Hi Jim--
Old Town 159898 is a 15 foot CS (common sense) grade, fifty pound model, finished between April and June of 1953. It has a keel and rub rails, was painted design #45, and was shipped to the Flint Tent and Awning Company of Flint, Michigan, on June 8, 1953.
The scan of this record is attached below-- click on it to get a larger image. This scan and several hundred thousand others 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/wcha/ to learn more about the WCHA and
http://www.wcha.org/join.php to renew.
Design #45 is also attached-- this image is courtesy
The Complete Old Town Canoe Company Catalog Collection, 1901-1993 edited by Benson Gray and Dan Miller.
My guess is that the rub rails ran along the point where the color changes from white to navy.
It is possible that you could have another number or manufacturer if this description doesn't match your canoe. Feel free to reply here if you have any other questions.
More information on the Old Town Company can be found in Sue Audette's book
Old Town, Our First Hundred Years, which is available through the WCHA store and most booksellers, eBay, Amazon, and public libraries.
Kathy