''Bluenose II'' is a replica of the fishing and racing

schooner A schooner () is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: fore-and-aft rigged on all of two or more masts and, in the case of a two-masted schooner, the foremast generally being shorter than the mainmast. A common variant, the topsail schoon ...

Bluenose ''Bluenose'' was a fishing and racing gaff rig schooner built in 1921 in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, Canada. A celebrated racing ship and fishing vessel, ''Bluenose'' under the command of Angus Walters, became a provincial icon for Nova Scotia and ...

'', commissioned by

Sidney Culverwell Oland Sidney Culverwell Oland (17 June 1886, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia – 17 November 1977, Halifax, Nova Scotia) was an owner of Oland Brewery and philanthropist. He made significant contributions to the military, the arts and the cultural life of Nova S ...

and built in 1963 as a promotional yacht for

Oland Brewery Oland Brewery, formerly S. Oland & Sons, is a brewing company in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada (established 1907), which also acquired Alexander Keith's Brewery (1928), and is now owned by Labatt Brewing Company (1971), itself a unit of InBev. Sidn ...

. Sidney Oland donated the schooner to Nova Scotia in 1971 and it has since operated as a sailing ambassador and promotional device for

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native Eng ...

tourism. In honour of her predecessor's record, ''Bluenose II'' does not officially race. Bluenose II-Halifax-28Jul2017

Construction

''Bluenose II'' was launched at Lunenburg on 24 July 1963, built to original plans and by some of the same workers at

Smith and Rhuland Smith & Rhuland was a shipyard located in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, Canada. The yard was originally opened in 1900 and was the builder of the esteemed ''Bluenose ''Bluenose'' was a fishing and racing gaff rig schooner built in 1921 in Lunenbu ...

. The original captain of ''Bluenose'', Angus J. Walters, was consulted on the replica's design. The replica was commissioned by

for roughly $300,000 (2.5 million in 2020

Canadian dollar The Canadian dollar ( symbol: $; code: CAD; french: dollar canadien) is the currency of Canada. It is abbreviated with the dollar sign $, there is no standard disambiguating form, but the abbreviation Can$ is often suggested by notable style ...

s) as a marketing tool for their ''

Schooner Lager {{refimprove, date=July 2021 Schooner is a regional lager style beer of the eastern Canadian provinces. It has an alcohol content of 5.0% ABV and is brewed at the Oland Brewery in Halifax, Nova Scotia. History First brewed by sailing enthusia ...

'' beer brand. The ship has one of the largest

mainsail A mainsail is a sail rigged on the main mast of a sailing vessel. * On a square rigged vessel, it is the lowest and largest sail on the main mast. * On a fore-and-aft rigged vessel, it is the sail rigged aft of the main mast. The sail's foot ...

s in the world, measuring . She has a total sail area of . In 2004, the Bluenose Preservation Trust, with Lex McKay and Senator

Wilfred Moore Wilfred P. Moore (born January 14, 1942) is a Canadian lawyer and politician. From 1996 until his retirement in 2017, he represented Nova Scotia in the Senate of Canada. In the Senate, Moore successfully fought to ban the captivity of cetacea ...

, donated a piece of wood from the deck of the ship to the

Six String Nation Six String Nation is public art and history project conceived by Jowi Taylor and centred around a steel-string acoustic guitar built from a variety of artifacts collected by Taylor representing diverse cultures, communities, characters and eve ...

project. Parts of that material now serve multiple functions in ''Voyageur'', the guitar at the heart of the project, including two elements of the neck laminate, the top and end blocks on the guitar's interior and decorative elements on the rosette surrounding the sound hole of the instrument.

Provincial ownership

sold ''Bluenose II'' to the

government of Nova Scotia The Government of Nova Scotia (french: Gouvernement de la Nouvelle-Écosse, gd, Riaghaltas Alba Nuadh) refers to the provincial government of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Nova Scotia. Nova Scotia is one of Canada's ...

in 1971 for the sum of $1. After a number of years of managing the schooner directly, the province gave possession of the ship to the "''Bluenose II'' Preservation Trust". The trust's mandate was to restore the aging schooner to full operational status and continue to operate her for the people of Nova Scotia. Over the winter of 1994–95 the ship's hull was restored and she was recommissioned in May 1995. During this time ''Bluenose II'' was involved in the

Sponsorship scandal The sponsorship scandal, AdScam or Sponsorgate, was a scandal in Canada that came as a result of a federal government " sponsorship program" in the province of Quebec involving the Liberal Party of Canada, which was in power from 1993 to 2006. ...

when the federal government allocated $2.3 million for the schooner through a consulting firm but only a small amount of the money reached the vessel. The trust maintained and operated ''Bluenose II'' until 31 March 2005, when the government of Nova Scotia placed the vessel under the management of the Lunenburg Marine Museum Society at the Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic. In a controversial move, the head of the trust,

Senator A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

, refused to release over $600,000 raised by the trust in the schooner's name to the current operators of ''Bluenose II''. Moore agreed to turn the trust's assets over to the province in July 2012, but did not release the financial records from the trust.

2009 Rebuild

In May 2009, the provincial and federal governments announced support for a major restoration of the ''Bluenose II'' to be led the province's Tourism, Culture and Heritage Department. The project was projected to cost $14.4 million. In July 2010, the Nova Scotia government awarded a $12.5 million contract for the restoration of ''Bluenose II'' to a consortium of three Nova Scotia shipyards. When the ship was finally relaunched in 2012, after major delays, the final cost had risen closer to 16 million dollars, just from the Nova Scotian government. This restoration was not without controversy. Tourism, Culture and Heritage Department sources stated that the restoration was "not intended to create an authentic replica of the original ''Bluenose''" and that the builders would not be using the plans. Large portions of the hull were chipped while other small pieces were given away at the rebuilding site in Lunenburg NS. The masts, sails, booms, gaffs, deck boxes, rigging, and some ironwork will go back onto the vessel upon completion. This has led Joan Roue, a descendant of the first ''Bluenose'' designer William Roue and current rights-holder of the design, to question whether this should even be considered the same ship. As has almost all of the rest of the ship, even the keel has been remade. The rebuild aimed to have the schooner look more like the original ''Bluenose'' with smaller

deckhouse A cabin or berthing is an enclosed space generally on a ship or an aircraft. A cabin which protrudes above the level of a ship's deck may be referred to as a deckhouse. Sailing ships In sailing ships, the officers and paying passengers wo ...

s and more deck space, as ''Bluenose II'' was built with yacht accommodation as opposed to the layout of a fishing schooner. Various subcomponents for this ''Bluenose II'' project were supplied from notable firms including the ships keel at Snyder's Shipyard in Dayspring, the ship's backbone of laminated ribs at Covey Island Boatworks in Riverport and assembly of the vessel in Lunenburg. After more than 25 months of reconstruction, the partially completed hull of ''Bluenose II'' was relaunched into Lunenburg Harbor on 29 September 2012 from the Lunenburg

marine railway The patent slip or marine railway is an inclined plane extending from shoreline into water, featuring a "cradle" onto which a ship is first floated, and a mechanism to haul the ship, attached to the cradle, out of the water onto a slip. The m ...

followed by festivities at the nearby Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic, however due to repairs not completed, the vessel was pulled back onto land for more work. The vessel was returned to the water on 6 September 2013 to undergo dock and sea trials before being handed over to the province for tourist duty. Retrofit costs had risen to $19 million and the vessel still required modifications to its steering mechanism which proved unreliable and difficult to operate. In the summer of 2016, ''Bluenose II'' renovations were completed, two years behind schedule with the final cost reaching $24 million. An report by the Nova Scotia Auditor General blamed mismanagement and inexperience by the province's Department of Culture and Heritage.

Stewardship and mission

''Bluenose II'' spends much of the year tied up at the Lunenburg Foundry wharf in its home port of Old Town Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, a UNESCO World Heritage site and origin of its predecessor. Funds for the operation of the ship are raised through charging for passage on the vessel, public donations, and sales in the Fisheries Museum Gift Shop (in Lunenburg), run by the Lunenburg Marine Museum Society. The schooner's mission is "to continuously promote the history and legacy of Bluenose and Bluenose II as well as the rich past and present of Lunenburg and Atlantic Canada." In this capacity, during summer months ''Bluenose II'' tours the Atlantic seaboard and the Gulf of St. Lawrence, routinely stopping in ports across Nova Scotia, as well as Quebec City, Montreal, Toronto and many ports of call in the United States, serving as a goodwill ambassador and promoting Nova Scotia tourism. ''Bluenose II'' has also travelled further afield, such as in 1986 when it participated in the Vancouver World's Fair. Summer activities include onboard tours, harbour cruises and deckhand experiences, as well as outreach for schools and youth groups in Nova Scotia. In the summer of 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, ''Bluenose II'' restricted its summer tour to Nova Scotia ports. The schooner's 20-person crew formed a Bluenose quarantine bubble for training, maintenance and sailing, and its visits to ports aside from Lunenburg were restricted to at-anchors or sail-pasts.

References

External links