What do we have here?

[1905Gerrish]

Yesterday I spent the entire day with one of the well known bark builders in the country. The meeting was planned a few weeks ago and included an offering of this canoe. Henri Vaillancourt gifted this canoe, in it's present condition, as it was found in 1970. He was aware of my knowledge and dealings with early wood canvas canoes, thinking I would give it a good home. It was found in Rockwood Maine which includes part of Moosehead Lake. Not far from where it is speculated that wood canvas canoes got their start.

There are so many early features to mention including the extra layer of canvas in place of the stem band. The canvas deck. The mortised thwarts and seat with copper wire in place of spruce root. The thwarts with tumpline notches. The canvas seat. The stem that protruded through the rails. The inwales wrapped with copper wire. The centered and tapered bottom plank. There are no sheer planks on the canoe.

Other notable mentions include the original yellow interior, the half ribs and the floor planks, lapped/beveled E.M White style.

Is this really what it appears to be? What do I do with this? Supposedly the canoe was shown to Henri because it was out of the ordinary and seemed very old then.

Zack

 

[1905Gerrish]

More pics

 

[chris pearson]

Unbelievable. Leave it be. Historical artifact for sure. Glad you have it.

 

[Worth Gretter]

I was going to say restore it - until I saw it was only half a canoe.
But I would love to see more pictures.
Are all the planks beveled?
Are the rib ends tapered or the inwale notched, under the gunwale cap?
What kind of tacks, nails, screws?

 

[chris pearson]

I didn’t notice 1/2 a canoe I was so excited!!! Great thing to study though!

 

[1905Gerrish]

I was going to say restore it - until I saw it was only half a canoe.
But I would love to see more pictures.
Are all the planks beveled?
Are the rib ends tapered or the inwale notched, under the gunwale cap?
What kind of tacks, nails, screws?

 

[Worth Gretter]

So the rib tops are not tapered, but the inwale is beveled to keep the closed gunwales horizontal, instead of tilted by the tumblehome. Interesting!
And the top of the plank is beveled to match, a nice touch.

 

[Dan Miller]

A couple of 250hp Johnsons on the back and you are good to go.

 

[1905Gerrish]

A couple of 250hp Johnsons on the back and you are good to go.

Dan, I'm over this years assembly. Preparing for the next

 

[Michael Grace]

Don't care if it's half a canoe - this is VERY interesting! I'm thinking that you're thinking White, given the beveled planking and the treatment of the stem with the tacked-on canvas. This is just fascinating! Is that wire (like at the gunwale ends) wrapped arming the inhales to hold them together under the canvas "deck"?

I agree with Chris - keep it just as it is and documented in it detail. What wood species, dimensions of the various parts, etc.

Nice!

 

[MGC]

My father always spoke fondly about White canoes whenever he recalled his days guiding or working for the Maine Forest Service on Moosehead. As he told it, White canoes were the ones that were always preferred. That was long after this canoe entered service.
Even when we paddled North from Greenville in the late 60's, many of the canoes that he and I encountered were Whites, at least the ones that were docked or pulled up in front of camps. The Great Northern (?) drive coordinator we met at the NE Carry (staging the lumber camps for the last pulp drive) was the exception with his Old Town Square stern.
It would not surprise me to learn that this is a White. It certainly has many of the expected characteristics. The million-dollar question is, where is the rest of it?

 

[1905Gerrish]

I have viewed this post 1892, Starbird photo of Ed Grant guiding, many times in the past studying the build. I suspected that this canoe had canvas decks. The stem tips clearly visible protruding through the made up ends. I think whoever made this canoe could be a strong candidate as the builder.

Zack

 

[MGC]

Guides have always been known to build a few canoes in the off season. That is a tradition that continues. Our Adirondack "guide boats" followed such tradition.Rushton commercialized the construction of guide boat. Other local builders did the same on a lesser scale.
Some Maine guides continue with the tradition of annual construction. In Maine, as Benson keeps highlighting, there were a host of builders who left their mark, many of them somewhat localized. Moosehead, as you know, was large enough to support a significant hunting and fishing economy. So, suggesting that this half hull might have been made by Grant is not at all unreasonable. That Grant might have followed some existing build practices (lapped planking) is very possible. It is equally possible that this was his own concept. Canvased decks, they certainly make sense. If you have ever crossed from Rockwood to Kineo when the lake is rough, you would also be inspired to deck your canoe. A soaking wet sport can only be dried out with a fire or a trip back to camp....a good guide delivers game. White may, as did Rushton, have picked ideas from existing Moosehead guide built boats and incorporated these into his own production.
What is somewhat impressive about your acquisition are the very specific construction features that suggest that it was not someone's first time effort. Whoever built that, had a particular method of construction that suggests cycles of learning and attention to detail.
It is biggly cool.

 

[Dave Osborn]

Guides and camp owners did build canoes in the offseason. I have one built by A.R. Daisy of Millinockett Maine. I was able to contact the Daisy family looking for info, and found out that canoe builds and repairs were standard winter activity in their camp.

 

[dtdcanoes]

WOW ! I wonder if I could survive seeing the whole thing. Interesting to see the narrower ribs at the end beginning at the stem end (?) . And the canvas stem bands that may have led to the metal versions we see later. Maybe he found a good use for the windings in a dead generator.
They pulled a lot of coppa on Moosehead for sure. A great gift from Zac !
Dave

 

[MGC]

My father would tell that cheap tipping sports would sometimes lose a few hundred feet of copper when it got wrapped around a submerged deadhead. The guides would go back later on and retrieve the "lost" lures and lines.
Interesting to learn about Daisy canoes. In all of the years I spent in and around Millinockett, I never encountered anything but Old Towns and Whites. I guess we weren't looking hard enough.

 

[Dave Osborn]

Mike,
Ive long since lost the letter that one of the Daisy kin wrote to me, but this person had heard that AR Daisy won a local camp in a card game.
The canoe that I have has very distinct stems, almost vertical. Kinda guideboat-ish. I did see photos from the camp online somewhere and the canoes in the photos were similar. Wish I recalled the camp name or lake that it was on.
I haven’t used the canoe for a few years. It was found at a local dump. I restored it, added a middle seat and used it for guiding.
Unfortunately I can only find photos of my sport’s in the canoe and not a good overall photo.

 

[1905Gerrish]

Guides and camp owners did build canoes in the offseason. I have one built by A.R. Daisy of Millinockett Maine. I was able to contact the Daisy family looking for info, and found out that canoe builds and repairs were standard winter activity in their camp.

Dave,
I think we would enjoy seeing a Daisy canoe in a separate post

 

[1905Gerrish]

Don't care if it's half a canoe - this is VERY interesting! I'm thinking that you're thinking White, given the beveled planking and the treatment of the stem with the tacked-on canvas. This is just fascinating! Is that wire (like at the gunwale ends) wrapped arming the inhales to hold them together under the canvas "deck"?

I agree with Chris - keep it just as it is and documented in it detail. What wood species, dimensions of the various parts, etc.

Nice!

Yes Michael,
Copper wire is wrapped around the inwales.

 

[1905Gerrish]

Here a more pics of the old girl. I forgot to mention in my original post that the canvas install was over the inwales and trimmed flush with the interior as such. That can be seen in this group , photo #4. Henri mentioned that he has seen this commonly on native bark canoes.

Notice the narrowed stem in the last 6".

Ribs are barely tapered either direction.

Thwarts and seat were originally painted red. No signs of any varnish on any wood. I do have a UFO in my collection that was painted dark green interior and no signs of varnish in that. I guess I'm not surprised of the lack of varnish but a yellow and red interior must have been a sight to see.

The "tacks" are larger than the standard copper cut canoe tack. I have seen these before but a very uncommon.

Zack