Beautiful old Lakefield canoe - serial number

[MGC]

Yes Macky,

In January 1962 Rilco Industries Limited was established in Lakefield with Jack Richardson, the former GM of the then defunct Peterborough Canoe Co., as GM.

The new company purchased Lakefield Boats Ltd. Included in the purchase was also the rights and forms to continue building the well-known line of Lakefield cedar strip boats and canoes.

Under the trademarks Lakefield Boats and Richardson Aqua-Craft the company produced two lines of pleasure crafts from cedar-strip and canvas covered canoes to motorboats and also sailboats in cedar-strip construction, lapstrake and molded plywood.

The company lasted until the fall of 1967. Its assets were auctioned off in early 1968.

Dick Persson
Buckhorn Canoe Company
www.buckhorncanoes.com

Jack Richardson hired Walter Walker, a former supervisor at the Peterborough factory as the Plant Superintendent at Rilco where he oversaw the build of the canoes. When Rilco folded in 67 WW went to work at Peel Marine, also in Lakefield. Before joining Peterborough he had worked at the Brown shop.

There is Lakefield lineage that traces back to Gordon, then Brown and then finally the first of the Lakefield companies whose forms were then put into service at Rilco. Walter also built on old Gordon forms. It is a fascinating trail that eventually leads to Burleigh Falls company and beyond.

Forgive me if I have any of this wrong.....our Northern most members may have a better handle on the details.

 

[Dick Persson]

Hi MGC,

You are correct, it is a fascinating lineage. You can read about it in more detail in Wooden Canoe, Issue 145, February 2008.

Dick Persson

 

[MGC]

Hi MGC,

You are correct, it is a fascinating lineage. You can read about it in more detail in Wooden Canoe, Issue 145, February 2008.

Dick Persson

Dick,

Do you know which forms the 16 foot Richardson's were built on? There are references to WW using a Gordon form for 16's later on. Was that same form used at Rilco? I know that Rilco had the smaller (15 1/2, !3) Lakefield forms but it's never been clear to me where the 16 came from..................where did the Peel forms come from? Did they come from Rilco?

Mike

 

[Dick Persson]

Mike,

The moulds surviving from the Gordon-Strickland-Brown-Lakefield-Rilco linage are old but they are not as old as sometimes has been suggested. The companies in Lakefield had their share of fires; the three worst ones 1893, 1910 and 1953 destroyed almost everything.

When the Lakefield Canoe Co. was placed in bankruptcy in 1938 the assets were sold. Several canoe moulds ended up in private hands. A few of those moulds were later purchased and used by Lakefield Boat & Manufacturing Co. and by Lakefield Boats, but all of them were destroyed in the fire of 1953. Lakefield Boats Limited did not build any canoes after the fire.

Many of the moulds used by Rilco were molds purchased from the bankruptcy estates of Canadian Canoe Co and Peterborough Canoe Co., but a number of Rilco’s moulds were actually designed and built as needed.

At the closing of Rilco Industries, Peel Marine purchased several moulds, Walter Walker purchased a few as did others.

Walter Walker owned five moulds; a 14’Pioneer, a 16’Gordon, a 16’C2, a 20’C4 and a 30’War, all of them today in the Canadian Canoe Museum. One of the Lakefield moulds in the Canadian Canoe Museum could possibly be from before 1910.

I believe Peel Marine owns two 16’ cedar-strip canoe moulds, both from Rilco and before that from Peterborough Canoe Co.

Dick Persson
Buckhorn Canoe Company
www.buckhorncanoes.com

 

[Graham]

Some more early Lakefield ads

 

[Dick Persson]

Nice find Graham! What publications are they from?

Dick Persson
Buckhorn Canoe Company

 

[Graham]

They're from "Rod and Gun in Canada" from 1899 to 1920 (Woodstock, Ont). U of Toronto has scanned most of the issues (2009) and there are lots of canoe ads. Great reading.

Chestnut has a great series of why canvas is better than wood ads. Also Dean, Ross, Canadian, Peterborough, Ditchburn, Rushton, Bush, Capitol... More Lakefield too, on the Zambesi river in South Africa and others. If you want, I can post them on the research forum.

Lots on early marine motors and motorboats, including the Chestnut. Surprising number of ads for folding boats - they seemed to have a lot of marketing.

I guess that Lakefield for the Princess of Wales/Duke of York must have been for what was later Queen Mary and King Edward V. They visited Canada in 1902, married in 1893. Wonder if it's still in the family.

 

[Dick Persson]

Thanks Graham,

Yes, the canoe was a gift for HRH Princess Mary of Teck marriage July 6th 1893 to HRH Prince George, Duke of York.

The 16 ft. canoe was made by the Strickland & Co, Lakefield in June of 1893. It was constructed with alternate strips of Spanish and White cedar and trimmed in Mahogany and curly Birdseye Maple.

It was the first of three such canoes shipped to HRH Princess Mary (later HRH Queen Mary).

This is the reason an alternate striped cedar-strip canoe often is called a “Queens canoe”

Dick Persson
Buckhorn Canoe Company
www.buckhorncanoes.com

 

[Andre Cloutier]

Graham, are these available on line or have you accessed them at U of T in person? would like to see some of the Chestnut stuff, and an original ad for the Strickland I am picking up next week would be really kool.

 

[Graham]

You can read them online... here for example:

https://archive.org/stream/rodguncan12cana#page/1580/mode/2up

Index here...

https://archive.org/search.php?query=rod and gun AND collection:toronto

There isn't much in the first few years, but they start showing up around 1904 or so, too late for Strickland. You'll have to post the boat when you get it!

Enjoy.

 

[Andre Cloutier]

Thanks much for posting those, what a great way to kill a few hours when you're supposed to be working!

 

[Graham]

a few more, for historical interest

 

[Graham]

And a few more showing the name transition in 1919.

 

[bernie de jonge]

I have a Lakefield cedar/canvas canoe 15.5 ft in length. It has one seat, two thwarts, and a base for a sail. On one thwart there is a brass tag numbered 278. On the stem in the stern the number 16 is stamped as well in the front stem. The number 5699 is also stamped in the rear stem. Is there anyone who can decipher the meaning? My guess is the number 16 is the model number, the number 5699 is the serial number. I'm trying to find the date it was made. Bernie.

 

[Paul Waqué]

I have a Lakefield cedar/canvas canoe 15.5 ft in length. It has one seat, two thwarts, and a base for a sail. On one thwart there is a brass tag numbered 278. On the stem in the stern the number 16 is stamped as well in the front stem. The number 5699 is also stamped in the rear stem. Is there anyone who can decipher the meaning? My guess is the number 16 is the model number, the number 5699 is the serial number. I'm trying to find the date it was made. Bernie.

Is there a decal from the company? These change with time. the Dragonfly website is somewhat helpful here. I am not sure that the names on the decal and thwart caps exactly match the changes to the company names. Some pictures would help too. I do not know much about Lakefield canoes but the location of numbers is not familiar to me. The Lakefields that I have seen have thwarts and no seats.

 

[bernie de jonge]

Paul: I appreciate your reply. Benson Gray alerted me to the fact that there are no known Lakefield Canoe company records of builds. So, I'm afraid my search has come to a dead end. My guess is that I have a canoe made circa 1935 or later.