There’s a “mystery” about Chestnut canoes that I think goes back to their exhibiting at the St Louis World’s Fair (aka the Louisiana Purchase Exposition) in 1904. At that time Chestnut first assigned telegraphic code names to their canoe models. Three names linked to the Cruiser model from that time were Kruger, Cronje and Stoessel. Kruger and Cronje were Boer generals from the Anglo-Boer war of about time. But why pick them for association with canoes?
I think a clue is that there was an Anglo-Boer War Concession at the 1904 St Louis World’s Fair! And the Chestnut family was there.
“Different portions of the concession featured a British Army encampment, several South African native villages (including Zulu, Bushmen, Swazi, and Ndebele), and a 15 acre arena in which soldiers paraded, sporting events and horse races were held, and major battles from the Second Boer War were re-enacted twice a day. Battle recreations took 2-3 hours and included several Generals and 600 veteran soldiers from both sides of the war. At the conclusion of the show, the Boer General Christiaan De Wet would escape on horseback by leaping from a height of 35 feet (11 m) into a pool of water.”
Ken Solway, a historian of the Chestnut Company reports that in 1904 and 05 several of the Chestnut males were also active in traveling to various exhibitions for business and tourism promotion purposes, including the 1901 Chicago Sportsman’s Show.
Anatoli Mikhailovitch Stoessel was another figure from the front pages of the 1904 newspapers. Stoessel was the commander of the 3rd Siberian Corps and the Russian general in charge of the garrison at Port Arthur in southern Manchuria during the Russian-Japanese war.
Well that’s contemporaneous—but weird and obscure. According to Wikpedia, Stoessel surrendered to the Japanese under questionable circumstances, was sentenced to death in Russia afterwards, but reprieved.
Personally, I think another Boer general would have been a better pick. Obviously De Wet model canoe would have made sense.
I have become the new owner of several JH Rushton boats that have been in my family for 4 generations and I am wondering if anyone can give me some information about them. I have been told one is a guide boat. One looks like a canoe to me. Wood with the canvas skin missing. I don't have photos of it right now. And one looks like the large 'guide boat' but much smaller. I then contacted a gentleman who used to work at the Adirondack Museum and he told me they were Rushton Skiffs. I was wondering if anyone else out there had any thoughts or info? Many thanks.
