BLUENOSE

THIS MODEL

44" long x 6.5" Wide x 33" High
(1:48 scale/300 HRS)

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60" long x 9.5" Wide x 41" High
(1:48 scale/300 HRS)

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please ask us about a display case

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general information about ALL ship models

all are scratch built -not from a model kit- by a master artisan.

Plank on bulkhead construction (a painstaking process -
each individual plank is added to the hull one at a time).
Built with rare, high quality woods such as ebony,
rosewood and blackwood.

The model rests on a large, polished base
between four arched dolphins.
beautifuly stitched canvas sails.
No plastic parts
Significant deck detail.

To build this ship, extensive research was performed using various sources
such as museums, drawings, copies of original plans
and photos of the actual ship.

HISTORY
BLUENOSE

In 1920, an America's Cup race was cancelled because a wind of 23 knots was
considered too dangerous for the racing yachts of the time, which were made
fragile by the towering sails they carried. The fishermen of the New England
and Maritime fleets considered this a disgrace and resolved to hold their own
competition for men and ships who were ready and able to face the sea. The
Halifax Herald newspaper donated a cup and established the rules for the
contest, and in the years that followed, the International Fishermen's Trophy
would become a source of considerable national pride as ships from the great
fishing fleets of Gloucester, Massachusetts and Lunenburg, Nova Scotia vied
for the title.

In 1920, the first competition for the Trophy was won by a vessel from
Gloucester, to the tremendous chagrin of the Lunenburg fleet. A design was
commissioned from William J. Roue, a young naval architect from Halifax, for a
schooner that would meet the high standards of the Lunenburg fishing fleet
but that could also capture the Trophy.

Bluenose was the result. She was the 121st ship built in the Smith & Rhuland
Shipyard in Lunenburg, and was launched on March 26, 1921. She took the
Trophy that year and never relinquished it, although many schooners from
Nova Scotia and the New England States were designed and constructed to
beat her.

Bluenose won fame and widespread recognition for her racing prowess, but in
her twenty-five seasons she participated in only six serious competitions. She
was built at a time when Lunenburg had many sturdy vessels that could work
the Atlantic Banks effectively, and her own abilities in this regard were
acknowledged but not loudly proclaimed. History remembers her races, but
often neglects the rest. She served the fishing fleet for nearly twenty
seasons, when the normal lifespan for a wooden schooner was ten, landing
many good catches and achieving the distinction of high-liner of the fleet on
more than one occasion. She served her owners well, and brought her crew
through storms that claimed many other vessels and lives.

A combination of age, the global depression of the 1930s, the onset of World
War II, and the arrival of diesel powered fishing trawlers finally forced the
sale of Bluenose to the West Indian Trading Company in 1942. She spent four
years as a freighter before being wrecked on a reef near Haiti in January of
1946.

In 1960, Lunenburg's Smith & Rhuland Shipyard built a replica of the H.M.S.
Bounty, for use in the M.G.M. movie Mutiny on the Bounty. As Nova Scotians
watched this ship take shape, they dreamed once again of Bluenose. Around the
same time, the brewing firm of Oland and Sons was planning to build a replica
of a Nova Scotia fishing schooner to help promote their new product,
Schooner Beer. So it was that Bluenose II was born. She was built from the
original plans in the original shipyard by some of the same craftsmen who had
given Bluenose her magic. The keel was laid on February 27, 1963, and she was
launched in Lunenburg on July 24 of the same year.

Even if competitors of her sort could be found, Bluenose II would not be
allowed to race. It was decided at the outset that she would never jeopardize
the reputation of the original Bluenose. However, ships will occasionally test
her speed by assuming the same course when she is seen passing; like her
namesake, she moves like the wind. Her interior however is very different,
having comfortable quarters, a chart room and a spacious salon in the areas
where salt and fish were originally stowed.

In 1971, the Oland family sold Bluenose II to the province of Nova Scotia for
the amount of one dollar. She has become the province's most recognized
symbol and one of her greatest treasures, and has served as an ambassador
for both the province and country at many international events and ports - a
role in which she continues today.