World's Oldest Birchbark Canoe...maybe

The net's been abuzz with the rediscovery of an old canoe from an estate in Cornwall, UK.






Apparently, it is thought to be more than 250 years old and was brought to Cornwall by Lt. John Enys who fought in Quebec during the American War of Independence.

Until now, I believe the earliest surviving bark canoe was the famous Grandfather Akwetin canoe, a 6 meter Maliseet Ocean canoe estimated to be 185 years old and "re-discovered" in Ireland.

Apparently no one definitively knows this new canoe's tribal origins, but I thought there was a resemblance in the stem profile and gore cut pattern to the Penobscot canoe mentioned in the online article in the literature sections of the site



It'll be headed to the Canadian Canoe Museum for more research and possible display in September 2011...exciting stuff for us bark canoe lovers!

 

John Enys

There is a fair bit on John Enys in wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Enys

Also his journal was published:

The American Journals of Lt. John Enys, John Enys and Elizabeth Cometti (editor), Syracuse University Press 1976

The 29th Regt O' Foot is famous or infamous around these parts for their role in the Boston Massacre, 1770, although John joined the regiment after this event.

 

Birch bark canoe

If you go to this link and scroll down to BIRCH BARK CANOE you can hear the interview with George Hogg from National Maritime Museum Cornwall.

http://www.cbc.ca/asithappens/episode/2010/12/14/tuesday-december-14-2010/

 

another article on this canoe

http://www.nationalpost.com/news/Historic+birchbark+canoe+found+storage+shed/3974390/story.html

 

Thanks to those who posted about this find-- I love the whole story, from the officer's decision to take a canoe home with him to the repatriation to Canada. And the canoe looks wonderful!

 

The photo in this article is not the same canoe that was discovered in a barn in England. The photo in this article was taken in Ireland.

 

Thanks for the correction

I was wondering why the picture looked like an intact canoe when the article said that it was in two pieces.

 

The Enys Birchbark Canoe

There is a very well done story by Henri Vaillancourt documenting this canoe in the latest edition of WoodenBoat. September/October 2011, Number 222.

Enjoy

 

In a related article..... http://fefwww.istockanalyst.com/article/viewiStockNews/articleid/4862908