Angus Walters

Perhaps the most famous was Angus Walters, the managing owner of the Bluenose who supervised construction and was its captain while making headlines worldwide as the fishing schooner won five consecutive international racing championships in the 1920s and 1930s.

“Through his legendary sailing prowess and his contribution to the maritime mythology of Nova Scotia, he influenced the development of the province’s identity as a seafaring community within Canada,” said a federal government backgrounder about the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame member.

In addition, the Lunenburger is distinguished from other great sports figures by the fact his racing achievements were closely tied to his prowess as a commercial fisherman.

“Beginning at the age of 23, he quickly became one of the ablest skippers in the Lunenburg fleet, and his feats of skill and expertise eventually fed a mythic image of him as the ideal fishing captain: courageous, strong and responsible.”

The backgrounder noted Walters came to personify the values most closely associated with the fishermen of Atlantic Canada: humility, responsibility and a keen sense of fairness.

“The death of Captain Walters in 1968, as Nova Scotia’s Lieutenant­ Governor noted, brought to a close the era of wooden ships and iron men that had been so central to shaping Atlantic Canada’s history.”