Wood and canvas
Wood and Canvas is a canoe construction that was developed in Maine and southeastern Canada in the late 19th century. The planked boat is covered on the outside with a protective cover made of canvas .
Development history
Up until the second half of the 19th century, canoes were built from birch bark according to traditional Indian construction . This required a tree with a knot-free, thick trunk, and a wooden frame was fitted into the bark. With the increasing need for canoes, the availability of knot-free tree trunks caused problems, which is why canoes were increasingly built using solid wood. Their major disadvantage was the significantly higher weight compared to the birch bark boats, which was particularly important for the voyageurs during the unavoidable portages on their trade routes.
Towards the end of the 19th century, canoe builders in Maine and Southeast Canada began to combine the advantages of the two types of boat construction: A lighter construction made of crossbars, frames and planks is covered with a sheet of canvas that was waterproofed. This enabled light, robust and comparatively easy to repair canoes to be industrially manufactured.
Until the advent of aluminum and plastic canoes in the 1940s and 1950s, wood and canvas was the predominant construction method.
See also
Web links
- History of the wood-and-canvas canoes at wood-and-canvas.de
- History of the Wood and Canvas canoe at Holzstoff
- WCHA , Wooden Canoe Heritage Association