"A Race for Real Sailors: The Bluenose and the International Fishermen's Cup, 1920-1938" (used book)

A Race for Real Sailors: The Bluenose and the International Fishermen's Cup, 1920-1938

by Keith McLaren

About the book

Used book. Hardcover. Dust jacket included. Excellent condition.

In the summer of 1920, the public following the latest America’s Cup series was frustrated to find that every time the wind got up, the organizers called off the race. The muttering went up in the taverns of Halifax and Lunen burg: Why not show these fancy yachtsmen what real sailors could do? A trophy was donated and Nova Scotia newspapers put out a challenge to their rivals in Gloucester, the main American fishing port, inviting them to participate in “a race for real sailors”.

Exhaustively researched from archives in both countries, A Race for Real Sailors brings the ships and the men who sailed them to life with an even-handedness never before attempted. The salt spray practically blows off the page as the author’s arresting style captures the drama and incident of each race and the almost living personalities of the boats that contested them: the Delawana and the Esperanto, the Henry Ford, the Columbia and the Gertude L. Thebaud, and dominating them all the big brute from Lunenburg, the Bluenose, whose image shines on the Canadian dime to this day.

Vying for the spotlight with the boats were their larger-than-life skippers. There was Marty Welsh, the admired,  hard-driving sailor with an iron nerve; Ben Pine, the scrap dealer whose love of fishing schooners kept the idea of the races afloat when they seemed sure to fade away; Clayton Morrissey, who battled illness and tragedy to do his best for his country; and the irascible, impossible Angus Walters, master of the Bluenose, who broke American hearts but whose own heart was broken by the country’s refusal to help save his legendary boat.

The stirring and poignant tale is illustrated with 51 contemporary photographs and 5 maps, and rounded out by a glossary of sailing terms and an appendix of the ever-changing race rules.