PLANS ANNOUNCED FOR BLUENOSE IPR

DARTMOUTH, NS (2005 June 13) – Joan Roué, the great-granddaughter of the designer of Bluenose and Bluenose II, has announced plans to form an entity that will administer the Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) for Design No. 17 and all other designs authored by the late William James Roué.

Canada’s first naval architect, W. J. Roué (a lifetime resident of Halifax/Dartmouth) created Design No. 17 in 1920; the vessel built from the lines was launched in 1921 as Bluenose and became one of the most famous fishing and racing schooners in the world. She was lost at sea off Haiti in 1946.

In 1962 Oland & Son, Limited, a Halifax brewery, approached W.J. Roué about modifying the plans of his most famous design for a promotional vessel, to be named Oland’s Schooner. The only change was the addition of luxurious living quarters in what was the hold and crew quarters of the original design.

At the same time, there was a public outcry for a replica of the beloved Bluenose but several attempts to raise the necessary funds to build her were unsuccessful. Hopes for seeing another Bluenose diminished until some people from Lunenburg learned of the brewery plans; they put together a delegation and approached the firm to see if they would consider building the second Bluenose.

The firm agreed, and at the construction cost of $250,000 commissioned the building of Bluenose II from Roué’s plans, with Roué as a consultant. The replica would be a living tribute to Nova Scotian skills and a memorial to Canada’s greatest sea legend. Bluenose II was launched in Lunenburg in 1963 – from the very same shipyard that built her predecessor.

Although the replica was built as a promotional tool for the brewery, in the next few years she spent a lot of time as a promotional tool for the Province of Nova Scotia; in 1971 the vessel was sold to the province for $1. The province operated her until 1994 when they announced their most famous icon would be scuttled because she was in need of a $1 million refit; funds the government was not prepared to spend.

This announcement led to the formation of the Bluenose II Preservation Trust, a private sector group whose immediate mandate was to raise the necessary funds to refit and operate Bluenose II, which they accomplished by the spring of 1995. In an effort to show support for the preservation of this famous icon and her heritage, the Estate of W.J. Roué assigned the rights for Design No. 17 to the Trust. The rights were returned to the Estate in January of this year, two months before the end of the Trust’s operating contract for Bluenose II with the province.

“Our mandate is simple,” said Joan Roué, registered owner of the copyright for the Bluenose design. “To maintain the integrity of, and to preserve the legacy of, all works authored by W.J. Roué.”

Roué added that further details on the new entity would be announced in the near future.

For further information about W.J. Roué, his work, or to complete a request for use of copyright protected material authored by W.J. Roué, please visit www.WJRoue.com.

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