The Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America 36

The Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America 36

In the rise of the great canoe of the fur trade, the basic model was

no doubt maintained through the method of training its builders. The

first French engaged in bark-canoe building learned the techniques, let

us say, from the original Indian builders, the Algonkin. As building

moved westward, the first men sent to the new posts to build canoes

apparently came from the French-operated canoe factory. It would be

reasonable to expect that as building increased in the west, local

modifications would be patterned on canoes from around the building

post, but that the basic model would remain. This may account for the

departures from the true Ojibway-Algonkin canoes seen in the _maître

canots_.

 

[Illustration: Figure 126

 

INBOARD PROFILE OF A 6-FATHOM FUR-TRADE CANOE, and details of

construction, fitting, and decoration.]

 

[Illustration: Figure 127

 

SMALL 3-FATHOM NORTH CANOE of the Têtes de Boule model. Built in the

19th century for fast travel, this Hudson's Bay Company canoe was also

called nadowé chiman, or Iroquois canoe.]

 

In model, all the fur-trade canoes had narrow bottoms, flaring

topsides, and sharp ends. The flaring sides were rather straight in

section and the bottom nearly flat athwartships. The bottom had a

moderate rocker very close to the ends. In nearly all of these canoes,

the main gunwales were sheered up only slightly at the ends and were

secured to the sides of the inner stem-piece; the outwales and caps,

however, were strongly sheered up to the top of the stem. The curvature

and form of the ends, in later years at least, varied with the place of

building.

 

After the English took control of Canada and the fur trade, a large

number of Iroquois removed into Quebec and were employed by the English

fur traders as canoemen and as canoe builders. Though the aboriginal

Iroquois were not birch-bark canoe builders, they apparently became so

after they reached Canada, for the fur-trade canoes built on the Ottawa

River and tributaries by the Algonkins and their neighbors became known

after 1820 as _nadowé chiman_ or _adowe chiman_, names which mean

Iroquois canoe. These "Iroquois canoes," however, were not a standard

form. Those built by the Algonkin had relatively upright stem profiles,

giving them a rather long bottom, and the outwales and caps stood

almost vertical at the stem-heads; in contrast, the "Iroquois canoes"

built by the Têtes de Boule had a proportionally shorter bottom than

those of the Algonkin, because the end profiles were cut under more at

the forefoot. Also, the outwales and caps of the Têtes de Boule canoes

were not sheered quite as much as were those of the Algonkin.

 

It is supposed that the Têtes de Boule were taught to build this model

by Iroquois, who had replaced the French builders subsequent to the

closing of the canoe factory at Trois Rivières, sometime about 1820.

After the English took possession of Canada in 1763, the old canoe

factory had been maintained by the Montreal traders (the "North West

Company"), and it was not until these traders were absorbed by the

Hudson's Bay Company that canoe manufacture at Trois Rivières finally

came to a halt, although it is probable that the production of canoes

there had become limited by shortages of bark and other suitable

materials. However, the North West Company had built the large trading

canoes elsewhere, for many of its posts had found it necessary to

construct canoes locally, and when the Hudson's Bay Company finally

took over the fur trade it continued the policy of building the canoes

at various posts where material and builders could be found. This

policy appears to have produced in the fur-trade canoe model a third

variant in which the high ends were much rounded at the stem head;

this was the form built by the Ojibway and Cree (see p. 139). It must

be noted, however, that the variation in the three forms of fur-trade

canoe was expressed almost entirely in the form and framing of the

ends; the lines were all about the same, though small variations in

sheer, rocker, and midsection must have existed.

 

[Illustration: Figure 128

 

MODELS OF FUR-TRADE CANOES, top to bottom: 2½-fathom Ottawa River

Algonkin canoe, Hudson's Bay Company express canoe, 3½-fathom Têtes

de Boule "Iroquois" canoe, 3¾-fathom Lake Timagami canoe, 5-fathom

fur-trade canoe of early type, and 5-fathom Hudson's Bay Company canoe

built in northwestern Quebec Province.]

 

Although no regulations appear to have been set up by the fur companies

to govern the size, model, construction or finish of these canoes,

custom and the requirements of usage appear to have been satisfactory

guides, having been established by practical experience. As a result,

the length of canoes varied and the classification by "fathoms" or feet

must be accepted as no more than approximate.

 

The form of the canoe was determined by the use to which it was to

be put, in trade or in travel. Fur-trade accounts often mention the

"light canoe," or _canot léger_, often misspelled in various ways in

early English accounts, and this class of canoe was always mentioned

where speed was necessary. Commonly, the light canoe was merely a trade

canoe lightly burdened. Due to the narrow bottom of these canoes,

they became long and narrow on the waterline when not heavily loaded

and so could be paddled very rapidly. It is true, however, that some

"express canoes" were built for fast paddling. These were merely the

common trade models with less beam than usual at gunwale and across

the bottom. Some posts made a specialty of building such canoes, often

handsomely painted, for the use of officials of the company, or of the

church or government, during "inspection" trips. Not all of the highly

finished canoes were of the narrow form, however, as some were built

wide for capacity rather than for high speed.

 

[Illustration: Figure 129

 

"FUR-TRADE MAÎTRE CANOT WITH PASSENGERS." From an oil painting by

Hopkins (_Public Archives of Canada photo_).]

 

The fur traders used not only the so-called fur-trade canoes, of

course, but they employed various Indian types when small canoes were

required. And in the construction of the high-ended fur-trade models,

they did not limit themselves to canoes of relatively great length.

Each "canoe road" forming the main lines of travel in the old fur-trade

had requirements that affected the size of the canoes employed on it.

The largest size of fur-trade canoe, the standard 5½-fathom (bottom

length), was employed only on the Montreal-Great Lakes route, in the

days before this run was taken over by bateaux, schooners, sloops,

and later, by steamers. At the western end of this route, a smaller

4-or 4½-fathom canoe came into use. The latter was used on the long

run into the northwest. Even smaller canoes were often employed by

the northern posts; the 3-or 3½-fathom sizes were popular where the

canoe routes were very difficult to operate. For use on some of the

large northern lakes, the large canoes of the Montreal-Great Lakes

run were introduced. Fur coming east from the Athabasca might thus be

transported in canoes of varying size along the way.

 

In judging the size of the canoe mentioned in a fur-trader's journal,

it is often very difficult to be certain whether the measurement he

is employing is bottom or gunwale length. In the largest canoes,

however, the 5½-fathom bottom-length was the 6-fathom gunwale length,

and the use of either usually, but not always, indicates the method of

measurement. This is not the case in the small canoe however, where the

matter must too often be left to guesswork. To give the reader a more

precise idea of the sizes of the canoes last employed in the fur trade,

the following will serve. The _maître canot_ of the Montreal-Great

Lakes run was commonly about 36 feet overall, or about 32 feet 9 inches

over the gunwales, and a little over 32 feet on the bottom. The beam

at gunwale was roughly 66 inches (inside the gunwales) or about 68-70

inches extreme beam. The width of the building frame that formed the

bottom would be somewhere around 42 inches. The depth amidships, from

bottom to top of gunwale might be approximately 30-32 inches and the

height of the stems roughly 54 inches. These dimensions might be best

described as average, since canoes with gunwale length given as 6

fathoms were built a number of inches wider or narrower, and deeper or

shallower. The earlier fur-trade canoes of the French and of the North

West Company, for example, were apparently narrower than the above.

 

[Illustration: Figure 130

 

"BIVOUAC IN EXPEDITION IN HUDSON'S BAY CANOE." From an oil painting by

Hopkins (_Public Archives of Canada photo_).]

 

[Illustration: Figure 131

 

OJIBWAY 3-FATHOM FUR-TRADE CANOE, a cargo-carrying type, marked by

cut-under end profiles, that was built as late as 1894.]

 

[Illustration: Figure 132

 

THIS TYPE OF 5-FATHOM FUR-TRADE CANOE was built at L. A.

Christopherson's Hudson's Bay Company posts at Grand Lake Victoria,

Lake Barrière, and Lake Abitibi. Called the Ottawa River canoe by

fur-traders, it was used for fast travel and shows the upright stems of

the northwest Quebec Algonkin.]

 

The 5-fathom size that replaced the larger canoe at the close of the

bark-canoe period was about 31 feet long over the gunwales or 30 feet 8

inches in a straight line from tip of upturned rail cap at one stem to

the other. The beam inside the gunwales was 60 inches. The width of the

building frame would be between 40 and 45 inches, and the frame when

formed would be about 26 feet 8 inches long. The depth of the canoe

amidships, from bottom to top of gunwale, was approximate 30 inches and

the height of the stems about 50 inches. The overall length of such a

canoe was about 34 feet 4 inches. An express canoe of this size would

be about 56 inches beam inside the gunwales or even somewhat less, and

the depth amidships about 28 inches or a little less.

 

[Illustration: Figure 133

 

"HUDSON'S BAY CANOE RUNNING THE RAPIDS." From an oil painting by

Hopkins (_Public Archives of Canada photo_).]

 

A 4-fathom canoe measured 26 feet 8 inches over the tips of the

upturned rail caps, and 29 feet 11 inches overall. The beam amidships

was 57 inches inside the gunwales and the depth amidships to top of

gunwales was 26 inches; the height of the stem was 53 inches.

 

A 3-fathom canoe was 19 feet 2 inches overall, 16 feet 8 inches

over the ends of the gunwale caps, 42 inches beam amidships inside

of gunwales, the depth of the canoe from bottom to top of gunwale

amidships was 19 inches, and the height of the ends was 38 inches. The

building frame for this canoe was 15 feet 8 inches long and 27 inches

wide.

 

The canoes falling between the even-fathom measurements were often

of about the same dimensions as the even-fathom size next below;

a 3½-fathom canoe would have nearly the same breadth and depth as

a 3-fathom; only the length was increased. The half-fathom rarely

measured that--a canoe rated as 3½ fathom was actually only 20 feet 5

inches overall. One express canoe rated 3½ fathoms measured 20 feet 1

inch overall, 18 feet 3 inches over the gunwale caps, 44 inches beam

inside gunwales amidships, and 21 inches deep, bottom to top of gunwale

cap. The height of the ends was 39 inches. This example will serve to

indicate how inexact the fathom classification really was. It should

also be noted that the height of the ends varied a good deal in any

given range of length, as this dimension was determined not by the

length of the canoe but by the judgment and taste of the builder and

his tribal form of end. Generally, however, small canoes had relatively

higher ends than large canoes, in proportion to length, because, as

will be remembered, one function of the end was to hold the upended

canoe far enough off the ground to permit the user to seek shelter under it.