Basques continue to celebrate their whaling and fishing tradition with Estropadak or Open-Sea Regattas, which are nothing like the typical regattas most people are used to. Thirteen oarsmen and the coxswain load into a very wide boat, modeled after the old fishermen's boats, which have fixed benches. They row out on the raucous Bay of Biscay to a buoy a mile or so out, row around it, and then race back into shore. This famous sport may have developed from fishermen racing one another back to shore with their day's catch; the first one back to shore got the best market price for his fish.
But as with all things Basque, the origins are uncertain and it could also be connected to Basque whalers racing each other out to sea. The first boat whose harpooner stabbed his harpoon into the whale became the "hunter" of that whale and so earned the greatest portion of its proceeds from the meat, blubber, teeth and baleen they processed.
No comments:
Post a Comment