The Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America

by Tappan Adney; Howard Irving Chapelle

When the bark has been turned up and clamped, the gores may be trimmed to allow it to be sewn with edge-to-edge seams at each slash. This is usually done after the sides are faired, by moving the battens up and down as the cuts are made, then replacing them in their original position. The gores or slashes, if overlapped, are not usually sewn at this stage of construction.

With the inside stakes in place, the longitudinal battens secured, and the gores cut or the overlaps properly arranged, all is ready for sheering the gunwales. First the weights are removed from the gunwale frame so that it can be lifted. If the inside stakes have been properly made and fitted this can be done without disturbing the sides, though the ties across each pair of outside stakes may have to be slacked off somewhat. Before lifting the frame, some short posts, usually of sapling or of waste from splitting out the gunwales and thwarts, are cut in lengths determined by the measuring stick or from memory, one for each end of each thwart, and one for each end of the gunwale frame. Those under the middle thwart ends in this canoe are 7½ inches long, those under the next thwarts out from the middle will be 9 inches, those under the end thwarts will be 12 inches, and those at the gunwale ends will be 17 inches long. These posts, cut with squared butts, are laid alongside the bed. The gunwale frame is now lifted and the pair of posts to go under the middle thwart are stepped on the bark cover, the gunwale is lowered onto them, and while the frame and posts are held steady, stones are laid on a plank over the middle thwart. Next, the ends of the gunwales are held and lifted so that a pair of posts can be placed at the thwarts next out from the middle. More weights are placed over these, the operation is repeated for the end thwarts and, finally at the gunwale ends, so that the gunwales now stand on posts on the bark cover, sprung to the correct fore-and-aft sheer and steadied by the bearing of the outside of the gunwale frame on the rounded faces of the inside stakes. Now the sheer has been established and the depth of the canoe is approximated.

Figure 41

Fourth Stage of Canoe Construction: bark cover has been shaped and all stakes placed. The gunwales have been raised to sheer height; "A" indicates the sticks which fix the sheer of the gunwales; "B" indicates blocks placed under ends to form rocker. Side panels are shown in place, and cover is being sewn to gunwales. (Sketch by Adney.)

To protect the bark cover from the thrust of the weights used to ballast the frame, some builders inserted small bark or wood shields for padding under the heels of the posts. By some tribes the posts were notched on one face, to fit inside the gunwales near the thwarts, and there were also other ways of assembling the gunwales themselves.

It should be apparent that the operations just described would serve only for canoes in which the sheer had a gentle, fair sweep. For canoes in which the sheer turned up sharply at the ends, the gunwale members might have to be split into laminations and prebent to the required sheer before being assembled into the gunwale frame. To accomplish this, the laminations were scalded with boiling water until saturated and then the gunwale members were staked out on the ground or tied with cords to set the wood in the desired curves as it dried out. The laminations were then wrapped with cord and the gunwale was ready to assemble. To produce a hogged sheer, the gunwales were made of green spruce and then staked out to season in the form desired; a hogged sheer was also formed by steaming or boiling the gunwale members at midlength.

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.