Serial # 2013 17

[Fitz]

Nice Summary

Nice summary of your canoe traits. Can you fill us in on this detail?:

I see the screws in the keel are slotted. Are the screws in the decks and the rest of the canoe slotted?

Let us know what you find for original hardware on the canoe. Steel or brass?

Tacks - copper, steel or brass?


Also, there are Charles River boats with tapered ribs, heart shaped decks etc. I think you could probably get whatever you wanted. Here is a possible Robertson with a mahogany heart shaped deck:

http://forums.wcha.org/showthread.php?t=1656&highlight=heart+shaped+deck

It looks to me like the inwales on the mystery canoe do not taper near the deck. Are we looking at a Canadian canoe?

 

[Dylan Schoelzel]

The planking up near the sheer is vertically slit to facilitate bending (the plank to fit) without shaping it; a classic Charles River technique.

The last cant rib is full thickness at the top and would simply fit or rest under the stem. This is another classic Charles River technique.

Steel screws in the deck, deck pattern, tack pattern, and stem profile also seem to be in line with a canoe from the Charles River area, albeit they are not the best representation of such.

Are the sides of the outer stems oval in shape or flat? Can you provide a picture of them?

Also what does the joint look like between keel and outer stem? Picture of this?

Is there enough meat left on the stem where it joins the deck to take a picture or have both ends rotted to much?

How about the ends of the inner rails; are there funny looking notches about 3-4 inches in from the end that run diagonally across the outside face (of the rail) about an 1- 1½ long?

 

[Kathryn Klos]

Great find, Fitz-- that possible-Robertson heart deck looks very close to the mystery canoe's deck!

Dylan--great clues to help narrow things down... I love the way so many contribute to solving a puzzle. I end up learning a lot from all of you!

Kathy

 

[sitzmark]

REply to Fritz and Dylan's questions on fasteners & other specifics

All fasteners are magnetic (see pic)
- All screws have slots
- some screw heads are square
- The screws attached to the deck are round

Inwales are tapered (see pic)
Not enough inwales left to check for notches

Keel and outer stems pic included (both ends) (see pics - both ends)

Robertson reference is promising.

The search continues.

Greg

 

[Dylan Schoelzel]

The sides of that outer stem look rounded over and not flat. This would point toward a Charles River canoe.

Kind of hard to tell, but the way that planking edge is planed off along the bottom of the stem in the last photo looks Charles River-ish.

Both Waltham and Robertson built very similar, almost identical, short decked canoes. Both used heart shaped decks and other similar deck patterns.

 

[sitzmark]

Finding a set of plans for a Charles River Canoe

Does any one know where I can look at drawings/plans of Charles River Canoes? Are there documents on file in a library or Museum at a College on the Charles?

Thanks

Greg

 

[Kathryn Klos]

Hi Greg,

The Charles River canoes were the topic of the 2007 WCHA Assembly. I don't recall hearing that plans, per se, are available... although someone may have taken the lines off one of them.

Kevin Martin builds reproductions (I believe on a Kingsbury mold), and there are a few folks here who have restored courting canoes by a number of builders... a few specialize in collecting courting canoes.

If you take your canoe to the Assembly in July, you'll have a bunch of people pouring over it and will maybe get some new clues.

Kathy

 

[Fitz]

Plans

I am not aware of much material regarding Charles River canoes existing in local libraries. I have not done an exhaustive search though.

The Newton Public Library has a copy of a Robertson Catalog. This same catalog is offered with the CD collection on this website.

You can get plans for a 15 foot Robertson canoe from Mystic Seaport. I am not sure of the source of these plans. Someone likely pulled the lines off an existing canoe.

J. R. Robertson canoe (15')
2 sheets: lines, construction, offsets,
order no. MISC. 39

Linky is here:

http://library.mysticseaport.org/collections/shipsplans.cfm?mtyp=orderno&mkind=research

 

[Dylan Schoelzel]

The Robertson plans mentioned are not for a wood canvas canoe. They are for a lapstrake Rushton style rowboat/canoe. If I am not mistaken the lines were taken off and drawn for Mystic.

There are a few examples of Charles River canoes in Museums. Mystic has a few.

The only plans or table of offsets that are likely to exist for any wood canvas canoe from the Charles River are ones in which people have taken the lines off of.

Dan Miller may be able to contribute something here.

What exactly are you looking for?

 

[Dan Miller]

I was just going to post what Dylan did - that the plans Fitz refers to are for an all-wood lapstrake Robertson. The canoe in the drawings was in private hands at the time, may very well still be. Mystic has two other Robertsons - a different lapstrake named Mignon, that is a very attractive boat, and a canvas covered one that was decked over with two small cockpit holes for long distance paddling.

As far as I know, no one has taken lines off a Robertson, or if they have, have not made them available.

 

[Dylan Schoelzel]

Here are pictures of the 2 Robertson canoes Dan mentioned.