Have you heard about Nicolau Rodrigues Vieira? This man was born in 1856 in Lajes das Flores and at the age of 20’s he arrived in Dartmouth. Then he went to New Bedford, the whaling city that already had a large number of Azoreans.
About this Azorean community, it is worth mentioning the “leap” emigration that is well known in the islands of Flores, Corvo, Pico, São Jorge and Faial, which consisted of young people who clandestinely joined the crews of American whaling ships to reach the United States! It can be said that the Azorean emigration to the USA was inaugurated through whaling and they also influenced Azorean whaling!
Whaling made by the Americans was a very difficult task for several reasons such as the nature of the work as well as the time that ships spent on the high seas until they filled their barrels with whale oil!
From the whaling career of Nicolau Rodrigues Vieira it’s to highlight his role in the barge Canton where he was immediate and then 1st command and even reached the position of captain. Did you know that as Canton’s captain on April 1905 trip, he returned to New Bedford in August 1906 with an impressive amount of 2750 barrels of sperm whale oil and 75 barrels of whale oil?
Source of information and some of the pictures: VIEIRA, João A. Gomes, O Homem e o Mar: A Participação Portuguesa (Açorianos e Cabo-verdianos) na Baleação Americana, Edição de Medialand, LDA, agosto de 2007.
Last modified: 1 de February, 2022
