The Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America

by Tappan Adney; Howard Irving Chapelle

Figure 50

Micmac 2-Fathom Pack, or Woods, Canoe with Northern Lights decoration on bow, and seven thwarts.

The gunwale structure was rather light, the maximum cross section of the main gunwale in large canoes being rarely in excess of 1¼ inches square. These members usually tapered slightly toward the ends of the canoe and had a half-arrowhead form where they were joined. Old canoes had no guard or outwale, but some more recent Micmac canoes have had a short guard along the middle third of the length. Often there was no bevel to take the rib ends on the lower outboard corner of the main gunwales, and the gunwales were not fitted so that their outboard faces stood vertically. Instead, the tenons in the gunwales were cut to slant upward from the inside, so that installation of the thwarts would cause the outboard face to flare outward at the top. Between this face and the inside of the bark cover were forced the beveled ends of the ribs, which were cut chisel-shape. However, some builders beveled or rounded the lower outboard corner of the main gunwale, as described under Malecite canoe building (p. [38]). The bark cover in the Micmac canoe was always brought up over the gunwales, gored to prevent unevenness, and folded down on top of them before being lashed. The gunwale lashing was a continuous one in which the turns practically touched one another outboard, though they were sometimes separated under the gunwale to clear the ribs, which widened near their ends, so the intervals between them were very small.

The other member of the gunwale structure was the cap; its thickness was usually ¼ to ⅜ inch, reduced slightly toward the ends. Its inboard face and the bottom were flat, but the top was somewhat rounded, with the thickness reduced toward the outboard edge. The cap was fastened to the main gunwales with pegs and with short lashing groups near the ends, but in late examples nails were used. The ends of the caps were bevelled off on the inboard side, so that they came together in pointed form. The cap usually ended near the end of the gunwale but in some canoes, particularly those that were nail-fastened, the cap was let into the gunwale (see p. [50]) so that the top was flush with end of the gunwale.

Figure 51

Micmac 2-Fathom Pack, or Woods, Canoe with normal sheer and flat bottom.

The ends of the gunwales were supported by headboards that were bellied outboard to bring tension vertically on the bark cover. The heel of the board stood on a short frog, laid on the bottom with the inboard end touching or slightly lapping over the endmost rib. The frog supported the heels of the headboard and also the forefoot of the stem-piece, which otherwise would have but partial support from the sewing battens outside the ends at these points. The headboard was rather oval-shaped and the top was notched on each side to fit under the gunwale; the narrow central tenon stood slightly above the top of the main gunwales when the headboard was sprung into place and was held in position by a lashing across the gunwales inboard of the top of the headboard. The heel was held by the notch in the frog. Cedar shavings were stuffed into the ends of the canoe between the stem-piece and the headboard to mold the ends properly, as no ribs could be inserted there. All woodwork in these canoes was white cedar, except the headboards and thwarts, which were maple, and the stem battens, which were usually basket ash but sometimes were split spruce roots.

The more recent Micmac canoes usually had no more than five thwarts; this number was found even on small woods canoes. However, old records indicate that canoes 20 to 28 feet long on the gunwales were once built with seven thwarts. The shape of the thwarts varied, apparently in accordance with the builder's fancy. The most common form was nearly rectangular in cross-section; in elevation, it was thick at the hull centerline and tapered smoothly to the outboard ends; and in plan it was narrowest at the hull centerline and increased in width toward the ends, the increase being rather sharp at the shoulders of the tenon. In some, the tenon went through the main gunwales and touched the inside of the bark cover; in others the ends of the thwarts were pointed in elevation, square in plan, and were inserted in shallow, blind tenons on the inboard side of the main gunwales. A single 3-turn lashing through a hole in the shoulder and around the main gunwale was used in every case.