Possible Old Town Canoe?

[Michael J. Connelly]

I recently acquired a wood/canvas canoe for restoration. The seller thought it was a 1903 Indian/Rambler but he got his info from an antique dealer over the phone. I suspect it is actually an Old Town because of the diamond shaped seat/thwart bold heads. The serial number is 187557 - 16. Any info would be greatly appreciated. I would like to restore it back to it's original color and condition.

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[Dave Osborn]

Your photos won’t open for me.....

 

[Michael J. Connelly]

Sorry, it seems that I forgot to set the permissions to allow you to see them. My mistake. Thanks

 

[Dave Osborn]

Looks like an Old Town. 187 prefix would land the build in the 1970’s, I think.
Someone will post the build record soon, I hope.
Most of the folks are at the Assembly in Peterborough this week.

 

[smallboatshop]

Hi Michael, The Old Town with number 187557 is a fiberglass canoe made in 1972. I believe that you have 137557 - 16 which is a 16' CS, or middle grade, Yankee Model with Open spruce gunwales, ash decks, thwarts and seat frames. It had a keel, was painted dark green, built in 1943 and shipped to Camp Lejeune, No Carolina.

It appears to have ribs that are not tapered which would fit with the Yankee Model as it was once the Charles River Model - the only Old Town that I know of that did not have tapered ribs. Also the stemband appears to be galvanized rather than brass which was common during the war years.

The scan of this record is attached -- 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. Providing photographs would help with identification, as would an accurate measurement of the boat's length.

Dan

Daniel Eaton
smallboat shop
Denmark, Maine
www.smallboat-shop.com

 

[Michael J. Connelly]

Thanks Daniel. I will have to see if I can get a clearer shot of the serial number and the ribs. It does have tapered ribs - they are 2” in the center and about 1 1/4” at the gunwales. The inside was pretty dirty from being outside when I took the pictures.

 

[smallboatshop]

Hi Michael. Let's not put too much verification on the tapered or not tapered ribs. They were not tapered in the teens but that was noted in the catalog of those years. Your catalog page didn't mention untapered so maybe Old Town changed to tapered ribs some time between the teens and the 1940s.
There should be a number on the other stem. Let me know if you find a different number to look up.

Dan

 

[Michael J. Connelly]

I washed out the inside of the canoe and found a clearer number on the stern stem. What we thought was an 8 or a 3 as the second number is actually a 6, which makes the serial number 167557. Thanks for all the help and patience so far. I also got a little bit of canvas from under the keel and it looks like it was white to begin with - at some point in it's life it was covered in fiberglass and painted bright orange.

 

[Greg Nolan]

The Old Town canoe with serial number 167557 is a 16-foot long Otca model equipped with a keel. It was built between April and November 1958. The exterior was originally painted dark green. It was shipped on April 27, 1959 to San Francisco, California. Around 1957, Old Town began to build only one grade of canoe, which usually had mahogany gunwales and spruce for the remaining “trim” wood and western red cedar planking -- none of which was usually indicated on build records. A scan of this build record can be found by following the link behind the thumbnail image attached below.



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/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/about-wcha to learn more about the WCHA and http://www.wcha.org/store/membership to join.

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.

Greg

 

[Michael J. Connelly]

Fantastic! You guys are the best! I'm sure there is a good story of how the old girl got from SF to Missouri - I'll just have to imagine it though. Thanks for all the help and patience identifying my canoe. I'll keep posting pictures of the restoration as I go.