Information Request: SN: 9548, 17ft, Old Town?

[zahorik]

Hello,

My father has a 17-foot wood/canvas canoe. The serial number stamped on the front keel board appears to be 9548, but is somewhat difficult to read. The canoe was purchased from a camp near Minocqua, WI in the early 1960s. He was told is was an Old Town, built around 1910. It measures 33" wide in the middle, outside gunwale to gunwale.

Thanks for any information that you can provide.

 

[Benson Gray]

My guess is that you don't have the Old Town canoe with serial number 9548 since that is 16 feet long and shipped to New Jersey on February 2nd, 1909. The Carleton canoe with this serial number is 18 feet long and shipped to Connecticut on May 2nd, 1913. The Kennebec canoe with this serial number is 17 feet long and shipped to Maine on June 11th, 1915. The information at http://forums.wcha.org/showthread.php?791 may help you discover if there are any hidden digits. Can you verify the exact overall length between the extreme ends of the canoe and attach some pictures, especially ones showing the decks and all of the serial numbers on the inside stems from each end? Thanks,

Benson

 

[zahorik]

Thanks, Benson. Pictures and additional information coming, but may take a bit of time. The canoe is in Milwaukee, and I'm in Louisville.

Best regards and thanks again,

Pavel

 

[zahorik]

OK. We now are pretty sure that the serial number is 8548, not 9548 as I originally indicated. It definitely measures as a 17-footer, and "17" is stamped following the serial number. Pictures still coming.

Thanks again for your help.

Pavel

 

[Benson Gray]

My guess is that you don't have the Old Town canoe with serial number 8548 since that is 16 feet long from 1908. The Carleton canoe with this serial number is also 16 feet long and shipped to New York City on May 11th, 1912. The Kennebec canoe with this serial number is 18 feet long from 1914. The Old Town with number 18548 is 18 feet long and shipped to New York City on February 20th, 1912. The Old Town with number 118548 is 16 feet long and shipped to Camden, New Jersey on June 13th, 1940. It appears that some pictures will be required to resolve this. Good luck,

Benson

 

[MGC]

19548?

My guess is that you don't have the Old Town canoe with serial number 8548 since that is 16 feet long from 1908. The Carleton canoe with this serial number is also 16 feet long and shipped to New York City on May 11th, 1912. The Kennebec canoe with this serial number is 18 feet long from 1914. The Old Town with number 18548 is 18 feet long and shipped to New York City on February 20th, 1912. The Old Town with number 118548 is 16 feet long and shipped to Camden, New Jersey on June 13th, 1940. It appears that some pictures will be required to resolve this. Good luck,

Benson

Benson,

What is 19548? With the 17 stamped in the stem he may still have an OT but is still not reading the correct number.

 

[Benson Gray]

What is 19548?

The Old Town with serial number 19548 is 16 feet long and number 119548 is a 9 foot dinghy. The Carleton with this serial number is 16 feet long and the Kennebec is 15 feet long. This is very odd from a statistical perspective. The chart at http://www.wcha.org/ot_records/lengths.jpg indicates that 23% of the Old Town canoes are 17 feet long so it is very unusual to have searched through all of the ones mentioned in this thread and have not located one in a 17 foot length.

 

[zahorik]

Update: Much closer scrutiny of the stamps in both front and back keel boards suggests that the serial number is 85483. So, there is an extra digit that we missed before. Does this produce any matches? I now have pictures too, if that would help in ID.

Thanks!

-Pavel

 

[Benson Gray]

The Old Town canoe with serial number 85483 is a 17 foot long, CS (common sense or middle) grade, Otca model with red western cedar planking, open spruce gunwales, birch decks, birch thwarts, birch seats, a keel, a floor rack, and two B. P. (brass painter?) rings. It was built between October, 1924 and June, 1926. The original exterior paint color was blue with a gold stripe and leaf ends. This may have been similar to the one shown athttp://www.wcha.org/catalogs/old-town/designs/design45.gif with a single color hull and no rub rails. It shipped on June 16th, 1925 to Minocqua, Wisconsin. A scan of this build record can be found by following the link at the attached thumbnail image below.

This scan and several hundred thousand more were created with substantial grants from the Wooden Canoe Heritage Association (WCHA) and others. A description of the project to preserve these records is available at http://www.wcha.org/ot_records/ if you want more details. I hope that you will join or renew your membership to the WCHA so that services like this can continue. See http://www.wcha.org/about-the-wcha/ to learn more about the WCHA and http://store.wcha.org/WCHA-New-Membership.html to join.

It is possible that you could have another number or manufacturer if this description don't match your canoe. Feel free to reply here if you have any other questions.

Benson