Various numbers

Mark Kerr

Curious about Wooden Canoes
I am in the process of restoring 4 canoes this winter. First one is #146184 , 18ft (with complete sail rig). The bow shape and the decks of this do not look like an Old Town.
The next is an old town # 123388 16Ft.
The next is another old town # 136260 16Ft.
The last, I don't know what it is, but has serial # 21230 (maybe 21250... it's faded). It's 18ft and the decks look like an old town.
Thanks for help in finding out what they are and when built.

Mark Kerr
Kerr Canoe Inc.
 
You certainly are ambitious! Please post your progress in these restorations.

I'm not currently where I can look up records (I don't have the disks installed in my portable computer) but want to mention that it helps to post pictures of the canoes you don't believe are Old Towns. Also, remember that Old Town had more than one deck style... the Otca prior to 1957 has a longer deck with coaming, and folks are sometimes confused by this.

Unless a canoe is an Old Town, Carleton, Kennebec, St. Louis, or Seliga the serial number won't give you a ship-date. Sometimes the presence of a s/n can rule out certain builders... sometimes it can narrow the field of possibilities... or-- as with PennYan-- provide some clues... but it won't connect to a build record unless one of these or a newer builder.

Kathy
 
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The Old Town with serial number 146184 is an 18 foot long, CS (common sense or middle) grade, Guide model with open spruce gunwales, ash decks, ash thwarts, ash seats, and a keel. It was built between July and October, 1946. The original exterior color was G. S. (guide's special) green. It shipped on November 6th, 1946 to Milwaukee, Wisc. The sail rig appears to have been added after it left the factory and the decks/ends may have been replaced/repaired previously.

The Old Town with serial number 123388 is a 16 foot long, CS grade, HW (heavy water) model with open spruce gunwales and a keel. It was built between October, 1937 and January, 1938. The original exterior color was dark green. It shipped on April 25th, 1938 to Havana, Illinois. The back side of the record shows that the paint had blistered by May 31st, 1938.

The Old Town with serial number 136260 is a 16 foot long, CS grade, HW model with open spruce gunwales, ash decks, ash thwarts, ash seats, a keel, and sponsons. It was built between October, 1942 and January, 1943. The original exterior color was dark green. It shipped on February 2nd, 1943 to Chicago, Illinois.

The Old Town with serial number 21230 is 16 feet long so my guess is that you have the one with number 21250. This is an 18 foot long, CS grade, Charles River model with red western cedar planking, open spruce gunwales, ash decks, ash thwarts, ash seats, and a keel. It was built in March, 1912. The original exterior color was gray. It shipped on April 18th, 1913 to Minneapolis, Minn.

The scans of these build records can be found by following the links at the attached thumbnail images below. These scans 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 these descriptions don't match your canoes. Feel free to reply here if you have any other questions. It looks like you will be busy this winter.

Benson
 

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Benson,

Thank You very much for the information.

Turns out that the sail canoe # 146184 is an Old Town. When I was washing off the stripper I could actually read Old Town where there had been a decal years ago. I could only see that there had been a decal or something on the deck prior to stripping.

I must have #21250 since it is an 18 footer. It has fiberglass on it so that will take some time with a heat gun to remove. Who ever glassed it also decided to coat the interior with polyester resin as well. I can't seem to get it all off the ribs so will have to live with that unless someone has an idea how to get that off.

I'll post pictures of them when I get them done. 146184 and 123388 will be for sale when complete. The others I'm doing for their owners.

Mark
 
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