The Bluenose in Lunenburg (Nova Scotia, Canada)

 

I can't even remember anymore whether my fascination with sailing ships came before or after I read the books about Horatio Hornblower [1] and Richard Bolitho [2] in my youth. Both protagonists belonged to the British Royal Navy, and the books were set around the time of the Napoleonic Wars. I saw the Bluenose II returning to the pier when we arrived in Lunenburg, and when we came back from our city tour, it was just set to sail out again. It now offers tourist trips, but it was originally designed for fishing and also competed in certain regattas, often winning. It's a beautiful ship, and it's a shame that it had to be sold prematurely, only to run aground on a reef off Haiti. The Bluenose I is depicted on the Canadian dime. But I'm getting ahead of myself again.

The Bluenose I [3] was built in Lunenburg in 1921 by the company Smith and Rhuland. It was a fishing and racing gaff-rigged schooner. The ship was used for fishing for as long as technological progress allowed, as motorized fishing trawlers soon became the norm, if you downsize the term trawler. It also competed in races, and it's quite interesting just to read the Wikipedia entry about it. During World War II, the Bluenose I remained docked in Lunenburg. In 1942, the ship was sold to the West Indies Trading Company because it was no longer profitable to operate. In 1946, the Bluenose I, loaded with bananas, ran aground on a coral reef near Île à Vache (Haiti). The ship was beyond salvage and eventually broke apart.

In addition to the depiction of the "Queen of the North Atlantic" on the dime, there are also various postage stamps featuring the Bluenose. I just checked my father's collection, but unfortunately, none of the Canadian stamps he had collected include the Bluenose. What a pity! 

“In 1963, a replica of Bluenose was built in Lunenburg using the original Bluenose plans and named Bluenose II” [4]. Sidney Culverwell Oland commissioned this as a promotional yacht for Oland Brewery, but donated the schooner to Nova Scotia in 1971. “In the summer of 2016, Bluenose II renovations were completed, two years behind schedule with the final cost reaching $24 million.” It was similar with the Gorch Fock. Gorch Fock is a tall ship of the German Navy. Initially, €10 million were budgeted for the repair work in 2012, but it was returned to the Navy at the end of September 2021, and the renovation had cost a total of €135 million. [5]

If you visit Nova Scotia in the height of summer, you will be offered whale watching tours, but the whales are usually somewhere else entirely. Consider instead taking a trip on the Bluenose II. I missed that opportunity this summer!

Links and Annotations:
[1] “Horatio Hornblower [1a] is a fictional officer in the British Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars, the protagonist of a series of novels and stories by C. S. Forester [1b].”
[1a] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horatio_Hornblower
[1b] C.S. (Cecil Scott) Forester is the pen name of Cecil Louis Troughton Smith (1899-1966). 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._S._Forester
[2] "The Bolitho novels [2a] are a series of nautical war novels by Alexander Kent, the pseudonym of British author Douglas Reeman.[2b]
[2a] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bolitho_novels
[2b] Douglas Edward Reeman (1924-2017)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Reeman
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluenose
[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluenose_II
[5] https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorch_Fock_(Schiff,_1958)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_training_ship_Gorch_Fock_(1958)

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