Horta Harbour by Gerald Fiebig | 11:06
Faial (Azores), 27 March 2011
Politically a part of Portugal and geologically straddling the edge of two tectonic plates, the volcanic Azores archipelago can be considered in
several ways to be the westernmost edge of Europe. This recording was made in the harbour of Horta on the Azorean island of Faial, a crucial port of
call for sailboats crossing the Atlantic in either direction. Culturally, Horta has also been somewhere on the edge of different eras during the last
100 years. Once an important relay station for submarine telegraph cables and early transatlantic flights with hydroplanes, the 5,000-inhabitant town
experienced a “golden age” in the early 20th century that reached its terminal edge when communication and transport technologies changed. A museum
exhibiting scrimshaw (whalebone carvings) some 100 metres from the recording location and a former whaling factory just outside the town centre also
testify to the history of the Azores as an important whaling ground. Both spots represent the edge of a past era in the ecological history of the
Azores which are known today as a popular whale-watching destination.
Photographs by Tine Klink and Gerald Fiebig