1907 Charles River
- Thread starter joseph
- Start date
The pictures at http://forums.wcha.org/showthread.php?12320 show an Old Town Charles River model from 1907 with long decks but they are not split like yours. An Old Town Molitor model with long split decks is shown at http://forums.wcha.org/showthread.php?4175 from 1922. That wide thwart/seat is more commonly associated with the builders from the Charles River area. What is the serial number in your canoe?
Benson
Benson
Wow, the Old Town canoe with serial number 6423 is a 17 foot long, AA (or top) grade, Charles River model with red western cedar planking, a keel, open mahogany gunwales, mahogany decks, mahogany thwarts, mahogany seats, half ribs, a stern thwart that was seven inches wide, and long mahogany decks. It was built between March and May, 1907. The original exterior paint color was dark green. It shipped on May 23rd, 1907 to Boston, Mass. A scan of this build record can be found by following the link at the thumbnail image attached 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 possible that you could have another number or manufacturer but this description seems to match your canoe very well. Feel free to reply here if you have any other questions.
Benson
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 possible that you could have another number or manufacturer but this description seems to match your canoe very well. Feel free to reply here if you have any other questions.
Benson
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Dave Osborn
LIFE MEMBER
The decks and thwarts certainly don't look like Old Town to me, but maybe in 1907 they made them like this.
I would agree that the thwarts look like they were from a "Charles River" area builder. Robertson, Waltham, etal.
EDIT: oops...didn't read the build record. I now see the deck and thwart notations.
I would agree that the thwarts look like they were from a "Charles River" area builder. Robertson, Waltham, etal.
EDIT: oops...didn't read the build record. I now see the deck and thwart notations.
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The short answer is not many. The longer answer can be found at http://www.wcha.org/catalogs/old-town/models.html showing that an estimated 9367 of these were made between 1905 and 1929 which works out to about 375 per year. The chart at http://www.wcha.org/ot_records/grades.jpg indicates that about 23% of the total were in AA grade. The analysis at http://forums.wcha.org/showthread.php?13053 concludes that wooden canoes appear to have about a two percent survival rate.
More accurate numbers could be generated if you wanted to get a copy of the build records from http://store.wcha.org/Old-Town-Build-Records-on-CD-ROM.html and manually go through them. Yours is the only one from Old Town that I ever recall seeing with a wide thwart/seat. Let me know if this doesn't answer your question. Please keep us posted on the progress of your restoration. Thanks,
Benson
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