Identifying a Thurlow
As with Chestnut (sometimes called Peternut) canoes, serial numbers stamped on Rollin Thurlows are no sure guide to identifying the model or year of production of the Thurlow. While the first two digits of the serial number stamped on a Thurlow were once thought to be intentionally enigmatic or misleading, a breakthrough in archival research now confirms that they refer to the date of production. However, the numbers reference the “BB” and “AB” (“Before Beer” and “After Beer”—referring to the date of the invention of beer) calendar system (rather than the more commonly used B.C and A.D ) and no one yet has correlated these dates to the corresponding A..D. system calendar year.
Models of Thurlows can best be assessed by hull form. Early Thurlows, while by no means thin in the middle section, lack the conspicuously abundant mid section girth of later models.
As a “closed” or “open” gunnel can aid in identifying the age of a canoe, flies of Thurlows can indicate whether the Thurlow was completed in the morning or the afternoon. Morning Thurlows have closed flies, whereas, in the afternoon, Thurlow flies are almost always open. It is thought that this is because, by noon, sufficient enough beer had been taken aboard the Thurlow to make an open fly a more efficient means of rapidly and frequently “draining” (“pumping ship” in nautical terms) the Thurlow.