old canoe with #260 16

[Don Stucke]

Our thanks to all, it's all very interesting. I was not aware that Sears Roebuck canoes were made by DBC. It has to be early as the closed decks went out of style 1915-1920. I plan to restore it as best I can.

Don

 

[Kathryn Klos]

I don't think Detroit Boat Company made any open gunwale canoes. They went out of business in 1916.

 

[Don Stucke]

Here's another question that I have. there is one thwart, made of birds eye and mounted under the gunwale. If you look carefully at the pics you will see that where the other thwart would be located there is a slot cut in the inner gunwale. Wouldn't both thwarts be mounted in the same way???
Thanks, Don

 

[Kathryn Klos]

Can you post a picture of your thwart? My first impression of it was that it is "old", and then we got to talking about Detroits and I decided the thwart might be a replacement. But if it's bird's eye, it's possibly original to the canoe and if the other thwart was mortised-in, you could have something interesting. Early builders such as Gerrish sometimes had one thwart mortised and one not. I'm not saying it's a Gerrish... I'm suggesting it might be something other than a Detroit. I think you need to take it to the Assembly in July and have a bunch of folks look it over .

 

[Don Stucke]

Kathy - We'll try to get a couple of pics of the thwarts up today but we have to get ready for the big storm that's coming. Gotta put my decked Wee Rob and Mill Creek 13 away, etc.

Don

 

[Don Stucke]

picture of thwart and slot

 

[Don Stucke]

this is a closeup

 

[Kathryn Klos]

Simply gorgeous. Maybe someone will jump in and say, "I know that thwart-shape"!

 

[H.E. Pennypacker]

Don - decks sure look like Detroit, but a lot of the rest looks like its from Mass. At least 2 builders - F. Brodbeck and C.P. Nutting - beveled the underside of the inwales like yours; I think Detroit never did this. The thwart also looks like a Brodbeck and Nutting (not the mortice, but the thwart that's there. The seat frames match the rest of the trim - birdseye maple - so they're probably original. I think Detroit went out of business very early, but the pressed-in caning of your seats indicates decades later - 1940s or so. Deck style is odd for a Mass builder but Nutting (at least) had multiple deck styles. The tiny serial number and it being on the rib is also odd, but I guess that's part of the mystery.

 

[Don Stucke]

Thanks for more input. I'm leaning more and more toward a Charles River builder also and the closed gunwales indicate that early era but the pressed cane seats seem out of character for that period.

Don

 

[pklonowski]

The pressed cane seats were [robably replacements, at some repair effort along the way.

 

[Kathryn Klos]

I don't know how true this is, but it seems to me that the early Charles River builders put long decks on their canoes (the "courting style" that tended to pull the couple closer together) and perhaps the builder of this canoe was asked to put short decks on the boat for a customer, and chose this ogee-style... perhaps this builder rarely used short decks (?).

As far as the seats are concerned, is it possible someone routed-out the area where holes once were, in an effort to make the seat "easy" to cane? If this was the case, you might feel holes on the underside of the seat frame.

 

[Benson Gray]

Let me muddy the waters some more by pointing out that there is an open gunwale canoe currently listed on eBay in Rhode Island at http://www.ebay.com/itm/290801954766 and the picture of the deck at http://i.ebayimg.com/t/Antique-Wood...Aw/$(KGrHqF,!lkE+tPMpJ0QBQYgK5tDoQ~~60_57.JPG shows a similar shape. I asked the seller if there was a serial number on the stems and he responded saying "I looked and couldn't find anything." This one also appears to have had the seats replaced.

Benson

 

[Don Stucke]

Benson, thank you. There is a strong resemblance.