The Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America 18

The Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America 18

In deciding the rough lengths of the ribs, the builder can resort

to various methods. He can prebend ribs in pairs to a number of

arbitrarily chosen shapes: the first set of six pairs to the desired

midsection form; a second set of five pairs to the form of the section

between the middle and first pair of thwarts; a third, of five pairs,

to the section at the first thwarts each way from the middle; a fourth,

of four pairs, to the section between the end and the first pair of

thwarts each way from the middle; a fifth, of three pairs, to the

section at the end thwarts; and a sixth, of two or three pairs, for the

section at or near the headboards. This makes from 50 to 52 frames in a

canoe measuring 18 or 19 feet overall.

 

Each frame piece is treated with boiling water and then bent, over the

knee or around a tree, to a slightly greater degree than is needed.

While thus bent, each pair is wrapped lengthwise over the end with a

strip of basswood or cedar bark to hold the ribs in shape. Sometimes

a strut is placed under the bark strips to maintain the desired form,

or a cross-tie of bark may be employed. The ribs are then allowed to

season in this position.

 

Another method, which will be illustrated later (p. 53), involves

placing ribs of green spruce in their approximate position and forcing

them against the bark. In this method, a number of long battens are

placed over the roughly bent ribs laid loosely inside the bark cover,

and are spread by forcing a series of short crosspieces, or stays,

between them athwartships. The bark is given a good wetting with

boiling water to make it flexible and elastic, so that the pressure

applied to the battens by the temporary crosspieces brings the bark

to the shape desired for the canoe. The rough lengths of the ribs are

determined by use of a measuring stick or by measurements made around

the bark with a piece of flexible root or a batten of basket ash. The

ribs, in any case, are made somewhat longer than required to allow a

final fitting when being placed over the sheathing.

 

It can be seen that the exact form the canoe takes is largely a matter

of judgment and of the flexibility and elasticity of the bark, rather

than of precise molding on a predetermined model, or lines.

 

[Illustration: Figure 44

 

DETAILS OF RIBS and method of shaping them in pairs in a bark strap or

thong so that they take a "set" while drying out.]

 

In the Malecite canoe the ribs are wide amidships, 3 or 4 inches, and

narrow to 2½ or 2 inches toward the ends. The thickness is an even ⅜

inch. Most birch-bark canoes have ribs of even thickness their full

length, but in a few the thickness is tapered slightly above the turn

of the bilge, usually when the tumble-home is high on the sides and

rather great. The width, as previously explained, is usually carried

all across the bottom; above the bilges there is a moderate taper.

 

The sheathing of the canoe is now first to be put in place. In the

Malecite canoe the center pieces are the longest; they are tapered

each way from their butts, which overlap about 2 inches amidships. The

ends are made narrow enough to fit readily into the sharp transverse

curve of the bottom and are long enough to pass under the heels of the

stem pieces for an inch or two. The pieces of sheathing on each side

of the center pieces are fitted in the same manner, and by the time

two or three courses are in place they must be held in some manner at

the ends. This is accomplished by means of the rough temporary ribs

mentioned earlier. The sheathing is laid edge-to-edge, with the butts

overlapping, and, if there are not enough long pieces to complete the

bottom amidships, three or four lengths, with overlapped butts, will be

used. As the sheathing progresses, more temporary ribs will have to be

added. At the turn of the bilge, the sheathing will bend transversely

as pressure is applied by the temporary ribs; the bark must be again

wetted so that the angular bilge can be forced into a roughly rounded

form. Particular care is required in finishing the sheathing below the

gunwale to be certain that the top strake will be close up against the

sewing of the bark at gunwales, but no particular attempt is made to

make the edges of the sheathing in the topsides maintain edge-to-edge

contact.

 

The pressure of the temporary ribs, the heads of which are forced under

the gunwales, and the elasticity of the bark due to treating it with

boiling water are enough to rough-shape the canoe.

 

Before the permanent ribs are placed the sheer is checked. If it

appears to have straightened, the ends of the gunwales are supported

by means of short posts placed under them, with the heels standing on

the heels of the stem pieces or on the sheathing. Then some stakes,

each having a projecting limb or root, are cut and are driven into the

ground with the limb hooked over the gunwale to force it down.

 

After measurements have been made for the first rib with a strand of

root or an ash batten, it is now cut to a length slightly more than

would permit the rib to be forced upright when in place. The ends of

the rib are set in place in the bevel, or notch, on the underside of

the gunwales, against the bark cover, and with the bottom part of the

rib standing inboard of the head. Then, with one end of a short batten

placed against its inboard side, the rib is driven toward the end of

the canoe with blows from a club on the head of the batten. If the rib

drives too easily it is removed and laid aside; if too hard, it is

shortened. It must go home tightly enough to stretch slightly the bark

cover by bringing pressure to bear on the whole width of the sheathing.

Care is taken, in this operation, to keep moist not only the bark but

also the sewing, particularly along the gunwales, so that all possible

elasticity is obtained. The ribs are set, one by one, working to within

two or three frames of the midship thwart; then the other end of the

canoe is begun. The last three or four ribs to be placed are thus

amidships. In every rib driven, the tension is great, but no rib is

driven so that it stands perpendicular to the base. Those first driven

stand with their bottoms nearer the midship thwart than the ends, and

this angle, or slant, continues to amidships; the ribs in the other end

of the canoe slant in the opposite direction.

 

It will be evident that skill is required to estimate how much pressure

the bark will stand before bursting under the strain of the driven

ribs. It is also apparent that the shape of the canoe is controlled

by the shaping given the ribs in the prebending, for this fixes the

amount of tumble-home and the amount of round, or rounded-~V~, given to

the bottom athwartships. No fixed rules appear to exist; the eye and

judgment of the builder are his only guides. To show how much strain is

placed on the bark, however, it may be noted that inspection of two old

canoes showed that the gunwale pegs had been noticeably bent between

the inner and outer gunwales.

 

It appears to have been a rather common practice, after all the ribs

had been driven into place, to allow the canoe to stand a few days and

then again to set the frames (where unevenness appears in the topsides)

with driving batten and maul, the bark cover and the root sewing or

lashings having been again thoroughly wetted.

 

The headboards are now to be made. These are shaped in the form of an

elongate-oval from a wide splint of white cedar about 4 inches wide

at midlength and ¼ inch thick. The narrow end is first cut off square

or nearly so; the bottom end is notched to fit in the notch in the

heel of the stem-piece and the top has a small tenon at the centerline

that will be fitted into a hole drilled or gouged in the underside

of the inner gunwales where they join at the ends. The length of the

headboards in the canoe being built is 15¾ inches over all, and when

they have been made for each end, they are checked as to width and

height to see that they can be fitted. Next, the extreme ends of the

canoe between the stem and the headboards are stuffed with dry cedar

shavings or dry moss so that the sides stand firm on each side of the

bow outboard of the ends of the sheathing, which ends rather unevenly,

just outboard of where the headboards will stand. This completed, the

headboards are forced into position by first stepping the heel notch

in the stem-piece notch and then bending the board by placing one

hand against its middle and pulling the top toward the worker. This

shortens the height of the board enough so the tenon projecting on its

head can be sprung into the small hole under the inner gunwales, where

it becomes rigidly fixed. Its sprung shape pushes up the gunwales and

makes the side bark of the ends very taut and smooth, while supporting

the gunwale ends.

 

Two thin strips about 19 feet long are next split out of white cedar

to form the gunwale caps; these are ¼ to ⅜ inch thick, and taper each

way from about 2 inches wide in the middle to 1 inch wide at the ends.

These are laid along the top of the inner gunwales and fastened down

with pegs placed clear of the gunwale lashings. The ends of the strips

are usually secured by two or three small lashings; the caps thus

formed often stop short of the ends of the inner gunwale members. If

the caps are carried right out to the stems, as was the practice of

some Malecite builders, the lashings of the outwale are not turned in

until after the caps are in place, in which case the bark deck pieces,

or flaps, are put in just before the final lashing is made.

 

[Illustration: Figure 45

 

SIXTH STAGE OF CANOE CONSTRUCTION: canoe has been righted and placed

on a grassy or sandy spot. In this stage splints for sheathing (upper

left) are fixed in place and held by temporary ribs (lower right) under

the gunwales. The bark cover has been completely sewn and the shape of

the canoe is set by the temporary ribs. (_Sketch by Adney._)]

 

Next, the canoe is turned upside-down and all seams are gummed smoothly

on the outside. The ends, from the beginning of the seam to above the

waterline, may be heavily gummed and then covered with a narrow strip

of thin bark, heavily enough smeared with gum to cause it to adhere

over the seam. In more recent times a piece of gummed cloth was used

here. Above this protective strip, the end seams are filled with gum so

that the outside can be smoothed off flush on the face of the cutwater

between the stitches. All seams in the side and bottom are gummed

smooth and any holes or patches remaining to be gummed are taken care

of in this final inspection.

 

If the canoe is to be decorated (not many types were) the outside

of the bark is moistened and the rough, reddish winter bark, or

inner rind, is scraped away, leaving only enough to form the desired

decorations. When paints of various colors could be obtained, these

were also employed, but the use of the inner rind was apparently the

older and more common method of decorating.

 

The paddles are made from splints of spruce or maple, ash, white cedar,

or larch. Two forms of blade were used by the Malecite. The older form

is long and narrow, with the blade wide near the top and the taper

straight along each edge to a narrow, rounded point. Above the greatest

width, the blade tapers almost straight along the edge, coming into

an oval handle very quickly. At the head, the handle is widened and

it ends squared off, but the taper toward the handle is straight, not

flared as in modern canoe paddles; there is no swelling. Paddles of a

shape similar to this, some without a wide handle, were used by other

eastern Indians. The more recent form of Malecite paddle has a long

leaf-shaped, or beaver-tail, blade, much like that of the modern canoe

paddle, except that it ends in a dull point; the handle is as in the

old form but the head is swelled to form the upper grip. The face of

the blade, in both old and new form, has a noticeable ridge down the

centerline.

 

[Illustration: Figure 46

 

GENERAL DETAILS OF BIRCH-BARK CANOE CONSTRUCTION, in a drawing by

Adney. (From _Harper's Young People_, supplement, July 29, 1890.)]

 

The eastern style of construction described here produced what might

be called a wide-bottom canoe with some tumble-home above the turn of

the bilge, but a different method of construction was used to produce

canoes having a narrow bottom and flaring sides. These canoes were not

set up on the building bed, in the first steps of shaping the hull,

with the gunwale frame on the cover bark. Instead, a special building

frame, mentioned earlier, was used. Each tribe using the building frame

had its own style, but the variations were confined to minor matters or to proportion of width to length.