Help Identifying This?

Hey community. I just came into my first wood canvas canoe (A gift, as long as I promised to give her some love) I was told she's a Peterborough, though her lines look more along the lines of an Old Town. There is a brass plate with a serial "16096", but no other markings that I can see. Any help would be great!!

IMG_20181202_161009 by Pizza.Mechanic posted Dec 2, 2018 at 4:10 PM

Thanks!

 

Someone gifted you a Morris...nice...circa 1917-19 ish...
You may read about Morris on this site in the Manufacturers Database.
http://www.wcha.org/content/bn-morris
If you have a chance to post some other pictures please do...one built that late might be expected to have open gunwales but yours looks like it has rail caps...cool.
When you post follow on pictures post them as individual images. It makes it easier to magnify the image.

 

Amazing! Thank you so much... I'll be sure to post more pictures soon. So appreciated.

I have several years experience with maintenance and repair of cedar strip canoes, but like I said this is my first wood canvas. I'm sure I'll be nosing around and posting in the repair section if the forum soon.

 

Welcome to the WCHA.

In addition to asking questions here (and don't be bashful about asking), there are three good sources of information about canoe restoration that you would do well to get, or at least look at, before making any decision about how to repair or restore your canoe:

The Wood and Canvas Canoe: A Complete Guide to its History, Construction, Restoration, and Maintenance by Rollin Thurlow and Jerry Stelmok
Building the Maine Guide Canoe by Jerry Stelmok
This Old Canoe: How To Restore Your Wood-Canvas Canoe, by Mike Elliott

The first is often called the "bible" of canoe repair, restoration, and maintenance; the second is an excellent study of the wooden/canvas canoe and its construction. The third is the most recently published and has been well received.

Further, for Morris canoes, you should get a look at Kathryn Klos's The Morris Canoe: Legacy of an American Family.
These books are all available from the WCHA store, are often on eBay, or from Amazon.

And there is an excellent series of articles about Morris Canoes by Howard Herman-Haase running in the WCHA journal Wooden Canoe -- Part 4 is in the current October issue, issue 209, Vol. 41, No. 5 (mis-dated 2019); earlier parts are available in back issues, and more parts are promised for future issues.

Morris canoes are well regarded; they were built as high-grade canoes, have some unusual building characteristics (e.g., splayed stems, pocketed rib ends, riveted bang plates), and make beautiful boats when well restored. Good luck with yours.

Greg

 

Wow! Thank you for such a warm (and informative) welcome! I'll be sure to check out those resources.