In 1937 the schooner Bluenose was reproduced on the Canadian ten cent piece in tribute to a sailing vessel that had brought international fame to Canada as the greatest “salt bank” racer ever to ply the waters of the Grand Banks. Nearly sixty years later, the Canadian Mint is still producing this coin.

The Bluenose’s claim to fame began in 1921.
 

Painter, Nicholas John Henderson, born in Jones Falls, Ontario, was able to reproduce the Bluenose in meticulous detail because, as friend of ship captain, Angus Walters, he as able to sail aboard the Bluenose before he painted her in 1930. Subsequently reproduced on a calendar, this pulchritudinous rendition of the  Bluenose became the inspiration for immortalizing Canada's best-known sailing vessel on the Canadian dime. [Painting, courtesy Nick Henderson/ Photo, courtesy Geoff Webster

In 1920, Senator W.H. Dennis, owner of the Halifax Herald, had initiated and sponsored a trophy to be awarded to the sailing champion of the North American fishing fleet, thereby formalizing the race rivalry that had been going on unofficially for years between the fishermen of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, and Gloucester, Massachusetts. A $4,000 prize accompanied the trophy.

The Lunenburgers were stung when the first race, held in October 1920, went to the Americans. Consequently, in 1921, according to historian C.J. Snider, “Some good Halifax sports joined with thrifty Lunenburgers and a few central Canada ‘angels’” to build a vessel that would regain the International Fisherman’s Trophy and asked William J. Roué, a local sailing enthusiast with a reputation for designing yachts, to produce a sure winner. In March 1921, the Bluenose was launched at the town’s Smith and Rhuland Shipyards where a doubtful senior partner of the yard commented, “I don’t think nothing of her. We built her as close to the Roué lines as we knew how. If she’s a success, he gets the praise. If she’s a failure, he gets the blame.”

One not sharing that view was Angus Walters, the part owner and future captain of the Bluenose who had gone to sea on his father’s schooner in 1895 at the age of 13 and now, 26 years later, had become a respected, salty-tongued skipper known for hoisting plenty of sail and for his uncanny ability to find fish.

Walters, a part owner and captain of three schooners before the Bluenose, had some design changes made before taking her to fish off the Grand Banks (only proven fishing vessels could compete) and, in October, sailed to Halifax for the trials against other Canadian vessels. Bluenose won, proving to be exceptionally strong on windward tacks, and then met America’s finest, the Elsie, in a best two-out-of-three series over a 40-mile course near Halifax. Interest ran high as newsmen from major papers across the continent and thousands of Nova Scotians watched the Bluenose easily win two in a row.

This victory over Gloucester’s best now prompted the Americans to build two vessels, the Henry Ford eventually winning out to compete in Gloucester in October 1922. Light winds prompted officials to call off the first race as the two schooners approached the starting line, but both skippers, who knew each other well, decided to race anyway. The Ford won but exceeded the six-hour time limit, the same thing happening in a second race. A few days later, in a stiff breeze, the Bluenose proved to be an easy champion, the Ford breaking her topmast in the second encounter.

For the 1923 contest, Gloucester built the Columbia to be captained by Newfoundland-born Ben Pine, a much respected skipper of the Gloucester fleet. In the first race off Halifax, the Bluenose was edged into shallow water and, to avoid being run aground, Walters, as permitted by the law of the sea, manoeuvred his vessel so that the Columbia had to swing away or collide. In the partial collision that ensued, the Bluenose dragged the Columbia for a short distance before breaking free and winning the race.
 

Angus Walters (1882-1968) was a fisherman born inLunenberg, Nova-Scotia. Made skipper of the Bluenose in 1920 because of his ability to find fish and get themost speed out of his vessels, he and the Bluenose achieved much international fame in a decade of sailing  races and were inseparable until he was forced to sell the Bluenose in 1942. [Photo, courtesy Maratime Museum of the Atlantic, Halifax, Nova Scotia]

That controversial finish was nothing compared to the statement that followed the next race. On the night before, officials had decided that all navigation buoys be passed on the seaward side and sent copies of their decision in sealed envelopes to the schooners. Walters saw the letter on his bunk but did not open it and failed to pass one of the buoys as ordered. He won the race but, during the banquet that followed, he and Pine were summoned and told that as a result of a complaint by a U.S. committee member, the Columbia was being declared the winner, thus making a third race necessary. Walters’ refusal made front-page instead of sports-page headlines across the continent. His suggestion that the Bluenose be credited with the first race and that two more be held if necessary to determine the winner was, in turn, refused. When officials warned him he would lose the prize money, Walters’ reply, according to biographer G.J. Gillespie, “didn’t mince any words.” “You can go to hell with it,” he said. “I’m sailing back to Lunenburg.”

For the next eight years there was no further contest for the trophy which remained in Lunenburg. The Bluenose plied her trade as a “salt banker” until 1930 when Gloucester, celebrating its 300th anniversary, changed the rules so that the Bluenose could take part in races for the Lipton Cup established earlier by Sir Thomas Lipton, the tea magnate and sailing enthusiast, for competition among Gloucester vessels.

The Gloucester group entered a new schooner, the Gertrude L. Thebaud, and, in a light wind, the Bluenose lost the first race. In the second, Walters was ahead when a shift in the wind caught the Bluenose skipper off guard and the Thebaud won. “I didn’t use my head,” Walters declared afterwards. “I should have kept the Thebaud covered but I split tacks and lost the race.”

The Bluenose still held the International Fisherman’s Trophy, however, and the Thebaud victory made the Gloucester people eager to recapture it. A competition was held off Halifax in 1931. This time the Bluenose won the first race by almost three miles and the second by two.

The Depression scuppered further races, the Bluenose plying her trade off the Grand Banks until the summer of 1933 when she sailed up the St. Lawrence and into Lake Michigan to represent Canada at the Chicago Century of Progress Exposition. On her return, she docked in Toronto for another welcome and stayed there over the winter months. In 1934, it was suggested that the Bluenose represent Canada at the 1935 Silver Jubilee celebrations of the reign of King George V and Queen Mary, and, while at Spithead, Walters was invited to the Royal Yacht where the King presented him with that vessel’s mainsail.

On her homeward trip, the Bluenose encountered such violent storms that she almost sank. Major repairs were required after she finally limped into Lunenburg. The following year she was fitted with diesel engines to enable her to compete with the powered vessels being introduced to the fishing fleets. Walters also faced another challenge for, as the Depression continued, prices dropped so low that there was no money to be made in fishing. When dealers refused to pay a quarter of a cent more per pound, Walters, as president of the skipper organization, tied up the Lunenburg fleet in 1937 — a move that won the support of the fish handlers in Halifax and the public in general and made the dealers quickly offer concessions for a settlement.

In 1938 Boston wanted a race between the Bluenose and Thebaud held off its coast, promising an additional $8,000 besides the prize money — a handsome sum in Depression times. It was agreed that, in a best three out of five series, two of the races would take place at Boston and any subsequent races at Gloucester. All five were required before the 17-year-old Bluenose won the final race at Gloucester three minutes ahead of its rival. The prize money, however, was not forthcoming. Eventually only $5,000 of the additional funds was received. “I think that put a crimp in the fisherman’s races for good,” Walters later observed.

The outbreak of World War II most assuredly did. Still owing $7,200 for the diesel engines and gear installed in 1936, the owners showed little interest in saving the Bluenose from the auction block. A suggestion that the Canadian government take over the Bluenose was ignored and a plan to save her by selling shares to Canadians for one dollar each with no dividends paid also came to nothing. Walters scraped together the $7,200 to pay the bill and become the major shareholder. By 1942, however, with the vessel moored idly at dockside, Walters agreed to sell her to the West Indies Trading Company to carry freight between the islands.

Walters later recalled that, when he cast her lines off in May 1942, “There was a lump in my throat. Somehow I knew it was goodbye. We’d seen a lot together in fair weather and foul, and the Bluenose was like part of me.”

He was right. It was goodbye. On January 30, 1946, a wire flashed the news that the Bluenose had struck a reef on the Haitian coast and sunk, leaving Captain Walters with only memories of the Bluenose until his own death at his native Lunenburg in 1969.

Mel James