A Carleton from the 1920s would have a five digit serial number like 18816 but that record shows a 17 foot long canoe and the record for 8816 shows a 15 foot canoe as Dan mentioned previously. The Kennebec records show that their number 8816 is a 17 foot canoe from 1914 and 18816 is a 16.5 foot boat from 1926 so those don't match either.
It could be an Old Town from the 1920s that had some major repairs and there could be at least one more hidden digit under that round mark to the left of the existing 8816. Their 58816 is 18 feet long, 68816 is 15 feet, 78816 is 18 feet, 98816 is 15 feet, and 108816 is 16 feet but it didn't have half ribs. My guess is that you may have the Old Town canoe with serial number 88816. This is a 16 foot long, CS grade, Otca model with red Western Cedar planking, open spruce gunwales, birch decks, birch trim, half ribs, a keel and outside stems. It was built between December, 1925 and June, 1927. The original exterior paint color was dark green. It shipped on July 6th, 1927 to Newburgh, New York. A scan of this build record can be found by following the link at the attached thumbnail image below.
This scan was created with substantial grants from the Wooden Canoe Heritage Association (WCHA) and others as you probably know well. A description of 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 renew your membership 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 or 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.
Benson
