Old Town Boy Scout Canoe ID

[EarleVermonter]

I'm posting this for a fellow scout leader. He has acquired a wonderful Old Town that needs some restoration. We would like to identify what model and grade this is, and when it was built. The canoe also has a flat board seat in the center position, that is in better condition than the rest of the seats and gunnels. Is that anything Old Town ever installed or is it more likely this was put on afterwards? What were the correct seat positions for this canoe? It apppears as tought they may have been moved due to gunnel rot.
Earle Elliott
Danville, VT.


Could you please give me information on Old Town #155168 - 16ft.
I am a Scoutmaster in Boy Scout Troop 888 in Danville, VT. I was contacted by a man in Waterford, VT that wanted to give his late brother's canoe to another Scoutmaster. The brother, Mr. Lott, acquired the canoe from a Scout camp in Maine. It meant so much to him, that if I ever decided to get rid of it, I had to make a promise to pass it on to another Scoutmaster instead of selling it. Then original color is tan, and a red arrowhead with the #3 was painted on the front. This was most probably done by the Boy Scout camp that originally received the canoe. Thank you for your time and efforts.

 

[Kathryn Klos]

Old Town 155168 is a 16 foot CS (common sense, or middle) grade Yankee model canoe that was finished from December 1950 to May 1951. It has open spruce gunwales and a keel with full length bang plate. Originally, it was painted bright red. It was shipped to Holyoke, MA, on May 16, 1951.
The scan of this record is attached below-- click on it to get a larger image.

This scan and several hundred thousand others 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 and anyone else reading this will join or renew membership in 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.

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

The flat board center seat you mention is likely something added later. I'll look up pictures of the Yankee for you to compare with what you are seeing.

Kathy

 

[Kathryn Klos]

Attached is information on the Yankee model from the 1950 Old Town Catalog, courtesy "The Complete Old Town Canoe Company Catalog Collection, 1901- 1993", available on CD from http://www.wcha.org/catalog/ and http://www.dragonflycanoe.com/cdrom.htm on the web.

"The Wood and Canvas Canoe" by Stelmok and Thurlow is a good resource, as well as "Old Town, our First Hundred Years" by Sue Audette.

Here are a number of older posts on the Yankee model:

http://forums.wcha.org/showthread.php?t=1426&highlight

http://forums.wcha.org/showthread.php?t=1967&highlight

http://forums.wcha.org/showthread.php?t=2716&highlight

http://forums.wcha.org/showthread.php?t=5049&highlight

http://forums.wcha.org/showthread.php?t=631&highlight

http://forums.wcha.org/showthread.php?t=1806&highlight

I hope this helps!
Kathy

 

[EarleVermonter]

Thank You

Thank you very much. This is terriffic information. It adds a nice connection when you know something of the history and story behind a boat. The Old Town record project is really awesome and I am thankful for the volunteers keeping this going. I am always learning something new here. Was not familiar with Yankee model and do not know what a bang plate is. Can you explain?

 

[Kathryn Klos]

Bang plate and stem band are the same thing--- it's a strip of metal-- usually brass but can be copper or aluminum-- that goes on the bow and stern to cover where canvas overlaps and to protect the ends from "banging" into docks and rocks and such. Some canoes also have an outside stem, which is a strip of hardwood (steam-bent) to cover the bow and stern and the bang plate goes on over that. Sometimes a customer would order a full length bang plate, which means the metal strip begins at the bow and runs entirely along the underside of the canoe, on the keel, and comes up around the stern. Canoes used by scouts or in liveries more frequently had full length bang plates for extra protection.

I'll attach a couple pictures. This canoe has an outside stem and a bang plate on top of that.

 

[Kathryn Klos]

The attached picture shows how a bang plate ended on a canoe designed to have bang plates that only cover the bow and stern and doesn't go the full length of the underside of the canoe.