The Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America 17

The Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America 17

The canoe, as now erected on the building bed, has a double-ended,

flat-bottomed, wall-sided form. The gunwales are sprung to the proper

breadth and sheer, and the bark is standing irregularly above them. At

this point, on canoes not having outwales, the bark cover was laced or

lashed to the gunwales. Since the Malecite canoe has outwales, these

are now made and fitted. They consist of two white cedar battens

about 19½ feet long, perhaps 1 inch wide, and ½ inch thick. The face

that will be the outboard side is usually somewhat rounded, as are all

the corners, and the corner that will be on the inside and bottom of

each batten when it is in place is somewhat beveled. The outwales are

placed between the bark and the outside stakes, the inside stakes being

removed one by one as this is done. The removal of the inside stakes

allows room for the outwale to be inserted in their place, between

the outside stakes and the inner gunwale face, and it allows the bark

to be brought against the outside face of the inner gunwales. In the

process of fitting the outwales, the battens along the sides may have

to be removed and replaced, or shifted, and the cross-ties of each

pair of outside stakes may require adjustment. Beginning at midlength,

the outwale is pegged through the bark cover to the inner gunwales at

intervals of 6 to 9 inches. The pegging is not carried much beyond the

end thwarts in any canoe and could not be in canoes having laminated

gunwales near the ends.

 

The Malecite canoe has bark covers over the ends of the inner gunwales,

and these are now fitted so that they can be passed under the outwales

and clamped in place. The ends of the outwales are forced inside the

stakes at and beyond the ends of the gunwales, assuming a pinched-in

appearance there, and they may reach a few inches beyond the ends

of the bark cover; they will be cut and shaped to the length of the

finished canoe later.

 

The outwale pegs are made by splitting from a balk of birch, larch, or

fir roughly squared dowels about ¼ inch square and 6 to 9 inches long.

Each dowel is then tapered and rounded each way from the middle to

form two shanks that are between ⅛ and ³⁄₁₆ inch in diameter over 2 to

3 inches of length. The ends may be sharpened by fire. The dowels are

then cut in two, providing a pair of pegs with large heads. These are

driven in holes drilled through the outwales, bark cover, and gunwales,

and when well home, the protruding ends are cut off flush. Toward the

ends of the gunwales, the spaces between the pegs increase, and at

the extreme ends, the outwale will be lashed to the gunwale by widely

spaced groupings of root strand. These are usually temporary, as the

final lashing of the bark to the gunwales will secure the outwales.

 

After the outwales are secured in place, the bark is fastened to the

assembled gunwales with group lashings. In the Malecite canoe being

built, these are independent, each grouping consisting of eight to ten

complete turns of the root strand. The intervals between, roughly 2

inches, are usually spaced by means of a special measuring-stick to

insure evenness. Before the lashing is actually begun, however, the

excess bark standing above the gunwales is cut away. The bark either

is trimmed flush with the top of the gunwale, or enough is left for a

flap that will fully cover the top of the inner gunwale, to be turned

down under the lashing. The latter method, the stronger, was used by

many builders. In making the turns in the group lashings, two or three

turns may be taken through a single hole in the bark; the Malecites did

this to avoid having the holes too close together. The result is that

the group when seen from outboard appears as a ~W~-form, with only two

or three holes in the bark for an entire group. Care is taken to lay

up the turns over the gunwales neatly, turn against turn without open

spacing or overlaps and crossings.

 

When this is completed, the ends of the thwarts can be lashed, the

strand passing through the holes in the shoulders, around the two

gunwale members, and through one or two holes in the bark cover. The

groupings for the bark cover are spaced so that these lashings do not

overlap them, and thus the lashings serve a dual purpose.

 

Next, the gores are usually sewn and the ends of the side panels

closed. To do this, the temporary side battens outside the bark

are removed. Since this is a Malecite canoe, the gores are sewn

edge-to-edge with an over-and-over stitch, the strand crossing the

seam square outside and diagonally inside. When these seams and those

remaining in the upper panels are sewn, the rather stiff bark holds the

shape formed on the building bed to a remarkable degree.

 

The canoe can now be raised from the building bed. To set it up at a

most convenient working height, the weights are first removed from the

gunwales and the remaining stakes are pulled up. The canoe is then

lifted from its bed and turned upside down over a couple of logs, or

crude horses. Traditionally, logs or sapling were rested across two

pairs of boulders or the logs were tied between two pairs of trees at

convenient distances apart. More recently, horses, formed by sticking

four legs into auger holes drilled in the bottom of a 4-foot length

of timber, were used. After the canoe is on its supports the ends are

ready to be closed in.

 

The stem-pieces customarily used by the Malecite builder are formed

from two clear white cedar billets a full 36 inches long and in the

rough nearly 1½ inches square. The billets are first shaped so that

the outboard face of each stem-piece is about ¾ inch wide, making it

a truncated triangle in cross-section. Then, along lines parallel to

the base of the truncated triangle, it is split into six laminations

which are carried to within 6 or 7 inches of the end selected to be the

heel of the stem-piece. Just clear of the laminations a notch is cut

into the top side of the heel, to hold the headboard, as will be seen.

The piece is then treated with boiling water until the laminations are

flexible, and the curve of the stem-piece can be formed and either

pegged out or tied with cords until it dries in the desired shape.

When dry the laminations are tightly wrapped with basswood bark cord,

leaving the form of the stem-piece a quarter arc of a circle, with

short tangents at each end, as shown in the illustration (p. 35).

 

[Illustration: Figure 42

 

FIFTH STAGE OF CANOE CONSTRUCTION: canoe is removed from building bed

and set on horse in order to shape ends and complete sewing. Bark cover

has dried out in a flat-bottomed and wall-sided form. (_Sketch by

Adney._)]

 

Next, the ends of the outwales are cut to a length determined by the

quality of the bark already in place; if the bark in one end is not

very good, it may be cut away somewhat and the canoe made shorter by

this amount at both ends in finishing. After the ends of the outwales

have been cut, both are notched on the inside at the extreme ends to

take the head of the stem-piece. The outwales may or may not project

¼ or ½ inch beyond the stem and the stem head may project ½ or 1 inch

above the top of the outwales of the canoe; these matters, at the

builder's option, decide the length of the notch and the fitting of the

stem-pieces.

 

The stem-piece is now placed between the folded bark end of the canoe

with the heel resting for a small distance along its length on the bark

bottom; the head must come to the right height above the outwales, as

noted. While one worker holds the stem-piece in place, another trims

away the excess bark at the end to the profile of the outboard face of

the stem-piece. Thus the profile of each end is cut and the rake of

the ends is established. The bark is next lashed to the stem-piece.

In this canoe it is done with a spiral over-and-over stitch, a batten

made of a large split root being placed over the edges of the bark, as

the lashing proceeds, to form a stem band. The turns pass alternately

from outboard around the inboard face of the stem-piece and through it;

the awl inserted in the laminations from one side opens them enough to

allow the strand to be forced through. Care is taken to pull up the

strand very hard each time. As the outwale is approached, the bark is

cut away at the notching in each so that the outwales can be brought

snugly against the sides of the stem-piece. Here the strand is brought

up one or two times over the outwales, abaft the stem head, before the

bitter end is tucked, thus locking the outwales to the stem-piece and

the bark. Then a lashing is placed around the outwales just inboard

of the stem-piece, passing through a hole in the flap of the end

deck-piece of bark and through the side bark. This lashing holds the

outboard end of the deck piece flap. At the inboard end of the flap,

another lashing is required, but the pinched-in outwales require

additional securing outboard of this point; hence a lashing is passed

just inboard of the middle of the flap, a little outboard of the ends

of the inwales, and about six inches inboard from this lashing another

is passed through the side bark and around the gunwale and outwale on

each side. These three lashings hold the outwales snug to the ends of

the gunwales and against the projecting bark ends in the pinched-in

form of projecting outwales.

 

[Illustration: Figure 43

 

RIBS BEING DRIED AND SHAPED FOR OJIBWAY CANOE. (_Canadian Geological

Survey photo._)]

 

The heels of the stem-pieces rest on the bottom bark and the sewing is

carried down to where the cutting of the profile makes an end to the

seam, the solid part of the heels extending about 6 to 8 inches inboard

of this. Next, any sewing required on the bottom is done. When the bark

cover has been given a final inspection on the outside and all sewing

has been completed, the canoe is lifted from its supports, righted, and

set on the bed or on a smooth grassy place.

 

All seams are now payed with gum on the inside of the bark while this

can still be done without interference from the sheathing or those

parts of the structure remaining to be installed. The Malecites used

only spruce gum tempered with animal fat. The gum, heated until it is

sufficiently soft to pour like heavy syrup, is spread with a small

wooden paddle or spoon, and is then worked into the seam and smoothed

by rubbing with the thumb dipped in water to prevent the gum from

sticking and burning. It is first worked into the ends, between the

bark and each side of the stem-pieces, particularly near the heel below

the waterline. When the crevices are filled, a piece of bark (in later

times a piece of cloth was used) wide enough to cover the gum alongside

is well smeared with warm gum and pressed down along the inside of the

stem-pieces. On each seam, at gores, and on side panels a thin narrow

strip of bark is smeared with gum and pressed over the seam after the

latter had been well payed. The bark is now carefully scrutinized for

small splits, holes, or thin spots since these can be easily patched

from the inside at this stage of construction. In fitting bark strips

and in gumming, great care is taken to obtain a flat surface; the edges

of the strips inside are faired to the inside face of the bark by

smearing gum along the edges. The canoe is now ready to be sheathed and

ribbed out.

 

The sheathing for this canoe has been split in advance out of clear

white cedar in splints about 5 to 9 feet long, 3 to 4¼ inches wide, and

⅛ inch thick. The butts of each piece have been whittled to a feather

edge, the bevel extending back about 2 inches. Also, some pieces of

basket ash have been split out of saplings for temporary ribs to hold

the sheathing in place.

 

A total of 50 or more ribs in five lengths, the longest about 5 feet,

have been made up from white cedar heartwood and bent to the desired shape.