Behindthe THE SYMBOLISM OF THE ICONIC CANADIAN FISHING AND RACING SCHOONER BLUENOSE MAYsails BE AS RELEVANT TODAY AS IT WAS 100 YEARS AGO WHEN THE SHIP FIRST HIT THE WATER

BY KAREN PINCHIN

The Bluenose Wing ‘n Wing, an oil-on-canvas depiction of the legendary ship by William E. deGarthe circa 1956.

40 CANADIAN GEOGRAPHIC MARCH/APRIL 2021 CANGEO.CA 41 Historian Michael Santos

Clockwise from top left: The crew of Bluenose fishing on the Grand Banks; historian Michael Santos, who notes that the cancellation of the America’s With the introduction of steam- “fishing was a rough-and-tumble life”; Cup due to high winds, Dennis powered trawlers and draggers, Atlantic riggers fit a jib, fresh from the sail-loft, started laughing, says Michael San- Canadian schooner fishermen were as Bluenose prepares to race in 1938; tos, a historian at Virginia’s well aware their hard-won, the ship’s first captain, Angus J. Walters. University of Lynchburg. “He said, specialized skills were on track to BLUENOSE’S MAIDEN FISHING TRIP The era in which Bluenose ‘I bet our boys down in Lunenburg obsolescence. Just as the invention of members shared in the profits or losses nearly ended before it began. It was was built was “a time fraught with wouldn’t have this kind of a prob- mechanized equipment had changed of a voyage. In that way, the Fisher- nighttime in the spring of 1921, and distressing things,” says Heather- lem.’” The races, as Dennis and the lives of steel and textile workers men’s Trophy provided an unexpected the ship’s crew had just finished their Anne Getson, former historian at the others envisioned them, would be before them, it now threatened the and welcome reprieve for sailors whose first day catching cod on the Grand Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic, in “for real sailors” and prove that “the entire premise and ownership structure livelihoods were existentially threatened Banks off Newfoundland. At around Lunenburg, N.S., and author of the age of sail is not ended.” of fishing under sail, in which crew by the industrial revolution. 2 a.m., to the horror of Captain book Bluenose: The Ocean Knows Her Angus J. Walters, the watch shouted Name. Communities around the an alarm: a huge wooden schooner world had been devastated by the Bwas careening out of the blowing, human and economic losses of the inky darkness toward their smaller First World War, which, in a cruel ship. The “free-cussing” Walters twist, had been followed by the illness ordered the crew overboard in small and death of millions in the Spanish fishing dories while the watch fran- flu pandemic. Captain Angus J. Walters tically blew the foghorn. At the very “There was a localized economic last moment, the oncoming vessel depression, fish prices were low, and sheared away. “What actually put her Bluenose gave people something to they first had to complete a punishing clear of us, that she did not cut us in focus on,” says Getson. Society is now fishing season far offshore: this was two, is more than I can say,” Walters being rocked, she says, in a way that the primary requirement for entering later said. “That full-rigged ship just is deeply reminiscent of the days dur- the International Fishermen’s Tro- cleared us by inches.” ing and after the Spanish flu. phy, which was held sporadically to It was a close call — the first of “Bluenose was a symbol of hard work crown the fastest schooner in the many — in a legacy that, for many and success and victory during times North Atlantic fishing fleet. Canadians, is gilt with triumph. But like that were very, very hard.” It was William Dennis, a promi- most symbols fated for coins, Heritage So it went that, a century ago, an nent Halifax newspaper publisher Minutes and licence plates, the true unlikely alliance of businesspeople, and senator, who masterminded the story of Bluenose is more complicated. fishermen, sailing hobbyists and ship- races. Reading an article detailing In its lifetime, the ship was a sure-shot, builders launched the 143-foot a shipwreck, a phoenix rising from the Bluenose onto a stage of global con- ashes. Yet even now, in today’s perilous flict, pandemic and fundamental Karen Pinchin (@karenpinchin) writes for a wide historical moment, Bluenose contains societal and technological change. range of publications including The Globe and another tale, one with eerie echoes from The ship’s reputation was eventually Mail, The Walrus and Modern Farmer. She lives the past and hopeful, cautionary lessons built on its unmatched racing record. in Dartmouth, N.S.

for the future. But before its crew could compete, SCOTIA ARCHIVES 1987-453 NO MACASKILL NOVA ART COLLECTION: 1986-352 NO. 7. THIS SPREAD: W.R. SCOTIA ARCHIVES DOCUMENTARY PREVIOUS SPREAD: WILLIAM E. DEGARTHE NOVA SCOTIA ARCHIVES 1987-453 NO. 304 (BOTTOM RIGHT). MACASKILL NOVA 3897 (TOP LEFT); W.R. KERRY HODGSON/CAN GEO. MAP: CHRIS BRACKLEY/CAN GEO. ILLUSTRATIONS:

42 CANADIAN GEOGRAPHIC MARCH/APRIL 2021 CANGEO.CA 43 Clockwise from top left: Fishing the Grand Banks; Captain Walters with the 1921 international cup; a 1931 race map; 1931 race promo; Bluenose and U.S. counterpart Columbia crews circa 1923; international elimination races in Halifax Harbour in 1921; Trophy founder William Dennis.

To compete, both the American and Canadian racing teams first had to win their national qualifying trials, held off Gloucester, Mass., and Hali- fax, respectively, in early October. “Fishing was a rough-and-tumble with the machismo and romance of the The Inter­national Fishermen’s Tro- life, but it was something they knew sea that was the zeitgeist of the day. phy course was set at 35 to 40 nautical they were good at,” says Santos. Fishermen may have scorned sweep- miles, alternating between the coun- “Angus Walters was a son of a bitch, ing, sentimental writing such as tries, and the ship that won the best but you want to work for him why? Rudyard Kipling’s Captains Courageous two out of three races would take the southern competitors as pretty-boy Because he’s good at what he does,” and American writer James Connolly’s $4,000 prize. Although the bragging “sharpshooters” — a stereotype he says of Bluenose’s captain. “All The Deep Sea’s Toll — “for the working- rights were priceless, it was a hand- founded on the speed and sleeker these guys had family links going class guys, all this stuff was BS,” says some reward for the time. design of the American ships. As the back several generations, so fishing Santos — but those works captured the In 1920, America’s Esperanto U.S. market for fresh fish grew, get- was expected to be, as one account is what they did. There was a sense public imagination. (That said, Santos swept the first two races of the first ting back to port quickly became a put it, “a freighter as well as a fisher- of community, a sense of pride, but notes captains were sentimental in inter­national match, beating out sure way for Gloucestermen to yield man.” For a Lunenburg captain who also a sense that the enemy was the their own way about their fishing ves- Canada’s Delawana. It was a bruis- the best price for their catch, spent days getting to the grounds new technology.” sels, though theirs was more of a ing loss for the Lunenburgers. whereas the farther-flung Canadian and weeks chasing cod destined for Not a seafarer himself, Dennis had practical romanticism — a connection Trophy founder William Dennis Though their rivalry was generally fleet relied on fishing capacity as salting, landing and carrying fish in

channelled a mainstream captivation with their schooners and to the sea.) SCOTIA MACASKILL NOVA SCOTIA ARCHIVES; W.R. SCOTIA ARCHIVES 1987-453 NO. 261; NOVA MACASKILL NOVA SCOTIA ARCHIVES 1987-453 NO 4896; W.R. MACASKILL NOVA W.R. CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: SCOTIA ARCHIVES 1987-453 NO. 6009; KERRY HODGSON/CAN GEO MACASKILL NOVA SCOTIA ARCHIVES VOL 179 NO18; W.R. ARCHIVES 20040050; NOVA friendly, they had dismissed their much as speed. A Canadian ship volume was key.

44 CANADIAN GEOGRAPHIC MARCH/APRIL 2021 CANGEO.CA 45 Shipyard proprietor George Rhuland

Clockwise from top left: Bluenose being built at the Smith & Rhuland shipyard in Lunenburg, N.S.; shipyard proprietor The group commissioned William George Rhuland; launch day March 26, Roué, a mainly self-taught naval 1921; ship builder Richard Smith; architect who grew up studying ship Bluenose architect William Roué. manuals by candlelight, to design the Months earlier, the American title- was a distinction that made Bluenose a vessel. At the time, Roué worked full- of birch — and both he and Walters holder Esperanto had struck a “highliner,” a ship known for the size time for his family’s soft-drink demanded constant tweaks from the submerged wreck off the coast of and value of its catch. company, but he had also won a rep- builders. As the ship took shape, so did Sable Island, N.S., and sank, so a new Often the ship’s drama was of utation designing smaller craft, hopes for it. In December 1920, Can­ U.S. challenger for the championship, Walters’ own making. In the 1923 mostly racing skiffs, for members of ada’s Governor General, the Duke of Elsie, was chosen. To take the October championship, Bluenose’s boom the Nova Scotia Yacht Squadron. A Devonshire, travelled from Ottawa to 1921 international series, Bluenose rammed and briefly dragged its chal- handful of Roué’s clients vouched for drive the ceremonial spike. (In an igno- had to win two out of three races, but lenger, Columbia, in the first race, and his talent, and after a series of draft minious start, it is said the Duke had a did one better: it won all three. the ship passed on the wrong side of Bluenose architect William Roué designs, one was approved and con- bit too much to drink before the cere- (Although, by the end of the last race, a buoy during the second. After a struction soon started. mony and missed the spike; someone one observer noted that Walters committee of judges handed the sec- Spurred by the national loss of the Somewhat ironically, it was a scien- else had to drive it in.) looked like “a piece of chewed string” ond race to the Gloucester captain Ship builder Richard Smith first Fishermen’s Trophy, Dennis, tific advancement — specifically, Finally, on March 26, 1921, Audrey from the stress.) Ben Pine, Walters was furious and alongside veteran schooner captain mathematics’ waveform theory — that Smith, Walters’ niece and the daugh- Throughout the 1920s and ’30s, the refused to finish the series. Walters and a gaggle of business- resulted in the near-perfect physics ter of shipbuilder Richard Smith, ship hogged front-page headlines “The judges threw some yachting reds of sailors’ lives. Fish prices people and investors then formed the of Bluenose’s curving hull, the stern champagne-christened the ship across Canada, says historian Getson, protocol at him,” says Santos. “But he continued to drop, and steel trawlers Bluenose Schooner Company, a name of which was once described by a before it slid into the harbour’s calm not just because the ship and its crew says, ‘I won that fair and square’ and continued to devour the industry. Bat- chosen for a popular nickname for Toronto Star marine writer as “almost waters. After the installation of sails succeeded in beating the Americans then, “screw you, I’m taking Bluenose tered and bruised, Bluenose kept Nova Scotians. Their eponymous ship canoelike.” “It wasn’t a fluke, it was and rigging, the ship’s first quick sail, time and again, but because Canadians fishing.’” Dropping out of the series fishing, up to and past the famed 1929 was eventually built for $35,000 — a math­ematical calculation,” says his according to one report, “gave prom- were searching for hope. “There was caused an uproar, but it was a call that stock market crash. That year, the ship steep investment that required the great-granddaughter Joan Roué. “He ise of the speed that was in her.” just such a sense that history was being made sense to many. “Let us remem- was once again nearly destroyed on selling of 350 shares, worth $100 each. designed the shape of the hull so it made,” she says. “This is something ber that the Bluenose is a fishing rocks off the coast of Newfoundland. “Bluenose was built to win back the would provide the least amount of AFTER FOUR MONTHS PLYING that came right from the basic liveli- vessel,” said one writer for the Boston Walters continued to fish, says San- International Fishermen’s Trophy resistance.” the Grand Banks, the crew headed hood of people, people who were just Herald. “We should not look for the tos, because it was all he knew how to from the Americans,” says Jeff For months, Walters oversaw con- back to port, racing other ships for like anyone else. And yet they were ethics and practices of the Tennis do, even as the world and the industry Noakes, Second World War historian struction at the Smith & Rhuland sport along the way, donned the ship’s able to overcome.” In between race court and the Polo field on the decks changed around him. “Anyone can go at the Canadian War Museum in shipyard at the heart of Lunenburg’s racing sails and topmast, and pre- series, Bluenose put up impressive fish- of a deep sea fishing schooner.” out on a boat and drag the ocean floor,” Ottawa. “And the Bluenose is explicitly gently curved harbour. Roué had pared to face their Canadian ing numbers, in 1923 landing more For seven years, the races were sus- he says. “If I’m a sailing fisherman, a built as a working fishing vessel, selected specific woods for their weight challengers in the Canadian qualifier than 293,000 kilograms of cod and pended, during which time Bluenose schoonerman, it takes a lot of skill to because that’s one of the require- and buoyancy — spruce and oak for for the international contest — which securing the record for the biggest nearly sank — twice — off Sable think like a codfish. These guys were

ments to win.” the frame, pine for the decks, a bottom they handily won. KERRY HODGSON/CAN GEO. SCOTIA ARCHIVES 20040012 (TOP RIGHT); ILLUSTRATIONS: MACASKILL NOVA SCOTIA ARCHIVES 1987-453 NO. 427 (TOP LEFT); W.R. MACASKILL NOVA W.R. catch ever brought into Lunenburg. It Island in storms that claimed hund­ out two, three months at a time. And

46 CANADIAN GEOGRAPHIC MARCH/APRIL 2021 CANGEO.CA 47 Clockwise from top left: Bluenose near Cardinal, Ont., en route to the Chicago World’s Fair in 1933; a 1998 stamp with Bluenose and its architect Roué; an iconic image of the ship; historian Jeff Noakes.

diesel engines were finally installed limited to an uncertain idea that ships on Bluenose. “It was an indignity,” float in water which commences where wrote Walters’ biographer. The next land ceases to be.” Bluenose’s reputa- year, the Royal Canadian Mint issued tion and meaning had officially its famous 10-cent coin with a portrait transcended its planks. of King George VI on one side and a “These races captured national ship that the Halifax Herald noted was attention in the way that hockey might “obviously designed from a photo of today,” says historian Noakes. “There the Bluenose” on the other. (In 2002, are newsreels that are filmed; there’s the mint confirmed that it is, indeed, radio recording that occurs in later the famous schooner on the dime.) years. These stories get national atten- But no notoriety, it seemed, could tion, and that helps engrave it on the save the ship from low fish prices. Historian Jeff Noakes public consciousness.” One Halifax op-ed urged the Canad­ Yet as galvanizing as many Canad­ ian government to preserve Bluenose, the Grand Banks are not a fun place. ians found the races, the ship’s path whose working days were obviously They’re a dangerous place. And these lionized white men to the exclusion of numbered. “Whatever her value as a guys do this all the time.” Indigenous Peoples — schooners working fisherman may be, it would In 1933, Walters and his ship were were a blunt tool of European coloniz- be impossible in terms of money to chosen by the Canadian government ers and facilitated centuries of land measure her sentimental value or the to represent the country at the Chi- theft from Indigenous Peoples — as imponderable of her significance in cago World’s Fair. Despite being deep well as women and racialized immi- the life of this Dominion.” in the grip of the Great Depression, grants. It’s obvious now, Noakes In 1938, Bluenose and Walters won crowds thronged inland harbours says, that the ship was never galva- their last International Fishermen’s along the famous ship’s route, cheer- nizing for “all Canadians.” Still, he Trophy, and in 1942, Walters sold the ing and craning their necks. says, it has held meaning for many, ship to two Americans who trans- The ship stopped at major cities even if it was always a product sold ported food, munitions and supplies along the Great Lakes waterway — and and marketed to the Canadian pub- between the U.S. and the Caribbean won a 300-pound cheese for winning a lic. “There’s the idea of how identities during the Second World War. race on Lake Michigan. In Toronto, develop and how identities can, to a According to a biography of Walters, along the city’s Scarborough Bluffs, it certain extent, be constructed,” he the ship’s zippy speed could outrun was welcomed en masse. “All kinds says. “It’s the ship on the dime, German U-boats as “sails billowing in and sorts and colours and conditions right? But it also becomes this sym- Atlantic winds, she danced lightly and ages of Toronto people were bol of Nova Scotia.” from wave to wave.” Still, it was a there,” went one report. “Many, no In the spring of 1936, Walters disappointing final career for such a

doubt whose nautical knowledge is made a concession to technology, and storied schooner. LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA_COPYRIGHT CANADA POST CORPORATION; LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA COPYRIGHT POST CORPORATION; CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: SHIPS: BLUENOSE; KERRY HODGSON/CAN GEO & COMMUNICATION: SCOTIA ARCHIVES TRANSPORTATION PHOTO COLLECTION NOVA

48 CANADIAN GEOGRAPHIC MARCH/APRIL 2021 CANGEO.CA 49 Bluenose’s first captain Angus Walters in 1961 (left). His ship and crew at the A.M. Smith wharf in Halifax in 1938 (top right) and reproduced as a model (below right).

Until the end of his life, Walters lived a short distance from where the ship had docked and was present at the 1963 launching of Bluenose II. Built as a tourist attraction by the Oland family beer company, the new ship cost $300,000 and to this day has never raced or fished commer- cially. It does, however, continue to welcome thousands of visitors aboard every year as it sails through- out the Maritimes — at least, during a normal season. In the summer of 2020, the ship’s 20-person crew formed a “Bluenose bubble” designed to protect them and visitors from the deadly COVID-19. Once again, a Bluenose must share the stage with a global pandemic. “Ninety-nine years ago, Captain In 1946, Bluenose ran aground for IN THE QUIET NOVA SCOTIA Angus Walters took up the mantle of the last time off a Haitian reef. Soon archives lives a brittle, slim booklet the Bluenose, representing the hopes after, Walters was summoned from with a cover of midnight blue and tur- and pride of Nova Scotians,” said the a curling match in Lunenburg to quoise. Inside, on its first yellowed province’s heritage minister learn of the sinking of his beloved page, is a pasted photograph of Blue- announcing the ship’s plans for the ship, which he had previously spent nose. The ship’s dark, gleaming hull summer of 2020. “We hope that see- and a bottomless capitalist appetite for $7,200 of his own money trying to sears through a slight chop, sails ing the ship sail along our sea-bound our planet’s bounty, have not. But this save. He wanted to fly south to see if puffed and straining against their coast will help communities remem- vision — of unlikely allies pulling the ship could be salvaged, but ropes, a true creature of the sea. On the ber that as with all storms, the sun together, facing the storm and tri- within a day of being abandoned, facing page, staring into the distance, will shine again.” umphing against the odds — can still Bluenose had been “chewed to bits” is a line drawing of Walters, whose life For Getson and others, Bluenose’s serve us. Those toiling on its decks, on a coral reef. He presented a stiff and reputation the ship shaped and life wasn’t — and isn’t — the wood facing lives of hard work, struggle and upper lip to a local paper: “You shared. Theirs is a journey shared, if of its planks or the glamorous, disappointment — those sailors over- couldn’t expect her to go on for- only in sentiment, by Canadians who other-worldly photos that headlined came. And so, the Bluenose promise ever,” he said. see their own hardships and victories newspapers around the world. holds, can we. “In the days of her youth we mirrored in the ship’s journey. Instead, they see those men aboard “Captain Walters and the various cheered her to the echo and bragged “Growing up in Lunenburg, it was the ship, the tips of their fingers crews were all able to dig into them- of the prowess of Nova Scotia ships,” impossible to not know about Blue- freezing, their eyes squinted into the selves, to really search deeply within wrote former Nova Scotia premier nose. The victories, but also the sun, hair whipping in a stiff breeze, themselves and come out on top,” Harold Connolly in his foreword to struggles,” says Getson, a seventh- their families waiting at home, scan- says Getson. “Everyone in their lives the 1955 Walters biography Bluenose generation Lunenburger, who met ning the horizon. To move forward, faces challenges and comes face-to- Skipper: The Angus Walters Story. Walters when she was four years old. acting even in the face of uncer- face with adversity and triumph at the “When, however, the mantle of time “It was a very serious business being tainty, remains an act of hope same time. We can relate.” fell around her shoulders, we did introduced to the captain. I remember and courage. not so much as honour her with an he knelt down to look me straight eye- The age of sail has ended. Its lega- Learn more about the 100th anniversary

old age pension.” to-eye, and we shook hands.” cies, of white supremacy, colonialism SCOTIA ARCHIVES NSIS NO 10843 (BOTTOM RIGHT) SCOTIA ARCHIVES (TOP RIGHT); NOVA NOVA SCOTIA ARCHIVES NSIS NO. 14384 (LEFT); WILLIAM RINGSLEBEN AND SERVICE NOVA SCOTIA INFORMATION NOVA of Bluenose at bluenose100.ca.

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