Early canvas canoe information

[Glenn MacGrady]

I'm curious about Theriualt's assertion that Chestnut's 1905 patent expired after six years, since I would expect a Canadian patent from that era to have been renewable, probably twice, even if the original term was only six years (as opposed to the later 17 years). Also, there would not have been much reason for a 14 year "cease and desist" lawsuit over an expired patent, unless the suit included claims for past royalty damages. Finally, Theriault should have done some searching of court archives himself to make a confident assertion that the litigation was abandoned. But maybe he didn't, and just read about it from some other source. Perhaps I'll get his book.

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.

No, I never had any serious interest in the subject of who invented the modern canvas/rib/plank canoe until last year. Nor am I motivated to pay $175+ for MacGregor's book. Can you summarize what he says about the Chestnut patent dispute?

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.”

It seems reasonable that the Chestnuts could have learned about birch bark canoe building from a Maliseet around the turn of the 19th century, but that doesn't bear on the building of modern canvas/rib/plank canoes on clenching iron forms.

 

[Benson Gray]

Mario Theriualt claims "The Chestnut brothers used their patents to influence their clients and to intimidate their competitors" at https://nouzie.com/maritime-inventions-chestnut-canoe/ but this appears to been largely unsuccessful. Peterborough and other builders continued make and sell canvas canoes in spite of Chestnut's legal claims. Page 172 of Roger MacGregor's book describes the patent case between Chestnut and Peterborough as being "dismissed for want of prosecution" in 1909.

The books by both Kenneth Solway and Roger MacGregor indicate that the first Chestnut canoe was made by Jack J. Moore as a copy of an imported "American canoe" on display in the R. Chestnut & Sons hardware store. Both authors agree that the "American canoe" was probably made by B. N. Morris. Roger's book mentions Peter Joseph in several places but page 39 indicates that he doesn't know if the Chestnut brothers ever actually met Peter Joseph.

The message at the link below describes a copy of Roger's book that may be available for free. Good luck,

Benson

Pass around Chestnut Canoe history book

Robin was kind enough to send me a copy of Roger MacGregor’s When The Chestnut Was In Flower. https://www.amazon.com/When-Chestnut-Was-Flower-Inside/dp/0969824238/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=When+the+Chestnut+was+in+flower&qid=1560971180&s=books&sr=1-1 I had a bedside stack of unread military history...

www.canoetripping.net

 

[Howard Herman-Haase]

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.

Hi Glenn,

I read your post referring to my article and would like to clarify a couple of things. You stated that you provided enough information “to prove that the idea of a canvas-covered solid-planked shell canoe existed sometime prior to 1885.” I agree. John Stephenson described a solid planked shell covered with canvas as early as 1878! It is very interesting but not surprising that W. P. Stephens, who claims to have introduced carvel wooden boat building methods to the United States in 1881, noted an article in Forest and Stream describing someone building carvel boats (not canoes) and covering them with canvas by 1885 ( I would love to see this source, and have looked hard, but I have not been able to find it). References to canvas canoes appear sporadically in the literature as early as 1838, but became increasingly more frequent starting in the 1870s. It makes sense that builders of wooden canoes like Stephenson and Herald would make significant advances in the construction of a solid-planked hulls, such as the use of canoe forms. But we know they also stretched canvas over (or between) some of their wooden hulls before Morris even started building canvas canoes, so it just makes no sense to claim that Morris was, or claimed to be, the first person to stretch a canvas over a solid planked hull. This was certainly not my intent!

Morris was one of few known builders who built a unique type of canvas canoe which I called a Gerrish-style canoe.These canvas canoes were initially an attempt to continue and improve the birch-bark canoe building tradition as suitable bark supplies diminished; not to radically change it. Consequently, their building methods and designs closely followed those of the birch-bark canoes, except they replaced the birch bark with canvas. You stated that I suggested that Gerrish-style canoes were built like the W. P. Stephens skin-on-frame canoe described in his book. This is just wrong. What I said and Morris tells us is they were built like a birch bark canoe i.e. putting loose planking into stretched canvas, which has nothing to do with skin-on-frame designs, and is what made the Maine canvas canoes so unique. What Morris claimed was that in 1887 he abandoned these traditional building methods and “adopted” (Morris’s term) the method of the solid-planked shell; and implied that he was the first of the Maine builder to make this change. As I mentioned above, I do not think that Morris claimed that he invented or was the first to ever build a solid planked shell and cover it with canvas, and he likely learned something (maybe a lot) about these methods from other sources. Roger Young points out that George Stephenson, John’s son, ended up in Maine and may have brought his father’s patents with him, and Benson Gray talks about a Herald Canoe found on Moosehead Lake many years ago that could have influenced the methods of Gerrish (or Morris). Morris’s older brother Charlie started building wooden boats at about 16 years old and provide another path by which these methods may have been introduced to Morris. But the fact is, we just don’t know what Morris knew, and unfortunately, his brief history of the canvas canoe does not help us answer this question. But regardless of how much he knew, he does claim to be the first to use a similar method to build a Gerrish-style canoe. I say "similar" because even if Morris knew everything about Stephenson’s methods he still had to modify them in order to build the a Gerrish-style canoe, which differed in significant ways from Stephenson’s or Herald’s canoes. This would have required him to work out many details, such as the specifications for his building forms and solid planked shells to build this particular type of canvas, and the associated work practices and equipment needed to build them, and stretch the canvas.

According to Morris he completed this transition in 1887, and later claimed that this method of construction was “original with the Morris Canoe,” i.e he was the first to adopt it. He also claimed that the canvas canoes built this way were immediately much more popular with the public, and radically changed the canvas canoe industry in Maine. The trajectory of the Maine canvas canoe “industry” did begin changing in the late 1880s with the appearance of White and Carleton canvas canoes; and Morris’s and Gerrish’s both began to expand after their first advertisements in Forest and Stream in 1890. But neither Morris nor Gerrish ever called them anything but "canvas canoes" (or canvas-covered canoes), which for them, meant these home grown Maine "canvas canoes", not the skin-on-frame cruising and sailing "canvas canoes", or the various portable "canvas canoes" both of which dominated the national stage at the time. So it is left to us to fine tune the nomenclature to help us better understand all these canvas canoes. The answer to the question that my article asks “Did B. N. Morris Build the First Wood-canvas Canoe?” depends as much upon the readers definition of a “wood-canvas canoe” as the building methods used. I would argue that the “wood-canvas canoe” did begin when Morris (or Gerrish, or someone else) adopted the solid-planked shell to build a Gerrish-style canoe; in other words, this definition of a wood-canvas canoe involves both a building method and a specific-type of canvas canoe. Consequently, I would not call Stephenson’s canvas covered cedar strip canoe, or the Herald Canoe, or even the Gerrish-style canoe a “wood-canvas canoe.” This, of course, simply follows from the definition, and in no way reduces the critical importance of these canoes in the history of the wood-canvas canoe, or suggest that Morris did this alone, without learning from his brother Charlie, from Gerrish, perhaps from Stephenson, Herald and others. But if you agree with the definition, it is quite possible that B. N. Morris did build the first wood canvas canoe. You can take issue with either Morris’s claim or my definition of a wood-canvas canoe (or both!), but it is important to me that you understand what I think Morris’s claim was (and was not), and what my working definition of a wood-canvas canoe is. I hope this was helpful.

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

Hi Glenn,

I read your post referring to my article and would like to clarify a couple of things.

Howard, thank you for your thoughtful post. I would like to continue the process of clarification.

My interest and arguments relate to the written sources for the earliest examples of the modern style of building wood/canvas canoes with which we are all familiar—namely, by tacking longitudinal planks to transverse ribs, covered by stretched canvas that is painted/varnished. I call this a "canvas/rib/plank" canoe. Simply put, I interpret p. 114 of W.P. Stephens' 1885 book, Canoe and Boat Building, and W.A.L.'s 1876 letter to Forest and Stream as both describing a canvas/rib/plank canoe construction, and to claim that W.A.L. owned such a canoe in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, as of 1876. Canoes, not just "carvel boats" as you suggest above. W.A.L. goes on to say that his canoe was built by John Richards of Yarmouth, and that the first such canoe in Yarmouth was built by Joseph Johnson from Bangor, Maine.

Therefore, I conclude based on the assumed veracity of these sources that at least one actual canvas/rib/plank canoe existed in Yarmouth as of 1876. And even if W.A.L. was outright lying, W.P. Stephens in 1885 clearly believed and correctly predicted that a canvas/rib/plank construction "would be strong and durable, as well as cheap."

This is all prior to 1887.

I interpret your analysis, largely based Morris' 1907 and 1912 catalogs, to be that Morris began replacing "Gerrish-style" (your term) canvas canoe construction with an "adopted" canvas/rib/plank (my term) canoe construction in 1887. (I did conflate "Gerrish-style" with canvas-on-frame construction in one sentence above, but that's not central to my argument.) My argument is that if one believes Stephens and W.A.L.—and I've not been apprised of any contradictory evidence—then modern canvas/rib/plank construction was certainly not "original with the Morris Canoe" in 1887, as Morris self-servingly claimed in his 1912 catalog. I can believe, however, that Morris was the first company to commercially manufacture canvas/rib/plank canoes in volume starting in 1887, based on your analysis, since the Yarmouth canoes seem to be relatively isolated products of what one might call backyard builders.

Relatedly, I don't consider any of the Canadian patents issued to Herald or Stephenson in the 1870's and 1880's to claim or describe a canvas/rib/plank method of canoe construction. The Canadian patent issued to William Chestnut in 1905 did fully claim and describe canvas/rib/plank construction, but Chestnut was demonstrably very late to the canvas/rib/plank game as of 1905, his patent should never have been issued because it was neither novel nor nonobvious, and it was never legally enforced that I know of.

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

I have moved posts #14-18, 23 and 24, above, to this thread from a less relevant thread in which they were off topic. As a result, there is a little bit of discontinuity and repetitiveness in the discussion flow around those posts.

 

[Howard Herman-Haase]

Hi Glenn, thank you for your clarifications. I am very interested in the history of canvas canoes and hope we can get some others involved and start an ongoing discussion. Since what you call a “canvas/rib/plank” canoe is built in the same way as a modern wood/canvas canoe, I am assuming that you also mean the it was built on a canoe form. I think that a lot of us would like to find the earliest description of one of these canoes but I am not convinces that either Lawson’s letter or W.P. Stephens’s observations describe one of your “canvas/rib/planking” canoes. This post will focus on the the Yarmouth canoe for now.

Generally speaking I would be wary of making any claims about construction methods based on a description that begins “I cannot say exactly how constructed, but I think….” But, even if we assume Lawson got it right and take him at his word, I would argue that the Yarmouth canoe is exactly what it was originally described as “a canoe of frame and canvas!” Prior to Lawson’s letter, only two canvas canoes/boats had appeared in Forest and Stream, both which were portable canvas boats/canoes. The first, Hegeman’s Patent Folding Boat, was “A very light, strong and durable frame of ash or other tough wood, with canvas cover, and can be folded in one-eighth space,…”. The other, Colvin’s Ampersand Canoe, was a piece of canvas “fitted to receive the keelson, prow pieces and ribs…[made] of boughs cut in thirty minutes from the nearest thicket……After use the temporary frame was taken out and thrown away and the boat folded and placed in the bottom of knapsack.” But the Yarmouth canoe was “Another Style of Canoe” because its “longitudinal strips were attached as close as possible to the ribs outside,…,” thereby producing a fixed frame, as opposed to a folding or disposable one.

Lawson’s letter elicited two responses that were published later in 1876. The first was from William Rollins who claimed the first portable canoe was built 1866 by John Treat. Rollins’s canvas canoe was based on Treat’s design and he points out that “they are portable enough for many purposes, for the whole frame (it was metal) can be packed in a a box 6ft. by 7in. by 4in., and sent to any part of the country…” I would love to see the pictures he sent! This letter initiated another response from W.E. Bond who claimed that he “saw one [portable boat or canoe] in Cincinnati in 1846,” and that he “built one in 1856 14 feet long by 30 inches wide. It was made of a jointed hickory frame and heavy canvass.” A lieutenant drowned in the former and Webb sank in the latter, so it is no wonder that Webb abandoned canvas and started selling wooden sectional boats in 1874! The editors counter Webb’s critical evaluation of canvas with a report from Mr. Dimpfel, who described a canvas canoe he built. He first “made a light framework of wood with an oak keel and sawed timber; then had longitudinal strips 2-1/2 inches apart of light wood. Over this frame I stretched tightly a covering of hemp canvas.”

The second direct response to Lawson’s was letter under the heading The “Qui-Vive” Canoe, which described a canvas canoe designed and built by its author Isaac F. West. West begins as follows, “In the issue of the 8th inst. you published a letter from Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, describing a canvas canoe. You treat the subject as though it was entirely new,” and then describes in more detail the Qui-Vive canoe, his version of a fixed canvas and frame design; “The frame is made of ash. The main stringers are nine in number…..” (This is a very interesting canoe and I hope to start a separate thread on West’s Qui-Vive and other cruising and sailing canoes soon.)



What is common to all these canoes is they were “canoes of frame and canvas,” and none of the letters suggest that any of the canoes discussed, including the Yarmouth canoe, were radically different from each other. When seen in this broader context there is really no reason to think the Yarmouth canoe was anything but what it says it was. I do not see any reason or evidence to suggest that Lawson was describing anything like your “canvas/rib/plank” canoe.

I think what we are seeing in Forest and Stream in 1876 is the beginning of a national conversation on canvas canoes, which included two distinct traditions; the portable canvas boats/canoes and the cruising and sailing canvas canoes. Both of these traditions were frame and canvas designs, and both would continue to be part of the national conversation on canvas canoes throughout the nineteenth century. During this period what was conspicuously absent from that conversation were the canvas canoes of Maine, the third distinct tradition. I think the earliest “canvas/rib/plank” canoe likely resulted from some convergence of wooden canoe construction methods and the Maine canvas canoes, and that neither the portable canvas canoes/boats nor the cruising and sailing canvas canoes played a significant role in its creation.

I will followup on the W.P. Stephens observation later.

 

[Benson Gray]

Let me add some more reference material from Issue number 202 of Wooden Canoe as shown below.

Benson

 

[Howard Herman-Haase]

Benson. Thank you very much for this article. I have attached the New York Spectators 1838 of Simpson's earlier expedition to Point Barrow. References to canvas canoe underlined and another section on Oomiaks is indicated. Expedition started out in 1836, so we may be able to claim an earlier date for the canvas canoe! But it didn't get used until 1838. This is the earliest reference I have found to a canvas canoe.

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

Hi Glenn, thank you for your clarifications. I am very interested in the history of canvas canoes and hope we can get some others involved and start an ongoing discussion.

Howard, thanks for your additional information and interpretations you have provided. It will take me a while to absorb this information. I have been engaged in historical research in other subjects throughout my career, but only very recently have I looked at the historical development canvas/rib/plank canoes, and I'm sure I haven't yet been exposed to all the available evidence, sparse as it may be.

Since what you call a “canvas/rib/plank” canoe is built in the same way as a modern wood/canvas canoe, I am assuming that you also mean the it was built on a canoe form.

I'm currently not so much interested in the history of canvas-on-frame construction. Nor what you call Gerrish-style construction, with canvas substituting for bark over untacked loose planks and ribs. Nor "hard shell" construction without tacks to ribs, akin to a ribless longitudinal or transverse strip built canoe. Nor a double layer wood shell construction with fabric sandwiched between. Rather, my current interest is narrowly focused on longitudinal planks, uncaulked at the closely abutting seams, tacked to ribs, and covered with treated canvas—in other words, yes, the modern construction.

However, not being a builder or restorer of canoes, I'm not sure this required a tack-clenching form in the earliest of days, although a type of such a form may have been invented as of the Canadian patent to Herald in 1871. Therefore, I wouldn't rule out the mid-1870's Yarmouth canoes as "modern type" canvas/rib/plank canoes just because the purported builders didn't use such a form to clench the tacks that attached planks to ribs.

I do continue to read Stephens as describing a canvas/rib/plank construction, because of his references to closely abutted carvel plank construction without caulking, and I also read Stephens as reading W.A.L. as describing the same thing. West's "Qui Vive" response to W.A.L. seems clearly, and hence irrelevantly, to describe canvas on frame.

Your article in Wooden Canoe stimulated my interest in this subject and, although claims in early catalogues should bear close scrutiny for self-confirmation bias, you have convinced me that Morris began factory-producing modern canvas/rib/plank canoes before Gerrish, and likely before anyone else in Maine or Canada.

 

[Benson Gray]

I'm not sure this required a tack-clenching form in the earliest of days

A "tack-clenching form" is not required, especially for low volume production. The 1905 Old Town factory inventory shown at https://www.wcha.org/forums/index.php?attachments/35712/ confirms this. Models that were made frequently were “ironed” (i.e. made with iron bands as shown at http://www.wcha.org/forums/index.php?attachments/52518/) as listed on the top half of the list. These were valued at $25 each. The “skeleton” forms shown on the bottom of the page were valued at much less. The 34-foot-long war canoe form was the most valuable one in that group at $6. The exact details of this cost/benefit calculation aren’t available, but the principle is clear. Canoes that have been built on skeleton forms are usually identified by having large areas of tacks that are all clinched in the same direction. Ones built on ironed or banded forms have a much more random pattern. The link below describes the project to preserve a 34 foot long “skeleton” form with many pictures.

Benson

The 34 foot Old Town war canoe form is available

Rollin Thurlow just called me to say that the 34 foot long Old Town war canoe form is available but neither of us has a place to store it. The factory has decided to cut it up if no one else can collect it within the next two weeks. I have contacted the Penobscot Marine Museum and the Old Town...

www.wcha.org

 

[Rob Stevens]

Well, I am doubtful all this speculation will identify a single inventor of the canvas covered canoe. But I will contribute information from a source not yet cited;
Ken Brown's, "The Canadian Canoe Company & early Peterborough canoe factories" (2011, my copy is 87/250).

Brown first mentions canvas covering, "known to have been built in the Maine area from about 1875,.. an even earlier date,.. is sometime asserted,.. as far back as 1846".
Brown also mentions the "[A] lively exchange of correspondence" about the origins of canvas covered canoes that took place in 1876 issues of Field and Stream.
That "John Edwards built and raced a canvas covered canoe,.. at the Little Lake Regatta in September, 1857", might direct attention to early chronicles of racing. Unfortunately, nothing is revealed about the construction methods beyond Stephenson's 1879 and 1883 patents -for all wood construction.

 

[MGC]

Anecdotally I have always lined up with the idea that Gerrish had a hand in the earliest construction of these boats, but it could have been Morris or literally anyone else.
I've yet to see anything compelling or definitive that suggests otherwise.
History in and of itself is a complicated thing to accurately record, never mind the added complication that accompanies the introduction of inaccurate, false or even deliberately misleading information. That's not to suggest that this is the case here, but taking into consideration the nature of canoe craft and the areas where it was evolving, it seems unlikely that serious journalistic practices were always in play.

 

[Roger Young]

Glenn MacGrady said: 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.

There are numerous examples extant of 'Herald Patent' canoes as built during the 1870's and after, based on the patent as registered in 1871. Indeed, the same concept was later adopted by the Willits Brothers of Seattle, who turned out many such products. The Canadian Canoe Museum possesses an example of an actual, real-life Herald Patent canoe.

As for the 1879 Patent issued to John Stephenson for his 'vertical rib' canoe design and accompanying claims of leak-proof coverings using cotton textile and bark veneers, and whether this resulted in 'real' products or were just 'wishful thinking', again there is strong evidence of Stephenson's inventions becoming reality. Gerry Stephenson, grandson of old John, wrote prior to his death that he was aware of several examples of textile or canvas-covered examples of the 1879 Patent Rib canoe. This, in spite of the fact that I am equally unaware of any such items built at either Ontario Canoe Co. or Peterborough Canoe Co., all of which seem to be of only wood construction.

However, and most importantly I believe, is the undisputed fact that John Stephenson made 4 sample models of ribbed, cedar plank canoes 30" in length. Three of these are covered in 1"-wide strips of birch bark veneered to the hull exterior; the 4th example was left plain wood. All four were given to relatives prior to 1893; three of them contain labels indicating they belonged personally to J S Stephenson. I happen to own two of them, one plain, one bark-covered. It is my steadfast belief that all four examples date to approx. 1877, and that they are, indeed, 'patent demonstration' models built to explain and support his patent application. I have spoken personally to Stephenson family descendants who continue to own one of the four. Gerry Stephenson donated one to the Canadian Canoe Museum. I believe I have been able to correctly trace the provenance of the other two which subsequently came into my possession. There is, I maintain, concrete evidence that the viability of textile and/or bark coverings as claimed in the Stephenson patents actually resulted in viable, concrete examples of manufactured canoes. Pictured below are the two 30" patent demonstration samples with and without bark veneer covering.

 

[Benson Gray]

Another interesting aspect of this discussion is that Ashland, New Hampshire had more canvas canoe builders in 1880s than the entire state of Maine according to The New England Business Directory and Gazetteer from 1883. This is available from https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.32044105583041&seq=2 and the relevant pages are shown below. Several interesting old canoes without any name tags have shown up in the Ashland / Squam Lake area and they have often been attributed to Joseph Ranco. Some of these may have been built in Ashland.

Benson

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

There are numerous examples extant of 'Herald Patent' canoes as built during the 1870's and after, based on the patent as registered in 1871. Indeed, the same concept was later adopted by the Willits Brothers of Seattle, who turned out many such products. The Canadian Canoe Museum possesses an example of an actual, real-life Herald Patent canoe.

Roger, you obviously know a lot more about Herald and Stephenson patent canoes than I do. But the key question for the narrow issue I've been focused on—19th century canoes of modern rib, plank and canvas construction—is whether any of these "numerous examples" were actually covered in canvas or at least some sort of textile when first manufactured. Were they?

Gerry Stephenson, grandson of old John, wrote prior to his death that he was aware of several examples of textile or canvas-covered examples of the 1879 Patent Rib canoe.

Not persuasive to me as to dating without more information. When did Gerry die and what were the manufacturing dates of the textile-covered canoes he "was aware of". If you have a link to what Gerry wrote, we could scrutinize his words. But if his words, even if true, do not mention manufacturing dates, we are again at a dead evidentiary end for the provenance of rib/plank/canvas canoes.

However, and most importantly I believe, is the undisputed fact that John Stephenson made 4 sample models of ribbed, cedar plank canoes 30" in length.

Very interesting, and congratulations on owning two of these treasures. However, as I understand it, none of the four models is now covered in canvas or textile, and never was for all we know.

There is, I maintain, concrete evidence that the viability of textile and/or bark coverings as claimed in the Stephenson patents actually resulted in viable, concrete examples of manufactured canoes.

If a rib/plank canoe model can be covered by birch bark or wood, then it's certainly possible and viable to cover such a rib/plank hull with canvas or textile. The concept was probably easy to think of, given that canvas was already used over wood frames, so maybe someone made them before Morris in 1887 and before W.A.L.'s pre-1876 canoe in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. However, the issue is evidence. Is there any evidence of a now extant rib/plank/canvas canoe manufactured earlier than 1876, or even a clear written description of an actually then existing rib/plank/canvas canoe made earlier than the one described by W.A.L., and later Stephens, as of 1876?

As is obvious, I disagree with Howard Herman-Haase about W.A.L.'s 1876 description of his canoe, which was later re-described by Stephens in his 1885 book. Howard interprets those descriptions as a canvas-on-frame canoe. I continue to interpret them as a modern rib/tightly-abutted-plank/canvas canoe.

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

Another interesting aspect of this discussion is that Ashland, New Hampshire had more canvas canoe builders in 1883 than the entire state of Maine according to The New England business directory and gazetteer from 1883.

Interesting, but as usual we don't know what the listings mean by "canvas canoes". The term could mean canvas-on-frame canoes, or "Gerrish-style" canvas covered canoes, or modern rib/plank/canvas canoes. The evidence is again too vague.

In any event, even if the directory's reference was to rib/plank/canvas canoes, 1883 is seven years later than W.A.L.'s documented 1876 letter to Forest and Stream. Therefore, unless I've missed something, which is certainly possible, I still see 1876 as the earliest established date describing actual ownership of, or eyeballs upon, a then existing rib/plank/canvas canoe.

 

[Benson Gray]

The evidence is again too vague.

Agreed, this is an issue that I highlighted in the third response to this thread. The vagueness if further compounded by not being able to locate any other evidence that Charles F. Bracy (1845-1915), Henry S. Lyford (1850-1915), Leon Romanzo Page (1862-1956), Frank Robie (1845-1930), Edward Prentiss Warner (1845-1930), or Aquilla E. Peaslee (1836-1900) ever built any canoes or other small boats. All of the genealogical and census records describe them as living in the area but working in local factories, farms, and as a photographer. This is looking like another research dead end.

Benson

 

[1905Gerrish]

This article might be a smoking gun when it comes to the origin of the Wood and Canvas canoe. The article was printed on Oct 21, 1878. I wish the "Yankee" had a name to settle this discussion, but the date coincides with Gerrish.

Gerrish's sporting camps that he operated before getting into the rod/canoe building were on Lake Onawa/ B pond at the time the article was published, about 15-20 miles away, either location. Hard to pinpoint the year he moved from on camp to another but implies a general relevance. This would coincide with the with the Maine Sportsmans article published in December 1904 titled " Onawa in Seventy-Two". It was published in the journal years ago. As it states in the article from the author that Mr. Gerrish has been experimenting with different canoe coverings and he are in a canvas covered canoe for the weeklong trip.

Zack

 

[Benson Gray]

This is a great find, and I agree that the "Yankee" is most likely to be Evan Gerrish. This era appears to have had a lot of experimentation. Greg Nolan recently sent me the following article about an early wooden Racine canoe saying "It is made of birch, cherry, or cedar according to the taste of the purchaser. Three sheets of the wood are cemented together with the grain of the inner sheet crossing the grain of the outer sheets, and the whole, while green, is pressed into the desired form under heavy pressure, making a body with but a single seam under the keel." The first few pages of their two catalogs from this era contain a history of early canoes as shown at the links below. It is interesting that they mention lapstrake canoes like the Rob Roy and the Herald canoe but have no mention of bark or canvas ones.

Benson

Racine Boats & Canoes | Adirondack Experience

Racine Boats & Canoes | Adirondack Experience