Dating canoe by sheer line

[Dave Nagel]

When I saw this canoe model

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=270317011708&ssPageName=ADME:B:SS:US:1123

on e-bay being advertised as an antique I was skeptical about the age because the bow was horizontal to the water line and the line of the stem does not go past vertical.

I asked about it over on the model canoe forum and they confirmed that it was not an old canoe model but I did not get an answer about weather you could date a canoe to some extent by the sheer line. I thought I remembered hearing something about canoe designers making the deck sweep up and the stem wrap around to keep the canoe from being swamped by big waves or submarining in big troughs in white water. I know there are some old South American and Asian dugouts where the bow does not sweep up but what about old wood canvas canoes?

Does anyone out there know?
I look forward to your answers

 

[Mark Adams]

NT. (had nothing to input)

 

[Michael Grace]

Hi Dave,

The short answer is no. Canoes through the ages have been built with a variety of sheer lines (and hull shapes, amounts of rocker, stem recurves, beam, depths, etc.) for either functional or aesthetic reasons. Look at some of the old photos of Native American canoes, or survey the wide variety of wood-canvas and all-wood canoes produced over the years. You’ll see that there is a tremendous amount of variety.

For example, many all-wood Canadian canoes from the 1800s and early 1900s had a nice little upsweep to the sheer alongside the decks, but others (like racing canoes) had a very flat sheer. For an extreme example, see the canoe Allegra built by Myron Nickerson in New York (it’s part of the Adirondack Museum collection); this canoe has extremely upswept ends. Same is true for wood-canvas canoes… you simply can’t date a canoe solely by the shape of the sheer, just as you can’t date one simply by the shape and amount of recurve in the stems. This goes for models as well as full-size canoes. Models were meant to depict the regular product of the builder. Many old American “salesman’s sample“ canoes (meaning from US companies) exhibit nice recurve in the stems and rise to the sheerline, but some show much less.

The most obvious thing about these so-called "antique" models on Ebay and elsewhere is the simplicity of construction. Look at some authentic samples, and you'll see much the same quality that went into the production of the full-sized canoes. You'll also see this particular Ebay model and a couple of other ones pop up time and time again. Real salesman's sample canoes are quite rare and command high prices. They certainly don't sit there at $25 for days on end with no bids!

Michael