CELPIP Reading Part 3 Practice Test: The Bluenose: Nova Scotia’s Famous Schooner

Paragraph A

Most Canadians carry a picture of the Bluenose without giving it a second thought. The schooner has sailed across the back of the ten-cent coin since 1937, and its image has also appeared on postage stamps and other symbols of Nova Scotia. Yet the real vessel was no decorative ornament. Launched in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, in 1921, it was a hard-working fishing boat that also became the most celebrated racing schooner of its time. Even its name carried local pride, since “Bluenose” had long been a nickname for Nova Scotians themselves.

Paragraph B

The Bluenose was born out of rivalry. In the early twentieth century, fleets of wooden schooners from Nova Scotia and New England sailed to the offshore banks of the North Atlantic to fish for cod, and crews on both sides of the border took great pride in the speed of their vessels. In 1920, a Halifax newspaper created a trophy for a race between genuine working schooners. The idea came partly in response to a well-known yacht race that had been called off because the wind was judged too strong, conditions that fishermen faced as a matter of routine. When a schooner from Gloucester, Massachusetts, won that first contest, Nova Scotian backers set out to build a vessel that could bring the trophy home. The design was entrusted to William Roué of Halifax, and the hull was built at the Smith and Rhuland shipyard in Lunenburg.

Paragraph C

Under Captain Angus Walters, the Bluenose did exactly what its owners had hoped. Because the race rules required entrants to be real fishing vessels, the schooner first spent a season on the banks, bringing in catches like any other boat in the fleet. It then won the International Fishermen’s Trophy in the autumn of 1921 and never lost a series for that trophy in the years that followed, the last of which took place in 1938. Not every contest ended smoothly, as disputes over rules and courses sometimes overshadowed the sailing, but the schooner’s reputation for speed only grew. For many Canadians, its victories became a source of national as well as regional pride.

Paragraph D

Ironically, the Bluenose could not outrun changes in the fishing industry itself. As motor-powered vessels replaced sail, schooners became increasingly difficult to operate at a profit. Despite efforts by Walters to keep the ship in Nova Scotia, it was sold in 1942 and put to work carrying cargo in the Caribbean. In 1946, it struck a reef off Haiti and was lost. The story did not end there, however. In 1963, a first replica, Bluenose II, was launched from the same Lunenburg shipyard that had built the original. Today, in rebuilt form, Bluenose II sails as a goodwill ambassador for the province, welcoming visitors on board and appearing at waterfront festivals.