Chapter XXV: Canadian, Indian, Birch-Bark and Other Light Canoes

BY C. STANSFELD-HICKS.

I.--CANADIAN AND BIRCH-BARK CANOES.

The most convenient size to make will probably be that of a canoe now in my possession, 17 ft. long, 27 in. wide, and 1 ft. deep. She is built as follows.

Two strong pieces of tough wood, forming together something the shape of a snowshoe, as Fig. 1, and lashed strongly together at the ends, form the gunwale. The ribs are of thin stuff about one-eighth of an inch thick, and two to three inches wide, running from gunwale to gunwale in one piece, the ends slightly pointed so as (Fig. 3) to fit into notches cut in the under side of the gunwale. Between these ribs and the outer skin is placed some kind of thin bark pitched over, and the outer skin is composed of birch bark.

At each end, at the dotted line A A (Fig. 2), there is a strong apron-piece, but the bows are simply sewn together, as are the other joints in the boat, which is very light and handy. Now the thing is for you who have no birch bark to build a canoe on the same principle, easily and at little cost, and we will consider how this is to be done.

In an American paper there once appeared an article on ‘A Paper Boat,’ built on the lines of a birch-bark canoe, and it is not long since an adventurous young American went a tremendous distance on the American rivers in a paper canoe of his own construction. So you have paper proved to be possible as a skin for your boat as a substitute for birch bark. Another substitute and a far stronger one is canvas.

We will now proceed to get out the framework of the boat in question.

In the diagram (Fig. 4) you have sheer plan, body and deck plan, of a modified Canadian canoe; the ends are less curved than the original, but otherwise it is much the same. The first thing you will have to do is to draw a plan to scale on this principle of the canoe you propose building, and the simplest scale you can use is that of one inch to a foot, and in this way, if you decide on a canoe fifteen feet by two feet by one foot, the plan on paper will be fifteen inches by two inches by one inch, which you can multiply by twelve to get your measurements for any part.

You must first get a piece of wood for the keel. These canoes are always built without any exterior keel, and are therefore easily turned and managed; at the same time they are as easily turned by the wind, if there should be any, and for rough water I should prefer giving a small exterior keel screwed on to the keel on which you build the canoe, and which forms part of the body of the boat itself; but this you must decide for yourself. If you only want to punt about in smooth water and in shallows, you can dispense with any exterior keel, and in any case you can easily screw on a false keel of whatever depth you consider necessary afterwards.

The keel proper had best be shaped broad in the middle--say, six inches--and tapering off to the ends where the stem and stern posts are joined on. Having got your keel ready, and the stem and stern posts kneed in, and ascertained by a plumb line that they are perpendicular to the keel, the next thing is to cut out shadows, or frames, from the body plan. Three of these shadows will do (see Fig. 4, C C C), one amidships, and one each between midships and the stem and stern. These shadows must be secured to the keel in such a way that they will not shift from the perpendicular, to which you must plumb them. The keel can be made of any good wood, elm or oak for preference; but common deal will do very well. It should be three-quarters of an inch by six inches in the middle, and taper to the ends. The stem and stern posts can be of three-quarter inch deal or hard wood, of sufficient length, and two to four inches deep, shaped out and secured with a galvanised iron or wooden knee to the keel. You can use an apron-piece or not, as you prefer. If you elect to dispense with the apron-piece the stem and stern posts must be deeper than if you use it, and a light groove of, say, one-eighth of an inch cut to receive the ends of the stringers. (See Fig. 5, A A A A.) Or this groove can be dispensed with, and the end of the stringer tapered off so as to come flush.

You will now want two to three stringers each side, of elm, ash or other tough wood, of sufficient length, and about half an inch thick by one inch wide. These will run from stem to stern over the shadows, and be firmly secured to the parts. The gunwale must be of the same sort of wood, say one inch square, and let in half an inch into the shadows to bring it flush with the stringers. The gunwale must be secured to the stem and stern posts, leaving about an inch of the posts above it; and a triangular piece of hard wood an inch thick and about three to six inches deep must be shaped to fit between the gunwales and the stem and stern posts, and the gunwales firmly secured to it by countersunk screws. This will bind all firmly together. As you will have taken the measurements from your plans, in which you have decided the sheer of the boat, the gunwale will follow this sheer, starting from the midship shadow and curving up towards the posts.

You have now got the framework ready, with the exception of the ribs, which are put in afterwards. The next step will be to get the canvas to form the outside skin.

You must buy sufficient canvas to cover your canoe. See that it is close and strong (No. 6, Navy unbleached, or something as near that as possible). Turn the canoe upside down, and stretch your canvas over it, tacking it firmly along the keel with copper nails about an inch apart, and then strain it tightly to the gunwales and secure it there with copper tacks (iron or large tin tacks may be used here if you are short of copper), first turning down the raw edge of the canvas. Then tack down the ends to the stem and stern posts, lapping one side of the canvas first round the opposite side of the part and securing it, and then bringing the other side of the canvas over the part secured and tacking it on the opposite side, thus doubling the canvas over the stem and stern posts. It is as well to run a copper band from six inches down the stem and stern posts to about a foot along the keel, to take the wear off the canvas, and a slight wooden false keel may be screwed over all with brass screws, or fastened with copper nails. Any slackness that may exist in the canvas must now be taken up. Turn the canoe right side up and gather in the canvas where you can find it slack, which will probably be at the bow and stern; and, after gathering it tightly in a pleat, sew it strongly down on the inside. This, perhaps, had best be done before you completely secure the canvas down, and while it is only secured at the ends and along the gunwale, leaving it unfastened along the keel.

Next get your ribs ready; these had best be made of rock elm or other tough wood, to avoid the trouble of steaming. They must be about three-sixteenths of an inch by three-quarters wide, or one inch or even two inches wide will do if you can bend them. Space the ribs about six inches apart; you can put them closer if you want extra strength. See that they are cut the right length, that when put in--which must be done by main force--the ribs take all the stringers, and butt tightly under the gunwales. You may either cut a slight notch in the gunwale to receive the ends of the ribs, or, after all the ribs are in, run a strip of wood half an inch by half an inch under the gunwale and over all the ribs, screwing it firmly to the gunwale, to keep the ribs in their places. When the ribs are all in their places, you may remove the shadows and look over the canvas again to see if it is all tight, putting an extra rib in wherever you have taken it up, and securing such a plain to the rib by a few tacks.

You must now cut the crossbars the proper size and fit them in, securing them to the gunwale by knees on each side. You have now only to paint the canvas, and when it has had two or three coats, firmly dried on, the canoe is ready to use. After using it turn it upside down, so that water cannot accumulate inside, as if it does it will soon rot the canvas, and whenever the paint wears off a little be careful to replace it. With these simple precautions such a canoe will last a long while, and will be of great use and amusement to you, as it can be easily carried from one piece of water to another by one person. Should you wish to make it a lifeboat, all you have to do is to get two zinc cases fitted to each end, which will float the canoe if capsized, or run a tapering belt of painted canvas filled with corks round the canoe outside on the water-line (see Fig. 5, A A A A A). If you take this precaution you will probably not regret it, as a capsize is a very simple matter to achieve in any round-bottomed light boat, and there is not much stuff in such a slightly-constructed craft to float the occupant if capsized.

The American paper canoe was constructed something in the same way as to framework, but two of the shadows were left in after being cut away in the middle (see Fig. 6), leaving them three or four inches deep all round, and the keel was left about one foot wide between the two shadows, which were placed so as to divide the keel into three equal parts. They were firmly screwed to the keel, stringers (B B) were then run from stem to stern. The stem and stern posts were of green elm screwed to the bottom board or keel, and bent (see cut) into the required position; the ribs were made of osier willow switches put in while green; the gunwale (A A) was of ash. This framework was covered with very strong wrapping-paper, smooth and very tough, neither stiff nor very thick. This was secured first to the bottom board, the canoe being turned upside down; and then the paper was trimmed into shape and brought up to the gunwales, and secured there by being turned in over the gunwale and held down by long strips of ash or cane. The whole outside surface of the paper was then given three coats of varnish (Fig. 7).

The constructor, however, found that the boat leaked, and he then covered it with unbleached muslin strained outside over the paper, tacked along the gunwales, and sewn at the ends; it was then tightened by shrinking, and received three coats of a mixture of varnish and paint; this appears to have stopped the leaking entirely, and the owner then enjoyed a great deal of cruising and paddling in his paper boat.

After using it some time he discarded the ‘paddle proper,’ and fitted a pair of iron rowlocks sufficiently long to be secured to the bottom board and the gunwales, and used a pair of short sculls.

II.--PAPER AND OTHER TYPICAL CANOES.

It must entirely depend on the surroundings of the maker as to what materials he had best use. If a lad has the ability to build a canoe at all, he must be the best judge of the easiest way for him to set about it, and it is impossible to lay down hard-and-fast rules as to what he shall use in its construction. All he requires is the general idea which is given here, and where a lad with every convenience and a long purse will use the best materials another, under different circumstances and perhaps far away from opportunities of getting the most suitable timber, etc., for his purpose, will have to exercise his ingenuity and bring into use those materials he is limited to. So, perhaps, in some instances where thick and good canvas cannot be got, a serviceable boat can be made of a thinner and cheaper material, such as unbleached calico put on over a skin of old newspapers pasted together to form a backing; and such a covering thoroughly varnished with several coats, or if that is too costly well painted inside and outside with a mixture of tar and pitch boiled together, half and half, would give a great deal of amusement to its owner, and cost a mere trifle. Of course, it would not look so well. The best backing to use under thin canvas or calico would be good paper, prepared in this way:--take a large sheet of good strong paper, brown preferably, and cover it with a coating of marine glue; place another piece of paper over it to cover the glue, and take a flat-iron, warm, but not too hot; thoroughly iron the top paper till the glue comes out through the pores of the paper; the two sheets will then be firmly held together by the waterproof glue, and any size can be prepared in this way, making a first-class stiffening inside skin, which can be covered outside with thin calico, painted and varnished.

The paddles used with these canoes are single-bladed. The stern paddle, which is used to steer as well as propel the canoe, is considerably larger than the bow paddle. The lengths of the paddles are--stern, five feet; bow, four feet; breadth of blade at broadest part--stern, six inches; bow, five inches; length of blade of paddle, two feet. The handle may be about three-quarters of an inch to one inch in diameter, but much thicker at the extreme end, where some of the paddles now used are shaped like Fig. 8.

The paddle is used as follows. You will readily understand that a stroke of a paddle used only on one side would cause the boat or canoe so propelled to turn its bow in the opposite direction; to meet this, before the paddle is withdrawn from the water, it must be slightly feathered and the handle brought inwards, the middle of the paddle resting on the gunwale of the canoe, the blade thus bringing the bow round and steering the canoe in a straight course. The pressure used must be merely adequate to bring the canoe straight, and will depend on the amount of sheer she has taken. If this is properly done, which requires some practice, it will not at all interfere with the forward propulsion of the canoe. The handle of the paddle is left rather wide at the end to allow of an easy grasp, and the other hand holds the paddle not quite half way down.

In stalking game the Indians never withdraw the paddle from the water at all, but feather under water without making the slightest noise and scarcely causing a ripple.

Another description of boat made of canvas is the Irish Curragh (Fig. 9), used principally in the south-west of Ireland. Some of these boats are of considerable size--I have seen one twenty-six feet by four feet beam--and are used in the heaviest weather and the roughest seas, and from their extreme lightness are wonderfully good sea boats, the peculiar construction of the bow, which rises very much, lifting the boat over the seas. They have a strong frame made of ribs with stringers spaced only about three inches apart. The stringers run the whole length of the boat, which is something of the shape of half a barrel greatly elongated. They are simply and easily constructed, and are covered with common canvas. Several coatings of a preparation of tar are given to the canvas, converting it into a species of tarpaulin, and as the interior framework is very close it is impossible to stand or press in any way on the canvas skin, which is thus kept from injury from that source. The curragh is propelled by paddles used as sculls, and a large one has six men, each pulling two paddles. They have no rowlocks, but an iron pin stands up from the gunwale, and a chock is fixed to the paddle with a hole to fit the iron pin. In this way the paddles can be left without being unshipped if necessary, and fall alongside the boat with no chance of being lost.

The coracle used for fishing in Ireland and in Wales is merely a framework, sometimes of wicker and sometimes of wood, somewhat in the shape of the half of a walnut-shell. They are generally covered with leather, and are extremely light.

Since writing the above I have seen a paper which, to those who can afford the price, is the very thing to employ in building a canoe or small boat. I allude to the Willesden paper, invented by the late Dr. Scoffern. This paper is thoroughly water-proof, and is manufactured in all thicknesses. The best for the purpose is about one-eighth of an inch thick. It runs in sufficient length to build an ordinary canoe in one piece, and the width, being fifty-three inches, is amply sufficient. The price is five shillings per yard run, which, for a canoe say fifteen feet long, would be twenty-five shillings, and would be the principal part of the cost. This paper will not only make a strong and safe boat, but also a very handsome and fast one, as, being in one piece, there is no joining or unevenness, but one perfectly smooth surface, offering little resistance to the water. For the purpose of building models it would be hard to find a better substitute for wood, and in most cases it would be found far cheaper.

The Canadian batteau (Fig. 10) is a class of boat that is very easily constructed in paper, canvas, or wood, and you will see from the plan how it is made. It differs from the preceding canoe in that it is flat-bottomed, the American paper canoe approaching it most nearly in shape, though in the batteau the flat bottom is wider, and the sides are also flat, flaring out a good deal.

I also give sketches of other types of crafts. And now for a parting word of advice: whatever type of canoe you select, I hope you will be able to produce one that will pass the examination when your parents and others hold a survey; and in view of this do your work well and carefully, or you had better leave it alone. In any case, do not canoe unless you can swim. A canoeist, particularly when racing, thinks nothing of an upset, which to an accomplished hand is merely the loss of a few minutes, when, the canoe righted and the owner once more in charge, the prize is still held in view. This, to a non-swimmer, might mean, however, loss of life. Speaking from my own experience, I can assure you that I should not now be writing this if I had been unable to swim, and in no case should canoeing or boating be indulged in by those who have not mastered that necessary and simple art. To the swimmer an upset is in most instances simply an annoyance, but to a non-swimmer it may mean a fatal accident.