Which builder?

[MGC]

This classified has my limited ID skills stumped. Who built this strip canoe that was recently posted in the classifieds?
http://forums.wcha.org/showthread.p...e-1900-Cedar-Strip-Canoe-from-the-Adirondacks

I am pretty sure that it is not a Kennebec and I don't see this as a local boat (I am from Northern NY so that means JHR).
For me it has the feel of an Ontario boat.
Who built this? Thoughts?

 

[Dan Miller]

The sheer clamp implies south of the border.

Compare this canoe with the (for example) catalog page attached, from the Spalding St. Lawrence Boat Company, which was located in Ogdensburg.

 

[MGC]

Yes, I see what you are referring to and your comment makes sense. 18 miles from Canton, 3/4 of a mile from Ontario...it all blends. What are the production dates for Spalding?

 

[Dan Miller]

What are the production dates for Spalding?

Company began as A. Bain & Co. in Clayton. It's succession is as follows:

A. Bain & Co., Clayton - 1878-1888
St. Lawrence River Skiff, Canoe & Steam Launch Co., Clayton - 1888-1895
Spalding St. Lawrence Boat Co., Ogdensburg - 1895-1905
Leyare Boat Works, Ogdensburg - 1905-1913
(Hiatus while Joseph Leyare was in Buffalo building airplanes with Glen Curtis)
St. Lawrence Boat Works, Ogdensburg - 1917-? (among other canoes and boats, was building on Rushton IG molds).

 

[MGC]

Company began as A. Bain & Co. in Clayton. It's succession is as follows:

A. Bain & Co., Clayton - 1878-1888
St. Lawrence River Skiff, Canoe & Steam Launch Co., Clayton - 1888-1895
Spalding St. Lawrence Boat Co., Ogdensburg - 1895-1905
Leyare Boat Works, Ogdensburg - 1905-1913
(Hiatus while Joseph Leyare was in Buffalo building airplanes with Glen Curtis)
St. Lawrence Boat Works, Ogdensburg - 1917-? (among other canoes and boats, was building on Rushton IG molds).

Interesting...subject matter expert has been found!!

Did you ever see the 23 foot St. Lawrence River Skiff I had behind my fathers barn?
That was a boat house find on a Rideau Island.

 

[Paul Miller]

Dan,

I noticed the plank was not tapered on the canoe in the ad here on the site and it appears the same in the picture from the catalog you posted. Am I seeing it correctly?

Paul

 

[Dan Miller]

Paul, it does appear that way. Hard to tell for sure, but it looks like the difference in girth was made up with a combination of football-shaped garboards and a sheerstrake that flares at the stems.

MGC, hard not to become a little familiar with River builders, living and working in their old stomping grounds. No, never did see your skiff.