Seeking build record for 1917?? Old Town fishing boat

[brewmaster]

Had this beauty for a long time, finally got around to fixing it up. Was built by Old Town and probably spent most of its life in Maine. It is a 14 foot sponson fishing boat/runabout, with mahogany transom and trim, cedar on cedar with canvas covering, with bronze steering wheel and 4 foot mahogany deck....serial # 48698 14.

 

[Greg Nolan]

You need to take another look at the serial number. The Old Town canoe with serial Number 48698 is a 17' Charles River canoe.



Sometimes using a raking light makes the stamped number clearer; sometimes posting a photo of the number here can help us figure out the number.

Greg

 

[brewmaster]

Greg, Thanks for helping. The stem piece with the numbers was quite rotten and the numbers are barely legible. The first number, "4" is the one that is questionable....it may be a "1" or it may be just a crack in the rotten wood. Is it possible there are only four numbers.......8698?
Were all Old Town boats sequentially numbered, whether they were canoes or not?

You need to take another look at the serial number. The Old Town canoe with serial Number 48698 is a 17' Charles River canoe.

View attachment 34998

Sometimes using a raking light makes the stamped number clearer; sometimes posting a photo of the number here can help us figure out the number.

Greg

 

[Greg Nolan]

I checked all the numbers x8698, as well as 8698 -- none are 14' and none are boats with a transom. If you have a photo of the number and can post it, different eyes sometimes see something differently. OT boats were all numbered sequentially, as far as I know. Are you sure it is an Old Town? Some builders other than Old Town built similar boats.

Greg

 

[Benson Gray]

My guess is that you have the Old Town with serial number 148698. This is a 14 foot long, AA (or top) grade, square stern model with red western cedar planking, open mahogany gunwales, a 48 inch deck, spruce thwarts, a keel, outside stems, a floor rack, sponsons, rowlocks, a painter ring, and bilge keels. It was built between May and July, 1947. The original exterior paint color was dark green with a G. S. (Guide's Special) green bottom. It shipped on July, 7th, 1947 to Dover-Foxcroft, Maine. A scan showing this build record can be found by following the link at the attached thumbnail image 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/ot_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-the-wcha/ to learn more about the WCHA and http://store.wcha.org/WCHA-New-Membership.html to join.

It is also possible that you could have another number or manufacturer if this description doesn't match your boat. The information at http://forums.wcha.org/showthread.php?791 may help you read the serial numbers. Feel free to reply here if you have any other questions.

Benson

 

[brewmaster]

Benson - Amazing! You described it to a "T"!......right down to the bronze oarlocks! (Which I had saved in a jar on a shelf for 25 years waiting for when I finally had the time to rebuild the boat.) I've had to replace part of the stem (where the #'s were partially rotted off - can still not see a "1" before the "4"), replaced a few planks, the seat braces, the seats, the floorboards, sistered one broken rib, made a new breasthook, removed the deck (which was completely rotted - I have a '56 Penn Yan Seagoer runabout with original deck and original 25 hp Evinrude Big Twin, so I don't need two "speed boats.) It will be fun to tell my grandsons as we fish and cruise the Connecticut River near Middletown, Ct. that the boat is 6 years older than even me! Thanks to you and Greg for solving a long running mystery regarding the history of this noble craft!