2 Old Towns and a 20ft E.M.White

jason1910

Curious about Wooden Canoes
In the past month or so I have somehow acquired 3 wood canoes a 1921 #62616 17 this was the beginning for me love at first sight. So yesterday I hear back on 2 more woodys from different people and now their mine. The Old Town #109962 16 I'm thinking late 30s early 40s guide but I only been addicted for short time , so what do I know! so the big boy told it was a 20ft E.M. White has badge on decks and diamond hardware, but isn't that an old town thing. number is hard to see I think it is 47 303 if any one knows much about White canoes will try to get photo if needed. Thanks in advance Jason
 
The Old Town canoe with serial number 62616 is a 17 foot long, CS (Common Sense or middle) grade, Charles River model that was shipped as a HW (Heavy Water) model with closed spruce gunwales, maple decks, maple thwarts, maple seats, mahogany (outside) finish rails, a keel, and outside stems. It was built between September, 1920 and May, 1921. The original exterior paint color was orange. It was shipped on June 1st, 1921 to Lowell, Mass.

The Old Town canoe with serial number 109962 is a 16 foot long, CS (Common Sense or middle) grade, HW (Heavy Water) model with red western cedar planking, open spruce gunwales, birch decks, birch thwarts, birch seats, and a keel. It was built between June, 1931 and June, 1932. The original exterior paint color was G. S. (Guide's Special) green. It was shipped on June 22nd, 1932 to Lincoln, Maine.

Scans of these build records can be found by following the links at the attached thumbnail images below. These scans 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 these descriptions don't match the canoes. It is not unusual to find Old Town's diamond headed bolts that were used to repair canoes from other manufacturers. White used serial numbers briefly from the late 1940s until the early 1960s when Bub King was running the shop. The format was xx-yy-zzzz where xx was the length in feet, yy was the last two digits of the year, and zzzz was the sequential serial number. However, there are no known White records to verify any of this. My guess is that you have a White since the Old Town records for 47303 and 147303 don't show a 20 foot long canoe. The charts at http://www.wcha.org/catalogs/old-town/oldtown_chart.html may help if you want to estimate the age of an Old Town canoe from a serial number in the future. Feel free to reply here if you have any other questions. Good luck with the restorations,

Benson
 

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another Old town and size of White

Thank you Benson, so I just took some photos and measurements 18ft 4in X 36 W X 11in D. it also turns out I have another Old Town I got both ends and a bunch of ribs #95728 18. I also got another end with a similar # of the white 47 336 no matter what it is it is old and made of wood.
 
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photos

Thank you Benson, so I just took some photos and measurements 18ft 4in X 36 W X 11in D. it also turns out I have another Old Town I got both ends and a bunch of ribs #95728 18. I also got another end with a similar # of the white 47 336 no matter what it is it is old and made of wood.


Photos I hope
 
The Old Town canoe with serial number 95728 is an 18 foot long, GS (Guide's Special or utility) grade, Guide's model with red western cedar planking, open spruce gunwales, ash decks, and a keel. It was built between October, 1927 and April, 1929. The original exterior paint color was azure blue with a white monogram on the right and left sides of the bow. It shipped on June 7th, 1929 to Mount Vernon, New Hampshire. A scan of this build record can be found by following the link at the attached thumbnail image below.

It is also possible that you could have another number or manufacturer if this description doesn't match your canoe. The information at http://forums.wcha.org/showthread.php?469 may help you post your pictures. It would be great to see if the monogram is still showing on this one. Feel free to reply here if you or they have any other questions.

Benson
 

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