The Kennebec canoe with serial number 9476 is shown on page 388 and 389 of volume one in the Kennebec ledgers. This was assigned to a 17 foot long Kennebec Sponson model, with spruce rails, ash stems, cedar planking, and maple decks. It was planked by Grant and Knowlton(?) on March 13th, 1915. The canvas covering was applied by Ray on March 20th, 1915 and he applied the first filler coat on the same day. He applied the second filler coat on June 3rd, 1915. The railed column has Doucette and a name that I can't identify followed by the dates February 5th, 1916 and July 10th, 1917. The next two columns are badly smudged so the original color, painter, and date are not clear although the year appears to be 1916. It was shipped to "J W Pa" on June 15th 1916. The inconsistencies in these dates are probably a clerical error.
The scans of these build records can be found by following the links at the attached thumbnail images below. These original Kennebec records are reproduced through the courtesy of the Maine State Museum.
The microfilms and scans of these records were created with substantial grants from the Wooden Canoe Heritage Association (WCHA) as you probably know well. I hope that you will renew your membership or contribute to the WCHA so that services like this can continue. See
http://www.wcha.org/wcha/ to learn more about the WCHA and
http://www.wcha.org/join.php to renew.
More information about this and other Kennebec models can be found in the Kennebec catalogs contained on the Historic Wood Canoe and Boat Company Catalog Collection CDs available from
http://www.wcha.org/catalog/ and
http://www.dragonflycanoe.com/cdrom.htm on the web.
Some oval Kennebec tags look like the one at
http://forums.wcha.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=6987&d=1233681832 here. It is also possible that you could have another number or manufacturer if this description doesn't match the canoe. Feel free to reply here if you have any other questions.
Benson
