carleton or old town

[baselinebob216]

so here are some pics to go with the original post i put up yesterday. this canoe was given to me and i was told its either a 1911 oldtown or carleton. it doesnt look like a carleton . the serial number that is barely visible on the stem, its actually on both stems fore and aft, is 7045-17. as far as what is original in this boat, i think the seats and the forward thwart are original. i think the decks may be a previous restoration.

 

[Benson Gray]

I see a leading one in your serial number image so you should check the stem in the other end to see if it looks like 17045 17 there too. The Old Town canoe with this serial number is 16 feet long but both the Carleton and Kennebec canoes with this number are 17 feet long. The planking pattern doesn't look like a Carleton to me so my guess is that you have the Kennebec type 2A that originally had twenty inch mahogany decks and shipped on March 2nd, 1923. Someone else may have other ideas.

Benson

 

[baselinebob216]

the canoe was found in upstate ny, if that helps at all in reference to where it was originally shipped. thanks -Bob

 

[baselinebob216]

does the site or anyone else have a picture of what a kennebec type 2a might have originally looked like. thanks

 

[Benson Gray]

does the site or anyone else have a picture of what a kennebec type 2a might have originally looked like. thanks

The pictures at http://forums.wcha.org/showthread.php?7507 should give you an idea since Kennebec replaced the type 2A with the type B in 1927. The Carleton with number 17045 shipped to Ithaca, New York on June 11th, 1923 and the Kennebec shipped to location 23-68 which is probably an order number but we don't have enough information to identify this now. What do the numbers on the other stem look like? Are there any nail holes on the top of the inside gunwales near the ends where the short rail caps would have been?

Benson

 

[baselinebob216]

carleton or old town now maybe a kennebec?

thanks Benson, you're right about the serial number being 17045, i found this boat in amsterdam which isnt to far from ithaca, and there are no nail holes in the gunwales. i took some more pictures, i wetted down the glass over the planking so maybe you can see the pattern better. also i found a wing nut at the midpoint of the boat, also took some pics of the keel fastners just in case it helps. thanks for your help. -bob

 

[baselinebob216]

do you know the date that the kennebec shipped to that location? thanks- Bob

 

[Benson Gray]

The Kennebec canoe with number 17045 shipped on March 2nd, 1923 as I mentioned before. The lack of nail holes in the rails, the wing nut for a removable middle thwart, and the shape of the seat and thwarts all point to a Carleton. I also did some additional checking and found other canoes from the same period with a similar planking pattern. My revised guess is that you have the Carleton canoe with serial number 17045 which is a 17 foot long, regular (or middle) grade, Carleton model with red western cedar planking, closed spruce gunwales, birch decks, birch thwarts, birch seats, and a keel. It was built between May and June, 1922. The original exterior paint color was dark green. It was shipped on June 11th, 1922 to Ithaca, New York. A scans showing this build record can be found by following the link at the attached thumbnail image below.

This scans 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/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 it could be from another manufacturer. Feel free to reply here if you have any other questions. Thanks,

Benson

 

[baselinebob216]

thanks for all your help. -Bob

 

[baselinebob216]

Hi again, does anyone have a pic of a carleton, carleton model refinished, or an old town carleton. thanks

 

[normsims]

Bob,

Here are a couple pictures of a 1927 Carleton that was built at the Old Town factory and restored by Tom Seavey. I have some other views if you need them.

Norm

 

[Benson Gray]

Another good source of Carleton images are their 32 catalogs from 1905 to 1941 in the Historic Collection available at http://store.wcha.org/The-Historic-...pany-Catalog-Collection-Version-2-CD-ROM.html in the WCHA store.

Benson

 

[David Satter]

1933 Old Town Carleton

1933 Old town Carleton