RACE TO FISH/FISH TO RACE
The Fishermen's Races – 1886-1938

A special exhibit to showcase three new ship models:
the Racing Fishermen COLUMBIA, HENRY FORD
and GERTRUDE L. THEBAUD.

For centuries, fishermen raced to port as a matter of pure economic necessity, as the first vessel back to market would receive the highest price for its catch. By the late nineteenth century, this rivalry had evolved to the point that vessel owners and captains became fiercely proud of a vessel's record for speed, and vessel designers became increasingly aware of the need for a vessel design that offered both speed and a capacious fish hold. The renowned naval architect Thomas F. McManus is credited with the inception of the organized fishermen's races, mainly with the goal of showcasing his new designs. In 1886 and 1888, he sponsored races and many people began to take notice of this evolving spectator sport. Races became a feature of many celebrations in Boston and Gloucester throughout the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

With many years of territorial and economic rivalry, it was inevitable that the fishermen of the Nova Scotia would want to have a go at the American fishermen and their vessels. In the fall of 1920, William H. Dennis, publisher of the Halifax, Nova Scotia, Herald, offered a trophy to the winner of a race between the best of Nova Scotia's fleet and Massachusetts' finest. The racing regulations stipulated that in order to qualify, the vessels must be "real" fishermen; true working vessels which had completed a season of fishing. Gloucester's ESPERANTO, a McManus-designed vessel built by Tarr & James in Essex, was selected as the American contender.

The races were held on October 30th and November 1st. With captain Marty Welch at the helm, ESPERANTO won the series in two races over the Canadian schooner DELAWANNA. The event made national headlines and the country was consumed by racing fever. A gala reception for Captain Welch and his crew was held at Gloucester's Armory. Among the dignitaries in attendance was Massachusetts Governor (and Vice-President elect) Calvin Coolidge, who declared Esperanto's victory "a triumph for Americanism."

While the Americans celebrated, the Canadians were quietly making plans to capture the trophy. In late November, a small article in the Gloucester Times indicated that plans were underway to build a vessel specifically for the purpose of winning the next year's International Fishermen's series. Designed by William Roue and built at Smith and Rhuland Shipyard in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, the construction of the BLUENOSE signaled the end of the fishermen's races as a test of worthy working vessels and the beginning of a contest between trim and swift yacht-like vessels who were capable of fishing, if only to meet the requirement as "real" fishermen.

Following Canada's lead, a group of Boston businessmen invested in the construction of the schooner MAYFLOWER. The vessel's plans were drawn by yacht designer W. Starling Burgess, and controversy began as soon as the keel was laid. Many said the design was too yacht-like to be a true fishing vessel. Although she was launched with great fanfare in April of 1921, her questionable design disqualified her from the International Fishermen's Races. Gloucester's ELSIE won an elimination series held off Gloucester and she sailed to Halifax with Captain Marty Welsh, ready to take on the BLUENOSE and her cantankerous captain, Angus Walters. Although an extremely fast and able vessel, ELSIE--a true fishermen-- proved no match for the sleek Canadian BLUENOSE.

The next year, American hopes were placed on PURITAN, designed by Burgess and built by J. F. James and Son in Essex. The ill-fated PURITAN was lost off Sable Island early in her first fishing season in 1922. Fortunately, Captain Clayton Morrissey had just launched a new vessel from the Essex yard of A.D. Story, and his HENRY FORD challenged BLUENOSE in the International Fishermen's Races held off Gloucester that fall. Although HENRY FORD won the first two races, one was declared invalid in a still-controversial decision by the racing committee, and two of the three official races went to Walters and BLUENOSE.

Gloucester businessman and racing enthusiast Benjamin Pine was determined that a Gloucester vessel recapture the Dennis Trophy. To that end, he formed the Columbia Associates, Inc., and in the spring of 1923, COLUMBIA was launched from the A.D. Story yard in Essex. Late in October, COLUMBIA headed to Halifax to compete against BLUENOSE. After two races, both won by BLUENOSE, Ben Pine lodged a complaint that Walters had violated a newly-adopted race course rule. A third race was then scheduled, but Walters refused to race and headed home for Lunenburg.

For the next eight years, no international races were held, but Gloucester's Ben Pine still held fast to his dream of beating the Canadians. With Louis Thebaud, a new Jersey businessman and Gloucester summer resident, as his principal investor, Pine had the schooner GERTRUDE L. THEBAUD built at the A.D. Story yard and she was launched on St. Patrick's Day, 1930. That year the THEBAUD actually defeated the Bluenose in a race for the Lipton Cup off Gloucester, and it was thought that surely she could do it again for the Dennis Trophy. But that was not to be; in the fall of 1931 BLUENOSE won the international competition in two consecutive races.

As the Great Depression worsened in the 1930s, enthusiasm for racing subsided. However, in 1938 the International Fishermen's Races were held off Gloucester for the last time, between October 9th and 25th. This series went to the winner of three out of five races. The THEBAUD took the first race by a winning margin of just under three minutes. BLUENOSE came back to win the next two races by twelve minutes and six minutes, 39 seconds, respectively. The fourth race went to the THEBAUD by a five-minute margin to tie the series. In the fifth and deciding race, BLUENOSE beat the GERTRUDE L. THEBAUD by only two minutes and fifty seconds, leaving the Dennis Trophy securely in the possession of the Canadians.

The series of 1938 marked the end of an era. The THEBAUD was in fact the last fully-rigged sailing fisherman built in Essex. By this time, schooners had become obsolete, having been replaced gradually in the North Atlantic Fishing fleets by diesel-powered draggers since the 1920's. Some schooners were scrapped, others installed with engines and sold. The THEBAUD and the BLUENOSE, both symbols of the era of schooner fishing and racing, sank in the 1940s while working as freighters in the Caribbean.

HOW TO GET TO ESSEX AND THE MUSEUM