Id help with serial number

[rbandy]

Hello, I was trying to make the most of a long trip to pick up an old cedar duck boat last week when I came accross a canoe of interest. It has spear shaped decks that are long (18 inches) and "notacrack", double ribbed construction. It is 17'5" long, about 34" beam and 12.5" deep from center. All mahogany trim with well rounded, large gunnels. It appears to have original canvas and was grey in color originally. Rather full and deep with alot of rocker and structurally very strong. Weighs about 75lbs. I have studied the stems and find an Id that is 17 (~3inch space) then 1794 (17 1794) the letters are large and leaning similar to a script style. They almost appear to be hand written in pencil. They are under many layers of varnish. I removed the tattered canvas and found other indexing looking pencil marks. I have a few older Oldtowns and a couple old Canadian canoes, but this looks like something special. I read about Alfred Wickett and the Pecaco patents so I assume it is a Pecaco. Would be nice to know the year. Any help would truly be appreciated. This forum is a wonderful resource and you all are great with the knowledge you share. Thank you

 

[Kathryn Klos]

If you can get a picture of the canoe-- especially the deck-- we may be able to help identify it. There are no existing records for most of the old canoe companies but sometimes a canoe will have features that will help narrow down a date. Without existing records, the most you may find is a "date range".
Sounds like an interesting canoe.

Kathy

 

[rbandy]

Thanks Kathy, I hope I did this right.

 

[rbandy]

One more of the deck.

 

[Dan Miller]

You've got what looks to be a very nice Penobscot Canoe Co. Notacrack canoe...

Dan

 

[rbandy]

Hey Thanks so much Dan and Kathy, Do you see these often? Any idea from the Id. number where it falls in the date range (1915- 1923).

Reid

 

[Kathryn Klos]

As far as I know, there's no way to accurately date Penobscot canoes. The big advantage with this company is that it was in existence for only a short period, which narrows the time-frame your canoe dates from. Actual records exist for only a smattering of the old canoe companies. In some cases, an old company built enough canoes so that collecting all the serial numbers of existing ones will show a pattern over time. This works best if there are a few factors that permit a date to be placed on some of these canoes-- such as Rushton's Indian girl, where the company was incorporated in a specific year and we know roughly which serial numbers fall before and after incorporation.

My guess is that there aren't enough Penobscot canoes around for the serial number to say much about when it was built. You might guess that the serial number was assigned sequentially, with number one issued in 1915... and if you knew how many were built each year, you could guess when yours might have been built. But maybe they began numbering at "100", and maybe the canoes that were different models were each in a separate serial number series... these are questions that can probably never be answered, but maybe some day a person will appear who has paperwork (original sales receipt) that would indicate something.

In most cases with old canoes, the serial number simply helps us determine who built the canoe... but yours was easy to figure out-- you did that yourself, using Dan's site! Having the number posted here may prove helpful in the future if more information is found.

My understanding is that the Penobscot canoe is considered to be good quality and collectible for that reason and for its historic significance because of Alfred Wickett. I haven't seen too many show up here in Forums. You might find older posts by using the "search" function. It's always good to know another interesting old canoe has been located.

Kathy

 

[rbandy]

Very Cool. Its always nice to have something unique and full of History. I have an Oldtown "Ideal", model from 1923 that was cut in two. As I spliced the two halves back together today the Pecaco was hanging above me and the planking runs were identical to the Old town. The lineage was obvious. Neat to see a company adopt ways of doing things and the techniques get passed on and improved upon. Free thinkers taking the best of what they know and putting they're own spin on it. Thats what makes America Great. I wish we could get back to those roots. Thank you all.