Bluenose - not that one (or that one either)

 

 Bluenose the first.

The term Bluenose, although obscure in origin, has become the popular nickname for a Nova Scotian and has been selected for several famous (and arguably infamous) vessels from schooners to ferries. The last ferry named Bluenose, which retired after fourteeen years, entered service for the first time forty years ago this year, and is worthy of a revisit.

Bluenose II before its rebuilding, when it was illegal to take this picture...

...and after total rebuilding, when it might well have been renamed "Bluenose III".
 

 The recent post on this blog about the resumption of the seasonal ferry service between Yarmouth and Bar Harbor serves as a reminder that two significant ships carried the name Bluenose on that route. The first, built in 1955, could be named Bluenose because no other Canadian ship carried the name at the time. The original fishing / racing schooner Bluenose, built in 1921, had been lost in 1946. Therefore when a replica schooner was built in 1963 it was renamed Bluenose II - appropriately enough - but also because the name Bluenose was already taken by the ferry.

The first Bluenose ferry with the ill fated Holiday Island in winter layup.

(contributed)

By the early 1980s with the Bluenose ferry becoming somewhat long in the tooth, CN Marine had to look no further than Stena A/B. The prolific Swedish ferry operator (named for Sten A. Olsson, the company founder), operated several ferry routes in the Baltic region of Europe with similar route miles and conditions to Canadian ferry services. CN Marine, the operators of the Newfoundland ferry service and the Yarmouth to Bar Harbour service, not to mention the Northumberland Strait crossing between Borden, PE and Tormentine, NB, found Stena ferries to be suitable for their own North Sydney - Port aux Basques operation and Stena was amenable to charters and eventual sales of several ships and still is today.

 In 1982 Stena agreed to charter the Stena Jutlandica to CN Marine. It was built in 1973 at the Jozo Lozovina-Mosor shipyard in Trogir, then Yugoslavia (now Croatia) but in 1977 had been rebuilt by Wilton Fijenoord in Schiedam, Netherlands, with the addition (or rather insertion) of another deck, that allowed for carrying cars on two deck levels. Its capacity then became 1800 passengers and 450 cars with an increase from 6333 gross tons to 6524 gross tons. To offset the ship's top heaviness, and reduce rolling, sponsons were added to widen the ship's hull. It operated between Gothenburg, Sweden and Frederikshaven, Denmark.

CN Marine chartered the ship to operate from North Sydney to Port aux Basques from July to December 1982 when the ship was sent to Halifax to be refitted for the Yarmouth to Bar Harbor service, and was renamed Jutlandica. 

Alongside the Machine Ship Wharf at Halifax Shipyard, the Jutlandica was being prepped for repainting. Stena's all white colour scheme was speckled with primer. The CN Marine funnel mark had been painted on for the 1982 charter...

...but it was soon re-done during drydocking when it was repainted top to bottom.

 It spent the winter in the shipyard, and in May 1983 CN Marine took actual ownership and it was renamed Bluenose and registered under the Bahamas flag. 

The hull sponsons, added in 1977, were clearly visible when the ship left drydock. The added car deck is also visible as a band of slightly different texture. The gap in the sponsons is for the pilot door. (Note Nassau is the port of registry)

When CN Marine registered the ship in the Bahamas, there was criticism that a Crown Corporation was evading Canadian regulations. Nevertheless it remained under foreign flag after CN Marine was spun off from the Canadian National Railway in 1987 becoming Marine Atlantic. Even when the federal government, under the Minister of Transport, moved in and took over ownership of the entire CNM ferry fleet in 1987, the Bluenose retained its Bahamas flag. Since it was trading internationally it was not covered by coasting regulations and did not have to be Canadian flagged.

In January 1997 the ship was laid up in Shelburne and Bay Ferries Ltd took over management, operating it from April 4 to December 8, 1997 when it was laid up in Shelburne and listed for sale.

In August 1998 it was renamed Hull 309 and sold to Europa Ferrys SA. From 1999 it operated between Algeciras, Spain and Tanger, Morocco as EuroFerrys Atlantica. In 2010 it shifted to the Almeria, Spain - Nador, Morocco route and in October was sold for scrap. The ship was renamed Ace II for the trip to the scrapyard in Aliaga, Turkey. Arriving there December 22, demolition work began January 1, 2011.

.