Dating an all wood square transom canoe/ row boat/ duck boat thing.. You tell me.

[fredygump]

This is my new project: http://www.flickr.com/photos/fredygump/sets/72157627423942495/ (for a gigantic full size image, right click on image, and click "original size")

I hope someone can help. I've searched the internet for many hours, but can't as much as find a photo of a boat like this. I'd like an idea of who made it, if it was a commercially produced boat, and an approximate age. I live in north western wisconsin, and all the woods in the boat are local to the area, so I think it's likely it was made in this area.

I expect it to turn out to be an early duck boat. I can't find any type of builder mark or S/N. It appears to have been designed to row, but it has a transom that can mount a small outboard, so it's from after the outboard was invented, but before motors took over boating? (I got an evinrude mate 1/2 hp motor (1939-1942, don't now exactly which year it's from yet) that had been with the boat for some time, though I don't know if they are the same age.) I'm not expecting it to be an especially rare or valuable craft, but I appreciate it and don't mind the challenge. I like the lines, and I'm tempted to reproduce it or something like it someday. But I'd like to know as much as I can about it, and an approximate date or information about the style and building technique would be great appreciated.


vital stats:

length: 138 3/4" (11' 6 3/4"
beam: 36"
transom: 27 1/2"

depth at transom: 14 1/4
middle: 15 1/4
at front decking: 16 1/4

materials:

strips: red cedar
outwales: red cedar
transom: white pine
inner keel: white pine
outer keel: white oak (appears to be replaceable)
coaming, inwales, ribs: white oak
Oar blocks: white oak

stem band: appears to be galvanized
nails: appear to be galvanized

The fasteners throw me off. It's nailed through with what looks like galvanized nails (silver atleast), which stick through 1/2" - 3/4" and are bent over. Not every strip is nailed at every rib--at each rib, every 3rd strip is nailed, probably so the oak ribs don't crack. (I'm pretty sure they're white oak, though my brain says they should be ash.) I'm wondering what sort of building technique this is, and what time period it may be from.


And would you all hate me if I fixed it up, only to fiberglass it? The hull is pretty solid, though a lot of ribs need replacing.

 

[Dave Osborn]

Hi Fredy,
There were many builders of duck boats in our state of Wisconsin, both commercially and moonlighters. Northwest Wisconsin would include Peterson Brothers, Shell Lake, Hayward Boat Works, and possibly a Minnesota builder. Lots of builders in the Fox Valley from Green Bay south and around Montello.. Dan Kidney comes to mind.
Best of luck digging to find more info.

As far as the fiberglassing, it is a necessary evil on occasion. IF you choose to glass it, make sure that you allow the water and moisture to evaporate from the hull when not using it. That would mean storing it right side up for a period of time before turning it over for storage. The rule of thumb that I use for storing boats and canoes divide the length in thirds and have the two support arms that far apart.

An alternative to glassing would be to stretch, fill, and paint canvas over it, ala wood/canvas canoe construction. I have a strip-built Nee-Pee-Nauk Duck Skiff (Montello area) that was canvas covered and is much lighter than if it were glassed.

 

[Greg Nolan]

The fasteners throw me off. It's nailed through with what looks like galvanized nails (silver atleast), which stick through 1/2" - 3/4" and are bent over. Not every strip is nailed at every rib--at each rib, every 3rd strip is nailed, probably so the oak ribs don't crack. (I'm pretty sure they're white oak, though my brain says they should be ash.) I'm wondering what sort of building technique this is, and what time period it may be from.

Edge-nailing

I believe that the strips on your boat were edge-nailed together, Which is why they are not fastened at every rib. In this technique, as each strip is put in place, it is nailed to the strip next to it -- with the nails perpendicular to the nails fastening the strip to the ribs. With this technique, the nails fastening the strips to each other are not visible.

Your boat seems to be very sturdily built and I suspect it retains most of its structural strength, and would be virtually as strong as when new when damaged ribs are replaced. You may find that when the boat is relaunched, the strips will swell sufficiently upon becoming wet that the boat is water-tight. If it is not water-tight, however, I think that covering it with canvas, as wood/canvas canoes are covered (as Dave Osborn suggests), would work to keep the water out -- the only reason to cover the boat. A fiberglass cover is not needed -- a little research on these forums will give you the general consensus here about fiber glass.

You can see the edge-nailing technique in photo 13 of 27 at

http://s105.photobucket.com/albums/m224/Bealsimg/Cedar Row Boat/?action=view&current=Gap-1.jpg

which is related to a discussion of an edge-nailed boat at

http://forums.wcha.org/showthread.php?6822-Construction-technique

On that boat, in addition to the edge-nailing, each strip was also fastened at every rib, unlike your boat.

It is entirely possible that your boat was a one-off construction. in 1940, Popular Mechanix published an article with plans for building a 15' edge-nailed strip canoe, suggesting that nailing some 2000 nails (my estimate) into the edges of narrow strips would be easier than steam-bending 40 or so ribs.

 

[Dan Miller]

Could very well be a Thompson Brothers Outboard Duck Boat - see attached catalog page. Also attached is Thompson's patent papers for the compressed seam strip built style of construction. Note that Thompson measured length along the gunwales, so a boat listed as 12' in the catalog will be closer to 11'6" or so...

 

[fredygump]

Could very well be a Thompson Brothers Outboard Duck Boat - see attached catalog page.

Thanks for that. I do see a lot of similarities in the design.

Do you have an approximate date for that catalog?

I'm wondering what happened when outboards were first introduced. Did everybody immediately switch to using motors, or did boat manufacturers continue to make row boats at the same time they were building boats designed for motors? I'm wondering if a guess be made based on the "adaptation" to outboard motors? In the case of my boat, it had two seats, oar locks, and the deck was flat. It seems to me that having higher gunwales would be necessary to row properly, but if it was meant to be powered by a motor, the deck could made convex with lower gunwales, making it more discreet while hunting.

My boat has stout oak blocks to secure the oars, and it has two sets of identical brackets. One is reinforced with a block of wood below the gunwales, but the other is not. I would assume the reinforced one is for rowing, but I can't figure out why there would be two. Would there have been some type of gun rest, or is there some other explanation? (I know this isn't a duck boat forum, but I see it as part of the history of wood boats...

 

[Dan Miller]

Sorry - that image is from a 1941 Thompson flyer that introduces this boat. It was offered through 1952.

There is a rich history of wooden canoe and boat builders adapting and/or creating new designs for outboard motors. At the same time, non-motorized craft continued to be offered, in many cases, through the lifespan of the company.

Duckboats, whether designed for outboards or not, are typically low-profile in design. It's a characteristic of the class... Duckboats were often sculled, rowed while standing, or moved with a push-pole. An outboard would simply get you from the put-in to the hunting grounds faster, but would be of little utility while actually hunting or moving through the shallows of the marshes.

 

[thompsonboatboy]

Cool little boat. Very typical in my opinion of manufactured duck or hunting boats. Could have been built by a hundred or so different manufacturers. Shell Lake Boat Co; Peterson Bros. Boat also of Shell Lake; Hayward Boat Co.; Peterson Boat Works of Hayward; Lymburner Boats of Hayward; Gunderson Canoe of Eau Claire and Hayward; Dunphy Boats; Dan Kidney; Thompson, Rhinelander; Oneida Boats of Rhinelander; Sunflower Boat Works of Lake Tomahawk; Tomahawk; Nichols & Osburn Boat Co. of Spooner (I have never seen or heard of anything they built); Shawano Boat Co; etc...

Brochures for Thompson Boat are available on a CD-ROM at www.acha.org - right here on this website!

I would not recommend fiberglassing the hull.

Andreas

 

[fredygump]

Cool little boat. Very typical in my opinion of manufactured duck or hunting boats. Could have been built by a hundred or so different manufacturers. Shell Lake Boat Co; Peterson Bros. Boat also of Shell Lake; Hayward Boat Co.; Peterson Boat Works of Hayward; Lymburner Boats of Hayward; Gunderson Canoe of Eau Claire and Hayward; Dunphy Boats; Dan Kidney; Thompson, Rhinelander; Oneida Boats of Rhinelander; Sunflower Boat Works of Lake Tomahawk; Tomahawk; Nichols & Osburn Boat Co. of Spooner (I have never seen or heard of anything they built); Shawano Boat Co; etc...

Brochures for Thompson Boat are available on a CD-ROM at www.acha.org - right here on this website!

I would not recommend fiberglassing the hull.

Andreas

Thanks, that narrows it right down!