How to Make a White Man's Dugout Canoe

To make one of these dugout canoes one must be big and strong enough to wield an axe, but if the readers are too young for this work, they are none too young to know how to make one, and their big brothers and father can do the work. Since the dugout occupies an important position in the history of our country, every boy scout should know how it is made.

Fig. 45.

Fig. 48.

Fig. 49.

Fig. 50.

[Fig. 44] shows one of these canoes afloat; [Fig. 45] shows a tall, straight tree suitable for our purpose, and it also shows how the tree is cut and the arrangement of the kerfs, or two notches, so that it will fall in the direction of the arrow in the diagram. You will notice along the ground are shown the ends of a number of small logs. These are the skids, or rollers, upon which the log will rest when the tree is cut and felled. The tree will fall in the direction in which the arrow is pointed if there is no wind. If you have never cut down a tree, be careful to take some lessons of a good woodsman before you attempt it.

When the log is trimmed off at both ends like [Fig. 46], flatten the upper side with the axe. This is for the bottom of the canoe; the flat part should be about a foot and a half wide to extend from end to end of the log. Now, with some poles for pryers, turn your log over so that it will rest with the flat bottom on the skids, as in [Fig. 46].

Fig. 46.

Fig. 47.

Next take a chalk-line and fasten it at the two ends of the log, as shown by the dotted line in [Figs. 46], [47], [48], [49].

Snap the line so that it will make a straight mark as shown by the dotted line; then trim off the two ends for the bow and stern, as shown in [Fig. 47]. Next cut notches down to the dotted line, as illustrated in [Fig. 48]; then cut away from the bow down to the first notch, making a curved line, as shown in [Fig. 49] (which is cut to second notch). Do the same with the stern, making duplicates of the bow and stern. The spaces between the notches amidships may now be split off by striking your axe along the chalk-line and then carefully driving in wooden wedges. When this is all done you will have [Fig. 50]. You can now turn the log over and trim off the edges of the bow and stern so that they will slope, as shown in [Fig. 44], in a rounded curve; after which roll the canoe back again upon its bottom and with an adze and axe hollow out the inside, leaving some solid wood at both bow and stern—not that you need the wood for strength, but to save labor. When you have decided upon the thickness of the sides of your canoe, take some small, pointed instrument, like an awl, for instance, and make holes with it to the required depth at intervals along the sides and bottom of the canoe. Then take some small sticks (as long as the canoe sides are to be thick), make them to fit the holes, blacken their ends, and drive them into the holes.

As soon as you see one from the inside, you will know that you have made the shell thin enough. Use a jack-plane to smooth it off inside and out; then build a big fire and heat some stones. Next fill the canoe with water and keep dumping the hot stones in the water until the latter is almost or quite to boiling point. The hot water will soften the wood so that the sides will become flexible, and you can then fit in some braces at the bow, stern, and centre of the canoe. Make the centre brace or seat some inches wider than the log, so that when it is forced in place it will spread the canoe in the middle.

CHAPTER V
CANOES AND BOATING STUNTS

How to Build a War Canoe—How to Build a Canvas Canoe—How to Build an Umbrella Canoe—How Old Shells Can be Turned into Boys' Boats—Cause of Upsets—Landing from, and Embarking in, a Shell—How to Mend Checks and Cracks

In making canoes the Indians used birch bark for the cover, rock maple for the cross-bars, and white cedar for the rest of the frame. We will substitute canvas for the birch bark and any old wood that we can for the rock maple and the white cedar. Real woodcraft is best displayed in the ability to use the material at hand.

David Abercrombie, the outfitter, some time ago presented Andrew J. Stone, the Arctic explorer and mighty hunter, with a small piece of light, water-proof cloth to use as a shelter tent in bad weather. But Stone, like the hunter that he was, slept unprotected on the mountain side in the sleet and driving storms, and used the water-proof cloth to protect the rare specimens he had shot. One day a large, rapid torrent lay in his path; there was no lumber large enough with which to build a raft, and the only wood for miles around was small willow bushes growing along the river bank. At his command, his three Indians made a canoe frame of willow sticks, tied together with bits of cloth and string. Stone set this frame in the middle of his water-proof cloth, tied the cloth over the frame with other pieces of string, and using only small clubs for paddles, he and his men crossed the raging torrent in this makeshift, which was loaded with their guns, camera, and specimens that he had shot on the trip.

After reading the above there is no doubt the reader will be able to build a war canoe with barrel-hoop ribs and lattice-work slats. In the writer's studio is a long piece of maple, one and one-half inches wide and one-quarter inch thick, which was left by the workmen when they put down a hard-wood floor. If you can get some similar strips, either of oak, maple, or birch, from the dealers in flooring material, they will not be expensive and will make splendid gunwales for your proposed canoe. There should be four such strips. The hard-wood used for flooring splits easily, and holes should be bored for the nails or screws to prevent cracking the wood when the nails or screws are driven home. [Fig. 51] shows the framework (side view) of the canoe; [Fig. 52] shows an end view of the same canoe; [Fig. 53] shows the middle section, and [Fig. 54] shows the form of the bow and stern sections. This boat may be built any length you wish, and so that you may get the proper proportions, the diagrams from one to five are marked off in equal divisions. To make patterns of the moulds, [Figs. 53] and [54], take a large piece of manila paper, divide it up into the same number of squares as the diagram, make the squares any size you may decide upon, and then trace the line, 1-H-10, as it is in the diagrams. This will give you the patterns of the two moulds ([Figs. 53] and [54]). While you are looking at these figures, it may be well to call your attention to the way bow and stern pieces are made. In [Fig. 63] the pieces Y and X are made from pieces of a packing-box, notched and nailed together with a top piece, U, and a brace, V.

[Transcriber's Note: To see a larger version of this image, click [here].]

Conventional bow, but made of barrel-heads.

The other end of the same canoe is, as you may see, strengthened and protected by having a barrel-hoop tacked over the stem-pieces, Y, X, U. In [Fig. 64] we use different material; here the stem-piece is made of a broken bicycle rim, U, braced by the pieces of packing-box, Y, V, and W. The left-hand end of [Fig. 64] is made with pieces of head of a barrel, X and U. The bottom of the stem-piece Y is made of the piece of a packing-box. The two braces V are parts of the barrel-stave. [Fig. 60] shows the common form of the bow of a canoe. The stem-pieces X, Y are made of the parts of the head of a barrel, as shown in [Fig. 62]. To make a stem from a barrel-head, nail the two pieces X and Y, [Fig. 56], together as shown in this particular diagram. Now take another piece of barrel-head, [Fig. 57], and saw off a piece, A´, D´, C´, so that it will fit neatly over A, C, D, on [Fig. 56]. Nail this securely in place, and then in the same manner cut another piece to fit over the part E, C, B, and nail that in place. Use small nails, but let them be long enough so that you may clinch them by holding an axe or an iron against the head while you hammer the protruding points down, or drive the nail a little on the bias and holding the axe or iron on the side it is to come through and let it strike the nail as it comes out and it will clinch itself. To fasten the stem-piece to the keel use two pieces of packing-box or board, cut in the form of [Fig. 58], and nail these securely to the bow-piece as in Z, in [Fig. 60]. Then from the bottom side of the keel H, nail the keel-pieces firmly to the keel as in [Fig. 61]. Also drive some nails from Z to the top down to the keel, as shown by the dotted lines in [Fig. 60]. The end view, [Fig. 59], shows how the two Z pieces hug and support the stem-piece on the keel H. [Fig. 55] shows a half of the top view of the canoe gunwales; the dimensions, marked in feet and inches, are taken from an Indian birch-bark canoe. You see by the diagram that it is eight feet from the centre of the middle cross-piece to the end of the big opening at the bow. It is also three feet from the centre of the middle cross-piece to the next cross-piece, and thirty inches from the centre of that cross-piece to the bow cross-piece, which is just thirty inches from the eight-foot mark. The middle cross-piece in a canoe of these dimensions is seven-eighths of an inch thick, and thirty inches long between the gunwales; the next cross-piece is three-quarters of an inch thick and twenty-two and one-half inches long. The next one is half an inch wide, two inches thick and twelve inches between the gunwales. These cross-pieces can be made of the staves of a barrel. Of course, this would be a canoe of sixteen feet inside measurement, not counting the flattened part of the bow and stern. Now, then, to build the canoe. First take the keel-piece, H, which is in this case a piece of board about six inches wide and only thick enough to be moderately stiff. Lay the keel on any level surface and put the stem-pieces on as already described, using packing-box for X, U, V, Y, and Z, and bracing them with a piece of packing-box on each side, marked W in diagram ([Fig. 51]). Then make three moulds, one for the centre ([Fig. 53]), and two more for the bow and stern ([Fig. 54]). Notch the bottom of these moulds to fit the keel and with wire nails make them fast to the keel, leaving the ends of the nails protruding far enough to be easily withdrawn when you wish to remove the moulds. In nailing the laths to the moulds ([Fig. 51]) leave the heads of the nails also protruding so that they may be removed. Place the moulds in position, with the middle one in the exact centre, and the two ends located like those in [Figs. 63] and [64]. Place and nail gunwale, L, on as in [Fig. 51], tacking it to the bow and stern and bending it around to fit the moulds; tack the lattice slats M, N, O, P on to the bow, stern, and moulds, as shown in [Fig. 51].

If your barrel-hoops are stiff and liable to break while bending and unbending, let them soak a couple of days in a tub of water, then before fitting them to the form of the canoe make them more pliable by pouring hot water on them. The barrel-hoop S, R, at the bow of the canoe, is nailed to the top-piece U, to the inside of the slats L, M, N, O, P, and to the outside of H. The next three ribs on each side are treated in the same manner; repeat this at the other end of the canoe and nail the intervening ribs to the top of H and to the inside of the slats, following the model of the boat. Put the ribs about four inches apart and clinch the nails as already described.

In the diagrams there is no temporary support for the canoe frame except the wooden horses, as in [Fig. 51]. These supports have been purposely omitted in the drawing, as it is desirable to keep it as simple as possible. Some temporary support will be necessary to hold the bow and stern-piece in [Fig. 51]. These supports can be nailed or screwed temporarily to the canoe frame so as to hold it rigid while you are at work on it.

After the ribs are all in place and the framework completed, turn the canoe upside down upon the wooden horses—for a canoe as large as the one in the first diagram you will need three horses, one at each end and one in the middle. For a canoe of the dimensions marked in [Fig. 55], that is, sixteen feet inside measurement, you would need about seven yards of ten-ounce cotton canvas, of sufficient width to reach up over the sides of your canoe. Take a tape-measure or a piece of ordinary tape or a long strip of manila paper and measure around the bottom of the boat at its widest part in the middle from one gunwale (top of side) to the other, and see that your cloth is fully as wide as your measurement. Fold the canvas lengthwise so as to find its exact centre and crease it. With two or three tacks fasten the cloth at its centre line (the crease) to the stem-piece of the canoe. Stretch the canvas the length of the boat with the crease of centre-line along the centre of the keel; pull it as taut as may be and again tack the centre line to the stem at this end of the craft. If this has been done carefully the cloth will hang an equal length over each side of the canoe. Now begin amidships and drive tacks about two inches apart along the gunwale, say an inch below the top surface. After having tacked it for about two feet, go to the other side of the boat, pull the cloth taut and in the same manner tack about three feet. Continue this process first one side and then the other until finished. While stretching the cloth knead it with the hand and fingers so as to thicken or "full" it where it would otherwise wrinkle; by doing this carefully it is possible to stretch the canvas over the frame without the necessity of cutting it. The cloth that extends beyond the frame may be brought over the gunwale and tacked along the inside. Use four-ounce tinned or copper tacks. The canvas is now stretched on every part except on the high, rolling bow and stern. With a pair of shears slit the canvas from the outer edge of the bow and stern within a half inch of the ends of the keel.

High bows framework made of packing-box and barrel-heads.

Fold the right-hand flap thus made at the left-hand end around the bow and stern and, drawing tight, tack it down, then fold the left-hand flap over the right-hand side and tack it in a similar manner, trimming off the remaining cloth neatly. The five braces, three of which are shown in [Fig. 55], may be nailed to the gunwales of the canoe, as the temporary moulds are removed. The braces should be so notched that the top ends of the braces will fit over the top edge of the gunwale and their lower edges will fit against the sides. Give the boat at least three good coats of paint and nail the two extra gunwale strips on the outside of the canvas for guards.

When it is dry and the boat is launched you may startle the onlookers and make the echoes ring with:

"Wo-ach! wo-ach! Ha-ha-ha-hack—wo-ach!" which is said to be the identical war cry with which the Indians greeted the landing of our Pilgrim Fathers.

The reader must not suppose that barrel-hoops are the best material for ribs; they are but a makeshift, and although good-looking, servicable canoes have been built of this material from the foregoing descriptions, better ones may be made by using better material, such, for instance, as is described in the making of the birch-bark canoe.