to understand that this tribal form includes not only the types used in
more recent times in New Brunswick and on Passamaquoddy Bay, but also
an overlapping type related to the later Abnaki models. The old form
of Malecite canoe used on the large rivers and along the coast appears
to have had rather high-peaked ends, with a marked overhang fore and
aft. The end profiles had a sloping outline, strongly curved into the
bottom, and a rather sharply lifting sheer toward each end. This form
was also to be seen in old canoes from the St. John River (the lower
valley), the Passamaquoddy, the Penobscot, and the upper St. Lawrence.
By late in the 19th century, however, this style of canoe had been
replaced by canoes having rounded ends, the profiles being practically
quarter-circles and sometimes with such small radii that a slight
tumble-home appeared near the sheer. The small radius of the end curves
is particularly marked in some of the seagoing porpoise-hunting canoes
of the Passamaquoddy. In modern forms, the amount of sheer is moderate
and the quick lift in the sheer to the ends is practically nonexistent.
On the St. Lawrence, the radii of the end curves are very short and
the upper part of the stems stands vertical and straight; the sheer,
too, is usually rather straight. The older type, with high-peaked
ends, was also marked by very sharp lines forward and aft, and had a
midsection with tumble-home less extreme than in the Micmac canoes. The
bottom, athwartships, was usually somewhat rounded (in coastal canoes
the form might be a rounded ~V~) and the bilges were rather slack,
with a reverse curve above, to form the tumble-home rather close to
the gunwales. The river model probably had lower ends and less rake
than the coastal type, but surviving examples of both give confusing
evidence. The river canoes usually had a flatter bottom than the
coastal type, the latter having somewhat more rocker fore-and-aft. The
sections near the ends were rather ~V~-shaped in the coastal canoes,
~U~-shaped in the river canoes.
The old form of small hunting canoe is represented by but one poor
model (see p. 72) in which the ends are lower and with much less rake
than those of the river type. From this very scant evidence, it seems
probable that the small woods canoes were patterned on the river canoe
in all respects but the profile of the ends.
[Illustration: Figure 62
MALECITE 2½-FATHOM RIVER CANOE, 19TH CENTURY. Old form with raking ends
and much sheer.]
From the early English and French accounts, it is evident that none of
the maritime Indians used very large or long war canoes, capable of
holding many men. The old war canoes of the Malecite appear to have
been either of the coastal or river types as the circumstances of their
place of building and use dictated. The slight information available in
these accounts suggests that the war canoe did not differ in appearance
from the other types of Malecite canoes, and that they were not of
greater size. The Malecite appear to have followed the same practices
as the Micmac, using for war purposes canoes of standard size and
appearance but narrower and built for speed, since a war party sought
to travel rapidly to and from its objective in order to surprise the
enemy and escape before organized pursuit could be formed. The Malecite
placed four warriors in each canoe, two to paddle and two to watch and
use weapons while afloat. However, only on rare occasions were bows
and arrows used from canoes afloat; most fighting was done on land.
Each canoe carried the personal mark of each of the four warriors,
apparently one mark on each flap, or _wulegessis_, under the gunwales
near the ends. When a war leader was carried however, only his mark
was on his canoe. After a successful raid, the Malecite used to race
for the last mile or so of the return journey, and the winning canoe
was given, as a distinction, some mark or picture, often something
humorous such as a caricature of an animal. This practice, however, was
not confined to war canoes; in rather recent times it has been noted
that such pictures were placed on any canoe that had shown outstanding
qualities in racing competition or in exhibitions of skill.
When making long canoe trips, the Malecite followed the widespread
Indian practice of using the canoe as a shelter at night. When a
camping place was reached, the canoe was unloaded, carried ashore, and
turned upside down so that the tops of the ends and one gunwale rested
on the ground. If the ends were high enough, as in the old Malecite
type, one gunwale was raised off the ground far enough to permit a
man to crawl under. If, as in the Micmac canoes, the ends were too
low to allow this, they were raised off the ground by short forked
sticks, with the forks resting against the end thwarts and the upper
gunwale and the heels stuck into the earth. The dunnage (provisions
or other cargo) was then stowed on the ground under the ends of the
canoe and the two men would sleep under a single blanket with their
feet pointed in opposite directions, each with his head on a pile of
dunnage. If there were too many men aboard to do this, in bad weather a
crude shelter was made by resting some poles on the upturned bilge and
covering them with sheets of bark; under such a shelter meals could be
cooked.
[Illustration: Figure 63
OLD FORM OF MALECITE-ABNAKI 2½--FATHOM OCEAN CANOE of the Penobscots.
In the Peabody Museum, Salem, Mass.]
As did many of the eastern Indians, the old Malecite tribesmen built
canoes of materials other than birch bark. When a canoe was required
for a temporary use such as in hunting, it could be made of spruce
bark. (As the designs of such canoes were rather standardized, they
will be dealt with in Chapter 8.) When bark was unobtainable, the
Malecite built canoes covered with moosehide, or, in rare instances,
they built wooden dugouts.
The old Malecite river canoe shown on page 71 will serve to illustrate
a description of the details of construction that were used. These
canoes were obviously built with their gunwales (which were the length
of the bottom only) serving as a building frame. The ends of the
gunwales were supported by headboards stepped on the heels of the inner
stem-pieces, and the stems raked outward from their heels. The gunwale
ends were joined to the head of the stem-piece by the outwales and the
gunwale caps. Bark was used to the ends of the canoe. One side of the
bark cover was cut so that it stood well above the sheer line from the
gunwale end outboard, and the opposite side was cut to the level of the
sheer. The first piece was then folded over the opposite side and down,
so that it covered both the extreme ends of the gunwales and the top of
the inner stem-piece. Another piece of bark was then fitted over this
fold, and this new piece formed the flaps below the outwales on each
side, the _wulegessis_. The outwales ran past the gunwale ends and were
cut off flush with the outboard face of the stem; the caps ran likewise
and covered the bark over the head of the inner stem piece. The
characteristic sheer of these canoes, where the rise toward the ends
began, showed a quick curve that faired into a rising straight line at
the gunwale and then continued straight and rising to the stem head.
The _wulegessis_ was therefore quite long. The ends of the gunwales
were not of the half-arrowhead shape, but were snied off on their
inboard sides so that they met on a rather long bevel; the lashing was
slightly let in to the outboard faces to keep it from slipping over the
gunwale ends. The caps of the gunwales were similarly reduced in width,
where they came together over the ends of the canoe.
[Illustration: Figure 64
LARGE 3-FATHOM OCEAN CANOE OF THE PASSAMAQUODDY porpoise hunters. These
canoes were sometimes fitted to sail or outrigged for rowing. The last
of this type had much lower ends.]
The main gunwale members were about 1¼ inches square amidships,
tapering to ¾ inch at the ends. The lower outboard corner was beveled
to take the ends of the ribs, as shown on page 71, and the lower
inboard corner was also beveled or rounded, but to a lesser degree.
The upper inboard corner, shown beveled in the drawing of figure 62,
was sometimes slightly rounded, as were the outwales. Amidships the
outwale was about 1 inch deep, and it tapered toward the ends, where
its depth was about ⅝ inch, the thickness being ½ inch amidships and a
scant ⅜ inch at the ends. On the canoe shown, the cap was ⅜ inch thick,
tapering to about ⁵⁄₁₆ inch at the ends, and 1¾ inches wide amidships,
tapering to about ⅝ or ½ inch where the caps came together at the ends.
The top corners of the cap were beveled in the example.
The sheathing appears to have been about ³⁄₁₆ inch thick on the
average. On the bottom and sides it was in two lengths, overlapping
slightly amidships. Toward the ends of the canoe the sheathing was
tapered, maximum width of the splints being about 4 inches amidships.
The canoe, which was 18 feet 6 inches long overall, had 46 ribs. These
were about 3 inches wide and ⅜ inch thick from the center to the first
thwart outboard on each side, and 2 inches wide from these thwarts
to the ends, except for the endmost five ribs, which were roughly 1¾
inches wide. The drawing on page 71 shows the shape of the thwarts. The
ends were tenoned through the gunwales, and there were three lacing
holes in the ends of the middle and first thwarts and two in the end
thwarts. The beam of the canoe inside the gunwales was 30 inches and
outside, 31¼ inches; the tumble-home made the extreme beam 35½ inches.
The canoe was rather flat bottomed athwartships and quite shallow, the
depth amidships being 10¾ inches.
The building bed must have had about a 1½ inch crown at midlength. It
is probable that the stem pieces were not fixed in place until after
the gunwales had been raised to sheer height. The gunwales were lashed
with the Malecite group lashings, each of four turns through the bark
and spaced at 3 to 3½ inches apart in the midlength and at 2 inches
from the end thwarts to the headboards. Two auxiliary lashings were
placed over the outwales and caps outboard of the gunwale ends, one
about 6 inches beyond the ends of the gunwales and the other against
the inboard side of the stem-piece. The end closure was accomplished by
the usual spiral lashing passed through the laminated stem pieces. The
latter were split (to within about 4 inches of the heel), into six or
more laminae that were closely wrapped with bark cord. The headboards
were bellied toward the ends to keep the bark cover under tension, and
the ends outboard of the headboards were stuffed with shavings or moss.
[Illustration: Figure 65
OLD FORM OF PASSAMAQUODDY 2½-FATHOM OCEAN CANOE with characteristic
bottom rocker and sheer. This rather small, fast canoe for coastal
hunting and fishing was common in the 19th century.]
A canoe from the Penobscot River, obtained in 1826 by the Peabody
Museum, Salem, Massachusetts, and described in _The American Neptune_
for October 1948, shows that the Penobscot built their canoes on the
old Malecite model. The canoe is apparently a coastal type. It has some
round in the bottom amidships and ~V~-sections toward the ends; it is
18 feet 7 inches long overall, 37¼ inches maximum beam, 15¼ inches deep
amidships, and the ends stand 26 to 28 inches above the base line, the
bow being slightly higher and with more rake than the stern. The rocker
takes place within 4 feet of the ends, with the bottom straight for
about 8 feet along the midlength. The bilges amidship are slack, and
the reverse curve to form the tumble-home starts within 6 inches of the
gunwales (see drawing, p. 72.)
A much later coastal canoe of the Passamaquoddy, a porpoise-and
seal-hunting canoe built in 1873, will also serve to show the old type
(see p. 73). This style of canoe was usually built in lengths ranging
from 18 to 20 feet overall, the maximum beam was between 25 and 44
inches, and the beam inside the gunwales was between 29½ and 36 inches.
The depth amidships ranged from about 18 to 21 inches, and the height
of the ends above the base was from 28 or 30 inches to as much as 45
inches. The ribs numbered from 42 to 48 and were 3 inches wide and ½
inch thick. The sheathing was from ¼ to ⅜ inch thick and the rocker
of the bottom, from 4 to 6 inches, took place within the last 4 or 5
feet of the ends. The midsection showed a well-rounded bottom, a slack
bilge, and the high reverse to form the tumble-home seen in the old
Penobscot canoe at Salem. These canoes were still being built well
into the 1880's, if not later, and are to be seen in some old U.S.
Fish Commission photographs of porpoise and seal hunting at Eastport,
Maine. Seal-and porpoise-hunting canoes carried a sail, usually the
spritsail of the dory. While this model probably was little changed in
construction from early times, the surviving examples and models are
of the period when nails were employed. The drawing on page 74 is of a
small coastal hunting canoe of the same class, built in 1875.
[Illustration: Figure 66
MALECITE RACING CANOE OF 1888, showing ~V~-shaped keel piece placed
between sheathing and bark to form deadrise.]
The reasons for the gradual decline in the building of canoes of the
old style are not known, and the transition from the high-peaked ends
to the more modern low and rounded ends was not sudden. It apparently
began in some inland areas, particularly on the St. Lawrence and the
St. John Rivers, at least as early as 1849, and the new trend in
appearance finally reached the coast about 25 years later. In the
period of transition, the high-peaked model developed toward the St.
Francis type, or that of the modern "Indian" canvas canoe, as well as
toward the low-ended type.
One of the later developments took place on the St. John River, in New
Brunswick, where two Indians, Jim Paul and Peter Polchies, both of
St. Marys, in 1888 built for a Lt. Col. Herbert Dibble of Woodstock
the racing canoe illustrated above (fig. 66). This canoe, 19 feet
6½ inches long overall and only 30½ inches extreme beam, was of a
design perhaps not characteristic of any particular type of Malecite
canoe, but it nevertheless shows two elements that may have appeared
during the period of change in model. The sides amidships not only are
without tumble-home, they flare outward slightly, but tumble-home is
developed at the first thwart each side of the middle and continues to
the headboards. The bottom shows a marked ~V~-deadrise achieved by an
unusual construction in a birch-bark canoe: the center strake of the
sheathing is shaped in a shallow ~V~ in cross section, its width being
about 2½ inches amidships and tapering each way toward the ends, and
its thickness along the longitudinal centerline being about ⅝ inch and
tapering to about ¼ inch at the edges; the two lengths of the strake
are butted, not lapped, amidships, though the rest of the sheathing is
lapped at the butts in the usual way and is uniformly ¼ inch thick.
In this manner a ridge that gives a ~V~-deadrise is formed down the
centerline of the bottom, though the frames are bent in a flattened
curve from bilge to bilge. The bottom has very little rocker, the rise
being only 1 inch, and this takes place in the last 2 feet inboard of
the heel of the stem piece.
[Illustration: Figure 67
SHARP-ENDED 2½-FATHOM HUNTING CANOE for use on tidal river. Built
by the Passamaquoddy Indian Peter Denis, it shows what may be the
primitive construction method of obtaining a ~V~-form in hull.]
Another feature in this canoe is the end profile; the curved ends
are strongly raked, the curve used being the same as that in the old
Malecite type, but with the stem-pieces reversed, so that the quick
turn is at the head, near the sheer, rather than at the heel. As a
result, the gunwales come to the ends in a straight, rising line for
the last 16½ inches rather than as a sudden lift near the ends. The
stem-heads stand a little above the rail caps. The headboards belly
toward the ends and are raked in the same direction.
The use of a ~V~-shaped keel piece in the sheathing has been found
in a St. Francis canoe from the St. Lawrence country; this may be a
rather old practice. This racing canoe is very lightly built and much
decorated, the date 1888 being worked into the hull near one end.
Another canoe having a marked ~V~-deadrise was built sometime between
1890 and 1892 by Nicola (sometimes called Peter) Denis (sometimes
spelled Dana), a Passamaquoddy, for his son Francis, who used it
at Frenchman's Bay, Maine. The drawing above (fig. 67) shows a
coastal-type hunting canoe, nailed along the gunwales but sewn
elsewhere, and painted. The craft is 15 feet 9 inches overall and 14
feet 5 inches over the gunwales. The beam amidships is 32 inches over
the gunwales, 29½ inches inside. The depth amidships is 11 inches,
and at the headboards, 14½ inches. The ends are of the low rounded
form; the profile shows a moderate tumble-home just below the sheer,
which is a long fair curve without any quick lift toward the ends. The
construction is of the usual Malecite type described in Chapter 3. The
midsection shows a remarkable amount of ~V~ in the bottom without any
tumble-home anywhere in the topsides. The ~V~-bottom is rounded at the
apex, where the keel would be; this is done by bending the ribs very
sharply where they cross the centerline of the hull. A narrow strake
of thin sheathing runs along the centerline of the canoe, and this is
bent athwart-wise to follow the bends in the ribs there. The canoe had
46 ribs, each 2½ inches wide and ⁵⁄₁₆ inch thick, tapered slightly from
the middle up to the gunwales. The gunwales, as previously noted, are
nailed and the main gunwale members are of sawed spruce. The rest of
the framework is cedar.
[Illustration: Figure 68
MALECITE 2½-FATHOM ST. LAWRENCE RIVER CANOE, probably a hybrid model.
The high ends show a western influence.]
The outside of the canoe was painted red, the inside was a pale yellow,
the gunwales and middle portions of the thwarts were cobalt blue,
the ends of the thwarts were red. The _wulegessis_ was blue, and the
"canoe mark" was a painted representation of the spread eagle of the
United States Seal, the border being in black and white and the eagle
in black, yellow, and white, holding a brown branch with green leaves.
The whole panel was outlined in red. On the side of the canoe, near the
stern, was a white swallowtail pennant on which is lettered "Frenchmans
Bay" in black capital letters. This canoe was used for fishing and also
for porpoise and seal hunting.
The construction employed to form the ~V~-bottom in a birch-bark canoe
can be seen to have been done in two ways; that described on page 76
is undoubtedly the method used in prehistoric times, since laborious
forming of a ~V~ keel-piece in the sheathing, using stone scrapers,
would be avoided. The ~V~-bottom, it should be noted, usually appears
in canoes used in open waters, as this form tends to run straight
under paddle, in spite of a side wind, and thus requires the minimum
of steering to hold it on its course. It was this characteristic, too,
that made the ~V~-bottom suitable for the racing canoe on the St. John
River, since stopping the stroke momentarily to steer diminishes the
driving power of the stern paddler.
The various river canoes of the Malecite, built to the modern low,
rounded-end profiles, or to the short-radii and straight-line forms,
held rather closely to the same lines, that is, sharp ends with a
rather flat bottom amidships and an easy bilge. Some of the canoes
retained the characteristic tumble-home, but others had nearly
vertical sides or the curve of the bilge was carried so high that it
ended at the gunwales.
[Illustration: Figure 69
MALECITE 2½-FATHOM RIVER CANOE of 1890 from the Rivière du Loup region.
Canoes in this area had straight stems and sharp lines from at least as
early as 1857.]
On the St. Lawrence there was apparently a canoe having rather peaked
ends as well as the rather straight-stemmed, low-ended type. A St.
Lawrence River canoe found in the Chateau de Ramezay and built sometime
before 1867 provides an example of the rather high-peaked ends. The
canoe, as illustrated on page 77, has a well-rounded bilge working into
a very round tumble-home above and into a rather flat bottom below, the
tumble-home being carried into the extreme ends, so that the headboards
are rather wide. The ends round up rather quickly and then continue up
to the sheer in a very slight curve, having a very moderate tumble-home
near the sheer. The latter follows somewhat the characteristic sheer
of the old Malecite canoes, but the straight portion just inboard of
the ends is much shorter, so that the quick upsweep of the sheer begins
nearer the ends and thus appears somewhat more pronounced.
The construction is in the usual manner. The rocker of the bottom is 2
inches. The ribs are wider amidships than near the ends. The outwale
is rounded on the outboard face so that the cap is slightly narrower
than the thickness of inner gunwale and outwale combined. The headboard
is rather unusual, however, as it is not bellied but stands straight
and vertical. The lashing at the upper portion of the stems is the
crossed stitch, below it is spiral. The gunwale groups are made up of
six passes through the bark, and the spaces between groups are about
2½ inches. The side panels are sewn with the harness stitch. The canoe
is 16 feet long overall and 14 feet 5 inches inside the gunwales;
the extreme beam amidships is 37 inches and inside the gunwales 32
inches. The depth amidships is about 13 inches and the height of the
ends 25 inches, with 2 inches of rocker at the headboards. This canoe,
retaining the high ends, marks the transition from the old form to the
new.
A later canoe built on the St. Lawrence about 1890, probably near
Rivière de Loup, is shown above. It is 16 feet 11 inches long overall,
the beam over the gunwales is 33½ inches and inside it is 31 inches,
the curve of the bilge being carried up to the gunwales. The bottom is
flat for only a short width. The depth amidships is 11½ inches and the
height of the ends is 20 inches, with 1 inch of rocker in the last two
feet of length. The sheer is a long fair sweep without any quick upward
lift near the ends. The headboards are very narrow and belly only very
slightly toward the ends. The end profile illustrates the short radii
and straight line form that marked many of the last Malecite birch-bark
canoes of the St. Lawrence Valley. It is possible that the end-form was
copied from the white man's St. Lawrence skiff, which usually had ends
that were straight and nearly vertical, with a sharp turn into the keel.
[Illustration: Figure 70
MODERN (1895) MALECITE 2½-FATHOM ST. JOHN RIVER CANOE, with low ends
and moderate sheer, developed late in the 19th century.]
Since a Malecite canoe of the form having rounded low ends was the
subject used to describe the construction of a birch-bark canoe in
Chapter 3 (see p. 36), there is no need to discuss all the details
here. There was some variety in the sewing and lashing used in Malecite
canoes; the combination of cross and spiral stitches in the ends and
the use of a batten and the over-and-over stitch in the side panels
are, of course, very common in these canoes. The occasional use of
other stitches in the side panels and even in the gores would probably
be normal, since individual preferences in such details were not
controlled by a narrow tribal practice.