Portuguese exploration

Far southern exploration and charting might be regarded as beginning with the exceptional period of discovery promoted by Infante Dom Henrique, o Navegador (Prince Henry, the Navigator) in the early 15th century. The southbound voyages, leading to the discovery and survey of the southern extent of Africa, indicated the sea route from Europe to the Indies and other lands of south and east Asia. Thus, Bartolomeu Dias rounded Cape Agulhas (the cape of needles) in 1487. A decade later, in 1497, Vasco da Gama discovered the sea passage to India and landed near Calicut. The account of this expedition included the earliest European description of penguins (Ravenstein, Reference Ravenstein1898). The other Southern Hemisphere trade route, the transit to the Pacific Ocean through Estrecho de Magallanes, was discovered in 1520, by Fernão de Magalhães, a Portuguese national commanding a Spanish vessel. This was one of the conundrums consequent on the Treaty of Tordesillas, 1494. Spain had proprietary rights over the region where Magalhães hoped to discover a western passage; therefore, he had to sail under Spanish patronage.

Portugal’s influence in South America consolidated in 1549 when a settlement was founded in São Salvador da Bahia de Todos os Santos which became the first Brazilian capital. In 1580, the Union of Spain and Portugal under Rey Felipe II of Spain was an event which greatly reduced the dangers of conflict in the exploration and colonisation of South America. The union ended with Portuguese secession in 1640. In 1762, a united administration of Portuguese colonies in South America was established, with its capital in Rio de Janeiro. These historical developments are detailed in Palmira Fontes da Costa and Henrique Leitão (Reference da Costa and Leitão2008).

Antarctic sealing: crew, victualling and salt

A consequence of Captain James Cook’s second voyage (1772–75) was discovery of abundant seals on South Georgia and his finding of a market for them in Canton (Guangzhou). Macau, with its Portuguese administration founded in 1557, became an important intermediary port before vessels continued to Canton for trading. Antarctic sealing developed rapidly. The process for separating fur and skin from seal pelts was well-known in China where many early cargoes were destined to be exchanged for even more profitable Chinese goods. The situation began to change after 1795 when Thomas Chapman, in London, invented a procedure for separating fur and skin from pelts thus breaking the monopoly (Burton, Reference Burton2018).

The Antarctic sealing industry lasted from the late 1700s to the early 1900s involving most of the peri-Antarctic islands (sealers were responsible for discoveries of about a third and made the earliest landings on half of them). In general, fur seals (Arctocephalus spp.) were the main quarry at first owing to the value of their pelts; later, after these became scarce owing to over-exploitation, elephant seals (Mirounga leonina) were the species taken for their oil (Clark, Reference Clark1887; Headland, Reference Headland2018a). Preservation of the pelts of the former, during slow voyages returning across equatorial regions, required abundant quantities of salt. Subsequently, when elephant seals were the main quarry, salt was of far less significance but victualling and engagement of crew remained important. These factors, combined with the majority of sealing voyages being from the New England states of the United States, caused many southbound sealing voyages to call at the Portuguese Atlantic islands, especially Ilhas dos Açores and Ilhas de Cabo Verde, the most arid of these islands, where salt was easily available and crew be recruited. Courses taken during northbound return voyages generally were generally along the western coasts of the Atlantic Ocean; thus, Portuguese crew returned aboard various vessels from Brazil or Caribbean ports, although some settled in the sealing and whaling ports of North America. The substantial involvement of the Portuguese Atlantic islands in United States whaling and sealing trade, with its many vicissitudes, is described in detail by Briton Busch (Reference Busch1985a).

The Antarctic sealing industry, principally a British and United States enterprise, involved crossing the equator twice; taking salt out then preserved fur seal pelts back during early decades, and in later ones returning with elephant seal oil in casks. The favourable currents and winds took most southbound sealers near the Portuguese islands. In 1796, Neptune, from New Haven, Connecticut, Capt. Daniel Greene, was one of the earliest visitors in this trade. Ebenezer Townsend aboard noted that at Buena Vista [Boa Vista]: We took aboard 8½ moy of salt, each moy of 60 bushels, at $5, which is about 8 cents a bushel. [the weight of a bushel, a volumetric unit, of salt depended on its dryness varying from about 30 to 35 kg, thus about 16 600 kg of salt were acquired] (Trowbridge, Reference Trowbridge1888). The account also notes the ship’s complement of 36 men and boys, and that three other whalers and sealers were at the islands on this occasion. By the early 1800s, the trade had increased which is demonstrated by a United States mariners’ guide published in 1822 (Arnold, Reference Arnold1822) that included many pages of details of the Portuguese Atlantic islands and their trade (pp. 186–204). By interesting coincidence, the same publication described the contemporaneously discovered South Shetland Islands with their fur seal population and its exploitation (pp. 266–268).

Approximately 1125 sealing voyages are recorded but barely a dozen written accounts appeared (Headland, Reference Headland2018a). Some of the best examples include the following: James Weddell (Reference Weddell1827), a British sealer, wrote much about salt and other supplies in Ilha da Madeira and other Portuguese Atlantic islands in 1822 when on his way to South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands, although he did not report recruiting extra crew. In 1829 a United States sealing voyage, from New London, aboard Pacific, Capt. James Brown, called at Cabo Verde for salt on the way to South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands (Fanning, Reference Fanning1833). A United States sealer, who had made several Antarctic voyages, Benjamin Morrell (Reference Morrell1832) described Cabo Verde in much detail and referred to islands individually. Although some of this is critical, he also mentioned the many agricultural products, in particular that Santo António provided “in great abundance black-cattle, sheep, goats, hogs and poultry, by giving one day’s notice, together with vegetables and fruits of the finest growth and flavour, in any quantity, and at very moderate prices” (p. 258).

The mate of United States sealer Mentor, James Rogers, noted that southbound from New London on 21 September 1839 they called at Brava, Cabo Verde, where the Captain went ashore and traded for hogs, fruit, etc (Rogers, Reference Rogers1938). The voyage continued to Gough Island and Iles Crozet for sealing and onwards whaling. In 1843, Washington Fosdick commented that nearly every whaler and sealer was accustomed to stop at the Açores on the outward passage (Watson, Reference Watson1931). It noted that food was cheap, and local recruits were always dependable and were more than willing to sail under the American flag (p. 502). Ilha das Flores provided a bountiful supply of potatoes, onions, pumpkins and poultry that was added to the ship’s stores. The crew was joined by five young Portuguese who signed aboard; their voyage is described below. One of the more detailed accounts of recruitment of Portuguese crew from Cabo Verde is provided by Heinrich Wentzel Klutschak, a Bohemian traveller, who was aboard a United States sealing voyage by Flying Fish, Captain William Dunbar from New London during 1877 and 1878 (Murphy, Reference Murphy1967). Klutschak was in the islands and describes a ship “its small crew examined the islands of Bravo and Fogo … The ship sailed close to the small harbour of the island’s capital but instead of entering it sailed to and fro in the vicinity of a small settlement. … the Portuguese inhabitants likewise gave our ship their undivided attention … evening came, a boat was manned … returned to the ship in about an hour loaded with men. Both parties were satisfied” (p. 85). He continued to describe the recruitment by somewhat illegal means noting that every strong and healthy youngster is anxious to go to sea (p. 85) even for a ten-month voyage. Some selection took place before a full crew was assembled. The procedure “gained some validity … The American consul in Bravo was brought aboard in order to sign the muster roll” (p. 86). The new recruits completed their fitting out aboard as Flying Fish continued to South Georgia. Klutschak disembarked at Pernambuco, Brazil, during the return voyage.

Many logbooks have survived, especially in the several museums and archives in the New England ports of North America. Catalogues are available Lund et al. (Reference Lund, Josephson, Reeves and Smith2010), from which several works have made much use of their information (Busch, Reference Busch1985b).

Orthography

Personal names from sources in English often present a difficulty in recording the history of Portugal and the Antarctic. Few published records include names of complements of ships other than those of the Captain and perhaps some officers. Crew recruited during a voyage are less likely to be recorded than those boarding at its beginning. Many voyage records record signing of crew aboard vessels, but a large proportion of the entries are not in the manuscript of the recruits. Sealers’ literacy and orthography are rarely good. Robert Murphy (Reference Murphy1947), a biologist aboard the sealer Daisy in 1912, wrote a succinct comment on problems with their records in English observing that “The names may or may not be correct; no Yankee whaling officer ever spells a Portuguese name twice in the same way. The names also, both first and last have been badly scrambled in the records and some of them have become ‘Americanized’” (pp. 42–43). Capt. Gurdon Allyn (Reference Allyn1879) was laconic in his preface to The Old Sailor’s Story ··· in observing that “many who are proficient in seamanship and navigation are far from being proficient in a literary point of view.” The names listed here are as they appear in the literature, inscriptions and other sources of which a substantial proportion appear to be corrupted by human error or the effects of nature on inscriptions [likely corrections are given in parentheses].

Geography

A map of Antarctic regions, showing the peri-Antarctic islands of which Gough Island, Prince Edward Islands, Iles Crozet, Iles Kerguelen, Ile Amsterdam, Ile Saint-Paul, Heard Island, Macquarie Island, Auckland Islands, South Shetland Islands and South Georgia (in clockwise order from the 0º meridian) have Portuguese relevance, is Figure 1.

Figure 1.

Includes the islands used by sealers and whalers referred to in this text.

Prince Edward islands

Captain Gurdon Lathrop Allyn, from New London, made five sealing voyages between 1832 and 1857 aboard various ships all of which called at the Açores or Cabo Verde for salt and victualling. His many other voyages included three circumnavigations which visited Macau and Canton. Allyn was born in 1799; eighty years later, he published an autobiography, The Old Sailor’s Story – or a short account of – the Life, Adventures and Voyages (Allyn, Reference Allyn1879), which includes concise descriptions of these and many other voyages, several circumnavigating the Earth. In only one of these, which departed in 1844, did he report recruiting additional crew in Cabo Verde, but described this as a usual occurrence; thus, it probably had been more frequent. The voyage continued to the Prince Edward Islands for elephant seal oil thus Portuguese citizens reached this archipelago.

Iles Crozet

A United States sealing voyage left Mystic in 1843 aboard Emeline, Capt. William Eldridge, with Washington Fosdick aboard who wrote an account of which an abstract was published almost a century later (Watson, Reference Watson1931). After calling the Açores to recruit more crew and buy supplies, the ship had a difficult voyage encountering severe weather with fog and much ice. Sealing began in December on Ile de la Possession with work ashore and aboard. Fosdick described several wounds and injuries of the sealers. Christmas Day was celebrated with a meal including elephant seal and albatross eggs. The five Portuguese formed one of the shore gangs who had a good house for their accommodation (p. 517) with a try-works to extract elephant seal oil in the vicinity. The description continues reporting very uncomfortable weather and presence of several other sealing vessels, with consequent competition for diminishing resources. Emeline departed for Cape Town in early February with a substantial cargo of seal oil.

In the same season Bolton, Capt. Ellery Nash, from Stonington, was sealing on Iles Crozet, where he disputed beaches with a Cape Colony sealing gang and met several other United States sealers. At the end of the season, the logbook described a tremendous storm and difficulty taking a gang aboard. The 27 February 1844 entry tersely recorded One of the men on the island believed dead. He left SW Bay at night 18 days previous. Not seen or heard of since. Name John Antoine [João Antonio], Portuguese (Richards, Reference Richards1991).

Iles Kerguelen

The earliest recorded Portuguese Antarctic sealing expedition was in 1791 when a Captain recorded as Durkin (also recorded as Durgins) commanding Phoenix visited Iles Kerguelen and Ile Saint-Paul taking fur seal pelts bound to Macau (Richards, Reference Richards1984). Other Portuguese voyages followed in 1803–04 with Capt. Connen aboard Patriot, from Oporto who visited Iles Kerguelen (Jones, Reference Jones1971; Richards, Reference Richards1981). The records of Captain’s names, here and later, are mainly from English language sources; thus, a degree of anglicisation (perhaps exacerbated by deficient spelling) tends to confuse the record. Occasionally, a foreign Captain who was a specialist in the sealing industry commanded a Portuguese vessel.

A particularly detailed account of Antarctic sealing was written by Nathaniel W. Taylor, a physician aboard Julius Caesar, Capt. Ebenezer B. Morgan from New London, which, with a complement of 20, sailed from New Haven to Iles Kerguelen in August 1851 (Palmer, Reference Palmer1929). Details, including a sketch, concerning salt, other supplies and recruitment of six men and boys to supplement the crew in Fayal [Faial], are provided. The only crew names recorded are those aboard at the beginning of the voyage in New London. However, the work of the Fayal men is reported on several occasions during the narrative as they gained experience ashore and at sea. One of these, a lad aged 16, was placed in charge of livestock stationed on Iles Kerguelen during the long sealing season which included a winter before the ship returned in 1853. The book includes illustrations of the crew and their circumstances while sealing.

A United States sealing voyage sailed in 1880 from New London aboard Pilot’s Bride, Capt. Joseph Johnson Fuller, who had commanded several earlier sealing voyages. The vessel visited Iles Crozet, and then, disaster occurred at Iles Kerguelen where three men drowned when a boat overturned on 7 September 1881 and next Pilot’s Bride was wrecked on 2 October 1881. Those stranded ashore included eight recruits from the Açores and four from Cabo Verde. The published account described the vicissitudes they endured during eleven months stranded ashore until rescue by Francis Allyn, Capt. Robert H. Glass, in the next summer. Four men died on the island but the published account does not provide their names (Busch, Reference Busch1980).

Ile Amsterdam and Ile Saint-Paul

Ruy de Mello da Camara, commanding São Paulo, sailed from Belém in 1560 bound for Sumatra. He sighted Ile Amsterdam on 15 December 1560 which, with Ile Saint-Paul, is one of the most northerly of the peri-Antarctic islands. It appeared as “S. Paulo,” after the vessel, on a Portuguese chart drawn by d’Evert Gysberths, and several mariners confused it with the nearby Ile Saint-Paul (Richardson, Reference Richardson1989). The two islands are 90 km apart, almost on the same meridian, and confused historically on several occasions. The actual Ile Saint-Paul was visited in 1791 after a call at Iles Kerguelen described below. These islands, although small, became important sites for sealers. They were well-known to mariners crossing the Indian Ocean for confirming positions and as hazards to navigation.

Heard Island

This island was discovered in 1853, and sealers from Iles Kerguelen promptly extended their range to exploit its abundant elephant seal population. The island has no good harbours and decidedly adverse weather; thus, most oil extraction was done ashore by gangs who often wintered. There was a period of some 25 years when the island was constantly inhabited by sealers hoping to get a maximum yield of oil for opportunistic collection in a summer (Green & Woehler, Reference Green and Woehler2006). Inevitably Portuguese recruits were members of the gangs although there are few records of them. An observation in the log of Trinity, a New London sealer, Capt. John L. Williams, noted, on 1 September 1881, after an Antarctic winter: “The Portuguese have withstood the winter extraordinarily well. The record continued to indicate they had inadequate clothing and only poor shoes and yet some of them have been frost-bitten during winter” (Downes & Downes, Reference Downes and Downes2006, p. 194).

Macquarie Island

John Cumpston (Reference Cumpston1968, p. 6) in his comprehensive book on Macquarie Island reported the presence of Joachim [Joaquim], a Portuguese, among the 13 men of the crew of Perseverance taking fur seal pelts. The vessel left Sydney on 7 September 1810 for a fur-sealing expedition with a cargo including 35 tons of salt. In 1815, Betsy, also from Sydney, visited the island but experienced very severe weather which damaged her extensively. In difficult navigation, the vessel ran short of food and water; scurvy appeared with starvation causing several deaths. Cumpston (p. 34) recorded “28 September, Laurenza, [Lourenço] a Portuguese died to be followed three days later by a second Portuguese, Cordoza [Cardoso].”

The number of men required to crew the vessels varied from twenty-four to thirty-five according to the number of boats taken. “Most of the crew were shipped at home ports, but a limited number of green hands were taken at Cape Verde Islands, the natives of this place being adepts at both whaling and sealing” (Clark, Reference Clark1887, p. 428).

Auckland Islands

The Portuguese government introduced a subsidy for the whaling trade resulting in the 1838–40 whaling and sealing voyage, from Lisboa, led by Capt. José Mauritz commanding Speculacão [Especulação] which visited the Auckland Islands, 9 March to April 1840. There he met two exploratory expeditions commanded by Charles Wilkes from the United States (1838–42) and Jules Sebastian Dumont d’Urville from France (1837–40). James Robinson, from Britain, was aboard as a sealing master (McLaren, Reference McLaren1948).

This sub-Antarctic island of New Zealand attained a Portuguese connection owing to tragedy in this period. A Portuguese cook, Henry Forges [Henrique Borges], was aboard Grafton commanded by Thomas Musgrave when the ship was wrecked on the Auckland Islands on 2 January 1864. Her complement survived with difficulty until rescued 21 months later (McLaren, Reference McLaren1948). In the next year, Invercauld, a British collier was wrecked and three survivors of a crew of twenty-five waited a year before being rescued by a Portuguese vessel, Julian, commanded by C. Arrabarani. This was during a voyage from Macau for Callao with 350 Chinese workers aboard to be employed on South American railway construction. Julian visited the islands to make repairs having sprung a leak (Ingram & Wheatley, Reference Ingram and Wheatley1961; McLaren, Reference McLaren1948).

South Shetland Islands

One of the earliest published charts of the South Shetland Islands, drawn by Richard Sherratt in January and February 1821, although very stylised (and referred to by the editor as “quaint”), bears an inscription 11 Men left here on what is evidently King George Island (Roberts, Reference Roberts1952). The indefatigable A. G. E. Jones (Reference Jones1985 and Reference Jones1986) referred to the wintering, commenting that Lord Melville left a sealing gang and noted the adverse conditions they may have suffered. The vessel, commanded by John Clark, left London on 22 September 1820 for the South Shetland Islands and called at Buenos Aires during the return voyage, reaching London on 25 July 1821 (Headland, Reference Headland2018b). The London Public Ledger and Daily Advertiser of 31 July 1821 contained a report from the voyage:

New South Shetland – The Lord Melville, J. Clark, master has arrived in the London Docks from the New South Shetland Fishery, which he left on 31 ^st March, ··.

Capt Clark left a small colony at Easter Harbour [Esther Harbour, King George Island], consisting of the following individuals: R. Gibbs, of London first officer of the Lord Melville; G. Robinson, of Hamburgh, second officer of the Minerva, a vessel reported lost, but since arrived in the Brazils; J. Jordan, of Leith, boatswain of the Lord Melville; P. Howson, of Carron, carpenter; J. Lockey, of Essex; J. Semple, of Dundee; J. Ash, of Liverpool; J. Wares, a Portuguese; Wm. South of Aberdeen; J. Roberts of Liverpool; and J. Havers, of Harwich, seamen. They were left in good health and spirits, with a stock of twelve months provisions, and all the materials necessary for erecting three or four houses. Capt. Clark intends to sail on his return to New South Shetland in the course of a few weeks.

There are the usual discrepancies in orthography, including anglicisation of the Portuguese name. However, J. Wares became the first man from Portugal to spend the first recorded winter ashore on the South Shetland Islands. Sealers are known on various occasions to have wintered previously on several peri-Antarctic islands but none as far south as the South Shetland Islands. It is reasonable to assume, in this example, they wintered intentionally to secure pelts early at the beginning of the fur seals’ hauling out to begin the breeding season, before competing vessels would risk sailing through potentially ice encumbered waters.

Cyrene M. Clarke (Reference Clarke1855) privately published an 84 page book including an account of sealing in South Shetland Islands in 1853 when he sailed aboard Parana, Capt. Isaac Percival, from Sag Harbor, United States. His background is intriguing: many biblical references, with related observations on Christian morality, throughout the text suggest that he might have been a former clergyman. He was accommodated with the crew but he wrote as an observer rather than a participant in sealing. After calling at Cabo Verde, Parana visited Tierra del Fuego and Falkland Islands. South Shetland Islands were reached to secure elephant seal oil. On 2 December two boats “··· with the materials for building a hut, as a proportion of the crew was to remain on shore” (p. 30) landed on Elephant Island. The sealers left ashore included the second mate and two Portuguese sailors who remained until 5 January having procured four hundred barrels [67 000 l] of oil. The island, named after the eponymous seal, was a difficult one for landings which, in 1878 and 1916, was the site of survival by sealers and Shackleton’s Endurance expedition (Headland, Reference Headland2015).

Several newspaper accounts in 1873 contain notes on the second wintering, by a sealing gang from Franklin, on the South Shetland Islands during 1872. They include Pall Mall Gazette (27 May) in London and two United States papers, New York Herald (2 June) and Boston Daily Advertiser (12 June). Events may be summarised as Franklin, Captain James M. Holmes, was a tender to a United States fleet of three sealing vessels from New London which worked at the South Shetland Islands during the 1871–72 summer. In the usual course of operations, a sealing gang of six men was landed at Window Island, a productive sealing place, with supplies and an assurance that Franklin would be back in a week. The gang was led by James A. King and secured 4000 seal pelts so promptly that they departed, aboard a shallop, for King George Island to find more seals after leaving a note for the return of Franklin. Captain Holmes returned and found the note, collected the accumulation of pelts and proceeded to King George Island but could find no trace of the gang whom, he supposed, might be dead.

Newspaper accounts described a difficult journey during the winter to reach sealers’ depots using a shallop where possible. An “old lodge” at Potter Cove, south-west King George Island, was reached but two men, Charles Gardner of the United States and Pedro Monteiro from Portugal, died during that journey. Three others were suffering from frost-bitten feet and consequent gangrene; the last two “began to lose their minds.” These three later left intending to return to Livingston Island by boat and were never seen again. King remained in the hut until 22 November when he was rescued (Headland, Reference Headland2018a).

South Georgia

Sealers’ established cemeteries on several peri-Antarctic islands, and inscriptions, generally on wood, remain legible on a proportion of them. From that era, South Georgia has a Portuguese grave at Grytviken which Otto Nordenskjöld (Reference Nordenskjöld1904: 354) saw in 1902 and copied the inscription: Josep H. Montaro, Bravo C. D. Verda, A.B. Sch S. W. Hunt, died Feb.28 ^th , 1891 Aged 19 years. R.I.P (Nordenskjöld, Reference Nordenskjöld1904). His grave is one of the 64 in the whalers’ and sealers’ cemetery. He was one of the crew, an Able Bodied Seaman, of the United States sealer Sarah W. Hunt, commanded by John Orrin Spicer, which left Stonington, United States, in 1889 and returned in 1891.

Robert Cushman Murphy, a biologist, accompanied the last old-style sealing voyage to South Georgia in 1912–13 aboard Daisy, Capt. Benjamin Cleveland, and wrote a detailed journal for Grace, his new wife (Murphy, Reference Murphy1947). The complement was 44, although only 34 completed the voyage. The names recorded included 24 Portuguese who ranged in age from 53 (first mate) to 19 (cabin boy), with most in their early 20s. Their language was the main one used aboard. João Alves, the first mate, was sufficiently literate to have kept a log on an earlier voyage. Birthplace and height of the crew are also listed. A facsimile of the complement list (Fig. 2) appeared in Murphy’s 1967 illustrated account of the voyage (p. 171) which, despite the limited legibility, indicates many of the crew names, and Murphy indicates Portuguese was the main language aboard.

Figure 2.

The signing aboard register for Daisy.

During Daisy’s time on South Georgia José Gonçalves Correira, the cooper described as Old stock Portuguese from the island of Fayal [Faial] (Murphy, Reference Murphy1947, p. 44), distinguished himself by assisting collection and preparation of bird specimens for the American Museum of Natural History. He was commissioned in the next two austral summers to continue collecting on South Georgia for the museum to where he was transported by the whaling fleet. In November 1914, he met Robert Clarke of Shackleton’s Endurance who noted he provided valuable information about the island’s birds (Wordie, Reference Wordie1914). Murphy (Reference Murphy1936) acknowledged Correira’s work in his very comprehensive Oceanic Birds of South America volumes.

From 1904 to 1966, South Georgia was the world’s Antarctic whaling capital, whalers adopted several Antarctic sealers’ cemeteries and more Portuguese nationals came to lie there. The modern whaling industry operated from land stations on several peri-Antarctic islands where the nature of the industry was such that a cemetery became established at every whaling station. Indeed, South Georgia alone has 206 known graves as well as additional records of committal to the deep and return of bodies to countries of origin. Records kept by Magistrates of the Falkland Islands Dependencies government from 1909, the Grytviken church from 1913, and whaling stations are comprehensive (Headland, Reference Headland1987). These list the graves of five Portuguese employees, in the several whalers’ cemeteries on South Georgia, all of whom died during a three-year period. The Ocean Harbour cemetery has been located recently and contains only two graves, both Portuguese but not individually identified: Ignacio M. Nevis, Portugal, died on 30 March 1920 aged 23 and Augusto Oliveira, from São Vicente, Cabo Verde, died on10 May 1920 aged 23. Paulino Talantino, also from São Vicente, died on 27 August 1920, aged 37, lies in Stromness Harbour cemetery but his grave is among several unidentified ones, as the inscriptions have not endured. José Gonçalves, another from São Vicente, died on 10 March 1922 aged 38; he lies in Leith Harbour cemetery with a marble headstone. António Luís Silva from São António, Cabo Verde, died on 17 March 1923 aboard the whaling factory ship Orwell, aged 27, and lies in Husvik cemetery where he was interred on 3 April 1923; his grave also has a marble headstone. These are but a small example of the numbers of Portuguese nationals who have been employed on the whaling stations of South Georgia.

Gough Island

The earliest of the peri-Antarctic Islands to be discovered was Gough Island discovered in 1505 by Pedro d’Aniah captain of Santo Espirito, one of a fleet of six vessels, during a voyage from Portugal to Sofala on the east African coast. The ship was blown off course southwards and discovered an island which first appeared in approximately the correct position on a Portuguese chart in 1519 named Gonçalo Alvarez after the ship’s pilot (Wace, Reference Wace1969). The island was known to several Netherlands expeditions but was rediscovered in 1732 by a British mercantile voyage, from London for China, commanded by Charles Gough aboard Richmond. Both islands appeared on charts of the time but, after the islands were identified as the same, the later name came to prevail (Hänel, Chown, & Gaston, Reference Hänel, Chown and Gaston2005).

Brazilian sealing

There was one Brazilian interlude in sealing, on Iles Crozet. In 1836, a United States whaling and sealing voyage sailed from New York aboard Athenian. The first captain was Roland Sears Hallet but James S. Nash took command in 1837–39. This voyage visited South Shetland Islands and continued to Iles Crozet and Prince Edward Islands. When the vessel returned to New York in 1839, it had been renamed Flaminense [Fluminense] and was under the Brazilian flag. Flaminense sailed in 1840 from Rio de Janeiro on a Brazilian voyage reportedly commanded by Mauredos Kiyselenny. William Stetson, of the United States, was aboard as sealing master. The vessel visited Iles Kerguelen, then called at Cape Town and continued to Iles Crozet where she was wrecked on 29 August. The captain and thirteen others drowned but five men survived although the source does not describe their rescue (there were several other sealing vessels at the islands in that year). These circumstances are unusual – but there are several precedents where flag of registration, command of a sealing or other vessel and similar factors were adjusted to avoid customs duties and other taxation, circumvent war and political disturbances, avoid creditors, and resolve many other maritime exigencies (Busch, Reference Busch1985b; Watson, Reference Watson1931).

Portuguese glaciological terminology

From the age of discoveries, during which Portuguese navigators charted more than half the globe, the extent of Lusitanian influence with trading ports, other settlements and colonial dependencies extended. It is interesting to contemplate that, compared to other European powers which also extended influence widely, Portuguese territory did not come to include any of the glaciated regions of the planet. A consequence of this arose after Brasil acceded to the Antarctic Treaty in 1975 and established the Comissão Nacional para Assuntos Antárticos in 1982 which organised its first research voyage in that year. In 1984, Portugal joined SCAR and deployed a scientific station, Commandante Ferraz, on King George Island, South Shetland Islands. A fundamental problem became apparent; for geographical reasons, Portuguese, although the most widely spoken language in the Southern Hemisphere, did not include a detailed vocabulary of terms for glaciological and related studies. The remedy was simple. A vocabulary was coordinated with the Comunidade dos Países de Língua Portuguesa in Lisboa which was published in 2004 (Simões, Reference Simões2004) and contained some 200 words. Portuguese recent involvement with Antarctic research intensified with the International Polar Years of 2007–09 (Xavier, Vieira & Canário, Reference Xavier, Vieira and Canário2006; Rei, Reference Rei2021).

Summary

Thus, Portuguese citizens came to know ten of the nineteen peri-Antarctic archipelagos because of discovery, 1800s sealing, 1900s whaling or a combination of factors: Ile Amsterdam, Auckland Islands, Iles Crozet, Gough Island, Heard Island, Iles Kerguelen, Macquarie Island, Prince Edward Islands, South Georgia and South Shetland Islands (Fig. 1). The examples given above are but the few known from sparse published accounts. Examination of individual manuscript logbooks will yield more. A detailed investigation of Portuguese publications concerning sealing and Antarctic regions is yet to be undertaken.

Although a worldwide industry, the vast majority of whaling has been in polar regions, particularly the Southern Ocean. From the early 1900s, the question of over-exploitation has been a concern of the industry. In 1946, the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling was negotiated in Washington, United States, on 2 December, by delegates from fourteen countries with observers from five others, including Portugal. The International Whaling Commission was established, which subsequently met annually to discuss measures to conserve stocks of whales the vast majority of which were taken in Southern Ocean waters. During the 2000s, Portugal has become involved in Antarctic research and is a member of the international scientific and diplomatic organisations coordinating such activities.