The original Bluenose was designed as a fishing schooner and a raceboat — and she excelled at both.
The Smith & Rhuland Shipyard in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, launched her in 1921. For nearly 20 years she beat every competitor the Americans could put up against her in the friendly rivalry known as the International Fisherman’s Trophy.
She was carrying freight when she struck a coral reef off Haiti and sank in 1946, but her stature as a national icon has her image on Canadian stamps and currency.
The National Film Board of Canada posted this documentary clip.
Her successor, Bluenose II, was built in 1963 in the Lunenberg shipyard where the original schooner was constructed.
The replica was sold to the government of Nova Scotia for $1 to serve as a goodwill ambassador, tourist attraction and symbol of the province, but it was not allowed to race, as this 2013 report by Soundings details.
