17 Foot Old Town? 46202

[John Visser]

I was recently given an old canoe by an elderly couple. I believe it is an Old Town from the way the serial number is arranged(46202 17) and the presence of diamond head bolts to hold the seats on. However, the thwarts are flatter and not as thick top to bottom as other Old Town thwarts I have seen and are not fastened with diamond head bolt. Many different factors lead me to believe that someone who didn't quite know what he was doing tried to repair this canoe. The outer gunwales are all cut off about 18" from the ends and the resulting open canvas edge was fiberglassed. The thwarts look out of place and too long for this canoe, making the canoe look wider than it should be at 40" at the gunwales. However, I am not familiar with all of Old Town canoe models, and this could be normal. The seat hanging spacers are installed incorrectly. I'll include some pictures. Thanks in advance for any help in identifying this canoe.

 

[Benson Gray]

The Old Town canoe with serial number 46202 is an 18 foot long, AA (or top) grade, HW (Heavy Water) model with red western cedar planking, closed spruce gunwales, mahogany decks, mahogany thwarts, mahogany seats, a keel, a floor rack, and sponsons. It was built between October, 1916 and January, 1917. The original exterior paint color was dark green. It shipped on January 12th, 1917 to Detroit, Michigan. A scan of this build record can be found by following the link at the attached thumbnail image below.

This scan and several hundred thousand more were created with substantial grants from the Wooden Canoe Heritage Association (WCHA) and others. A description of the project to preserve these records is available at http://www.wcha.org/ot_records/ if you want more details. I hope that you will join or renew your membership to the WCHA so that services like this can continue. See http://www.wcha.org/about-the-wcha/ to learn more about the WCHA and http://store.wcha.org/WCHA-New-Membership.html to join.

It is also possible that you could have another number or manufacturer if this description doesn't match your canoe. The 17 at the end of the serial number in your picture indicates a 17 foot long canoe so a tape measure will be necessary to confirm the extreme overall length of this canoe. There may be an error stamped on the stem or on the build record. The relatively thin thwarts without any diamond headed bolts would be correct for an Old Town from this period. See http://forums.wcha.org/showthread.php?12413 and http://forums.wcha.org/showthread.php?3968 for some other examples of similar Old Towns from this era. The seats and diamond headed bolts appear to be much newer than the rest of this canoe. The 1917 catalog lists a 34 inch width for a 17 foot long HW model so the thwarts may have been replaced with longer ones as well. Can you include a picture of the full serial number from the other end as well? Do the decks appear to be made from mahogany? Are there any screw holes left from the sponsons or the floor rack supports? Feel free to reply here if you have any other questions. Thanks,

Benson

 

[pklonowski]

Wouldn't the open gunnels indicate a newer canoe, too?

 

[Benson Gray]

Wouldn't the open gunnels indicate a newer canoe, too?

Yes, this canoe shows a real mixture of construction techniques which often indicates that it has been repaired at least once by someone who wasn't worried about restoring it to the original style. The closed gunwales could have been replaced with open ones. It is also possible that the stem shown with the serial number was salvaged from an older canoe and used to repair a newer one. This is why I asked to verify the numbers on the other stem and other details. The canoe with number 146202 is 16 feet long so it probably isn't that one.

Benson

 

[John Visser]

I just went back out to the canoe to check out the details. Scraped through the paint on the other stem to reveal the serial number 45202 17. The gunwales are open spruce and the decks are spruce also. The actual length is 17 feet. Maybe 45202 is the correct number and 46202 was stamped on the other stem by mistake. Thanks for all the information.

 

[John Visser]

Here's a picture of the other stem, with the number 45202. Also, I couldn't find any evidence that the canoe had sponsons or a floor rack.

 

[Benson Gray]

This seems like a better match. The Old Town canoe with serial number 45202 is a 17 foot long, CS (common sense or middle) grade Charles River model with red western cedar planking, open spruce gunwales, ash decks, ash thwarts, ash seats, and a keel. It was built between September, 1916 and February, 1917. The original exterior paint color was bright red. It was shipped on March 14th, 1917 to Binghamton, New York. A scan showing this build record can be found by following the link at the attached thumbnail image below.

The 1917 catalog listed this model as 34 inches wide. Feel free to reply here if you have any other questions,

Benson

 

[MGC]

Hi John....looks the old girl did not travel far from where it was shipped in 1917.
The diamond head bolts are a later addition and the flatter thwart is probably the typical replacement that Old Town was offering from the 80's on. These were actually thwarts produced for the fiberglass canoes they were building. Folks assumed (incorrectly) that replacement parts from Old Town were matches to their canoes but they weren't unless you spoke to someone in the factory and even then it was pot luck. Your canoe has 1980's thwarts and bolts that were not introduced until the 1920's. It's not a big deal......

So.....more interesting are the forms lurking in the background. It looks like there are two of them. What are those? Are you building canoes?

 

[John Visser]

Hello Benson,
That seems to be the better match. Thanks for your help.

 

[John Visser]

Hello MGC,
The couple I picked the canoe up from were not the original owners, but had this canoe for a number of years. It seems like they've been in Binghamtom for a while, and it is interesting that this canoe managed to stay right in the same area for almost 100 years.
As for the forms in the background, they are all my own designs that I built in the past few years. The bottom form is for a 19' guide style canoe and was my first(that canoe is behind me where I took the picture from). I have only built one canoe on that form. The next one up is for a 12' canoe that I built the year after at the request of my first customer. It, too, has only been used once. The little one on top is a half scale model of the 12' canoe and I have built 3 scale models off of that form. There is also a pair of sponsons off of a 16' long 1940 H.W. that I restored for a customer this year. He requested I leave the sponsons off the canoe.
I call my little business Housatonic Canoe Shop, and maintain a website at housatonic-canoe-shop.com. I would like to use these forms more, but have so far only done a few restorations in addition to making paddles and a couple of wood-strip/fiberglass boats.

 

[MGC]

John,

Check your PM's.

Mike