16ft Old Town Otca

Hello Roger--

Old Town 147288 is a 16 foot AA grade (top o the line) HW model (designed for heavy water) with "MC" planking which perhaps someone else can clarify for certain... but I will guess "Michigan cedar"-- don't hold me to that though! It has open mahogany gunwales and mahogany seats, mahogany thwarts, and mahogany decks. It has outside stems, a floor rack, and sponsons, and the slat seats that were a war-time feature when cane for seats became unavailable. The canoe was painted dark red and shipped to Jennison Hardware in Bay City, Michigan on February 22, 1947.

If this description doesn't match your canoe, we can try again. A scan of this record is attached below. Scans of approximately 210,000 records were created with substantial grants from the Wooden Canoe Heritage Association (WCHA) and others. Additional information about the project to preserve these records is available at http://www.wcha.org/ot_records/ if you want more details.

Please join WCHA if you haven't already done so, or make a tax deductible contribution so that services like this can continue. See http://www.wcha.org/wcha/ to learn more about the WCHA, http://www.wcha.org/wcha_video.php to watch a 10 minute video about WCHA and our programs and http://www.wcha.org/join.php to join.

Kathy
 

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with "MC" planking which perhaps someone else can clarify for certain... but I will guess "Michigan cedar"-- don't hold me to that though!

That would be "Maine cedar" (as opposed to WC or "Western cedar".)
 
Okay, Dan... but I live in Michigan and we have cedar here, so that's where my mind was...! Thought by '47 all the Maine stuff might be gone and they were heading this direction...
 
Hello Kathryn,

Thank you for your prompt reply to my inquiry. Unfortunately, although study of the build sheet indicated a lot of similar features, it soon became clear that it was not discribing my canoe.

Today, while working, I made a rub-off of the serial number and discovered that the one that I provided you was wrong. I had mistaken a 1 for a 7. The correct number should be 141288.
I am sorry for wasing your time, and would still appreciate any information that you can provide.

Roger Pellett
Duluth, MN
 
No problem looking up another record for you Roger-- it's important to have the right record with the canoe! And, it's always interesting to me.

Old Town 141288 was built while WWII was winding down, and one can't help imagining what was going on in the hearts and minds of the people working on this canoe. I began wondering if Old Town, like many other factories, hired more women to work during WWII because the men were off to war... anyway, this sort of thing adds to the boat's history!

The canoe was half-built in December of 1944 and shipped June 25, 1945... so it saw VE-Day.

The build record states that this canoe is a 16 foot AA grade Otca... and then it goes on to say the open gunwales are ash and the decks are ash and thwarts are ash... and that's CS (common sense) grade. There's no notation visible beside the seats (no quotation marks to indicate they are also ash) and no statement about slat seats. I would assume slat seats were used, because of the war and the unavailability of cane. The canoe has a keel and outside stems-- the outside stem is an extra strip of hardwood wrapping each end-- adds to the look of the canoe and helps protect it from enthusiastic campers, heading straight for the dock.

This canoe was originally painted bright red on the top and guide special green on the bottom before shipment to Anawana Camp in Hurleyville, New York on June 25, 1945.

I hope that's the right one. Copy of the scan is below. Scans of approximately 210,000 records were created with substantial grants from the Wooden Canoe Heritage Association (WCHA) and others. Additional information about the project to preserve these records is available at http://www.wcha.org/ot_records/ if you want more details.

Please join WCHA or make a tax deductible contribution so that services like this can continue. See http://www.wcha.org/wcha/ to learn more about the WCHA, http://www.wcha.org/wcha_video.php to watch a 10 minute video about WCHA and our programs and http://www.wcha.org/join.php to join. If you are already a WCHA member, THANK YOU!

Kathy
 

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Kathy,

Thanks for the build sheet. This closely matches the canoe that I have. Its history also corresponds with facts that I know. The person that I bought the canoe from came from "upstate" New York which I understand is anything north of the Bronyx.

Seats are pressed cane, not slatted. Perhaps by 1945 we were confident enough that we would win the war to use cane, or maybe someone replaced the slatted seats with cane. In any case, they are factory made.

I believe that the hull is planked with western red cedar. This is disappointing as I have a good stock of good Minnesota northern cedar, and don't like working with the western stuff.

Thanks again,

Roger
 
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