Early canvas canoe information

[1905Gerrish]

Howard,

Great post, a ton of info to digest. I have been digging a ton lately and can certainly add. Possible to share where Morris claims to have started building on a form?

The timeframe you suggest is about what I have been finding as well. I have been privately conversing with Chris and Benson when I find something that I find exciting. Just last night I was showing Chris some articles about Gerrish. In particular the width of canvas dated 1885 that suggested a seam was placed down the middle of the canoe at that time, as a 5' width not being available. That said, I hinted as his, oldest know Gerrish being made after that time period as we believe it has original canvas on it and unseamed. Also, the earliest were painted bark in color. Of the dozens I am aware, none are this shade.

I have found many of the same articles you have posted and more. This one dated SEP 26, 1884 from The Mining and Industrial Journal. We have to remember that this work was largely seasonal at the time. 30 canoes sold since March. Only a 6-month time span. The word season could be confused with yearly numbers.

Gerrish was guiding during hunting seasons and prime fishing season for what I am finding in other articles. One could say he was more of an outfitter at this time as he was making the only bamboo and solid wood fish rods in the Bangor area, canoes and are hosting sports at his sporting lodges either on B Pond or Onawa Lake. He stayed for months on end many winters hunting. There were not set seasons such as today.

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This next article falls right in line with your long post above. Certainly, bark like construction with the minimal tools involved. From the Industrial Journal, May 15, 1885.
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Gerrish was by far the most prolific builder of the times. He was the first to introduce canvas canoes to the Charles River in 1889 per the next article. I could not find anything before this canvas canoe article on Partelow who was in business many years before 1889 but were building Rob Roy style canoes. C.P Nutting would be the first to produce canvas canoes to the Charles per another article I have located. Robertson followed just after.

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The first I have been able to locate copper fastened canoes is dated 1890 and is shared below. Assumingly, built on a form at this point. The word I have found that was used in that time period is a model. I have searched it extensively and have come up short with additional info. As I've said in the past the exciting news (In papers) was placing canvas on canoes as a technological achievement.
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I have yet to nail down much solid info but the second largest builder of canvas canoes that has not been mentioned yet in this discussion is Carleton. Guy was building a high volume of bark canoes during the early Gerrish years. I just located an article from 1883 stating he was getting ready to manufacture canvas canoes shortly. Hubbard was using is Bark canoes in many expeditions. I have not uncovered any advancements in construction from Guy, but he was on the up and up until he passed away in, I believe 1902. We know the rest of the Carleton story. The articles I have uncovered on his company are very seasonal. Over the winter of 1892 he was expecting to manufacture 100 Canvas canoes for instance. For many consecutive years he built large volumes of canoes over the winter and sold throughout the following year.

Some credit needs to be given to Mr. John Darling as well here in the earliest stages on canvas canoes. He lived upriver of Bangor and built canvas/bark canoes. I have uncovered numerous articles with his name. Below is an example.
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George Patrick of Greenville, Maine was involved for only a short period in canoes. He passed at a young age in 1889 in Greenville.

I have also found that MANY of the earlier canoes sold were destined for Moosehead Lake. It was a premier destination at the time with the Grand Hotel on Kineo. Bangor was a train stop along the way from the south and gear was purchased for the journey northward. The journey consisted of a train continuance and wagon ride to Greenville. Hop abord the steamer to Kineo. The trip could be over and relax on the beautiful peninsula and fish the lake. A canoe trip was continued in chosen by steamer to Northeast Carry where the West branch of the Penobscot River could be taken back to Bangor, about a 10-day journey. If a longer trip was in order, the Allagash River was taken to the St. John's River and onward to a Southeast direction toward civilization. Most of the trips I am reading about were the West Branch excursions.

Zack

I have to correct myself here with some misinformation I posted above. Between George Patrick and George Kirkpatrick information included I lost track of the correct individual. I believe they are the same individual though. George did pass at age 70 in Greenville. Now we need to find one of his canoes.
Zack

 

[Benson Gray]

Between George Patrick and George Kirkpatrick information included I lost track of the correct individual. I believe they are the same individual though.

I'm less confident that these were both the same person. There doesn't appear to be any census, grave, or other genealogical information available for either one in the Greenville area but these were both common names in the region during that era. The 1880 census information from Old Town below shows one George Kirkpatrick along with a father and son who were both known as George Patrick.

Their canoes may still exist but we usually can't confirm who made them. The list at https://wcha.org/catalogs/maine-list.htm has hundreds of Maine builders but most didn't have tags so only a few of their canoes can be identified, unfortunately.

Benson

 

[1905Gerrish]

Outstanding, this clearly establishes that Gerrish started out building canvas canoes using the birch bark process in 1875. The link below may have more about the "Swedish Nails" that were mentioned if anyone is curious. Great stuff,

Benson

Glasgow Boat Nail 175mm, Galvanized

The Glasgow Boat Nail is a reproduction of a boat nail that used to be made by Mustadfors Bruk in Västra Götaland, Sweden. Used throughout Scandinavia for traditional boat building and restoration projects, also called an Oakwood Nail, Ekspik, or Timmerspik. Boat Nails have a long-tapered shank...

tremontnail.com

Concerning the "ordinary Swedish nails" quoted in the previous article at the bottom of page 2 of this thread regarding Mr. Gerrish on July 25, 1882. I took a look at the very old UFO that I recently received and found these. They are also the fasteners for the top cap though others were added as well. They look like a pretty solid match IMO.

Zack

 

[Michael Grace]

These look round, but are they actually square? The term "Swedish nail" generally was used back then for square nails.

 

[1905Gerrish]

These look round, but are they actually square? The term "Swedish nail" generally was used back then for square nails.

They are square cut Michael.

 

[MGC]

By the time these were made, some square nails (cut nails) were being produced from round rod. The round nail followed in the early 1900's. The so called Swedish nail gets mentioned when boats are involved, but I am not really sure how you could be certain that they are a flavor of cut nail vs. a Swedish nail. These have very common heads.
It's interesting that the nails are a topic here. I have done a lot of restoration of old homes and furniture and there is definitely a transition evident in how iron/steel nails were made that can be observed beginning in the early 1800's through the early 1900's. In that these are made with round rod (or at least it looks like it in the images) that suggests a nail that was made in the 80s or 90s.
I always used to get stuck with the job of saving nails whenever my father and I worked on something. We restored an 1840s house, an 1890s house, an 1807 house and lots of in between. I would pull all of the square nails and then straighten them. It was a terrible job, but I did learn a lot about nails. When I inherited his accumulation (crap), I ended up with many hundreds of square nails. I ask, what does anyone do with buckets of these old nails? I can't think of anyone who would use them except in an old house or on old period furniture.... Zack, if you need a few nails to replace any damaged ones, I can probably help out, although small square nails are scarce. They do not often survive being pulled and straightened.

 

[Worth Gretter]

I ask, what does anyone do with buckets of these old nails?

Mike, you could ask Historic Eastfield Village in East Nassau NY. They have a bunch of old buildings to maintain and also run classes.
https://www.historiceastfield.org/buildings-of-eastfield-village

 

[1905Gerrish]

By the time these were made, some square nails (cut nails) were being produced from round rod. The round nail followed in the early 1900's. The so called Swedish nail gets mentioned when boats are involved, but I am not really sure how you could be certain that they are a flavor of cut nail vs. a Swedish nail. These have very common heads.
It's interesting that the nails are a topic here. I have done a lot of restoration of old homes and furniture and there is definitely a transition evident in how iron/steel nails were made that can be observed beginning in the early 1800's through the early 1900's. In that these are made with round rod (or at least it looks like it in the images) that suggests a nail that was made in the 80s or 90s.
I always used to get stuck with the job of saving nails whenever my father and I worked on something. We restored an 1840s house, an 1890s house, an 1807 house and lots of in between. I would pull all of the square nails and then straighten them. It was a terrible job, but I did learn a lot about nails. When I inherited his accumulation (crap), I ended up with many hundreds of square nails. I ask, what does anyone do with buckets of these old nails? I can't think of anyone who would use them except in an old house or on old period furniture.... Zack, if you need a few nails to replace any damaged ones, I can probably help out, although small square nails are scarce. They do not often survive being pulled and straightened.

Mike,

I certainly agree with you on that nails are an interesting subject in this discussion. The article that mentions them, gives us what I believe the best quality description of these early Gerrish canvas canoes and I would say canvas canoes in general. Now, was it the writer or Mr. Gerrish/employee that called the nails, "Common Swedish nails"? It is interesting that a cut steel nail is first used in the construction. We could suppose that was a common term for cut nails of the day? Certainly, a boat building term that could have carried over from the large ship building that was occurring in Bangor at that time. I shared what I found on this half a canoe because it is certainly out of the ordinary. I'm fairly confident to say that the canoe was not a one off built by a guide as one would need a form and those were not just kicking around in every barn. It's built with too much care and quality.

I'm still looking for the canvas canoe with the canvas seam down the center as the same article mentions. That trait gets my attention. I looked immediately when I saw this old canoe.

The canoe is put away in storage again and trying to come up with a plan for it. I know where to find you if I could use a few nails. Thanks

Zack

 

[MGC]

Mike, you could ask Historic Eastfield Village in East Nassau NY. They have a bunch of old buildings to maintain and also run classes.
https://www.historiceastfield.org/buildings-of-eastfield-village

Good idea. I had not thought about that. We have the Genessee Country Village and Museum nearby and I know one of their restorers quite well. It never occurred to me (until now) to offer these and other bits of obscure odds and ends to them. Maybe they need a bucket of shutter latches?
I addition to all of the nails from the projects I did with my father, I also owned and rebuilt a house the was built following the Civil War. The first new addition was added in 1890 and then the next additions were done around 1905ish. I have a bunch of nails I saved from that work.
At my current rate of use, I will run out of square nails sometime two or three centuries from now, if at all.
On a positive note, I recently found a home for all of the brass hame tops I have in my shop. They are too nice to toss, but unless you are into pulling with horses, quite useless. A farm in Teton Valley will become their next home.

 

[cwf]

I always used to get stuck with the job of saving nails whenever my father and I worked on something. We restored an 1840s house, an 1890s house, an 1807 house and lots of in between. I would pull all of the square nails and then straighten them. It was a terrible job, but I did learn a lot about nails.

I have a friend who did a wooden boat apprenticeship in the UK 60 years ago. A regular job was burning an old boat and collecting the nails and screws afterwards - materials were expensive then and labour cheap.

 

[MGC]

I have a friend who did a wooden boat apprenticeship in the UK 60 years ago. A regular job was burning an old boat and collecting the nails and screws afterwards - materials were expensive then and labour cheap.

I suppose that would have been an alternative although burning a house for its nails never crossed my mind. I was always worried about burning them down while I was working on the plumbing...... Copper pipe calls for flames very close to very old and dry wood.

 

[Dave Wermuth]

Zack said: " I'm still looking for the canvas canoe with the canvas seam down the center as the same article mentions. That trait gets my attention. I looked immediately when I saw this old canoe."

In Michigan, Brian Baker put the seam down the middle, as did his father. Baker's Canoes. He restored an Old Town for me in '96. He told me about his method and a couple years ago I removed the canvas and saved a portion of the canvas that was center seamed. You could not tell by looking at the canoe and the seam never leaked in over twenty years, including trips to Quetico.

Dave

 

[MGC]

How was the seam held in place? Was it tacked or glued?

 

[Dave Wermuth]

It was glued. I'm not sure what he uses but it sure holds tight.

 

[dtdcanoes]

Hames and traces , Mike ! You're killing me here.
Dave