Kennebeck with Morris Hull

Some Kennebec canoes have the splayed cedar stem of the canoes by B.N. Morris and it's speculated that an arrangement existed between Morris and Kennebec for the provision of hulls.

I'll post pictures of canoes in separate replies, and hope others will contribute pictures they have found.

 

Kennebec with splayed Morris stem

This canoe was listed on eBay some time ago. I believe it is the Kennebec model... there may be a discussion of this canoe in the archives of this board.

 

1910 Kennebec Sponson Canoe

There is a discussion of this canoe at:

http://forums.wcha.org/showthread.php?t=3663&highlight=kennebec+morris

Note that in the build information, the stem is described as "ced" (for cedar). As Kennebec-built canoes don't have cedar stems, it can be speculated that the canoes listed as having cedar stems began at the Morris factory.

It seems that Kennebec didn't document the wood species of the stem for all their canoes over the years, or we might be able to count the number of hulls that may have come from Morris. We might, then, have been able to tie Kennebec's need for Morris hulls to periods of booming business, or whatever. In the case of this canoe, 1910 was the first year for Kennebec and perhaps demand was greater than supply and they turned to Morris for help.

Note Dave's comment in the previous discussion that the sponsons on this canoe appear to be Morris sponsons and not they type Kennebec put on their canoes.

I'll continue this reply with more pictures...

 

Kennebec Sponson con't...

I'll be uploading some video of this canoe to YouTube and will add that link later.

Thanks again to WCHA member "LesCheneaux" for letting us examine her prize!

 

Video

Here's video footage of the canoe above... doesn't show much more than the photos do, but it may lure some YouTubers to this site...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yU2iyygvr8I