Early canvas canoe information

[Benson Gray]

I recently stumbled over the comments about Gerrish canoes below on page 82 of The New England Magazine - Volume 13; Volume 19 at https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_New_England_Magazine/-0JIMssMuk8C from 1895. Does anyone know of any other similar comments about who is credited with inventing the modern wood and canvas canoe? Thanks,

Benson

 

[Todd F]

Dang. As a newbie I figured this would have been relatively hashed out by now, to a degree. I must admit I am ever more intrigued.

 

[Benson Gray]

Well, it's complicated. Most sources like the one cited above give Gerrish credit for being the inventor. However, some of the Morris catalogs included similar claims. Joseph Ranco's obituary from 1943 says that “he conceived the idea of using canvas in place of birch bark and was the builder of the first canvas covered canoe.” I don’t have an easy way to sort out all these various assertions.

We don’t have much information available to know who made canvas canoes like bark canoes or who first used a solid canoe building form in Maine. There is very little documentation available to know who added each specific innovation and when. It seems likely that all these early canoe builders were watching what everyone else was doing and incorporating good ideas into their own canoes as soon as they saw them. E. M. White freely acknowledged that his first canvas canoe from 1889 was copied from a Gerrish canoe. See https://www.wcha.org/forums/index.php?threads/17804/ for more about this.

The crux issue is that the definition of a “canvas canoe” appears to have changed significantly during the late 1800s. It isn’t easy to distinguish between a canvas covered canoe stretched over an open frame, a birch bark style canoe made with canvas in place of the bark, and a modern wood and canvas canoe built on a solid form if all of them are simply described as a “canvas canoe” in the printed descriptions from that period.

The Sportsman's Gazetteer and General Guide from 1877 has several descriptions of canvas canoes that sound very similar to modern ones. See https://www.wcha.org/forums/index.php?threads/14531/ for more details. Gerrish was the first person listed as a manufacturer of “canvas canoes” in the 1881 Maine Register. His catalog from 1895 claims that he is “the inventor and manufacturer of the GERRISH CANVAS CANOES” with twenty years of experience in making fillers.

Sales catalogs and advertising are often not the most reliable sources of information. See https://www.wcha.org/forums/index.php?threads/16294/ for more details about how various founding dates changed over time for many of these companies. The 1916 Morris catalog states that "The Morris canvas-covered canoes have been on the market for twenty-six years" indicating an 1890 start date. His circa 1912 motor boat catalog says that the canvas covered canoe "was first advertised and put on the market by me in 1889." The 1919 catalog says "Mr. Morris began the manufacture and sale of a Canvas Covered Canoe thirty-five years ago" which pushes the founding back to 1884 when he was 18 years old.

Please let me know if I have missed something in this. Thanks,


Benson

 

[Roger Young]

The use of canvas as a means of 'leak-proofing' wooden canoes seemingly dates back to quite early days. Daniel Herald of Rice Lake, Ontario, patented on 16 Dec. 1871, the process of 'sandwiching' textile between two layers of basswood planking, a canoe building style later copied by the Willits brothers. In May 1879, John S Stephenson, of Peterborough, patented his Cedar (aka 'vertical') Rib canoe, and included the registered/protected claim to the process of applying a textile or birch exterior covering. There are local newspaper accounts of his experimentations with such coverings in the immediately preceding years; thus definitive supporting documentation. To be clear, these applications involved canvas coverings over earlier style all-wood/wide-board canoe bodies, not the later or more modern ribbed/planked canoes, but the end result achieved is much the same - either way, the canvas is applied over wooden plank. Stephenson also had in mind the use of canvas coverings on his 'longitudinal strip' canoe, patented in 1883. There were also early applications in the area of canvas over skeletal wood frames, it seems, as in kayaks. I'm simply of the opinion that old John Stephenson, one of the greatest and earliest innovative minds in N. American commercial canoe development doesn't always get his due credit in these types of discussions. In truth, I believe there were many players involved, no one single builder. Mostly, they were all looking over the others' shoulders, all experimenting, all copying. Many stories were written by scribes who noted and reported what took place locally, while not realizing there were similar stories taking place elsewhere. Development spread and techniques became shared through early ACA regattas and major expositions and trade shows. Thankfully all to our benefit today.

 

[Benson Gray]

Yes, this question gets even more convoluted when you expand it to include Canada. The Canadian patents related to this topic are available from http://www.ic.gc.ca/opic-cipo/cpd/eng/search/number.html if anyone wants more details. Patent number 1252 was issued to Dan Herald on December 15th, 1871. It describes building a canoe on a solid form and clenching tacks but makes no mention of canvas yet the existing examples of these canoes use an embedded canvas for waterproofing. Number 10063 was issued to John Stephenson on June 7th, 1879. It describes a vertical rib style canoe that is "covered with paper or cotton or other textile fabric" yet the existing examples of these canoes have no canvas for waterproofing. Both of these patents were cited in refuting the validity of patent number 91848 which was issued to William T. Chestnut on February 28th, 1905 for wood and canvas canoe construction. (I would love to read the full text of this refutation if anyone knows how to get a copy.) Chestnut was also issued patent number 93181 on May 16th, 1905 for "air chambers" even though similar sponsons had been in use on canoes from other manufacturers for many years. The first Chestnut canoes are said to have been based on a Morris design.

There is another theory about the origins of the canvas canoe in Maine. Paul Littlefield found a nice Herald patent canoe in the Moosehead Lake area many years ago and sold it to the Canadian Canoe Museum. Moosehead is not far from Brownville where Evan Gerrish was born. Some have speculated that Gerrish must have studied this canoe at some point and used several of the Herald concepts in the designs of his canoes. There is no documentation to support this conjecture but it is popular with a few Canadians. It's probably best to just consider this all a shared regional heritage.

Benson

 

[JClearwater]

Attached are two pictures of trophies that sold recently on Ebay. Canoe races from 1889 of both canvas canoes and birch canoes. Apparently canvas canoes were common enough by then that a race separate from birch canoes was held. Newton Boat Club was located on the Charles River in Boston. I was not the buyer, too rich for me.

Jim

 

[Roger Young]

If I may be permitted to toss in a bit more 'Canadian speculation' about technological information exchange re canoe building, or the potential for north to south migration of intellectual property in the latter 1880's, there is this to consider: old John Stephenson had a son George, who worked alongside him and knew well the old man's techniques/secrets. John lost a son, William, early on, along with his first wife in the early 1880's. Somewhat despondent and tiring of inventing canoes, he sold his patents and business in 1883 to Col. Rogers, who incorporated the Ontario Canoe Co. George Stephenson continued to work for Rogers at OCC until 1885, while John did other things. Enter this scene, J R Robertson, a friend of the Stephenson family. Robertson persuaded George to leave OCC and accompany him to the US, whereupon Robertson introduced George to the likes of John Henry Rushton, H V Partelow and others. George Stephenson worked for Partelow at Auburndale, MA, for two years, and eventually settled near Norway, ME, where he lived out his life building canoes, never once ever returning to Canada. It is said that old John never again spoke to his son George, nor would he have anything to do with him. The speculation is that John felt his techniques and trade secrets had been betrayed by George, who shared them with his new American canoe friends and employers. Was George a conduit for the transfer of John's canoe knowledge? Our colleague Dick Persson has interesting background documentation which, hopefully someday, may result in a revealing book.

Quite correct Benson, that while Stephenson's 1879 patent makes reference to vertical rib canoes being covered in canvas, none seem to have been found as such. It appears that aesthetically the non-canvas-covered versions were found to be more appealing in their highly buffed wooden form - stained, varnished, polished wood, gleaming away. Gerry Stephenson, John's grandson, seemed to suggest at least a few pieces had originally been covered. There are 4 known Stephenson factory samples, 30" long, of wide-board style with broad, flat ribs; three of these are veneered in thin birch bark strips, as seen in my recent book. It is my belief these date to ca. 1877 and were likely patent demonstration models re the 1879 application, or at least closely involved in his experimentations.

As you say, it's a shared heritage with enough credit to go around to all who were involved. John Stephenson himself cared far more about the technical advances of his vertical rib canoe, and never seemed to get too overly concerned about the canvas covering process, whether it was all that essential, or who else may have used it; this seems to be the thought of Gerry. At least, that's my take.

 

[MGC]

Patent applications by design broaden the utility of the actual and (hopefully) practical scope of disclosure to capture as many possible additional applications as possible. So...it is common practice to disclose the basic concept of the patent and then broaden its scope to whatever extent the patent office might allow.
There may never been a canvased Stevenson hull or model however he may have been clever enough to envision the possibilities. He and his patent attorneys may have been clever enough to patent these possibilities even though they had no plans to actually use the method.

 

[Benson Gray]

There is some great information about George Stephenson at http://www.lovellhistoricalsociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Summer-2011.pdf including a picture of his grave stone with a canoe on it. He sounds like quite a character. I hope that Dick Persson will publish his research on this topic sometime.

The trophies shown in Jim's message both appear to have been won by the same person confirming the old adage that a fast paddler can win in any boat.

Benson

 

[Roger Young]

great info about George Stephenson. Many thanks Benson.

 

[Benson Gray]

There is another vote for Gerrish on pages 88 and 89 of The Way of the Woods by Edward Breck at https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Way_of_the_Woods/AxNIAAAAIAAJ from 1908. The article by Dillon Wallace on page 417 of Outing magazine at https://www.google.com/books/edition/Outing/Ics2AQAAMAAJ from July, 1910 credits "a Penobscot Indian, in Maine" who might be Joseph Ranco. Both of these are shown below.

Does anyone have a copy of the Manual of the Canvas Canoe by Frank Webb from 1893? It seems like it might have some information on this topic but I'm too cheap to spend $100 to buy one on the chance that it has nothing interesting.

Benson

 

[Pook]

Benson, Roger, et al,

Another vote for John S Stephenson.

Ken Brown , author of The Canadian Canoe Company and the Early Peterborough Canoe Factories recently conducted a walking tour of Peterborough canoe locations for our Chapter of WCHA and spent some time speaking about the Stephenson family, mostly in relation to John Stephenson's claim to fame as the inventor of the cedar canvas canoe.

I mentioned this thread to Ken :

"Since writing my canoe book, I have not immersed in canoe culture. I have, however pursued a broader interest in local industrial history. This included a “reading” of seventy years of local weekly newspapers. I accumulated an inventory of many thousands of digital images, including, of course, canoe material. Here is a useful piece I found from that exercise on JSS and canvas. This is the earliest bit I have seen related to the 79 patented cedar rib, notably including reference that the canvas covering was real, not just in patent specs as a maybe.

Ken then shared this gem from the Peterborough Review, dated July 26th 1878 that describes Stephenson's "new variety of canoe" 'covered in light canvas, treated with various gums and varnishes."

Bruce

 

[Benson Gray]

Page 67 of the July, 1907 issue of Fore 'N' Aft at https://www.google.com/books/edition/Fore_n_aft/0YflAAAAMAAJ says "When the Morris Factory was started in 1887 canvas-covered canoes were built on the principle of birch bark canoes, of loose ribs and planking with a tight skin of canvas. Shortly afterward the solid planked shell construction was adopted," as shown below.

Benson

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

I find it interesting how few books there are on how to build a canvas/rib/plank canoe, and how late in time they are.

Canoe and Boat Building: A Complete Manual For Amateurs​

W.P. Stephens, 1885

This is a very interesting book, which is available digitally HERE. It was published by Forest and Stream Publishing Co. and the author, W.P. Stephens, is named on the cover page as the Canoeing Editor of Forest and Stream, which was an outdoor activities magazine published in New York City from 1873 to 1930.

The 1885 publishing date of the book is quite interesting because, at least to me, there is doubt as to whether canvas-covered rib & plank canoes were being made as of 1885. For example, in an article in the Fall 2022 issue of Wooden Canoe, Howard Herman-Haase argues the case that B.N. Morris was the first to make canvas-covered "solid-planked shell" canoes in 1887.

However, in one innocent appended paragraph, Stephens' 1885 book seems to prove this argument wrong. I'll quote that money paragraph shortly.

First, Stephens describes two primary canoe construction techniques as of 1885: carvel and lapstreak (clinker). In the carvel method, planks were laid edge to edge and nailed to ribs. The seams between the planks were caulked with string or oakum and sealed with putty or pitch. Lapstreak construction is familiar.

Next, Stephens goes on to describe other all-wood variations such as rib and batten, rabbetted planks, tongue and groove planks, and wooden "double skinned" hulls with paint-soaked muslin in between the two wood skins. He also says canoes had been built "for the past thirteen years" out of paper using a "patented process" and special tools, but that "they have not become popular." He also mentions that "[t]wo tin canoes showed up at the first meet in 1880."

Later, Stephens devotes an entire chapter to "Canvas Canoes," but the construction described is that of canvas being stretched over a frame of wood ribs and thin longitudinal strips. This is a sort of skin-on-frame type of construction that he traces to the pre-bark method of making boats by stretching animal hides over a woven frame of branches, as in a coracle. Herman-Haase describes this type of construction as the "Gerrish-style" of canvas canoe, which Morris supposedly replaced in 1887 with his canvas-covered "solid-planked shell" construction.

At the very end of his chapter on Canvas Canoes (p. 114), hearkening back to carvel plank construction, Stephens appends one short final paragraph, which says:

"Another method of building a canvas boat, as described by a writer in Forest and Stream, was to build the boat, of whatever model desired, in the same manner as a carvel built wooden boat, but using very thin planking, no attempt being made to have the seams in the latter watertight. This frame is then covered with canvas laid in thick paint, causing it to adhere to the wood, and making a smooth, watertight surface. Such a boat can be easily built by those who have not the skill and training necessary to build a wooden boat, and it would be strong and durable, as well as cheap."

That's all, folks! But it's enough to prove that the idea of a canvas-covered solid-planked shell canoe existed sometime prior to 1885. Morris may have been the first to commercially manufacture canvas/rib/plank canoes, but he didn't invent the idea in 1887. I wonder who the unnamed writer was of that Forest and Stream article.

 

[Benson Gray]

I wonder who the unnamed writer was of that Forest and Stream article.

I suspect that the writers may have been "W. A. L." who wrote about a canvas canoe as published on June 8th, 1876 and "I. F. West" who responded on June 10th, 1876 as shown below. Both of their descriptions were repeated in The Sportsman's Gazetteer and General Guide first published in 1877 as described in the link below. These descriptions sound like skin-on-frame designs. I'm not sure that we have enough detailed information to know exactly who first did what or when as I have mentioned before on this topic.

Benson

The Sportsman's Gazetteer and General Guide from 1877

I recently stumbled into The Sportsman's Gazetteer and General Guide at https://books.google.com/books?id=bowCAAAAYAAJ from 1877. The section on Sporting Boats and Canoes is particularly interesting since there are a variety of canvas covered canoes described which I have never heard about...

www.wcha.org

 

[Michael Grace]

Glenn - my response about Stephens' book was not intended to answer your question about cedar-canvas canoes. It was just the first in my list of proposed additions to the wooden canoe bibliography.

That said, like you it seems to me that the cedar-canvas canoe may not have simply been invented all at once by one person or company at one time. The "Qui Vive" canoe above does sound like skin-on-frame, but the one described by W.A.L. sounds very much like the technique used for cedar-canvas construction: "Longitudinal strips of the same are then tacked as closely as possible to the ribs outside, and over [all], a covering of canvas is tightly stretched." This interpretation depends upon how you read the ambiguous "tacked as closely as possible to the ribs." This could mean tacked to the ribs, but tacked as closely as possible to each other (tacking to the ribs means of course that the longitudinal pieces are close to the ribs). It seems likely then that the writer means that the planks are tacked closely to each other, and this sounds very similar to what we now know as the cedar-canvas technique.

This may have been even closer to (or farther from) the cedar-canvas technique because the author admits before his description that "I cannot say exactly how constructed, but think..."

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

These descriptions sound like skin-on-frame designs.

Great finds, Benson. I interpret these descriptions somewhat differently, though it's hard to be certain.

First, the key paragraph in Stephens' 1885 book clearly sounds like a "modern" canvas/rib/plank construction to me. He refers to his prior detailed description of the "carvel" method of laying longitudinal "planks" "edge to edge, not overlapping, and nailed to the ribs." He then says the plank seams are not watertightened (caulked), as in the carvel waterproofing step, but are stretched over by waterproof painted canvas.

The letter from W.A.L. in 1876 sounds like the same thing: "longitudinal strips" that are "tacked as closely as possible to the ribs." I take "closely as possible" to mean the same thing as "edge to edge" = carvel method of construction without the seam caulking. I suspect W.A.L. is the Forest and Stream letter writer to whom Stephens refers.

However, I do interpret I.F. West's letter as referring to a canvas skin-on-frame type of construction: nine "main stringers" running fore to aft.

We don't and may never know who invented canvas/rib/plank construction—likely more than one person converged on the idea close in time—but I think these writings push the idea back to 1876 in the Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, and/or Bangor area of Maine. Not commercially implemented, perhaps, but by some backyard builders such as John Richards (Yarmouth) and Joseph Johnson (from Bangor). These writings don't identify the inventor, but do contradict the idea that B.N. Morris was the inventor around 1887.

On edit: While writing, I see Michael Grace has reached tentative conclusions similar to mine.

 

[Benson Gray]

I paid Nova Scotia's Yarmouth County Museum & Archives (https://www.yarmouthcountymuseum.ca/the-archives) in 2016 to research Lawson but they reported that "unfortunately, we were unable to find any information regarding the Yarmouth Fishing Canoe or Mr. W.A. Lawson." The thread in the link below includes an article that describes John Stephenson's use of canvas on a solid canoe in 1878 and his Canadian patent for this in 1879. The article at https://www.wcha.org/forums/index.php?attachments/40665/ describes I. F. West of East Orange, New Jersey delivering a canvas canoe to Gerrish's home town of Brownville on August 25th, 1879. Gerrish seems likely to have seen this and it probably influenced his ideas.

Benson

Early canvas canoe information

I recently stumbled over the comments about Gerrish canoes below on page 82 of The New England Magazine - Volume 13; Volume 19 at https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_New_England_Magazine/-0JIMssMuk8C from 1895. Does anyone know of any other similar comments about who is credited with...

www.wcha.org

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

I'm reasonably persuaded that manufactured examples of the modern canvas/rib/plank canoe actually existed in the Yarmouth area of Nova Scotia as of the mid-1870's based on the writings in W.P. Stephens' 1885 book (p. 114) and W.A.L.'s 1876 letter in Forest and Stream, as quoted above.

I am not persuaded that the Canadian patents issued to Herald or Stephenson in the 1870's and 1880's resulted in actual manufactured examples of modern canvas/rib/plank canoes as of the mid-1870's in Canada, but I'm not familiar with all the evidence. However, I mainly would like to add some information about Canadian patent number 91848 issued to William Chestnut in 1905, about which Benson has written:

Both of these patents were cited in refuting the validity of patent number 91848 which was issued to William T. Chestnut on February 28th, 1905 for wood and canvas canoe construction. (I would love to read the full text of this refutation if anyone knows how to get a copy.)

Chestnut's 1905 patent clearly claims and describes the entire construction method of a modern canvas/rib/plank canoe. The Canadian Patent Database indicates this patent was issued in 1905 and expired, not that it was ever declared invalid. Further information about the history of this patent is provided in the following blog, which was written by Canadian patent lawyer Mario Theriault:

Maritime Inventions: Chestnut Canoe - Nouzie

Wood-and-Canvas Canoe: Inventor: William T. Chestnut, Fredericton, New Brunswick. Patent Nos. (CA 91,848, February 23, 1905; CA 93,181, May 11, 1905; CA 117,374, March 23, 1909) ... <a class="more-link" href="https://nouzie.com/maritime-inventions-chestnut-canoe/">Continue reading →</a>

nouzie.com

Briefly, Theriault writes that Chestnut's 1905 patent expired after six years, and was issued after Morris and Old Town in the USA and Peterborough Canoe Co. in Ontario were already manufacturing identical canoes. (So were probably other USA companies by then.) Chestnut tried to enforce the patent against Peterborough in Canada, but the litigation was abandoned after 14 years of dragging on. It's a very interesting and seemingly informed read.

Theriault is still in practice in New Brunswick, has written a book entitled Great Maritime Inventions, 1833-1950 (from which the Chestnut patent history possibly was excerpted), and could presumably be contacted by interested canoe historians.

 

[Benson Gray]

I contacted Mario Theriault in 2016 about the Peterborough refutation and he suggested seeking "the help of a lawyer who can search court archives." This patent dispute is also covered on pages 170-172 of Roger MacGregor’s book titled “When the Chestnut Was in Flower - Inside the Chestnut Canoe” as you may know but his perspective is quite different.

I also inquired about his comment that “The young William and Harry Chestnut learned the trade of canoe building from Peter Joseph (Pete Jo), a Maliseet from St. Mary’s reserve.” He cited "The Story of the Chestnut Canoe" by Kenneth Solway and a statement on page 43 saying: "These designs were entirely the conception of the Chestnut brothers, adopting the lines of the local Malecite bark canoes, and were the first in a long line of Chestnut designs that would make the company famous." He seemed very helpful,

Benson