White 17 47-534

[Paul Fopeano]

Here is an nice old boat that came my way this morning. I got a call from a guy, who knew a guy who's grandfather knew that I mess with wooden canoes. This canoe was left in the bushes behind the first guy's house 7 or 8 years ago. The first guy's landlord told him to burn it just to clean up the lot. Being the industrious Mainer that he is, he made a few calls and eventually found me. Being the frugal newbie Mainer that I am (and have 'bout 4 years of canoe projects already stacked up in front of me) I was luke warm to an old wreck left to rot in the woods. The first guy seemed nice enough on the phone and answered all my questions with honest responses so I figured I might take a look. Then he said it had a White Canoe Company, Old Town Maine plaque on the bow deck and I figured I gotta take a look! (I attended the WCHA assembly some years ago when it was in NH. The canoe I remember the most out of all those beautiful boats was a really cleanly restored 17' White that I thought blew all the OT's and the Morris's with all the extra stuff right out of the water. For purity of design for backwoods use and simplicity and portage-ability, that White, who's ever it was, was perfect!)

What I found this morning is an aparently all original, very restorable White 17' canoe with 17 47-534 stamped on bow and stern stems. It does have all the usual stem/deck rot but compared to a few of the basket cases I've worked on the past few years she will be almost easy! Needless to say, any cash that the first guy took in was pure profit for him. After he accepted my apology for my low-ball cash offer we straped her onto my truck.....

Can you folks track down a built record for my White 17 47-534?

Thanks!

Paul Fopeano
Onlyone Maine Made Wooden Canoe Works

 

[Benson Gray]

There are no known existing White serial number records available so no one here can give you any more details. The message at http://forums.wcha.org/showthread.php?10054 has some information about similar canoes. White put serial numbers in their canoes during the 1940s and early 1950s which had a two digit length followed by a two digit year and a sequential serial number. This means that you might have a 17 foot long canoe from 1947 which was the 534th one numbered but there is no way to verify this.

Benson