Morris completed

[Howie]

I've just completed this Morris I got back in May. It's a 17ft Model C type 1, #14067, circa 1916. In this Morris the ribs fit into pockets milled into the inner rails, but happily the rails do not have the cracks at these pockets that often bedevil Morris's. It has a floorboard rack as well as (what I assume is) a Morris paddle.
Original mahogany seats, decks and thwarts. I had to make new rail caps and sides - they are cherry. I used matte varnish for all the interior items except for the mahogany parts which have a gloss finish.

 

[MGC]

You did a nice job on that one Howie.

 

[Todd F]

Well done Howie. Great choice on the matt finish, looks nice.

 

[ALCEDO ATTHIS]

nice job Howie

 

[Michael Grace]

Beautiful, Howie! Is that one of the Epifanes greens, like Dark Green, Deep Green or Malachy? It has that distinctive look, olive in certain lights, black in others... And I'm curious about the bow seat. Is there a mast step under it? And what's going on at the seat frame ends? Curious about the inserted wooden slat there.

 

[Howie]

Michael:
* Yup, Epifanes Deep Green (Jamestown Dist #MU3123750). I like their Deep Red too.
* Again, yup, the front seat has a hole for a mast, although the hole was only half there when I got it. I used the pic below to reconstruct it somewhat accurately.
* Also, in the 1st pic you can see a rectangular screw pattern centered about two keel screw holes located directly below the seat's mast hole. This has to be where something was screwed in to secure the bottom of the mast. The floorboard has an opening for this part as well. I don't have this part, and since I don't have the mast itself, I just used some scrap rib material to take up the space.

* As to the slats along the sides of the front seat...good eyes Michael! The front seat was originally firmly bolted to the bottom of the rails. But since the canoe is going to a fella who intends to actually paddle it I wanted the front seat to be 'dropped' a tad to help improve stability. Unfortunately, the 4 sides of the seat did not align with ribs, so I added these two slats so if the seat became 'wobbly' it wouldn't poke into the side planking.

 

[JClearwater]

Nice job Howie!
Question - on your fourth picture, the floor rack is held down with a piece of brass stem band in the normal fashion but with a screw through the center as opposed to a escutcheon pin like I have seen on other Morris canoes including mine. On my canoe an escutcheon pin goes through the brass and the block under it and is rudely bend over underneath. I have no reason to presume it wasn't original. Did yours always have a screw?
See attached picture. The picture needs to be rotated 90 degrees counter clockwise. You'll have to turn your head to see it correctly.
Jim C.

 

[Michael Grace]

I've seen the bent-over escutcheon pin too, though I can't recall if it's on all Morrises I've seen or just some of them. I wouldn't call it rude; just a solution to an issue. More "rude" right be the way Morris made seat and thwart bolts by bending rod 90 degrees and hammering the foot down into the gunwale, but even then I see an interesting solution to a problem. I probably wouldn't do this myself to nice new gunwales, but it worked for them and the bolts do't turn when you turn the nut!

 

[Howie]

When I got the Morris it didn't have the blocks that hold the brass retainer bars. So, you may well be right in thinking that the brass bars were held by bent escutcheon pins. But between you & me, I don't care: I figure with a screw I can adjust the tension on the brass bar any time as may be needed.

As I say, the original blocks are missing, but I could see the telltale screw patterns on some of the ribs, as well as the outline of two of the blocks, so I knew the block's size and that it was held in by two screws. Now, I know that you folks know that Morris used keel screws in every rib, and what I noticed was that everywhere the block was located the keel screws were located off-center of the rib. Now, at this point I'm dying to say that there was also an old screw hole centered on the rib and next to the keel screw which would have held the retaining bar screw... but honestly I don't recall! I'm amazed - I think I would have noticed! So again, it's likely you both are right.

By the way, I believe it originally had only two blocks and swivel bars. I think that's nuts - that's too few to keep this long floorboard from flapping about when being transported upside-down IMHO. So I put in 4 or 5.