The Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North AmericaChapelle, Howard Irving
History
The Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America
Chapelle, Howard Irving
Canoes and canoeing -- North America; Indians of North America -- Boats; Skin boats -- North America
A wide variety of framing methods are exhibited in the construction of
the ends, or stems, of bark canoes. In the temporary types of the East,
the bark was trimmed to a straight, slightly "ram" form and secured by
sewing over two battens, one outboard on each side. Birch-bark canoes
of the East usually had an inside stem-piece bent by the lamination
method to the desired profile, the heel being left unsplit; as usual,
the laminations were spirally wrapped, often with basswood-bark thongs.
The stem-piece was then placed between the bark of the sides, and
the bark and wood were lashed together with an over-and-over stitch.
Sometimes variations of the short-and-long form of stitch were used
here, and some builders also placed a halved-root batten over the
ends of the bark before lashing to form a stem-band as protection to
the seam. In some canoes the end lashing passed through holes drilled
in the stem-pieces, often with the turns alternating in some regular
manner through and around the stem-piece.
The stem-pieces were generally very light, and in some canoes the head
was notched and sharply bent down and inboard, so that it could be
secured to the ends of the gunwales. Some tribal types had no inner
stem-piece, and the stem profiles were strengthened merely by the use
of two split-root or halved-sapling battens, one on each side, outside
the bark and under the sewing.
[Illustration: Figure 30
END DETAILS, INCLUDING CONSTRUCTION OF STEM-PIECES and fitting of bark
over them, ending of gunwale caps at stem heads, and the headboard,
with its location. Lamination of the stem pieces shows fewer laminae
than is common. (_Sketches by Adney._)]
Birch-bark canoes to the westward used battens under the end lashing
as well as rather complicated inside stem-pieces. In some parts of
the West and Northwest, the ends were formed of boards set up on edge
fore-and-aft, the bark being lashed through all, with the boards
projecting slightly outboard of the ends of the bark cover to form a
cutwater.
To support the inside stem-piece, some form of headboard was usually
fitted near each end after the sheathing was in place. These were
shaped to the cross-section of the canoe so as to form bulkheads.
In some canoes, these miniature bulkheads stood vertical, but in
others they were curved somewhat to follow the general curve of the
end-profile, and this caused them to be shaped more like a batten
than a bulkhead. Bent headboards were sometimes stepped so as to rake
outboard. Sometimes the form of the headboard permitted the gunwale
members to be lashed to it, and often there was a notch for the main
gunwale on each side.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account