The Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America 27

The Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America 27

The ribs were bent green. After the bark cover had been sewn to the

gunwales, the green ribs were fitted roughly inside the bark, with

their ends standing above the gunwales, and were then forced into the

desired shape and held there, usually by two wide battens pressed

against them by 7 to 10 temporary cross struts. After being allowed to

dry in place, the ribs were then removed, the sheathing was put into

place, and the ribs, after a final fitting, were driven into their

proper positions. Some builders put in the ribs by pairs in the shaping

stage, one on top of the other, as this made easier the job of fitting

the temporary battens. The forcing of the ribs to shape also served to

shape the bark cover, and the canoe was placed on horses during the

operation, so that the shape of the bottom could be observed while

the bark was being moulded. Some builders used very thin longitudinal

battens between the bark and the green ribs to avoid danger of bursting

the bark.

 

The canoe was built on a level building bed, in most instances

apparently, with the ends of the building frame blocked up about an

inch. It seems possible, however, that narrow bottom canoes may have

been built with the bed raised 2 or 3 inches in the middle, rather than

employing a narrow building frame. The construction of the building

frame was the same as among the western Indians and as described in

Chapter 3.

 

[Illustration: Figure 83

 

ST. FRANCIS-ABNAKI CANOE FOR OPEN WATER, a type that became extinct

before 1890. From Adney's drawings of a canoe formerly in the Museum of

Natural History, New York. Details of Abnaki canoes are also shown.]

 

In preparing the ribs, a common practice was the following: Assume, for

example, that there are 10 ribs from the center to the first thwart

forward; these are laid out on the ground edge-to-edge with the rib

under the center thwart to the left and the rib under the first thwart

to the right. On the rib to the left the middle thwart is laid so

that its center coincides with that of the rib, and the ends of the

thwart are marked on the rib. The same is done to the rib on the far

right, over which the first thwart is laid as the measure. On each

side of the centerline the points marking the ends of the thwarts

are then joined by a line across the ribs, as they lie together, to

mark the approximate taper of the canoe toward the ends, at the turn

of the bilge. Each rib is taken in turn from the panel and with it

is placed another from the stock on hand to be set in a matching

position on the other side of the middle thwart, toward the stern; the

pair, placed flat sides together, are then bent over the knee at, or

outside of, the marks or lines. The ribs in the next portion of the

canoe's length are shaped in the same manner, using the lengths of the

first and second thwarts as guides. Thus, the ribs are given a rough,

preliminary bend before being fitted inside the bark cover and stayed

into place to season. This method allowed the bilge of the canoe to

be rather precisely determined and formed during the first stages of

construction. At the ends, of course, the ribs are sharply bent only

in the middle. Since the full thwart length makes a wide bottom, by

setting the length of the rib perhaps a hand's width less than that of

the whole thwart, the narrow bottom is formed.

 

The rough length of the ribs was twice the length of the thwarts

nearest them. Hackmatack was used for thwarts by the St. Francis

Indians, rock maple being considered next best. Cedar was first choice

for ribs, then spruce, and then balsam fir. Longitudinals were cedar

or spruce. All canoe measurements were made by hand, finger, and

arm measurements. Basket ash strips were often used in transferring

measurements.

 

[Illustration: Figure 84

 

MODEL OF A ST. FRANCIS-ABNAKI CANOE UNDER CONSTRUCTION, showing method

of moulding ribs inside the assembled bark cover.]

 

From what has been said, it will be seen that the construction practice

of the St. Francis did not follow in all details that of their Malecite

relatives. The intrusion of western practices into this group probably

took place some time after the group's final settlement at St. Francis.

As they gradually came into more intimate relations with their western

neighbors and drifted into western Quebec, beyond the St. Lawrence,

their canoe building technique became influenced by what they saw

to the westward. As would be expected, the St. Francis Abnaki began

early to use nails in canoe building, but, being expert workmen, they

retained the good features of the old sewn construction to a marked

degree up to the very end of birch-bark canoe construction in southern

Quebec, probably about 1915. It should perhaps be noted that what has

been discovered about the St. Francis Abnaki canoes refers necessarily

to only the last half of the 19th century, since no earlier canoe of

this group has been discovered. The changes that took place between the

decline of the Penobscot style of canoe and that of the later Abnaki

remain a matter of speculation.

 

[Illustrations: Figure 85

 

ST. FRANCIS-ABNAKI CANOE.]

 

 

_Beothuk_

 

The fourth group of Indians, classed here as belonging to the eastern

maritime area, are the Beothuk of Newfoundland. Historically, perhaps,

these Indians should have been discussed first, as they were probably

the first of all North American Indians to come into contact with

the white man. However, so little is known about their canoes that

it has seemed better to place them last, since practically all that

can be said is the result of reconstruction, speculation, and logic

founded upon rather unsatisfactory evidence. The tribal origin of the

Beothuk has long been a matter of argument; they are known to have

used red pigment on their weapons, equipment, clothes, and persons. A

prehistoric group that once inhabited Maine and the Maritime Provinces

appears to have had a similar custom; these are known as the "Red Paint

People," and it may be that the Beothuk were a survival of this earlier

culture. But all that can be said with certainty is that the Beothuk

inhabited Newfoundland and perhaps some of the Labrador coast when the

white man began to frequent those parts. The Beothuk made a nuisance

of themselves by stealing gear from the European fishermen, and by

occasionally murdering individuals or small groups of white men. Late

in the 17th century, the French imported some Micmac warriors and began

a war of extermination against the Beothuk. By the middle of the 18th

century the Newfoundland tribe was reduced to a few very small groups,

and the Beothuk became extinct early in the 19th century, before

careful investigation of their culture could be made.

 

Their canoes were made to a distinctive model quite different from

that of the canoes of other North American Indians. The descriptions

available are far from complete and, as a result, many important

details are left to speculation. Some parts of the more complete

descriptions are obscure and do not appear to agree with one another.

In spite of these difficulties, however, some information on the canoes

is rather specific; by using this, together with a knowledge of the

requirements of birch-bark canoe construction, and by reference to some

toy canoes found in 1869 in the grave of a Beothuk boy, a reasonably

accurate reconstruction of a canoe is possible.

 

Captain Richard Whitbourne had come with Sir Humphrey Gilbert to

Newfoundland in 1580 and revisited the island a number of times

afterward. In 1612 he wrote that the Beothuk canoes were shaped "like

the wherries of the River Thames," apparently referring to the humped

sheer of both; in the wherry the sheer swept up sharply to the height

of the oar tholes, in profile, and flared outward, in cross section.

 

John Gay, a member of the Company of Newfoundland Plantation, wrote

in 1612 that Beothuk canoes were about 20 feet long and 4½ feet wide

"in the middle and aloft," that the ribs were like laths, and that

the birch-bark cover was sewn with roots. The canoes carried four

persons and weighed less than a hundredweight. They had a short, light

staff set in each end by which the canoes could be lifted ashore. "In

the middle the canoa is higher a great deale, than at the bowe and

quarter." He also says of their cross section: "They be all bearing

from the keel to portlesse, not with any circular, but with a straight,

line."

 

Joann de Laet, writing about 1633, speaks of the crescent shape of the

canoes, of their "sharp keel" and need of ballast to keep them upright;

he also states that the canoes were not over 20 feet long and could

carry up to five persons.

 

The most complete description of the Beothuk canoe was in the

manuscript of Lt. John Cartwright, R.N., who was on the coast of

Newfoundland in 1767-1768 as Lieutenant of H.B.M. Ship _Guernsey_.

However, some portions are either in error or the description was

over-simplified. For example, Cartwright says that the gunwales were

formed with a distinct angle made by joining two lengths of the main

gunwale members at the elevated middle of the sheer. This hardly

seems correct since such a connection would not produce the rigidity

that such structural parts require, given the methods used by Indians

to build bark canoes. The three grave models show that the sheer

was actually curved along its elevated middle. It is possible that

Cartwright saw a damaged canoe in which the lashings of the scarf of

the gunwales had slackened so that the line of sheer "broke" there.

Cartwright is perhaps misleading in his description of the rocker of

the keel as being "nearly, if not exactly, the half of an ellipse,

longitudinally divided." The models show the keel to have been straight

along the length of the canoe and turned up sharply at the ends to form

bow and stern. Cartwright also states the keel piece was "about the

size of the handle of a common hatchet" amidships, or perhaps 1 inch

thick and 1½ inches wide, and tapered toward the ends, which were about

¾ inch wide and about equally thick. The height of the sheer amidships

was perhaps two-thirds the height of the ends.

 

[Illustration: Figure 86

 

A 15-FOOT BEOTHUK CANOE OF NEWFOUNDLAND with 42½-inch beam, inside

measurement, turned on side for use as a camp. It gives headroom

clearance of about 3 feet, double that of an 18-foot Malecite canoe

with high ends. When the ends were not high enough to provide maximum

clearance, small upright sticks were lashed to bow and stern. The

shape of the gunwales would permit the canoe to be heeled to an angle

(more than 35°) which would swamp a canoe of ordinary sheer and depth.

(_Sketch by Adney._)]

 

Nearly all observers, Cartwright included, noted the almost perfect

~V~-form cross section of these canoes, with the apexes rounded off

slightly and the wings slightly curved. From an interpretation of

Cartwright's statements, it appears that after the bark cover had been

laced to the gunwales, the latter were forced apart to insert the

thwarts, as in some western Indian canoe-building techniques. The three

thwarts are described as being about two fingers in width and depth.

It is stated that the gunwales were made up of an inner and outer

member and all were scarfed in the middle to taper each way toward the

ends, the outer member serving as an outwale or guard. Cartwright also

states that the inside of the bark cover was "lined" with "sticks"

2 or 3 inches broad, cut flat and thin. He refers also to others of

the same sort which served as "timbers" so he is describing both the

sheathing and the ribs as being 2 or 3 inches wide. He does not say how

the thwarts were fitted to the gunwales, how high the ends were, how

the ends of the gunwales were formed, nor does he give any details of

the sewing used. However, the grave models suggest the form of sewing

probably used and the approximate proportions of sheer.

 

An old settler told James Howley that the Beothuk canoes could be

"folded together like a purse." Considering the construction required

in birch-bark canoes, this is manifestly impossible; perhaps what the

settler had seen was a canoe in construction with the bark secured to

shaped gunwales, ready for the latter to be sprung apart by thwarts,

as in opening a purse. Howley also obtained from a man who had seen

Beothuk canoes a sketch which shows a straight keel and peaked ends,

confirmed in all respects by the grave models or toys.

 

The toy canoes so often referred to here were found by Samuel Coffin

in an Indian burial cave on a small island in Pilley's Tickle, Notre

Dame Bay (on the east coast of Newfoundland), in 1869. Among the graves

in the cave, one of a child, evidently a boy, was found to contain

a wooden image of a boy, toy bows and arrows, two toy canoes and a

fragment of a third, packages of food, and some red ochre. With one of

the canoes was a fragment of a miniature paddle. One of the canoes was

32 inches long, height of ends 8 inches, height of side amidships 6

inches, straight portion of keel 26 inches and beam 7 inches, as shown by Howley.