2021 Canada 📭⛵ BLUENOSE; 100th Anniversary ⛵📬 First Day Cover 🍁Souvenir Sheet

2021 Bluenose, 100^th Anniversary: Official First Day Cover

Celebrate the centennial of the launch of the most recognized sailing vessel in Canadian history with this Official First Day Cover that bears a souvenir sheet of both PermanentTM domestic rate stamps from Canada Post’s Bluenose, 100th Anniversary issue. The first image portrays Bluenose on a fishing expedition; the second image commemorates Bluenose competing in its debut race in 1921. The cancel location is Lunenburg, Nova Scotia.

Designed by William J. Roué of Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, and built in Lunenburg’s Smith & Rhuland Shipyard, Bluenose was launched on March 26, 1921 and helmed by Captain Angus J. Walters. It outpaced all other competitors in the North Atlantic to win the International Fishermen's Trophy. It remained undefeated in four subsequent Trophy series over the next 17 years – 1922, 1923, 1931 and 1938 – earning the schooner the nickname the “Queen of the North Atlantic”. Sold to work as a freighter in the Caribbean, Bluenose struck a reef and sank off the coast of Haiti in 1946.

Bluenose has famously adorned the 10-cent coin almost exclusively since 1937, is featured on Nova Scotia’s current licence plate and has been immortalized in song by folk legend Stan Rogers. The famous schooner was also painted by east-coast marine artist William E. deGarthe (1907-83) whose Bluenose and Three Dories inspired the stamp illustration of Bluenose on a fishing expedition featured on this Official First Day Cover.