Can you tell me about a Kennebec canoe with a serial number: 12416?

[mdouglass]

The thread entitled "Perhaps a White" discusses a canoe which I recently bought. The canoe appears to be a B.N. Morris. However its rail caps do not cover the full length of the boat. The rail caps are short like Kennebec models. It strikes me that a search for the serial number of my canoe (serial number #12416) in the Kennebec records might describe a canoe which is clearly not the canoe I possess. If this is the case, then I can assume I purchased a B.N. Morris rather than a Kennebec.

Thanks,

Mark Douglass

 

[Kathryn Klos]

B.N. Morris open gunwale canoes have had a rail cap-- all of them do unless somebody removed it and didn't replace it... I believe Morris devised it as a segue from the deck to the open wale... to ease the eye into the open wale which wasn't initially accepted by the public. Morris may have begun building canoes this way in 1905.


My experience looking at Morris canoes-- either the real thing in-person or in pictures-- is that if you have an oval serial number plate on the gunwale or a rectangular plate on the bow stem, you have a Morris. If there was a plate saying "Kennebec", then you'd have a Kennebec, but to my knowledge no such animal has been found and this is what Benson suggested, and is what we're looking into.

If a Kennebec canoe has a short, heart-shaped deck, it is a second-grade canoe and will not be trimmed in mahogany-- at least this is my memory from studying catalogs. This rail cap was used by Kennebec from 1910 and it became one identifying factor for the Kennebec. Morris didn't make very many open gunwale canoes and was out of business by 1920, so that particular look in a canoe seems "wrong" for a Morris, yet that's the way they looked-- there just aren't many of them out there.

The first grade mahogany-trimmed Kennebecs were long-deck canoes. There are other differences between Morris and Kennebec-- Is the canoe in question mahogany trimmed? Is the keel fixed with a screw on every rib? Is the profile of the canoe a Morris profile or is it one of the Kennebec models?

I'll give you links to the videos I made on how to ID a Morris and one showing a Kennebec/Morris hybrid compared to a Morris, and this may help. The other big-identifier would be the pocketed ribs, but they aren't there with the open gunwales... so look at the canoe's profile and some of these other aspects. It might help to have some who have restored both Morris and Kennebec to add some differences they've noticed in basic construction.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yU2iyygvr8I (Morris Kennebec)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAz-rspieqE (Morris ID 1)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YN462MWTABc (Morris ID 2)

 

[Kathryn Klos]

Morris open gunwale canoes have mahogany rails-- inwale and outwale of mahogany-- and the outwale is "D" shaped. I'm not sure if Kennebec used D-shaped outwales-- I'll look through the catalogs.

 

[mdouglass]

Thanks for suggesting viewing your YouTube videos. I note the following:

My canoe has the heart shaped short deck or breasthook. It has a splayed stem with a clipped rectangular metal tag attached with four tacks. The tag is in line with the stem rather than perpendicular to it. There is no oval tag on the inwale; nor are there two tack holes indicating a lost tag. There are three pair of cant ribs ahead of the full rib into which the stem bites. The serial number is five digits long. The floor rack is attached with brass toggles. The keel is attached at every rib. I am no judge of wood types, but the rails are varnished, rich, dark red in color. Numerous nail holes have been filled with wood putty. The gunwale cross section is D-shaped. There are two drilled holes amidships suggesting a missing detachable thwart. The rail caps look like the 1905 open gunnel B.N. Morris canoe photograph on page 35 of Jerry Stelmok and Rollin Thurlow's "The Wood & Canvas Canoe," extending only a little ways back from the breasthook.

Thanks,

Mark Douglass

 

[Dan Miller]

Mark,

Your canoe is pretty clearly a Morris. The Kennebec with the serial number 12416 is an 18-1/2' Maine Guide Model.

As I mentioned in another thread, the undated catalogs have for a long time been attributed to an earlier time period, and the catalog page in Jerry and Rollin's book that you refer to is probably from the teens rather than 1905.

Dan

 

[mdouglass]

Thanks very much. I wanted the issue resolved before I apply for a boating license from my state.

Mark Douglass

 

[Kathryn Klos]

Enjoy your canoe, Mark!

Kathy

 

[mdouglass]

Kathy,

Thanks for your help and your expertise.

Even though I have a stripped down Old Town Guide in my basement that I need to finish, and a Thompson Hiawatha awaiting me in my back yard, I am so happy to have found this B.N. Morris.

Mark Douglass

 

[Kathryn Klos]

Sounds like you have great variety in your fleet! Congratulations on the Morris-- and the others as well.

Kathy