Bluenose I at Lunenburg

Even the Bluenose succumbed to the rush to modernize. She had diesel engines installed in 1936 just before her final year of participation in the International Fishermen's Race (1938). In spite of her many successes as a highliner and as a racer she fell into debt was reconfigured following the lines of ships actually built without a bowsprit and open wheel and sold into the West Indies where she sank in1946.

The Grace Darling which had a earlier refit along these same lines had a better time: During the war years and following Captain Cook's death, the ship continued to fish in Maritime waters. When Cook's sons returned from overseas duty, Captain Wilbur Cook took over as captain. From that period on, the Grace Darling was noteworthy for the number of rescues it completed at sea.