The Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America 38

The Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America 38

The method of construction described by Christopherson seems to be

largely that of the Algonkin, modified slightly by Ojibway practices.

The canoes were built on a plank building bed made of 2-or 2½-inch

thick spruce; its middle was higher than the ends, as were the earthen

beds used in the east, and holes were bored in it to take the stakes.

A stake was placed near the end of each thwart and one between, along

the sides of the canoe. The individual builders had their preferences

as to the method of setting stakes; some set them vertically while

others bored the bed so that the stakes stood with their heads pointed

outward. A post might have two or more building beds, one for each

size, or model.

 

Canoes were always built by means of a building frame. This was made

with four or five crosspieces that determined the fullness or fineness

of the bottom of the canoe toward the ends. By altering the lengths

of the end crosspieces, the degree of fullness in the lines of the

finished canoe could be predetermined. As a result the bed, which was

usually about 18 inches wider than the building frame, might have the

shape of its frame marked on it twice, with two sets of holes for

stakes. Otherwise, the alteration in the building frame would require

a special bed to be used. In addition to the alteration in the ends

of the building frame, there could also be variations in its width

amidships. Christopherson's posts commonly built canoes intended for

fast travel, so most of them were narrower in beam at the gunwale and

across the bottom than were the fur-trade canoes of the period, and the

building frame was likewise narrower.

 

The length of the building frame used in these canoes was the same as

the bottom length, or a little longer than the distance between the two

headboards of the finished canoe. Thus, in a 5-fathom canoe the bottom

length would be 30 feet, and in a 4½-fathom canoe, 27 feet; the beds

would be some 6 feet longer than these lengths.

 

[Illustration: Figure 139.

 

FOREST RANGERS, LAKE TIMAGAMI, ONTARIO. (_Canadian Pacific Railway

Company photo._)]

 

As the canoes at Christopherson's were built for speed and rarely

measured more than 48 inches beam between the gunwale members, the

building frame was about 32 inches wide amidships, or approximately

two-thirds the beam inside the gunwales in a 5-fathom canoe. The beam

of his 4½-fathom canoes was less, say 42 inches inside the gunwales

and 27 or 28 inches across the building frame, with a depth, bottom to

top of rail cap, of between 19 and 21 inches. A 5-fathom canoe of this

narrow model would carry nearly 2½ short tons with a crew of six, while

the smaller model would carry nearly 2 tons. However, the capacity of a

wide canoe was much greater. A 6-fathom canoe, the _Rob Roy_, built by

another post about 1876 to bring in the bishop for the consecration of

a church at the Lake Temiscaming post, was described by Christopherson

as being about 6 feet beam on the gunwales. Considered a fine example

of a freight canoe, the _Rob Roy_ was afterwards loaded with 75 bags of

flour, totaling 3½ tons deadweight, and carried as well a crew of seven

and their provisions and gear.

 

The bark cover was commonly in two lengths on the bottom of the canoe,

summer bark being used. The post maintained a supply of bark for canoe

building and sheets 4 fathoms in length and 1 in breadth were not

uncommon. Such sheets would have been ample for the cover of a small

canoe but would not be expended so needlessly; hence, the canoes, large

or small, had two lengths of bark in their bottoms. The lap was toward

the stern. In what appears to have been a local characteristic of the

canoes built at Christopherson's posts, the bows were indicated by

making the thwarts toward that end slightly longer than those toward

the stern, so that the forebody was fuller at sheer than the afterbody;

the canoe master could thus instantly see which end was the bow

without having to examine the bottom or the bark cover.

 

The two pieces of bark sewn together were placed on the building bed

and the building frame placed on it and weighted down, in the usual

manner. The stakes were then set in the holes in the bed and the bark

secured to them with the usual inside stakes, as well as with the

clothespin-like clamps used by the Algonkin and other Indian canoe

builders. The end stakes were set in a peculiar manner: a short pair

were set with their heads sloping inboard, for use later to support

the sheering of the outwales, and a long pair were set raking sharply

outboard to help support the bark required for the high ends. As the

bark cover was made up, pieces were worked into the ends to allow

the high ends to be made. The side panels often seen on the eastern

Indian bark canoe were used, and the bark doubled at the gunwales. The

doubling pieces were put on about 6 inches wide and trimmed off after

the outwales were in place. The pieces were widest amidships, and

when trimmed would extend about two inches or a little more below the

outwales, narrowing somewhat toward the ends. Longitudinal battens to

fair the bark along the sides were placed as usual in canoe building.

 

The main gunwales were originally made of white cedar, but when this

became scarce at the posts, whipsawed spruce was used instead. The

gunwales were rectangular in cross section, with the outer lower

corner beveled off. The cross section of the inner gunwale member was

smaller, in proportion, than the outwale, compared to a small eastern

Indian canoe. The gunwales were bent "on the flat" in plan, and were

sheered "edge bent." The tenons for the thwart ends were cut slanting,

so that when the gunwales were made up they stood at a flare outward

toward the top edge. The gunwales had much taper toward the ends as it

was usual to work in some sheer in these members. The canoes built at

Christopherson's posts, unlike some other trade canoes, had a good deal

of sheer at the ends, as the main gunwales rose nearly to the top of

the stem.

 

The manner of forming the gunwales varied somewhat. If the stakes

around the building frame had been set to stand vertically, it was

necessary to assemble the gunwales with temporary crosspieces, or false

thwarts, each shorter by several inches than would be the finished

thwart in their place, or twice the amount of flare desired. After the

gunwale assembly had been set above the building frame on the usual

posts to determine its height above the building bed, the bark cover

would be lashed to each gunwale member. This done, each crosspiece

would be removed in turn and replaced with its corresponding thwart. By

this means the gunwales would be spread and, in the process, lowered

in proportion to the change in beam. This would usually make too much

sheer. Therefore, if the gunwales were to be spread as a result of

the side stakes standing vertically, they had to be formed with some

reverse sheer amidships. This was done as usual, by first treating

each member with hot water and then weighting it on a long plank, or

unused building bed, over a block placed under it at midlength. The

height of the block would determine the amount the sheer was "humped"

in the middle, usually only an inch or so. The gunwale ends were

also treated with hot water and sometimes were split horizontally to

get the required sheer there; they were then bent up and held, while

drying and setting, by a long cord that was stretched between them and

placed under tension by means of a strut, about 4 feet long, placed

under the cord at midlength and stepped on the gunwale member being

bent. However, if the side stakes were set sloping outward, it was

unnecessary to hump the sheer amidships.

 

The reason why many builders preferred to set the stakes on the bed

vertically was that it made easy the goring and the sewing of the bark

cover side panels; if the bark available for the cover required little

sewing, the sloping stakes might be preferred. It appears, however,

that the usual procedure was to set the stakes vertically and to spread

the gunwales, since good bark was usually available. A good deal of

judgment was required to estimate the amount of hump or reverse to

be worked into the gunwale members; too much would leave a hump in

the sheer of the finished canoe and not enough would cause too much

dip amidships. Before being bent to sheer, the gunwale members were

worked smooth with a plane or with scrapers made of glass or steel. The

building frame was taken apart and removed from the canoe after most of

the thwarts were in place.

 

The ribs Christopherson called "timbers" and the sheathing, "lathing."

The ribs, commonly of cedar, were usually ¼ to ⅜ inch thick, and were

2½ to 3¼ inches wide in most canoes, with a long taper so that near the

ends the width was about half that at the middle, and at the ends they

tapered almost to a point. Some large canoes had ribs 4 inches wide

at the centerline, amidships, but these appear to have been unusual.

The ribs were placed on the building frame at their proposed position

and the width of the frame at that point was marked on each. After

being cut to about the required length and tapered, the ribs were

then treated with hot water, and were then usually bent over the knee

in pairs, the marks determining where the bending was to be done. In

a freight canoe the ribs amidships would be nearly flat across the

bottom but in a fast canoe they would be slightly rounded. The parts

of the rib nearest the ends were not bent, and thus the rib would

appear dish-shaped when in form. Each pair while drying was sometimes

held by cords tied across the ends, or the ribs might be inserted in

about their proper location in the unfinished canoe and held in place

by battens and struts until they took their final set. The ribs at

the extreme ends were often "sprung" or "broken" at the centerline

to get the ~V~-section required there, particularly in a sharp-ended

express canoe.

 

[Illustration: Figure 140

 

FUR-TRADE CANOE STEM-PIECES, models made by Adney: 1, Algonkin type; 2,

Iroquois type, Ottawa River, old French; 3, Christopherson's canoes.]

 

The sheathing was about ¼-inch thick and was laid according to the

tribal practice of the builder; Christopherson appears to have followed

the Algonkin practices generally in this as in other building matters

at his posts.

 

Whereas Malecite practice was to lash the bark cover to both inwale

and outwale, in the western type of canoe the cover was lashed to the

main gunwale first, owing to the spread gunwales, and the outwale was

then pegged to the gunwale and also lashed, the ends being wrapped

with figure-eight turns. All gunwale lashing in fur-trade canoes was

in groups. Because of the sheer at the ends, the outwales were split

horizontally into four or more laminae, and the splitting extended

almost to the end-thwart positions. In a few canoes outwales were

omitted or were short and did not extend beyond the end thwarts, but

this practice was relatively uncommon. The outwales were usually

rectangular in cross section and much tapered toward the ends.

 

The rail caps were also rectangular in cross section, but often they

had the outboard upper edge rounded off or beveled. The caps were

pegged at 1-foot intervals to the main gunwales, but at the ends they

could only be lashed to the outwale, as both outwales and caps were so

sharply upswept at the ends that they stood almost vertically. The ends

were squared off and stood a little above the top of the stems, so that

when the canoe was placed upside down as a shelter for the paddlers

and packers it rested upon these members rather than on the sewing of

the bark cover on the tops of the stems, as was usual with all the

high-ended Algonkin and Ojibway canoes.

 

The stem-pieces and headboards were assembled into single units,

as shown on pages 149 and 151, before being installed during

construction. The stem-pieces were of white cedar, about four fingers

deep fore-and-aft and laminated, and about ¾ to 1¼ inches wide,

depending upon the size of the canoe and the judgment of the builder.

In Christopherson's area the stem-piece was relatively short, the

head coming up and around and ending at a point far enough under the

rail-cap ends for it to be securely lashed to these members and to

the outwale ends. It was bent by use of hot water and the laminae

were secured by wrapping the stem piece with fine twine. The stem was

stiffened by stepping the headboard on its heel in the usual manner,

and the two were held in the required position by two horizontal

struts, the outboard ends of which were lashed to the sides of the

stem piece well up above the heel; the inboard ends were pegged at

the sides of the headboard, in notches, or were passed through the

headboards in slots and the strut ends secured with wedges athwartships

on the inboard face of the headboard. The result was a rigid and

strong end-frame. More complicated bending was employed at some posts,

where the building of fur-trade canoes followed Algonkin or Ojibway

practices. In these, as has been mentioned, the stem-pieces were

brought down and around under the stem-head to the back or inboard

edge of the stem-piece and lashed, then brought inboard horizontally

to end in a hole in the headboard, between struts placed as in the

Christopherson-built canoes. Another method was to bring the stem-piece

around the stem head and down and around outboard to the inboard face

of the stem, where the end was split and each half lashed to the sides

of the stem-piece. In this case there was a lashing between stem-piece and the headboard, placed where the reverse was made, inboard and below the top of the stem, well up on the headboard. The heel of the headboard and stem-piece were pegged together.