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Updated: June 23, 2025
Certain builders in the Maritime Provinces, especially at Pictou and in Prince Edward Island, turned out such hastily and ill constructed craft as to give 'Bluenoses' a bad name in the market. By 1850, however, the worst offenders were put out of business, and there was an increasing tendency for the builders to sail their own vessels instead of selling them.
"What a pity it is," continued the Clockmaker, "that the Bluenoses would not take a leaf out of Marm Crowninshield's book talk more of their own affairs and less of politics. I'm sick of the everlastin' sound of 'House of Assembly, and 'Council, and 'great folks. They never alleviate talking about them from July to etarnity.
The starboard and larboard got their names because the starboard was the side on which the steering oar was hung before the rudder was invented, and the larboard was the side where the lading or cargo came in. Bluenoses have no use for nippers, as Britishers call apprentices.
Bluenoses were so called because the fog along the Nova Scotian and New Brunswick coast was supposed to make men's noses bluer than it did elsewhere.
This was quite in accordance with the practice all along the coast of North America. Even aboard the famous Black Ball Line of Yankee transatlantic packets in the forties there was plenty of 'handspike hash' and 'belaying-pin soup' for shirkers or mutineers. The men before the mast were mostly foreigners and riff-raff Britishers; very few were Yankees or Bluenoses.
Awful accounts we have of the country, that's a fact; but if the Province is not so bad as they make it out, the folks are a thousand times worse. "You've seen a flock of partridges of a frosty mornin' in the fall, a-crowdin' out of the shade to a sunny spot, and huddlin' up there in the warmth? Well, the Bluenoses have nothin' else to do half the time but sun themselves. Whose fault is that?
The fish will sometimes swaller the one, without thinkin', but they get frightened at t'other, turn tail and off like a shot. "Now, to change the tune, I'll give the Bluenoses a new phrase. They'll have an election most likely next year, and then 'the dancin' master will be abroad. A candidate is a most particular polite man, a-noddin' here, and a-bowin' there, and a-shakin' hands all round.
We were glad to find a splendid gymnasium, with library, reading and refreshment rooms, which were thoroughly appreciated and patronized. The weather was extremely cold, or we thought so. The "Bluenoses" would only smile when we complained of it, so we thought it advisable to become acclimatized as soon as possible.
"Now the Bluenoses are like that 'ere gal; they have grown up, and grown up in ignorance of many things they hadn't ought not to know; and it's as hard to teach grown-up folks as it is to break a six-year-old horse; and they do rile one's temper so they act so ugly that it tempts one sometimes to break their confounded necks; it's near about as much trouble as it's worth."
He is a cunning critter; he knows 'tain't safe to carry a heavy load over his head, and his rump is so heavy, he don't like to trust it over his'n, for fear it might take a lurch, and carry him heels over head, to the ground; so he lets his starn down first, and his head arter. I wish the Bluenoses would find as good an excuse in their rumps for running backwards as he has.
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