The Man who Made Bluenose

A forest of wooden masts with white sails billowing in the wind — that’s the scene thousands of visitors eagerly anticipate when lining the sides of Halifax Harbour for a summertime visit from the world’s tall ships. This grand parade of sail is a recurring spectacle that carries people back in time—a voyage to the glorious era of majestic wooden ships. To many, no vessel better represented that golden era than Nova Scotia’s most lauded schooner — the original Bluenose, may she rest in peace.

Her legacy remains strong in Maritimers’ hearts and history. It’s well known, of course, but saying it still inspires pride: For almost 20 years the original Bluenose was the fastest vessel in the world, and she retired undefeated. Her life story is so magical it’s as if she were meant to be — shoring up our sense of identity just before the decline of the mighty fishing schooner era.

As far back as the late 1700s, Nova Scotians were called “Bluenoses” by American traders, due to the so-called “blue” potatoes they exported, which apparently were occasionally noseshaped. The sailors shipping these “blue noses” were soon nicknamed for their cargo. The Nova Scotian builders of the famous schooner — in rebellious irony — gave that name to the ship they designed to beat their American rivals in the International Fishermen’s Trophy races of the 1920s and ’30s.

Sure, it was the wily captain Angus Walters and his hardened crew that pulled it off. But before the Bluenose’s hull met water, and before her bowsprit crossed the first finish line, intellect, intuition, talent and spirit were infused into the ship’s design. There was magic in those blueprints, and the magician was William J. (Bill) Roué, a self-taught naval architect living in Dartmouth, on Halifax Harbour.

Bill Roué came along at the ideal time in Nova Scotia’s war for schooner-racing dominance. Angus Walters wanted a ship precisely crafted to speed through wind and wave, cutting seconds off sailing times, wherever possible. At first glance, Roué seemed like an odd choice for this serious project. He was a man who came very late to naval architecture, and without formal training. And incredibly, he had never designed a fishing schooner before. The job would require a razor-sharp knowledge of efficient movement through water, but he didn’t even know how to swim. Clearly, William J. Roué had a natural nautical knack.

“He started as early as the age of four,” says Joan Roué, “whittling boats from pieces of wood.” Joan, great-granddaughter of the Bluenose designer, says her great-grandfather seemed to get his gift out of nowhere, without a family influence.

“His father wasn’t into boats,” she says. “His dad owned Roué’s Carbonated Waters, a pop manufacturing company.” Bill Roué eventually took over the company from his father. He was a bottler.

We know how they get those little ship models into bottles, but how the heck do you get the model for a ship out of a bottler? Simply put, his heart wasn’t really in the family business. His true calling was to mathematically breathe life and grace into sailing vessels. Drawing boats was his real love.

“They say it was born in him,” says Joan. Perhaps he was struck by watching the dance of sails in the harbour during his boyhood. His father’s bottling plant was on the Halifax waterfront, and Roué lived in a house high atop Dartmouth’s James St. hill, where he would have had a good view of the harbour waters before the trees grew tall.

With the reputation earned from his first, famous schooner, Roué retired from bottling to design ships fulltime. From his big wooden drafting table, a variety of original floating creations flowed forth on paper to become reality on water: the celebrated line of Roué Class sailing boats, car ferries, even wartime landing craft.

In 1955, Roué was inducted into Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame. In 2004, he finally made it to Nova Scotia Sports Hall of Fame. And today, Roué’s vision lives on: Launched in 1963, Bluenose II is built from the same plans as the original, and crafted at the same Lunenburg shipyard by many of the men who worked on the original.

Every time there’s a parade of sail, Bluenose II always leads the tall ships with graceful sweeps down Halifax Harbour, a physical reminder of a bygone era. It’s a sight to behold — a piece of the past to stir a Maritimer’s heart. •

Photo credit: CP Images