Nova Scotias famous fishing and racing schooner.

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The Bluenose

• Nova Scotias famous fishing and racing schooner.

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In 1920, the Americas Cup Boat Race was
cancelled because the high winds that year were
considered too dangerous. This was to the great
disappointment of the fishermen of New England
and the Maritimes. Thus, they resolved to hold
their own competition.
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The Halifax Herald Newspaper (based in Nova
Scotia) donated a cup and established rules for
the new boat race competition. The International
Fishermens Trophy was born. It featured ships
from Gloucester, Massachusetts, and Lunenburg,
Nova Scotia.
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The first competition, held in 1920, was won by a
ship from Gloucester. This was to the great
anger of the Lunenburg fleet.
A young naval architect from Halifax, William J.
Roue, was commissioned to design a new schooner.
It was to meet the high standards of the
Lunenburg fishing fleet, and was also to be fast
enough to capture the Trophy.
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That ship was the Bluenose. It was the 121st
ship built by the Smith Rhuland Shipyard in
Lunenburg. The Bluenose was launched on March
26, 1921.
Since then, the Bluenose won the International
Fishermens Trophy five years in a row 1921,
1922, 1923, 1931, and 1938.
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While most of the Bluenoses fame came from
racing, it was also a capable fishing vessel.
The Bluenose served for nearly twenty seasons,
when the average lifespan of a wooden schooner
was ten.
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The Bluenose was sold to the West Indian Trading
Company in 1942. This was due to a combination
of the ships age, the Great Depression, and the
advance of diesel powered fishing trawlers. The
Bluenose served as a freighter for four years.
Alas, it ran into a reef near Haiti and sank in
January, 1946.
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In 1960, the Smith Rhuland Shipyard built a
replica of the H.M.S. Bounty for the M.G.M. movie
Mutiny on the Bounty.
This even made Nova Scotians dream once again of
the Bluenose.
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Around the same time, the brewing company Oland
and Sons were planning to build a replica of a
Nova Scotian fishing schooner, to promote their
new Schooner Beer.
This was how Bluenose II was born.
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Bluenose II was built from the original plans of
Bluenose I. It was also built in the same port
in Lunenburg as the original. Some of the
original craftsmen who worked on the original
Bluenose also worked on Bluenose II.
Bluenose II was launched in Lunenburg on July 24,
1963.
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Bluenose II is not allowed to race, lest it
jeopardize the reputation of the origional. The
new ship is still fast though.
However, the interior is vastly different.
Bluenose II has comfortable quarters, a chart
room, and a spacious salon. These things are
where the original Bluenose would have stored
salt and fish.
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In 1971, the Oland family sold the Bluenose II to
the province of Nova Scotia for the price of one
dollar.
The Bluenose remains the most recognized symbol
of Nova Scotia, and is immortalized as a Canadian
symbol on the Canadian dime.
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I gave her the power to carry sail. - William
J. Roue, designer
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Bibliography
Getson, Heather-Anne. Bluenose. World Book
Multimedia Encyclopedia. Electronic. World
Book, Inc., 2002. Flinn, Scott. Bluenose.
Posted January 9, 2004. Online. http//www.cs.ub
c.ca/spider/flinn/bluenose/index.html Accessed
April 28, 2004. Images used in this presentation
were gathered from various sources on the
internet. No image was created by the maker of
this presentation.