Early Chestnut, CCC, Peterborough, Carlton or ??

davelanthier

Wooden Canoes are in the Blood
About 15 years ago this canoe was retrieved from our local garbage dump. Since then its' identity and vintage has eluded me yet it appears to be quite old. No doubt it has had alterations over the years but the original basics remain. Any help would be much appreciated.
It is 15'6"L, 33"W, 12.5"D and has a rise of 25" including a standard keel. Clinching tacks are copper. Screws are slotted.
Ribs: Of "special note" is that the centre of each rib along the keel line is quite bent, more so at the bow and stern, lessening as they progress to mid canoe. Including the cant ribs they are 3/8" thick, 1 3/16" wide tapering to 1 1/4" wide at the tips. Their edges are angled and the ribs are spaced 1 1/4" apart. The top of every rib tip has at least one small nail hole suggesting it had closed gunnels at some time.
Planking: Appears to be red cedar. 3 5/8" wide at keel decreasing to 3" before the gore strips and top planks which are up to 5" wide. I have outlined the upper planking seams with yellow tape for better clarity.
Decks: Contoured, heart shaped and heavily undercut at the base. They are 1 1/2" thick, 5 3/4" wide and 11 1/2" long. "Special Note" here, the bow deck face has 4 nail holes spaced 1" x 2" apart suggesting a missing makers tag. Note, no marks found on stem faces.
Thwarts: one only oak thwart placed 10" off canoe centre towards stern. Mounted with one bolt per side and is trimmed at both ends to fit between the ribs
 

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A few more pictures.
 

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Dave, it looks iron fastened, can you confirm? is the deck crowned? it does resemble a CCCo boat i had that was very early. We figured it to be early production around the war, and it was funny in that the gunwale bevel that should be on the outside was in fact turned to the interior. Unskilled workers while others went to war? who knows. Its an interesting boat though. at 12.5" deep i wouldnt think it had closed rails, since to cut the taper off and install open rails would drop the depth considerably, and i doubt it started off over 14" deep. Just some thoughts...
 
Hi Andre, thanks for the reply. The planks are all clinched with copper tacks. Just removed the stern deck to find that its' face is concave length wise and crowned on the width . Also found on the underside front tip of each deck are the remains of a small bolt with a 5/16" square nut. This may have held the stem band end and a painters ring. The only apparent original screws to be found were of slotted iron holding the decks in place. The original untouched crazed shellac coating, rather than varnish, is obvious in both ends further suggesting considerable age. With all the research I have done it seems that early CCC, Chestnut , Peterborough And Carlton canoes may have had similar heart shaped decks but only the Carlton Canoe Company had the same size manufactures metal tag fastened with 4 nails. Is this right? I have never seen a CCC or Chestnut with a metal makers tag and the Peterboroughs I have seen only used 2 nails for their makers tags. Can anyone help here? Then there is the [ to me ] the unusual ribs that are bent or V'd at the half way mark . The pictures don't show this well but they are quite distinct from the usual ribs one might see. Any help here? Sure would like to ID it. Thanks in advance
 
early CCC, Chestnut , Peterborough And Carlton canoes may have had similar heart shaped decks but only the Carlton Canoe Company had the same size manufactures metal tag fastened with 4 nails.

This is correct as far as I know. However, the large Carleton tags fastened with four nails were only used after Old Town purchased Carleton in 1910 and all of the known Carleton canoes have serial numbers on both stems. The various Carleton tags are shown at http://www.wcha.org/forums/index.php?threads/1906/ if you want to compare the hole spacing. I have also never seen a Carleton with the V hull bend of the ribs or with the unusual planking pattern shown on your canoe. Therefore, my guess is that you don't have a Carleton. Let us know if you ever figure out who did make it. Thanks,

Benson
 
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Thanks Benson, great to hear from you and eliminate Carlton." Memory flash ". As I age it doesn't happen often but I may have figured it out. Years ago a very rough and fibre glassed 16' Peterborough 604 passed through my hands to a picker. It ended up being the highlight on our Canadian Pickers tv program way back when. Fortunately I took lots of pictures before it left. It turns out that it too had V hull bent ribs and an offset mid thwart. The only issue here is 15'6" length of the canoe that I am trying to identify. Could they have called it a 15' or 16' as some other manufactures did?
 

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