Rushton Indian Girl 17'

[msobie64]

Hello,

I've become the guardian of what I believe is a Grade A (single thwart) 17' Rushton Indian Girl that my grandfather had restored in the mid 80's. I'm trying to see if I can find any info on possible year and also potentially the best way to fix the issue with the Gunwale (where thwart attaches). I need to get some better pictures but it appears to have a Serial#536F ? Any info would be greatly appreciated. I'm working on trying to find pictures of the original condition (I know I have them buried in a box somewhere).

Thx,
Mike

 

[John Sand]

Beautiful boat, welcome aboard!

 

[MGC]

Hi Mike,
Congratulations. This will be a great canoe to paddle. These old Rushton's are a bit tender but really lovely in the water.
Better pictures will help as would getting a pencil rub of the SN. The presence of the letter F seems somewhat unusual. The length of the canoe should be stamped on the stem. Both stems should be stamped.
WRT the broken rail, it's hard to assess with what you have provided but there are generally only two ways to address this.
One, replace the entire rail. That is a quasi-major repair that will require taking the boat back down to the bare hull.
Option two would be to attempt a splice repair of the broken rail. A splice is less invasive than a complete rail replacement but it is still a somewhat major repair. Again, better pictures would help to assess that.

 

[msobie64]

I have a few more pictures of the gunwale issue and the stem stamps. Looks like a serial number of 536, def a Rushton Any help in regards to age and possible repair methods would be appreciated.

 

[MGC]

Mike, That style of rail construction (or one quite similar except the pockets) was used by Old Town on their so called double gunwale canoes. Joined together as such, the appearance of the two pieces joined is quite elegant and strong.
In my initial reply, what I believed could be seen is that the inside rail may have cracked/broken. Given those deep pockets for the rib tops it is not unusual for the rails to fail in those areas.
What your new images seem to show may not be quite as disturbing as that. It looks like the inside and outside rail have pulled apart. It also looks like the hull has spread. It is possible that Jean did not realize that he had to make the seats so that they also contribute to holding the shape of the hull. Whatever the case, you will need to try and see if you can pull the rails back together and deal with the way the hull has spread. I would start by putting a few straps around the boat and pulling the thwart to see what is being hidden behind it. From there you go one step at a time to put it back together.

You should try a pencil rub to rule out that the "F" is not a one. Having said that, yours appears to be an earlier canoe and if the stamped number is 5361 it would not make too much sense...there were roughly between 5 and 6 thousand of these made and your appears to be an earlier one. Are the markings on the thwart?

 

[msobie64]

I'll strap the boat and pull the thwart tomorrow and check. Also after converting a closeup picture of the stem to B&W and doing some inverse coloring I don't believe there is anything after the "6" in the stamped number. I'm pretty sure it's just 536

 

[Benson Gray]

That style of rail construction (or one quite similar except the pockets) was used by Old Town on their so called double gunwale canoes.

I can confirm that the double gunwale shown below does not have pocketed ribs as shown in the first picture. The first link has more information about this canoe. The early Old Town Molitor from 1921 does have pocketed ribs as shown in the second picture. The second link has more information about this canoe. Let me know if you anyone wants more details.

Benson

An Old Town Charles River model in AA grade with double mahogany gunwales from 1907

The pictures below show an Old Town Charles River model in AA grade with double mahogany gunwales from 1907 and fancy turned drops on the seats. It appears to have been modified after it left the factory for a canopy as shown by the four metal mounting points in the gunwales. Benson

forums.wcha.org

AA grade Old Town Molitor model in original condition from 1921

This is an AA grade Old Town Molitor model in original condition from 1921. It has closed gunwales and pocked ribs like a Morris.

forums.wcha.org

 

[MGC]

I guess I should have been more specific about the similarities and differences. I was not suggesting that Old Town and Rushton construction were identical. What I was referring to was only the "double gunwale" element of the construction, not the way that the ribs were attached.
To the best of my knowledge, Old Town never pocketed the ribs. On my 1906 double gunwale, the ribs were tapered to the rail.
Rushton and Morris both went down the pocketed rib rathole.

 

[Benson Gray]

To the best of my knowledge, Old Town never pocketed the ribs.

I agree, with the early Molitor models (which were intended to look like a Morris) as the only exceptions.

Benson

 

[Dan Miller]

The details of this canoe and the serial number 536 fit right in with Rushton canoes of similar vintage.

 

[msobie64]

I checked the thwart and there doesn't seem to be any markings on it at all (not sure if it's original or not). I took some photos of how it's attached to the gunwale, maybe that will give someone a clue if it's original. Also, when we say "similar vintage" how old are we estimating?

 

[Dan Miller]

Best we can say is early 1900s. Rushton started building Indian Girl canoes in 1901-1902, and ceased production in 1917. Of 61 recorded IG canoes, the lowest serial number is 109, and the highest is 5499. As there are no known surviving serial number records, nor specific datapoints (e.g. a sales receipt with sn and date), anything else is just conjecture. It is probably safe to assume production was generally consistent, so you could extrapolate a potential date range from that.

 

[msobie64]

Thanks Dan, I'm almost afraid to do anything with it being so old.