| In
1987 the last Sperm whale was caught in the Azores, by the same traditional
process prior to the memorable times of Moby Dick, still using the hand
harpoon and lance. The memory of this activity, however, has been preserved
in the old stories of the last whalers, whom the poet Almeida Firmino
called "Nameless heroes, having one foot landed, the other still at sea"
(Ilha Maior, 1968).
The first exhibition of a collection on the subject of whaling was displayed
in a provisional building in 1979. It was the realization of a dream dating
back to 1968 With the official opening of the Museum, installed in the
present structures, in August 1988, the Government of the Azores paid
a long-deserved tribute to our whaler. This was a decisive step towards
the preservation of the memory of an activity which greatly shaped the
islanders' lifestyle for over a century. |
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