The Old Town canoe with serial number 125915 is a 17 foot long, CS grade, HW (Heavy Water) model with open spruce gunwales, ash decks, ash trim, a keel, and sponsons. It was built between December, 1938 and March, 1939. The original exterior paint color was dark red. It shipped on April 26th, 1939 to Chicago, Ill. A scan of this build record can be found by following the link behind the attached thumbnail image below.
This scan was created with substantial grants from the Wooden Canoe Heritage Association (WCHA) and others. Additional information about the project to preserve these records is available at
http://www.wcha.org/catalogs/old-town/records/ if you want more details. I hope that you will join 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.html to join.
The catalog image at
http://www.wcha.org/catalogs/old-town/hull-x-s.gif shows that the HW hull is considerably more round than the Otca hull. More information like this is available from
http://www.dragonflycanoe.com/cdrom.htm on the Complete Old Town Canoe Company Catalog Collection CD. Most people consider the HW to be the faster hull of the two and the Otca hull to be more stable. Some paddlers and sailors notice these differences much more than others.
It is also 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
