Bluenose
by James Williamson
Original - Sold
Price
$1,800
Dimensions
24.000 x 18.000 inches
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Title
Bluenose
Artist
James Williamson
Medium
Painting - Watercolor
Description
A wind's in the heart of me, a fire's at my heels, I hunger for the sea,
Excerpt from a poem by John Masefield.
BLUENOSE II watercolor painting by artist James Williamson.
Artist James Williamson, ASMA
Signature Member of the American Society of Marine Artists
The most famous of all the Canadian schooners was the Bluenose, which took her name from the blue skin of a locally produced potato. (In the past, Nova Scotians were known as Bluenosers.) The original Bluenose, operating as a fishing boat between 1921 and 1938, was called the Queen of the North Atlantic. Every summer she would compete with the finest American Gloucestermen, frequently winning the fishermen's Cub Race. She sailed out of Halifax and will be best remembered as having been used in the film Captains Courageous, starring Lionel Barrymore and Spencer Tracy. Her namesake, the Bluenose II, was built from the same plans and by the same builder as the original vessel. She slid down the ways at the Smith 7 Rhuland, Ltd., shipyard, Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, on February 27, 1963.
With an overall length of 161 feet, a beam of 27 and a draft of 16 feet, the Bluenose II is by no means a small vessel. Her eight sails combine to give 10,901 square feet of canvas. The height of her mainmast (above the deck) is 127 feet. A gaff-rigged vessel, she has only a small stump of a bowsprit extending forward from her rounded stem. She usually has a crew of 12 and can accommodate 12 cadets or passenger-guests. She is now owned by the Nova Scotia Department of Tourism. For the past four decades she has been Nova Scotia's ambassador of good will and Canada's most distinguished tall ship. She visited New York for both the 1976 and 1986 OpSail parades.
Gaff: A wooden spar used to extend the heads of fore-and-aft sails that are not set on stays.
Gaff-Topsail: A triangular or quadrilateral sail, the head of which is extended on a small gaff that hoists on the topmast.
Gaff rig held sway over a large part of the sailing world for 250 years, was displaced by the bermudian rig with its superior windward performance, and is now enjoying a revival.
The skill of the 18th and 19th century shipbuilders is revealed in the intricacies of the standing and running rigging, the masts and spars, and the variety of sails, while each study of the various gaff rigged craft is a cameo of sailing history. Viewing this original painting reflect upon the vessels, the colorful personalities who built and sailed them, and the contemporary circumstances surrounding the decline of such boats as the pilot cutters, Essex smacks and Grand Banks fishing schooners.
During the past sixty years the rig of fore-and-aft sailing craft has been affected by two principal factors: the rapid decline and extinction of craft working under sail and the widespread adoption of the bermudian rig for yachts. The unquestionably superior windward performance of bermudian rig applied to a suitable hull form has resulted in almost blind acceptance of that rig as being best for yachts of almost all types, and for all purposes and conditions. There are many bermudian rigged yachts of great beauty, but many cruising yachtsmen prefer gaff rig for practical conditions of sail handling and lying more easily at anchor in a breeze. To others a well-built wooded craft of superior traditional design, with gaff rig, is also a thing of beauty, apart from its functional utility. Some are attracted by the rig's connection with working craft of the past.
Gaff rigged working vessels were built and sailed with remarkable skill by humble men. Although long since superseded by powered craft their memory, and that of their crews, still commands respect for products of the endeavors of usually small communities, earning a hard living from the sea and breeding the best qualities of seafaring. To them the gaff rig was a tool of trade whose handling was often drudgery, but could also be an art of pride, excelled from competence to perfection by some seamen.
Gaff rig propelled types as widely contrasting as great racing cutters setting 14000 square feet of sail on one mast, to the humble 18-foot waterman's boat, beating out on an errand to some ship in an estuary.
Uploaded
June 4th, 2011
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