon Bay, Carmel Bay, San Simeon,

Portuguese Bend, and San Diego Bay to name a few. 

Edwin C. Starks of the California Fish and Game Commisssion wrote 

this while investigating the station at Moss Landing, Monterey Bay:

        Nearby are the try works, sending forth volumes of thick black smoke from the

        scrap-fire under the steaming caldrons of boiling oil. A little to one side is the

        primitive storehouse,  covered with cypress boughs . . . on the crest of a cone-

        shaped hill, of the shapeless mass of multilated whale, together with the men

        shouting and heaving at the capstans, the screaming of gulls and other sea fowl,

        mingled with the noise of the surf about the shores, and we have a picture of

        the general life at a California coast whaling station.56 

As for the men, Albert S. Evans said this in his travel journal in 1873 

while visiting Pigeon Point station, six miles south of Pescadero: 

"These men are all 'Gees" -- Portuguese -- from the Azores or 

Western Islands. They are a stout, hardy-looking race, grossly 

ignorant, dirty and superstitious. They work hard, and are doing well 

in business."57 

"Superstitious" was indeed apt for these men who had to fight the 

thrashing cetacean at sea. This is shown in this passage from the life 

of Robert Louis Stevenson who spent time in Monterey. The 

Monterey pavements had whale bones imbeded in them as an 

religious offering for a whaler's survival.58 Stevenson walked with 

Joaquin, a Portuguese whaler, to the local church, and the whaler 

said:

        Look at the whalebone pavement in front of the church, Senor Stevenson.

        The Star of Hope is there all in the bones of whales that Saint Anthony

        has sent us. Each time a whale is caught, Portuguese fishermen carry

        bones on their backs all the way from the beach and kneel before the

        church to set them into the pavement in honor of the Saint.

        I see, Stevenson nodded and looked on the beauty at his feet. Perhaps a

        fisher for words can someday honor the Saint by telling all the world 

        about the devotion of fisher folk who come to the Mission Church of

        Monterey to pray and pay tribute.59 

At the Carmel Bay station, residences of the shore whalers were 

described by Charles M. Scammon in his classic work on whaling. The 

picture is that of subsistence farmers doing what they did in the 

islands:

        Scattered around the foot-hills, which come to the water's edge, are the

        neatly whitewashed cabins of the whalers, nearly all of whom are Portu-

        guese, from the Azores or Western Islands of the Atlantic. They have

        their families with them, and keep a pig, sheep, goat, or cow, prowling 

        around the premises; these, with a small garden-patch, yielding princi-

        pally corn and pumpkins, make up the general picture of the hamlet, which

        is paradise to the thrift clan in comparison with the homes of their childhood.60

Hawaii was the center of whaling ship activity in the Pacific like the 

Azores had been in the Atlantic. In 1855, there were 650 whaling 

ships operating in Pacific with 15,000 men and a $20 million 

investment.139 There were at least 100 New Bedford whaling vessels 

off the California coast annually.140 Once whales were discovered in 

abundance in the Arctic, San Francisco became the hub of whaling 

activity in the Pacific which was from 1865 to 1881.141 The ship that 

opened whaling interest in San Francisco was the New Bedford 

whaling bark, the Russell, with its Azorean crew.

This was 1851.142 

Many ships lay in the mud along the shoreline of San Francisco Bay,

abandoned by their crew and officers for the gold fields. Some of 

these ships, including New England whalers, were used as 

storehouses, saloons, and hotels. When the gold fever died down, 

some of them were repurchased for $4,500 to $14,000 and refitted 

for whaling.143 

The slaughter of the whale is richly documented. Whaler Captain C.M. 

Scammon, who published a classic book on whaling, and for whom

Scammon's Lagoon in Baja California is named, described the 

massacre of whales in his lagoon in 1855:

               While the ships lay moored, as many as twenty whaleboats scoured

               the lagoons 'mud-holing' for grays. By day the waters were noisy

               with the sounds of thrashing whales, the reports of bomb guns, and

               the cries from scores of whalemen. By night the sky was bright

               with the fiery glow of boiling try-pots aboard the anchored ships.144

One can imagine the two Azoreans, Frank Gomes and Joe Frank, 

whose accounts were given above, and hundreds of their 

countrymen, busy in the lagoon, firing harpoons guns, rowing boats 

with a whale in tow, and manning the trypots on shore. Shortly 

though, the lagoons would run out of whales, and these Azoreans had 

to find other occupations ashore. 

Azoreans were also involved in the California fishing industry. 

Salmon fishing along the Sacramento River was done by the 

Portuguese. Any coastal seaport (San Francisco, Pescadero, Monterey, 

San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, and San Diego) would usually have 

some Portuguese operating fishing boats.145 In an 1880 government 

report, there were 90 Portuguese fishermen and 228 fishing-rated 

businesses operated by Portuguese in California.146 

In San Francisco near the wharf on Vallejo street, there was a 

"village of Portuguese" as it was described in an 1880 government 

report. The investigators found that two-thirds of the Portuguese 

were unmarried, lived in cheap housing, and ate in low class 

restaurants. They paid 25 cents for a meal or $3 a week. Some owed 

$20 to $150 to the restaurant for back meals.  "Breakfast at the 

Fisherman's Home consists of an egg, biscuit, and wine or coffee, and 

is served on a long pine table unpainted," was the description from 

the report.147 

Tuna fishing was more lucrative and centered in San Diego, or 

"Tunaville" as some have called it.148 The first Portuguese fisherman 

came to San Diego in 1876 and fished for barracuda and yellowtail. 

In 1885, the tuna fishing industry began.149 Joe Mederios and 

Manuel Madruga, both from Pico, where much of the Azores Island 

fishing is done, came to California from Provincetown. They were in 

the Klondike gold rush and worked in codfish ships. Finally they 

settled in Point Loma on San Diego Bay and began very profitable 

tuna fishing business.150  

At first, fish were dried and salted. Then came the fresh fish 

business where fish were iced and transported to southern California 

coastal markets. In 1919, the canning of fish began which  changed 

the industry dramatically. Tuna fishing boats evolved just as the 

industry did, from small wooden craft to large sea-going tuna ships 

worth millions which can travel great distances. The Portuguese were 

instrumental in many of these changes.151 

True to form, the tuna industry, like the dairy industry, has been  a 

family business for the Portuguese. They bring relatives and friends 

from the Azores to work with them which continues the Portuguese

domination of the industry. Tuna seasons control the activity of the 

community at Point Loma. Its family atmosphere provides support 

when the fishermen are gone for long lengths of time at sea. The 

isolation of the community and the solitude on ship where 

Portuguese is spoken, allows the Azorean immigrant to assimilate

into the American culture gradually. He doesn't need to learn the 

English language and American culture quickly to function in the

workplace or in his community. This is also true of his dairying 

counterpart.152

These are excerpts from “Azoreans to California: A History of Migration and Settlement”

 

by Robert L. Santos

California State University, Stanislaus

Librarian/Archivist

bsa...@toto.csustan.edu

 

Alley-Cass Publications

Denair, California

Copyright 1995

 Guida, Hope this might answer some of your questions.

The entire thing may be read by going to : http://wwwlibrary.csustan.edu/bsantos/azorean.html#62-96

Marge Perry

 

[Guida Leicester]

Wow, Marge!!

Many, many thanks for this amazing info.  How wonderful!  I certainly always get extremely satisfying answers from this site.  Thank you and obrigada for your hard work.

Warmest regards!!
Guida

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[Marjorie E. Perry]

You are very welcome Guida.

 

I found the entire article fascinating.

 

Marge

 

 

[Cakem...@aol.com]

There is a book that has been published about the Portuguese whalers that is available through Portuguese Heritage Publications of California.  I have listed their website below.  They also have other Portuguese books available that they have published.

 

http://portuguesebooks.org/

 

Mary Ann M.

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[Tracy]

Thank you so much for sending this article. It was especially
exciting for me to read because, as mentioned in the last readable
paragraph in your post, my Portuguese relatives lived on Vallejo
street in San Francisco. About five years ago I drove by their small
flat on Vallejo and took a picture of it (amazing that it is still
standing). Fourteen of them lived in this tiny little place on
Vallejo, yet I never knew Vallejo had a "village of Portuguese." Neat
stuff to read!

Tracy

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