therabbithole
New Member
Hello All,
I know practically nothing about wooden canoes that I’ve not learned over the last few days of reading here and wherever else Google has taken me, so I’m hoping to gather a bit of advice about how to proceed with a canoe I’ve just acquired.
I’ll try attaching pictures below, for further detail, but: it’s what I think is called board-and-batten construction, about 15’ 6” (with a cursory measurement between the points of the stems), and has 3 brass plates on each side below the gunwales stamped "Ontario Canoe Company.” Assuming the plates aren’t the result of some sort of attempted counterfeiting, and based on the very limited amount of information I've found about the Ontario Canoe Company, am I right to date this boat to sometime earlier than 1892 at the latest (when, as I’m reading, the company of that name ceased production after a fire)? All I know it’s been in my grandfather’s barn in central Vermont since the mid-60s, and had been in the Adirondacks / Lake George prior.
I’ve not turned up much of anything about this brand with searches on this forum, and neither have I located any pictures with internet image searches. I’m guessing this is not a particularly common boat, now if ever, and so:
Does it have any particular cultural, historical, or social value that I might be compromising by doing anything short of a fully meticulous concours restoration? My initial intentions for this specific canoe were just to return it to serviceability. It has a half-dozen patches, cracked floor, a few split planks, and old fiberglass along its stems, but seems generally to be in good (to my inexperienced eye) salvageable condition.
I know a bit more about vehicles of the wheeled/motorized sort than I do about boats, and just want to make sure I’ve not stumbled onto the canoe equivalent of a Brough Superior or an original Model T without knowing it - because in my experience in those worlds, it can be very frustrating and sad if someone does the wrong with thing with particular vehicles.
I assume not, that there's nothing particularly significant about this canoe, but I just want to be sure that I don’t do anything that might be counterproductive in the long run (or that might offend someone with better informed sensibilities).
Anyone have any thoughts on this? Thanks very much in advance.
Justin
I know practically nothing about wooden canoes that I’ve not learned over the last few days of reading here and wherever else Google has taken me, so I’m hoping to gather a bit of advice about how to proceed with a canoe I’ve just acquired.
I’ll try attaching pictures below, for further detail, but: it’s what I think is called board-and-batten construction, about 15’ 6” (with a cursory measurement between the points of the stems), and has 3 brass plates on each side below the gunwales stamped "Ontario Canoe Company.” Assuming the plates aren’t the result of some sort of attempted counterfeiting, and based on the very limited amount of information I've found about the Ontario Canoe Company, am I right to date this boat to sometime earlier than 1892 at the latest (when, as I’m reading, the company of that name ceased production after a fire)? All I know it’s been in my grandfather’s barn in central Vermont since the mid-60s, and had been in the Adirondacks / Lake George prior.
I’ve not turned up much of anything about this brand with searches on this forum, and neither have I located any pictures with internet image searches. I’m guessing this is not a particularly common boat, now if ever, and so:
Does it have any particular cultural, historical, or social value that I might be compromising by doing anything short of a fully meticulous concours restoration? My initial intentions for this specific canoe were just to return it to serviceability. It has a half-dozen patches, cracked floor, a few split planks, and old fiberglass along its stems, but seems generally to be in good (to my inexperienced eye) salvageable condition.
I know a bit more about vehicles of the wheeled/motorized sort than I do about boats, and just want to make sure I’ve not stumbled onto the canoe equivalent of a Brough Superior or an original Model T without knowing it - because in my experience in those worlds, it can be very frustrating and sad if someone does the wrong with thing with particular vehicles.
I assume not, that there's nothing particularly significant about this canoe, but I just want to be sure that I don’t do anything that might be counterproductive in the long run (or that might offend someone with better informed sensibilities).
Anyone have any thoughts on this? Thanks very much in advance.
Justin