CHAMPION OF THE LEGACY On March 17, 1930, the GERTRUDE L. THEBAUD was the last fully-rigged fishing schooner to slide down the ways of an Essex Shipyard, signaling the end of an industry that had spanned three centuries. The age of sail had passed by, but Captain Ben Pine of Gloucester wanted to recapture Gloucester’s title as champion of the International Fishermen’s Races that was taken years before by the Canadian Schooner BLUENOSE . While she never did succeed in wresting the championship from the BLUENOSE, the THEBAUD did indeed capture the legacy for the shipbuilders of Essex and the fishermen of Gloucester. She became one of the most painted, photographed and modeled schooners in history and her name became synonymous with Cape Ann’s extraordinary maritime heritage.
GERTRUDE L. THEBAUD: Champion of the Legacy features a model of this famous schooner, by Charles Sayle, the gift of a generous anonymous donor. This is probably the first THEBAUD model ever created; an "eyewitness document" built during the vessel’s construction and based on the modeler’s first-hand observations. It is called by experts "the most important model contemporary to the THEBAUD."
Also on display are the THEBAUD Chelsea clock, a trophy from her visit to the Chicago World’s Fair in 1933 and the original patterns for the scrollwork on her bow. Photographs illustrate the many phases of her short but eventful life: racer, fisherman and Arctic explorer. The exhibit also features a short film that includes photographs from the Essex Shipbuilding Museum’s collections, original news coverage by the Gloucester Daily Times and schooner racing footage shot during the 1930s.
The GERTRUDE L. THEBAUD was a star before she ever hit the water. Paramount pictures featured her construction at the A. D. Story Shipyard in their newsreels, and the print media regularly whetted the appetites of racing enthusiasts with updates on the vessel’s progress. By all accounts, the THEBAUD was the last hope for winning the coveted International Fishermen’s Trophy back from Gloucester’s nemesis, BLUENOSE.
The launch of the International Fishermen’s Cup contender was a gala affair. Gold trimmed invitations summoned the elite of Gloucester and Boston to witness the moment. Even the Essex schoolchildren were let out of their classrooms to watch. As she slipped into the water, she carried with her Gloucester’s dream to recapture the International Fisherman’s Cup and assert the primacy of Cape Ann’s shipbuilders and fishermen.
According to international racing rules, the THEBAUD still had to test her mettle against others in the Gloucester fleet to qualify. The few remaining fishing schooners in Gloucester were old and tired. Naturally the newer and larger THEBAUD always won handily.
In this photograph the GERTRUDE L. THEBAUD leads the BLUENOSE in the International Fishermen’s series in 1938. But it was not to be. In a bitterly-fought best-of-five series, the BLUENOSE beat the THEBAUD 3-2 and dashed the hopes of Ben Pine and others that the International Fishermen’s trophy would ever find its way back to Gloucester.
While she beat BLUENOSE only once, in a series sponsored by tea magnate Sir Thomas Lipton, the THEBAUD struck a resounding chord in 1930s Gloucester. She was a symbol of a fading era; a time when the harbor teemed with spars and canvas and brave men put their faith in their vessels and in each other to harvest the treacherous North Atlantic. With a bone in her teeth, the GERTRUDE L. THEBAUD’S bow crashes through the water.
The THEBAUD bears down on her starboard bilge during a match against the BLUENOSE.
The GERTUDE L. THBAUD captured the public’s fascination with the drama of the sea. For more than 400 years, Gloucester’s fishermen had braved the ocean on wind-driven wooden vessels.
The THEBAUD’S greatest success came as a floating ambassador. In April of 1933 the THEBAUD made a visit to Washington, DC carrying a number of Gloucester’s most prominent skippers to ask President Roosevelt to aid Gloucester’s ailing fishing industry.
When not racing, the THEBAUD still had to earn her keep. In the summer of 1937, explorer Donald Macmillan chartered the vessel for his 16th annual Arctic expedition. In Frobisher Bay a sudden 28-foot drop in tide left the vessel hanging high and dry in a frozen canyon. Unable to radio out, the crew could only hope that the vessel would be lifted by the incoming tide. Pumping, bailing and engine power finally freed her, but her hull was severely strained.
One of the THEBAUD’S most unusual achievements was to launch a handsome young deckhand to a career in Hollywood. Sterling Hayden (with binoculars) served as navigator aboard the THEBAUD in the 1938 series. The highly-publicized races brought focus to this handsome sailor. The Boston Post proclaimed: "THEBAUD SAILOR LIKE MOVIE IDOL" and soon he was an overnight sensation, going on to star in such films as The Asphalt Jungle, The Godfather, and Dr. Strangelove.
By the time she was launched, all-sailing schooners were obsolete and fishermen relied on gasoline or diesel power rather than wind to carry them to and from the banks. These less romantic, but realistic, views show the THEBAUD as she heads out of Gloucester Harbor for the fishing grounds.
The GERTRUDE L. THEBAUD lived out her last few years as a freighter in the Caribbean. She was smashed to pieces in a gale off the coast of Venezuela in February of 1948. Her arch-rival BLUENOSE had met with a similar fate off Haiti just two years earlier.
Captain Ben Pine, 1883-1953 Ben Pine was born in Belleoram, Newfoundland. He first made his mark in Gloucester as a junk dealer, eventually settling into his waterfront business, the Atlantic Supply Company, as a fleet owner and vessel outfitter. Pine was a leading participant in the International Fishermen’s Races in the 1920s and 1930s. He was fiercely loyal to his adopted home of Gloucester, Massachusetts but recapturing the Dennis Trophy from the Canadians remained an elusive goal. However, the vessels he commissioned for the races, particularly the GERTRUDE L. THEBAUD, came to symbolize Gloucester’s legacy as the leader of the North Atlantic fisheries.
1/4" = 1’ scale model of the GERTRUDE L. THEBAUD built during the vessel’s construction in 1930 by former fisherman Charles Sayle. The model was commissioned by the vessel’s primary benefactor, Louis A. Thebaud, whose wife was the vessel’s namesake. Thebaud presented the model along with the engraved Chelsea clock and barometer shortly after the launch of the THEBAUD. They were proudly displayed for many years in Captain Pine’s office at the Atlantic Supply Company.
The model and clock/ barometer are gifts of an anonymous donor, in memory of Captain Ben Pine and the shipbuilders of Essex. This exhibit was made possible through the generosity of : Bruce J. Anderson Foundation Essex Cultural Council Essex County Community Foundation and the Massachusetts Cultural Council."