Morris sponson removal??

[Daporter]

I recently got a lovely 16' closed gunwale 1915 Morris wood/canvas canoe with sponsons. I am not in love with the look of the sponsons, but have decided to retain so as to maintain the canoe's original aspects. Which by the way include a triple keel!? A long central one and somewhat shorter ones on each side of it. But I digress. I have pretty much finished stripping the varnish from the interior and the paint from the inwale. Next is to remove the sponsons. There are a series of brass screws through the ribs into the lower portion of the sponsons. Those have come off easily enough, but as expected, they are not all that is holding the sponsons in place. I have examined the inwale (it is just one piece of wood) carefully and see nothing else going through it into the sponsons. I have managed to pry off one of the solid ends of a sponson...it was held on with finishing nails. But as for the sponsons themselves...??? I'm about to work on prying off the top planking but given the abundance of nails through it am pretty sure that I will destroy it in the process. There must??!! be some more screws hidden in there somewhere. If anyone has any experience with these, I'd sure love to hear what you've learned before I begin some somewhat destructive disassembly.
Thanks.

 

[Dave Osborn]

I've never removed sponsons from a Morris. The sponsons that I have removed, Thompson, Old Town, Racine, and Kennebec, all had mystery screws or nails somewhere. Sometimes you can find them with a probing putty knife.
I've ended up shearing them off with a chisel or heavy putty knife, or cutting them with a hack saw blade.
Yep, I've done some damage along the way, but it is all repairable.

 

[MGC]

Presuming it to be the same boat, (triple keels being a giveaway...red decks as well?) I puzzled over those buggers and could not figure out how they were attached..certainly not just with the visible screws... as you confirm.
Agree 100% about sponsons...I have either ripped them off or sold any canoe that had them..but this one, it's a rare bird and it's also in pretty darned good shape. Take your time and try to avoid doing too much damage. Have you removed the rails caps to see if they shed any light?

 

[Daporter]

It did have red decks. Now beautiful mahogany. Thank you Dave for sharing your experiences and courage. By the way, it turned out to be in GREAT condition. Not even one cracked rib!! I have removed all of the trim and gunwale caps. Just nothing visible, though in retrospect there are some very small marks on the inwale which are where finishing nails are going into the sponsons.

I have now removed the starboard side sponson. There were a series of finishing nails in both directions at the top though mostly going from the sponson into the top rail/inwale. At the bottom, yikes, there was another set of small screws going from a board which becomes part of the sponson, but must have been attached to the canoe first. I'll try to explain this better--how I think I understand it at this point...First the canoe was canvassed and filled. Then a piece of canvas put against the canoe for eventual use for the sponson. Then boards, which I'll call battens (about 1/2" thick cedar), were put onto the canoe---nailed onto it with 1" long nails (not finishing nails) at the top (into the inwale) and screwed through the planking into each rib at the bottom. The sponsons were then built onto these batten boards. Beautifully done I will say. To remove the nails and screws I'll have to reverse the sponson assembly process which I'm reluctant to do given the number of nails which are through the planking that veneer the sponson. Yes, I ended up pulling the (mercifully) small screws out of the ribs at the bottom of the sponson. Not good, but did not seem to cause much damage (didn't do them any good, however...I may try to sneak some good epoxy/glue sort of filler into those holes). Rather than disassembling the sponson I may cut off the nails and try to work the screws out.??? A little of the planking which was under the sponson should be replaced, but otherwise all seems well. I think I may try to remove the port side sponson properly. I'll see how it goes.

 

[Daporter]

I took off the other sponson this afternoon--doing it the right way. I ended up taking the sponson apart piece by piece...it was slow work, but all came off just fine (with a lot of wiggling). It was also a bit satisfying to work with these pieces of wood which presumably had last been touched 100 years ago (it's difficult to imagine that the canoe hadn't been recanvassed before--but the sponsons inside were just so pristine that it did not seem as if they had been removed before--and I don't know how else the boat could have been recanvassed). The workmanship on them is impressive, hope I can reassemble them as well when the time comes. It was all as I expected--except that the canvas for the sponsons was only underneath the bottom edge of the sponsons (I expected it to be as described in "The Wood and Canvas Canoe"--a piece which overlapped the sponson at both the top and the bottom.) Perhaps more than one piece was used? That had all been removed before I got it, so I don't know.

 

[Daporter]

Pretty well finished up today...just need seats and christening. Here are a couple of photos. Kind of a mixed bag about how well I restored it as far as keeping it original. Obviously decided to keep the sponsons and all three keels. I replaced the original brass stem bands with oak that I bent to fit into the original central keel. I also removed one of the thwarts and replaced it with a portaging yoke amidships since I like to go to the Boundary Waters in northern Minnesota. I haven't gotten it in the water yet, hope to do so next weekend.

 

[Greg Nolan]

Very nice!

 

[1905Gerrish]

Nice work!

 

[Daporter]

Thanks! I appreciate everyone's support...makes it all possible and enjoyable.