The Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America 6

The Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America 6

When Champlain attacked the Iroquois, on what is now Lake Champlain,

he found that these Indians had "oak" bark (more probably elm) canoes

capable of carrying 10, 15, and 18 men. This would indicate that the

maximum size of the Iroquois canoes was about 30 to 33 feet long. The

illustrations in his published account indicate canoes about 30 feet

long; but early illustrations of this kind were too often the product

of the artist's imagination, just as were the delineations of the

animals and plants of North America.

 

As an example of what may be deduced from other early French accounts,

Champlain in 1615, with a companion and 12 Indians, embarked at La

Chine in two bark canoes for a trip to the Great Lakes. He stated

that the two canoes, with men and baggage aboard, were over-crowded.

Taking one of these canoes as having 7 men and baggage aboard, it seems

apparent that it was not much larger than the largest of the canoes

Champlain had seen in 1603 on the St. Lawrence. But in 1672, Louis

Joliet and Father Jacques Marquette traveled in two canoes, carrying

a total of 5 French and 25 Indians--say 14 in one canoe and 16 in the

other. These canoes, then, must have been at least 28 feet long over

the gunwales, exclusive of the round of the ends, or about 30 feet

overall. The Chevalier Henri de Tonti, one of La Salle's officers,

mentions a canoe carrying 30 men--probably 14 paddlers on each side, a

steersman, and a passenger or officer. Such a capacity might indicate

a canoe about 40 feet over the gunwales, though this seems very long

indeed; it is more probable that the canoe would be about 36 feet long.

 

Another of La Salle's officers, Baron de LaHontan, gave the first

reasonably complete account that has been found of the size and

character of a birch-bark canoe. This was written at Montreal June 29,

1684. After stating that he had seen at least a hundred bark canoes in

his journeys, he said that birch-bark canoes ranged in length from 10

to 28 _pieds_ and were capable of carrying from 2 to 14 persons. The

largest, when carrying cargo, might be handled by three men and could

carry 2,000 pounds of freight (20 quintals). These large canoes were

safe and never upset. They were built of bark peeled in the winter; hot

water was thrown on the bark to make it pliable, so that it could be

rolled up after it was removed from the tree. The canoes were built of

more than one piece of bark as a rule.

 

The large canoes, he reports, were 28 _pieds_ long, 4½ _pieds_ wide and

20 _pouces_ deep, top of gunwale to top of frames on bottom. The last

indicates "inside" measurement; in this the length would be over the

gunwales, not overall, and the beam inside the gunwales, not extreme.

He also says the canoes had a lining or sheathing of cedar "splints"

or plank and, inside this, cedar ribs or frames. The bark was the

thickness of an _écu_ (this coin, a crown, was a little less than ⅛

inch thick), the sheathing the thickness of two _écus_, and the ribs of

three. The ends of the ribs were pointed and these were seated in holes

in the underside of the gunwales. There were 8 crosspieces (thwarts)

between the gunwales (note: such a canoe would commonly have 9 thwarts;

LaHontan may have erred here).

 

The canoes were convenient, he says, because of their great lightness

and shallow draft, but they were easily damaged. Hence they had to be

loaded and unloaded afloat and usually required repairs to the bark

covers at the end of each day. They had to be staked down at night,

so that a strong wind might not damage or blow them away; but this

light weight permitted them to be carried with ease by two men, one at

each end, and this suited them for use on the rivers of Canada, where

rapids and falls made carrying frequently necessary. These canoes were

of no value on the Lakes, LaHontan states, as they could not be used

in windy weather; though in good weather they might cross lakes and

might go four or five leagues on open water. The canoes carried small

sails, but these could be used only with fair winds of moderate force.

The paddlers might kneel, sit, or stand to paddle and pole the canoes.

The paddle blade was 20 _pouces_ long, 6 wide, and 4 _lignes_ thick;

the handle was of the diameter of a pigeon's egg and three _pieds_

long. The paddlers also had a "setting pole," to pole the canoes in

shoal water. The canoes were alike at both ends and cost 80 _écus_

(LaHontan's cost 90), and would last not more than five or six years.

The foregoing is but a condensed extract of LaHontan's lively account.

 

In translating LaHontan's measurements a _pied_ is taken as 12.79

inches, a _pouce_ as about 1⅛ inches. The French fathom, or _brasse_,

as used in colonial Canada, was the length from finger-tip to

finger-tip of the arms outstretched and so varied, but may be roughly

estimated as about 64 inches; this was the "fathom" used later in

classing fur-trade canoes for length. In English measurements his

large canoe would have been about 30 feet long over the gunwales and,

perhaps, almost 33 feet overall, 57½ inches beam inside the gunwales,

or about 60 inches extreme beam. The depth inside would be 21 or 21¾

inches bottom to top of gunwale amidships. LaHontan also described the

elm-bark canoes of the Iroquois as being large and wide enough to carry

30 paddlers, 15 on a side, sitting or standing. Here again a canoe

about 40 feet long is indicated. He said that these elm-bark canoes

were crude, heavy and slow, with low sides, so that once he and his men

reached an open lake, he no longer feared pursuit by the Iroquois in

these craft.

 

[Illustration: Figure 2

 

PAGE FROM A MANUscRIPT OF 1771, "Observations on Hudsons Bay," by

Alexander Graham, Factor, now in the archives of the Hudson's Bay

Company in London. The birch-bark canoe at the top, the kayak below,

and the paddles are obviously drawn by one not trained to observe as an

artist.]

 

From the slight evidence offered in such records as these, it appears

that the Indians may have had, when the Europeans first reached

Canada, canoes at least as long as the 5-fathom or 5½-fathom canoe

of later times. It appears also that these dimensions applied to the

canoes of the Great Lakes area and perhaps to the elm-bark canoes of

the Iroquois as well. Probably there were canoes as short as 10 feet,

used as one-man hunting and fishing boats, and it is plainly evident

that canoes between this length and about 24 feet were very common.

The evidence in La Salle's time, in the last half of the seventeenth

century, must be taken with some caution, as French influence on the

size of large canoes may have by then come into play. The comparison

between the maximum length of the Iroquois canoes, inferred from the

report of Champlain, and that suggested by LaHontan, might indicate

this growth.

 

Beginning as early as 1660, the colonial government of Canada issued

_congés_ or trading licenses. These were first granted to the military

officers or their families; later the _congés_ were issued to all

approved traders, and the fees were used for pensions of the military

personnel. Records of these licenses, preserved from about 1700, show

that three men commonly made up the crew of a trading canoe in the

earliest years, but that by 1725 five men were employed, by 1737 seven

men, and by 1747 seven or eight men. However, as LaHontan has stated

that in his time three men were sufficient to man a large canoe with

cargo, it is evident that the _congés_ offer unreliable data and do not

necessarily prove that the size of canoes had increased during this

period. The increase in the crews may have been brought about by the

greater distances travelled, with an increased number of portages or,

perhaps, by heavier items of cargo.

 

The war canoe does not appear in these early accounts as a special

type. According to the traditions of the eastern Micmac and Malecite

Indians, their war canoes were only large enough to carry three or

four warriors and so must not have exceeded 18 feet in length. These

were built for speed, narrow and with very sharp ends; the bottom

was made as smooth as was possible. Each canoe carried the insignia

of each of its warriors, that is, his personal mark or sign. A canoe

carrying a war leader had only his personal mark, none for the rest of

the crew. It is possible to regard the large canoes of the Iroquois

as "war canoes" since they were used in the pursuit of French raiders

in LaHontan's time. However, the Iroquois did not build the canoes

primarily for war; in early times these fierce tribesmen preferred

to take to the warpath in the dead of winter and to raid overland

on snowshoes. In open weather, they used the rough, short-lived and

quickly built elm-bark canoes to cross streams and lakes or to follow

waterways, discarding them when the immediate purpose was accomplished.

Probably it was the French who really produced the bark "war canoes,"

for they appear to have placed great emphasis on large canoes for use

of the military, as indicated by LaHontan's concern with the largest

canoes of his time. Perhaps large bark canoes were once used on the

Great Lakes for war parties, but, if so, no mention of a special type

has been found in the early French accounts. The sparse references

suggest that both large and small canoes were used by the war parties

but that no special type paralleling the characteristics of the Micmac

and Malecite war canoes existed in the West. The huge dugout war

canoe of the Indians of the Northwest Coast appears to have had no

counterpart in size among the birch or elm bark canoes.

 

Except for LaHontan, the early French writers who refer to the use

of sail agree that the canoes were quite unfitted for sailing. It is

extremely doubtful that the prehistoric Indians using bark canoes were

acquainted with sails, though it is possible that the coastal Indians

might have set up a bush in the bow to utilize a following wind and

thus lighten the labor of paddling. However, once the Indian saw the

usefulness of a sail demonstrated by white men, he was quick to adopt

it; judging from the LaHontan reference, and the use of sails in canoes

must have become well established in some areas by 1685.

 

One of the most important elements in the history of the canoe is its

early adoption by the French. Champlain was the first to recommend its

use by white men. He stated that the bark canoe would be very necessary

in trade and exploration, pointing out that in order to penetrate the

back country above the rapids at Montreal, during the short summer

season, and to come back in time to return to France for the winter

(unless the winter was to be spent in Canada) the canoe would have

to be used. With it the small and large streams could be navigated

safely and the numerous overland carries could be quickly made. Also,

of course, Indians could be employed as crews without the need of

training them to row. This general argument in favor of the bark canoe

remained sound after the desirability of going home to France for the

winter had ceased to influence French ideas. The quick expansion of the

French fur trade in the early seventeenth century opened up the western

country into the Great Lakes area and to the northward. It was soon

discovered that by using canoes on the ancient canoe route along the

Ottawa River goods could reach the western posts on the Lakes and be

transported north early enough to reach the northernmost posts before

the first freeze-up occurred. The use of sailing vessels on the Lakes

did not enable this to be accomplished, so that until the railroads

were built in western Canada, the canoe remained the mode of transport

for the fur trade in this area. Even after the railways were built,

canoe traffic remained important, until well into the first half of the

twentieth century as part of the local system of transportation in the

northwestern country of Canada.

 

[Illustration: Figure 3

 

CANOES FROM LAHONTAN'S _Nouveaux Voyages ... dans l'Amerique

Septentrionale_, showing crude representations typical of early

writers.]

 

The unsatisfactory illustrations accompanying early published accounts

have been mentioned. The earliest recognizable canoe to be shown in

an illustration is the reasonably accurate drawing of a Micmac canoe

that appears in Bacqueville de la Poterie's book, published in 1722.

LaFiteau, another Frenchman, in 1724 published a book that not only

contains recognizable drawings but points out reasons for the variation

in the appearance of bark canoes:

 

The Abenacquis, for example, are less high in the sides, less

large, and more flat at the two ends; in a way they are almost

level for their whole extent; because those who travel on their

small rivers are sure to be troubled and struck by the branches of

trees that border and extend over the water. On the other hand, the

Outaouacs [Ottawas] and the nations of the upper country having to

do their navigation on the St. Lawrence River where there are many

falls and rapids, or especially on the Lakes where there is always a very considerable swell, must have high ends.