Among the most celebrated sights in Nova Scotia is the schooner Bluenose II, which sails from the historic harbour of Lunenburg. The vessel is a faithful replica of the original Bluenose, and each summer it draws many thousands of visitors, who line the wharf and photograph the tall sails against the water. Shops along the waterfront sell goods inspired by the ship, including finely built wooden models so that travellers can carry a piece of the legend home. The Bluenose is honoured, too, on the Canadian ten-cent coin, and short harbour sails are offered aboard the replica with guides who tell the ship's story.
The Bluenose has meant a great deal to the people of the Atlantic coast for a century. The original was launched in Lunenburg in 1921, built to work the fishing banks in summer and to race rival schooners in the fall. Over the next seventeen years she never once surrendered the International Fishermen's Trophy, defeating every challenger sent against her. Her lines were drawn by William Roué, a Halifax man who had taught himself naval architecture, and she was sailed by Nova Scotia fishermen who knew the banks by heart. In time the vessel came to stand for the whole province.
